Gardner ellipsoids sumulation (1984)

Gardner ellipsoids sumulation (1984)

 

First clouds particle CGI animation, advanced terrain CGI  animation

Video

Trivia:

Interesting approach to CGI is attributed to Geoff Gardner at Grumman Data Systems, for the generation of terrain data and effects in simulations. Gardner presented a method to generate terrain, clouds ,smoke and other objects in a SIGGRAPH 84 paper, realistic smoke and clouds in a 1985 paper, which he extended to smoke and fire in a 1992 paper. The models he presented used quadrics or ellipsoids (which are very computationally inexpensive for things like view intersection) that were covered using a texture derived as a function of the transmittance of transparency each ellipsoid should possess. The transmittance of transparency varied from the center of the object to the edges of the ellipsoid as a mathematical function. Gardner was able to use these ellipsoids and transparent textures to model the terrain, trees, clouds, smoke, fire and other elements.