Perceptual plausibility of exaggerated realistic motion
Squashing and stretching our way across the uncanny valley. Abstract The informal heuristic practices of the fine arts have much to offer to our understanding of the appearance of phenomenological reality. One interesting example is the use of exaggeration to… Read More
Turdpaint
In my computer graphics youth, everyone wrote two programs – a 2D paint program and a 3D renderer. Such was the curriculum of the time. Ed Tripp taught CIS 781-2-3, a three quarter sequence that took you from… Read More
Papa’s Draft Card
Found my Grandfather’s draft card in a bunch of my Dad’s stuff. About a year before my Grandfather passed away, I visited him and he pulled his draft card out of his wallet. He handed it to me… Read More
Oh the things you’ll find…
I’m cleaning up a bunch of archived files. While I was in grad school, after Pixar, I did a little bit of consulting to make ends meet. One of the more fun things that I did was write… Read More
MacRenderMan
Some historical floppy disk fun from old Pixar days. When Pixar decided to sell RenderMan to the public we had to come up with a good name (It was REYES, Renders Everything You’ve Ever Saw / Seen). You… Read More
Chernobyl Personal Geiger Counter
Issued to residents of Chernobyl and surrounding areas after the Chernobyl Disaster. Last I played with it, it still worked. It takes some pretty weird batteries and I think a coil has cracked inside, so I need to… Read More
On Talks and Slides
Some history of style. Once upon a time, Ed Tufte called me a “sanctimonious assohole”. I suggested that he up the dosage of his medications and stopped recommending his books to my students and colleagues. But — The… Read More
The PICS 2000
A medical imaging workstation – the beginning of volume imaging When I got my interview at Pixar, I was at Ohio State working on volumetric rendering of CT and MR images. There are a few callbacks to that… Read More
Listerine Hack
How to drink a few bottles of Listerine, scare your clients, and ultimately see your clients repeat your prank. I told this story to Penn years ago and he decided it was worthy of a place in their… Read More
Highland Aire
I just finished a row. It’s about 99% humidity this morning, which, to credit Chris Wedge, reminds me of having just rowed inside someone’s mouth. Chris and I used to ride our bikes together when we were at… Read More