department computer staffer, decided Robert Remembers: the VW Bug that it would not be too hard to make By Robert McDermott a picture of the entire car. Well, it was not so easy. Measuring point coordinates The year-1972, the teacher-Ivan formed a three-dimensional reference with yardsticks introduced more than Sutherland, the objective-create a system. We used yardsticks to measure a small amount of error. No two parts rendered model that would achieve the x, y, and z coordinates of the painted connected very well, and when the points on the car supposed symmetric parts were reflected surface. The Beetle again there were sizable gaps, resulting in was assumed to many hours of digital fiddling. Relating have left to right the separately created parts file into one symmetry so we coherent model introduced additional measured only complexities of transformations for half of the car. translation, scaling, and rotation. Not The process was only did calendar time pass but many slow and tedious, computer cycles were expended. When taking many Dennis succeeded in the fall, we were class sessions to grateful to him for doing so much work. complete. Marsha Ting also compared the human was a wonderful time cost vs. the computer time cost sport as she drove and revealed that the image of the VW the car around cost more than its street value. At the town festooned time, we didn’t anticipate that the image with our markings. would endure many years longer than instant recognition of a physical icon. After each measure-ment session, the Sutherlands’ Beetle. As a computer In the infancy of computer graphics, we entered by hand the lists of point graphics icon, it still crops up in highly and in my first year of study, a University coordinates into text data files. The lists respected journals and animated features. of Utah graduate course began a of polygons were also entered as lists For me, it symbolizes something project that resulted in a computational of integer indices referencing the sets else as well: Ivan’s generosity as a teacher benchmark and a small piece of of points. The system used to render and mentor. One of his “tricks” was that computer graphics history. the files included hardware developed he would pose problems that seemed Sutherland challenged his students by Gary Watkins (BS ‘67, PhD ‘70) to reasonable, but were in fact more to choose something iconic to realistically imprint shaded images onto a direct difficult than first understood. We were render. We selected the Volkswagen film recorder, taking several minutes all proud when we succeeded in meeting Beetle—as a symbol of global culture, per photographic image. Polaroid film his standards; I continue to be proud because it was large enough to measure was used to get pictures as quickly as of my part in creating a first computer as a group, and because Ivan’s wife, possible for the assignment and later graphics generated picture looks like its Marsha, owned one. 4x5 sheet negatives were produced to get physical model. The rendering method was a points higher quality images. Mike Milochek and polygon description. We divided the developed the sheet film and printed Robert (PhD ‘80) currently works as a Staff car into parts, such as the roof, hood and photographic images over stretches of Scientist at the Center for High Performance trunk. Jim Clark (PhD ‘72) and I were days at a time. Computing at the University of Utah and as an taller so we arranged to have the higher At this time, the software to render Adjunct Associate Professor with the School points of the car. Bui Tuong Phong 3D models was limited to flat polygonal of Computing. He is married to Debrah and (PhD ‘73) and Raphael Rom (PhD ‘75) has two children, Colin and Aidan. Contact shading or smooth shading of a polygon were shorter so they measured the lower Robert at [email protected]. model developed by Henri Gouraud sections. (PhD ‘71) while at the University of Each auto part shared a set of Utah. Each student proudly produced points and lines that were painted on photos of his particular part–on time– the surface of the Beetle to describe a during the ten week class. However, set of mostly flat polygons. A volleyball pictures of parts do not a picture of a stanchion and joints in the pavement VW make. Dennis Ting (BS ‘71), a The Utah Teapot - Fall 2003