Sculpt 3D

Last updated
Sculpt 3D
Developer(s) Eric Graham
Initial release1987
Operating system AmigaOS, Mac OS
SuccessorSculpt 4D (Sculpt-Animate 4D)
Type 3D computer graphics

Sculpt 3D is a raytrace application released in 1987 for Amiga computers programmed by Eric Graham. [1] Sculpt 3D was one of the first ray tracing applications released for the Amiga computers. It proved that raytracing could be done on home computers as well as on mainframes. Years later, the company Byte by Byte released a port for the Apple Macintosh. [2]

Contents

The Amiga Juggler

The first demo that showed the raytracing capabilities was an animation of a juggler juggling three chrome balls. Even though the juggler was constructed out of spheres, the balls' reflections and movement made it look realistic. The juggler demo was generated on an experimental version of Sculpt 3D. The animation, released in January 1986, generated so much interest that the full 3D application was programmed. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Sculpt 4D

Sculpt 3D created still images, and a tool compiled an animation from these still images. Sculpt 4D (Sculpt-Animate 4D) added animation capabilities to Sculpt 3D. It allowed movement of objects by setting keyframes. [9]

See also

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References

  1. Lefèvre, Norbert (April 1988). "Sculpt 3D". A-News (in French). No. 1. NewsEdition. pp. 35–36. ISSN   0989-5450.
  2. Friedman, Fern (January 1989). "Macworld News, Sculpt-Animate 4D". Macworld. Vol. 6, no. 1. Mac Publishing. p. 99. ISSN   0741-8647.
  3. Wright, Ernie (2008-05-14). "The Juggler".
  4. Graham, Eric (May 1987). "Graphic Scene Simulations". Amiga World. Vol. 3, no. 3. IDG Publishing. pp. 18–22. ISSN   0883-2390.
  5. "Raytracer 1.0 (plus source)". January 8, 2014. (re-discovery of the original C source code of the Juggler demo)
  6. Randelshofer, Walter. "Eric Graham - The Juggler" . Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  7. The Juggler animation appeared in Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 1987 music video Jammin' Me at time code 2:30
  8. Briken, Mike (2010-05-01). "A recreation of Eric Graham's Amiga Juggler from 1986 developed from first principles. Project Amiga Juggler". (Java)
  9. Conconi, Patrick (May 1989). "Sculpt 4D". A-News (in French). No. 13. NewsEdition. pp. 20–21. ISSN   0989-5450.