It's early morning as an art lover peers into a gallery, perhaps missing the beauty of the true "Galleria d'Arte" that surrounds her.
A work in progress, this image was designed as a European street scene "painting" with a very high level of detail, destined for a 48" x 32" canvas.
Innocent Shadow was my entry in the November-December 2002 Frozen Moment round of the Internet Ray Tracing Competition. The image won first place and many people reported a strong emotional reaction to it. If you haven't seen the full size image and its accompanying text file, check them out before you read the making of.
These images were created in the early nineties. One of my favorite tasks at NASA was to program real-time computer graphic displays, simulations that allowed engineers to view analytical models, and astronauts to test docking mechanism performance. I programmed the displays in the "C" language using OpenGL graphics library calls.
My most rewarding (and terrifying) experiences were when the astronauts came to fly the simulators; they often asked for modifications to the software during their visits. We had actual mechanisms moving lockstep with the displays, so there was always the possibility of damaging test hardware.
