Carla's Island (1981) - First computer water animation

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[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I think most people had colour by then.

I'm more impressed with the clouds and ray tracing.

The moirés and shark fin are funny though.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah the reflections off the water are the most impressive part to me

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The reflections are ray tracing. I didn't think they had it that early. I don't know why. Maybe because I know it can get computationally heavy the more you do.

Instead of light bouncing around and entering your eye or camera. Ray tracing starts at the camera where every pixel is traced outward to calculate it, and when it reflects off an object, that too has to be traced and calculated. Every reflection doubles the calculation at least.

This might explain it better if mine doesn't make sense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)

I get impressed with CGI when I don't know how they do it. I can usually guess and narrow it down to a few ways, but I never know for sure.

That's why I'm "impressed" with their clouds.