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previously used the GRASS system to create a program that allowed freehand drawings to be digitized manually on the graphics tablet. For this project he modified the code so that every time a point was entered on the tablet it would ask for a Z value to be entered on the keyboard, thereby producing a 3D point set. This was used to digitize the six characteristic features visible in the matte paintings he had been provided. Using the GRASS system, these shapes were loaded and moved to produce sections of the U-shaped trench.
159:'s Circle Graphics Habitat. There are two main sequences in the resulting animation. The first shows the Death Star as a whole, while the second shows a series of views of the flight down the equatorial trench. The final few seconds of the animation, showing the proton torpedo flying into the Death Star's reactor core, were drawn by hand to look similar to the computer footage and added six months later.
226:, consists of sixteen "objects", each composed of 100 points of light, some of them geometric shapes like circles and squares, others more organic shapes resembling gushes of water. Each object performs rhythmic choreography, programmed by Cuba to satisfy mathematic potentials. In 2018 it was displayed in Chicago New Media 1973-1992 exhibition.
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Since the VG3D terminal was not able to calculate perspective internally, the portions of the animation showing the view along the trench had to be rendered on the host computer and then composited into the resulting frame. Each frame took about two minutes to create on the PDP-11/45 host, which then
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Full-screen image- patterns which parallel the layered continuities of classical gamelan music. Using a programming language called RAP at the Los
Angeles firm Information International Inc. (III), Larry was able to systematically explore the classic 17 symmetry groups, a technique used by Islamic
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whose motor was stepped by wiring it to one of the terminal's register-controlled indicator lamps. The sequence was filmed by having the GRASS program send new values to the zoom and rotation hardware in the terminal, then setting the register value that would turn on the lamp, thereby taking one
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Cuba programmed solid areas and volumes instead of the vector dots of the previous two films. It also in four "colors": black, white, light grey and dark grey. In five episodes, he alternates single events involving ribbon-like figures following intricate trajectories, with more complex episodes
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The second segment was much more difficult to produce. The physical model used during filming was constructed by making many copies of six key shapes and then arranging them in different ways to produce a more random-looking trench. The completed model was over 40 feet (12 m) long. Cuba had
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triggered the camera as before. The animation as a whole was expected to take a total of 12 hours to render, but it invariably crashed after about 30 minutes. Eventually, they gave up late on
Saturday before the film had to be delivered on Monday. Cuba turned down the
166:, GRASS's internal system for creating arcs and circles was used to produce the drawing. The 3D terminal's own transformation system was then used to automatically zoom into the image and rotate it on the display. The image was copied to film frame-by-frame using a
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before going to sleep on a bed in the computer room. On a lark, he ran it one last time and then went to sleep. That time it managed to run through the night and completed successfully. It was later realized the air conditioning had been too high.
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Cuba received grants for his work from the
American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts and was awarded a residency at the Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe (
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which includes parallel schools of Dance, Music, Film, Theater, Fine Arts, and
Writing. The Cal Arts faculty included abstract animator
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consisting of up to 40 individual events that appear and disappear at irregular intervals. Electronic sound scores accompany.
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The first part of the animation, showing the exterior of the Death Star, was created programmatically. Working from an early
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computer to make the computer animations shown during the briefing scene near the end of the film
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19:(born 1950) is a computer-animation artist who became active in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Of the two minutes of film produced on the system, about 40 seconds appear in the movie,
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VISUAL MUSIC by
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into the scene. As of 2017, the original system was still operational.
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image. The entire system was covered by cloth to reduce stray light.
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401:. Illinois, United States: University of Illinois Press. p. 9.
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The Very Best of
Fantastic Films: The Magazine of Imaginative Media
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in 1977. His animation of the Death Star is shown to pilots in the
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Computer
Graphics and Computer Animation: A Retrospective Overview
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and mentioned that he had recently worked with famed animator
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456:"Matching the System to the Goals - To TV or not TV"
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519:Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars
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212:Collaborative project with John Whitney, Sr.
133:wanted to use computer animation to show the
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77:. Cuba also provided computer graphics for
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569:California Institute of the Arts alumni
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237:Calculated Movements (1985). 6 minutes.
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559:Animators from Georgia (U.S. state)
462:. Pergamon Press. pp. 39–55.
454:DeFanti, Tom; Sandin, Dan (1981).
67:3/78 (Objects and Transformations)
28:Washington University in St. Louis
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481:"Animating the Death Star Trench"
26:, Georgia, he received A.B. from
80:Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
36:California Institute of the Arts
441:Carlson, Wayne (20 June 2017).
206:using borrowed mainframe time.
157:University of Illinois, Chicago
479:Sweet, Neesa (February 1981).
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50:, and special effects artist
399:Chicago New Media, 1973-1992
230:Two Space (1979). 8 minutes.
222:'s Graphic Symbiosis System
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458:. In Clark, David (ed.).
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204:Jet Propulsion Laboratory
447:. Ohio State University.
218:Created in Chicago with
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508:Calculated Movements
75:Calculated Movements
397:Cates, Jon (2018).
109:Death Star sequence
502:Official homepage
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373:Sweet 1981
358:Sweet 1981
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303:Sweet 1981
244:References
135:Death Star
103:iotaCenter
17:Larry Cuba
249:Citations
143:First Fig
139:Ben Burtt
124:Star Wars
119:PDP-11/45
71:Two Space
63:Arabesque
57:In 1975,
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224:GRASS
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