JPL: Project Voyager (1977)

Thank you very much for jumping through the PITA hoops on removing audio for copyright. As an audio guy I can imagine. This is an absolutely brilliant bit of our space science history. From a time when possibilities were infinite and hope/imagination intersected fundamentally with human exploration.

Michael Wall

**Hey, you found JIM BLINN's work in the wild!*** !!! This animation is well known and historic -- by Jim Blinn: computer graphics pioneer, MacArthur "Genius" award winner, magnificent teacher and storyteller, writer, humorous and genially wonderful and charming foundational figure in computer graphics and SIGGRAPH -- his work here went a long way in getting people to take CG seriously (back when it was seen as dubious, a waste of time; see NYIT 'ant' project, etc) https://digitalartarchive.siggraph.org/artwork/james-f-blinn-voyager-2-encounters-jupiter/ Learn more about Jim Blinn, including his own notes on this animation, here: https://www.jimblinn.com/ The 1977 Star Wars death-star sequence (e.g. https://youtu.be/_zwD3TPm00U ) used all 'practical' effects (real explosions photographed, blue-screen composited, optically-printed, rotoscoped, retouched, endlessly tweaked and re-done). It was miserable, seemed hopeless -- practical visual effects that looked real on film were so tortuous, exasperating, slow and expensive-yet-disappointing (see https://youtu.be/DEHl3b8_cFw )that they were a major impetus for Lucas to spend his new-found wealth pursue all sorts of wild ideas to make it better. In addition to existing efx houses in US and UK, Lucas started ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) pushed for digital sound (SkyWalker Ranch) and encouraged all sorts of upstarts including his own 'computer graphics' group that spun out into PIXAR, which was originally a computer hardware company that made machines for digital compositing, digital film printing, digital film editing and a bit of computer graphics (see https://www.pixar.com/our-story-pixar and search 'computer graphics history too!) The history is intricate and it all happened very quickly and in exciting ways. Competing efx companies' trade secrets interfering with solving the bigger problems, with a 'Cambrian explosion' of wild ideas tried urgently. See old issues of 'Cinefx' magazine if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinefex ) Early Sci-Fi explosions in CG? -- You might be thinking of the 1982 movie "Star Wars II: The Wrath of Khan" and the 'Genesis Sequence' ( https://youtu.be/DEHl3b8_cFw ) done by an ingenious team of now-famous CG pioneers (Bill Reeves, Tony Apodaca, Ed Catmull, etc.) at what was then the LucasFilm graphics group (before PIXAR, even though they take credit for it). This usually credited as the first genuinely 'realistic' 3D computer graphics sequence in a movie. It was roughly concurrent with efx work on the 'The Last Starfighter' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter and part of a tedious battle for 'who was first'. Probably more than you wanted to know, but the development of CG was an exciting time full of ingenious eager folks inventing it as they went. Jim Blinn's Voyager sequence (included in this film) is not just a pioneering effort, but a ground-breaking work -- he was a major participant in advancing CG, and an inspiration for just about everyone who jumped into it!