I love the story of how the famous Juggler animation came to be, as recollected by Amiga raytracing pioneer Eric Graham:
[…] I was thinking of adding a room onto my house, and rather than start the work I decided to write a modeling and rendering program. But first I re-implemented the ray tracer. It took about a week to get running, and then another week or two to make a few models and put the compression scheme together. That was November and the Juggler was born.
(source: The Juggler by Ernie Wright)
It’s funny how this lasagna of little detours gave us one of the most iconic showcases of the Amiga’s capabilities. “Let’s build a room! Wait, why not plan it properly, and write a modelling tool? But first, I need to write a raytracer real quick! And for that, design a test scene and animation of course.” :)
Given the story’s punchline:
The room never was added to the house.
…I cannot help but smirk when I imagine Eric G. being asked what he’s hacking up at his computers all the time. “Why, I’m planning that extra room of course, what does it look like I’m doing?!”
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