Milestone-Proposal talk:The Development of RenderMan® for Photorealistic Graphics

Expert Review from Dr. Donald Greenberg -- Bberg (talk) 18:07, 20 September 2022 (UTC)

Brief bio:
At Cornell University, Dr. Donald Greenberg is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics; Director of the Cornell University Program of Computer Graphics; Founding Director of the National Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization; and a Professor of Architecture, Art, and Computer Science. Since 1966, he has been researching and teaching in the field of computer graphics, and utilizing these techniques as they may be applied to a variety of disciplines. Dr. Greenberg has taught courses in computer graphics in Computer Science; computer-aided design in Engineering and Architecture; computer animation in Art; and technology strategy in the Business School.

Greenberg's Awards include the following:
· 2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Educator Award
· 2018 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Inaugural Class
· 2018 Cornell Tech Student Association Lifetime Achievement Award
· 1997 ACSA Creative Research Award in Architecture
· 1992 Founding Fellow, AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering)
· 1991 Member, National Academy of Engineering
· 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Support for the Milestone:
"I whole heartily endorse the award and I believe that RenderMan has been for many years the best available software for computer animation specifically and for the entertainment industry in general. ... I have great respect for all of the people who helped make RenderMan the best in the industry. RenderMan is clearly the industry standard. ... I certainly approve of the text [of the citation]."

Expert Review from Dr. Robin Forrest -- Bberg (talk) 23:04, 20 September 2022 (UTC)

Brief bio:
Dr. Robin Forrest's areas of expertise are computational geometry, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and scientific visualisation. He was Technical Program Committee member of the SIGGRAPH Conferences in 1985-95, Member of the inaugural editorial Board of ACM Transactions on Graphics, and on the Editorial Board of The Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics.

Forrest received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1968. While there, he was inspired by an Ivan Sutherland seminar and became a founder-member of the Computer-Aided Design Group in 1965. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at MIT in Summer 1965 where he worked with Steven A. Coons, a Visiting Professor at Syracuse Univ. in Fall 1971 where he worked with Steven A. Coons, a Visiting Professor at the Univ. of Utah in 1979, and a Visiting Scientist at Xerox PARC in 1982-83. He taught at the Univ. of East Anglia in 1974 -2008, and is now Emeritus Professor there.

Forrest's Key Research Interests:
The consequences of the discrete nature of digital computing for computer graphics and computational geometry:
· sampling and quantisation effects
· anti-aliasing
· consistency and robustness of geometric computation
· applied computational geometry
· point-based modelling
· dynamic shape modelling
· Non-immersive virtual reality and the enhancement of visualisation through the use of sound and touch

Support for the Milestone:
"Whilst I have no formal links with the Renderman team I have as you guessed known them quite well over the years. I used to spend a day visiting Pixar and its predecessors each year, occasionally more frequently, and met the team at SIGGRAPH as well. They picked my brains, I picked theirs. ... The team at Lucasfilm/Pixar made important advances in many areas but there were others working on these problems. Renderman, however, integrated many techniques in a seamless way. ... Lucasfilm/Pixar assembled a uniquely talented team to work on rendering problems and achieved landmark results. A Major contribution to this was the work environment adroitly managed by Ed Catmull. ... I have no doubt that the work is deserving of the [] plaque." After some changes based on Dr. Forrest's suggestions, he added "I note and approve the re-wording of the citation."

Support for the Milestone -- Jbart64 (talk) 01:25, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

I have reviewed the Milestone Proposal and have worked with the proposer on it. I fully support the Milestone and recommend it for approval at the next History Committee meeting. I suggest clipping quotes from the supporting email statements received from the two experts and appending the quoted cites to the comments for the record. I would also append pdfs or links to more of the citations which have already been obtained. These should be added in time for committee review. This Milestone is ready for committee action. Dave Bart

Re: Support for the Milestone -- Bberg (talk) 06:45, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for these comments, David. Per your suggestion, I included direct quotes from the supporting email statements received from the two experts, and also uploaded some PDF files and an image file. As the proposer, I approve of the current version of the citation. Everything looks ready to go,

Re: Re: Support for the Milestone -- Amy Bix (talk) 17:50, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Nicely done! But I find the last sentence a bit clunky, trying to crunch too much information into one sentence. May I recommend replacing:

"Broad film industry adoption after its 1988 product introduction was recognized with an Academy Award of Merit Oscar for its developers, and with numerous films' Best Visual Effects Oscars."

with "Following its 1988 introduction, RenderMan was soon adopted across the film industry. Numerous movies using RenderMan won Oscars for Best Visual Effects, and Hollywood honored RenderMan's developers with an Academy Award of Merit.

Re: Re: Re: Support for the Milestone -- Bberg (talk) 00:26, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, Amy! Good point, but your proposal would put us 4 words beyond the limit. How about this, which is one word shorter than the one originally proposed: "RenderMan’s broad film industry adoption following its 1988 product introduction led to numerous Oscars for Best Visual Effects, and an Academy Award of Merit Oscar for its developers." Note that it's important to include "Oscar" with each of the two awards.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Support for the Milestone -- Bberg (talk) 12:50, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

Amy, I ran my version as inspired by your comments by the Pixar team, and they concur that this new version reads better. Thanks for that inspiration. I have included this new version on the main page.

=Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Support for the Milestone -- Jbart64 (talk) 19:35, 27 September 2022 (UTC)=

I support these edits and the final proposal. Thanks all for a nice collaboration on this. Dave Bart

Final citation as approved by History Committee 2 October 2022 -- Administrator4 (talk) 12:52, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

The Development of RenderMan® for Photorealistic Graphics, 1981-1988

RenderMan® software revolutionized photorealistic rendering, significantly advancing the creation of 3D computer animation and visual effects. Starting in 1981, key inventions during its development at Lucasfilm and Pixar included shading languages, stochastic antialiasing, and simulation of motion blur, depth of field, and penumbras. RenderMan®’s broad film industry adoption following its 1988 introduction led to numerous Oscar®s for Best Visual Effects, and an Academy Award of Merit Oscar® for its developers.