J. Turner Whitted's 1979 RSOCP, with red and yellow checks and glass and
metal spheres, though a breakthrough in computer graphics at the time,
looks antiquated by today's ray tracing standards.  In fact, it looks
kinda like my first year renders.

I don't remember where I first saw this motif.  One possibility that
came to mind was Fabian Mosen's submission to the IRTC for
November-December 1997; but his image lacks the glass sphere, and my
early interpretations in 2004 did have a glass object.  It seems I had
seen this motif elsewhere, and only remembered the IRTC submission due
to the clever setting.  (And also, I cannot unsee the child's toes.)

But I figure it's time for an update, this time with more realistic
glass and metal, and with a prefab environment containing many of the
lessons I've learned over the past 19 years.  The image cliche-ry.jpg is
my 2004 interpretation; at the time, I thought the 1979 image had a
lens, probably because refraction through a solid sphere would not look
that way.  But a hollow glass sphere, which I used in the updated scene,
matches the 1979 image closely.

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On 12/30/22 09:32, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> J. Turner Whitted's 1979 RSOCP, ...

Variations on theme.  Whitted's sphere was silvery, so I used a silver
texture for most of the images, with a small amount of diffuse to
receive the cast shadow; but I did a pure metallic chrome render as well.

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On 2022-12-30 09:32 (-4), Cousin Ricky wrote:
> J. Turner Whitted's 1979 RSOCP, ...

Indoor renders, one silver, and one chrome.

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Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> I don't remember where I first saw this motif.  One possibility that
> came to mind was Fabian Mosen's submission to the IRTC for
> November-December 1997; but his image lacks the glass sphere, and my
> early interpretations in 2004 did have a glass object.  It seems I had
> seen this motif elsewhere, and only remembered the IRTC submission due
> to the clever setting.  (And also, I cannot unsee the child's toes.)



You must have a photographic memory to be able to remember that picture in such
detail! WOW!!!

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"Dave Blandston" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> > I don't remember where I first saw this motif.  One possibility that
> > came to mind was Fabian Mosen's submission to the IRTC for
> > November-December 1997; but his image lacks the glass sphere, and my
> > early interpretations in 2004 did have a glass object.  It seems I had
> > seen this motif elsewhere, and only remembered the IRTC submission due
> > to the clever setting.  (And also, I cannot unsee the child's toes.)
>
> You must have a photographic memory to be able to remember that picture in such
> detail! WOW!!!

Hardly.  I just have search engines and the IRTC website (which is still extant,
though non-functional).  For the 1979 image, some time ago I saw the name J.
Turner Whitted, and wrote it down.  For the IRTC image, between Mosen's clever
idea and the horrible job he did on the child's feet, the image was hard to
forget about; I just had to look for it.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22j+turner+whitted%22&t=h_&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/1997-12-31/fmchild.jpg

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"Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
> Hardly.  I just have search engines and the IRTC website (which is still extant,
> though non-functional).  For the 1979 image, some time ago I saw the name J.
> Turner Whitted, and wrote it down.  For the IRTC image, between Mosen's clever
> idea and the horrible job he did on the child's feet, the image was hard to
> forget about; I just had to look for it.
>
>
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22j+turner+whitted%22&t=h_&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
>
> http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/1997-12-31/fmchild.jpg



I still refer to the IRTC images occasionally too. And yes, those feet are
scary!

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