Vol Libre on Vimeo

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1. Vol Libre

2 years ago

I made this film in 1979-80 to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper on how to synthesize fractal geometry with a computer. It is the world's first fractal movie. It utilizes 8-10 different fractal generating algorithms. I used an antialiased version of this software to create the fractal planet in the Genesis Sequence of Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. These frames were computed on a VAX-11/780 at about 20-40 minutes each.

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Vision Nomade
4 days ago
Campbell
4 weeks ago
Nate Thomas
1 month ago
stml
1 month ago
Gregory Chatonsky
2 months ago
mike ambs
2 months ago
Murdoock Cinema Guerrero.
2 months ago
Daniel Moreno
2 months ago
gediminas zygus
2 months ago
Jeremy Douglass
2 months ago

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Priyésh Puthan-Valiyandi 2 years ago

Is this where the famous teapot was "born"? ;-) Thanks for sharing!
m.h. rubin 2 years ago

No, it's a tribute/homage to the already-famous icon.
Michael Heilemann 2 years ago

It remains impressive to this day. The final zoom shot which finishes up by craning down to the teapot is epic; I can't even imagine the complexity of staging that back in '79.

And there are still moments where it captures the sensation of gliding through a mountain pass, even without me having to squint. That's no mean feat.

Thank you for sharing this.
Donald Edinborough 2 years ago

Okay, so while I was playing my Atari 2600 in 1984.... You were sitting on "the Rosetta stone of video graphics Technology" Why did I play Yar's Revenge again?

Thank you, Your work is epic... I love the opening!
Ed Stern 2 years ago

Hurray!—29 years later... I was 6 and the best video I had my imagination and a back yard—I'm thankful for both...

Thanks for being one of the pioneers of the progressive cg movement.
Josh Kirschenbaum 2 years ago

I just finished Droidworks the other day - and I was searching all over the intertubes for this...thanks for posting it!! Phenomenal work - I don't even want to think about hand-coding b-spline camera animation...yikes.
Daniel Hayek 2 years ago

Thank you for posting this piece of history on Vimeo Mr. Carpenter. It's awesome.
mike ambs 2 months ago

Agreed. I was so happy to find this posted here! It always makes me happy when my research lands me on Vimeo.
Snow R. Shai 2 years ago

History in the making.
Great to get see visuals after reading the great Droidmaker. Thank you Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Rubin.
Joseph Francis 2 years ago

Very cool. I blogged it.
digitalartform.com/archives/2004/11/benoit_mandelbr.html

:D
Sebastien LABAN 2 years ago

Amazing! :o)
I think Lasseter/Stanton/Unrich talked about it in "The History Of Pixar" on the DVD of Wall-E!
In the contexte : Impressive stuff! :o)
Thanks for sharing Loren!
Damien Ivan 2 years ago

For those who haven't done the math, the full render took about 75-80 days to complete!!
Vishang shah 2 years ago

The music is amazing in Vol Libre
Torley 2 years ago

I smiled so much. As part of the virtual world Second Life, I regularly fly over terraformed peaks and craters — and to think this preceded what is taken for granted. Thanks for sharing, Loren.
Romeo Reidl 2 years ago

I used Vista Pro and Terragen in the '90s to create such things more than 10-15 years after you! Uhhhh! Amazing man, I t hink you must be some kind of pioneer of this "landscape generator" programs on home computers.
David Llopis 2 years ago

I can't believe it. Incredible piece of ancient 3d art. ;)
Alan S. Muir 2 years ago

Outstanding! Glad I stumbled across this. Any additional details on the software used and the details of the hardware? How about some more details about the Genesis Sequence, too?
Brent Roady 2 years ago

What is the music used in the video?
Brainy Smurph 2 years ago

The song is 'Flying' by The Beatles. Which is the icing on the cake!
Suchan Bajracharya 2 years ago

I was not even born at that time...Is this the true beginning of 3d. WoW, such detail and complexity in that time =)
Mark Walczak 2 years ago

So inspiring - thank you for all of your contributions to the 3D world!
farhaad_yousefi 2 years ago

oow..history..!! :D
BSM3D 2 years ago

Ohhh thanks for sharing, what's remember :-)
Ben Aqua 2 years ago

luvin it
Rick Umali 2 years ago

Fantastic! I just finished watching "The Pixar Story" (off the "WALL-E" DVD), and I looked around for this video. It's amazing to look at it now.
David Sandberg 2 years ago

You are my hero
Rene Schulte 2 years ago

Awesome! This might be one of the first demos ever. Demoscene FTW!
Primal Animation 1 year ago

There's no school like the old school.
Christopher R. Bernal 1 year ago

Thanks for posting this Loren,
This is the first time I have seen the whole thing. I saw a clip awhile back, but before that only stills.
jason sussberg 1 year ago

Wow. Thank you for posting! I searched every library for this after I read about the history of REYES.
The Wall 11 months ago

This is an amazing celebration of science enhancing art. Thank you, this is history
Shane Simpson 5 months ago

were you.. were you on acid when you made this?
Capeau 4 months ago

still looks great man, you can see you put allot of hard work and love into this. The reward afterwards must've felt great!
Vision Nomade 4 days ago

respects for a master !