Considering the technical possibilities of the time, the image "Fire" by Andy Kopra depicts an almost perfect technical realisation of three-dimensional colour objects.


The Graphics Division of Symbolics designs, manufactures and markets color graphics systems for applications in image processing, animation and TV/motion picture production and post-production. The company's animation products are also widely used for modeling and animation tasks by the aerospace industry, government, universities and numerous other industries. The SCOPE product line is used for applications in image processing and image understanding.

The software products are modular and consist of 3-D modeling, rendering, paint and animation programs which run on Symbolic's 3600-series of computers and are implemented in the Symbolics Common LISP language. The company develops and manufactures hardware to support the functionality of the software rather than rely on third-party sources and generic industry offerings. Symbolics is a pioneer in the development of computers for Artificial intelligence (AT) applications, having introduced the 3600 series of machines in 1982. Symbolics, Inc. is a public corporation traded in the NASDAQ National Market System (SMBX).

The image "Fire" was produced using the Symbolics Animation and Paint System to build the three-dimensional objects and to create images for use during rendering and for the background. The objects in the image were rendered using reflectance- and bump-mapping techniques to create the surface effects. The background was produced by filtering white noise in the frequency domain and coloring the result. Authors of the software: Kevin Hunter, Larry Malone, Bob Coyne, Craig Reynolds and Dave Dyer.

A vital quality of image synthesis by computer is the increased participation of the medium as a pan ner to the artist. Through the structural control that the computer provides, a vast space of visual possibilities can be explored. By increasing the automation of this exploration (through programming or similar constructs), decisions normally made by the artist alone are now shared between the artist and the computer. In this way, the limitations imposed by the artist's cultural conditioning and personal taste are transcended. Paradoxically, the images thus produced then enrich the artist's private sensibility and extend the visual tradition in which the artist works.
(A. Kopra)

Andy Kopra, born 1955 in Austin/Texas. 1977 graduated from Rice University, Houston/Texas, B.A. in Fine Arts, concentration in film and photography. At the same time he attended seminar given by Rollis Framton, filmmaker. 1979 Andy Kopra is an assistant film editor at Kriya Productions, New York City. Graduate work in Cinema Studies, New York University, New York City (1981) and from 1981 – 1984 graduate work in Computer Science at New York University. In 1982 he became computer operator at Digital Effects Inc., a commercial computer animation facility in New York City and from 1983 – 1985 computer animator at Digital Effects Inc. 1985 - 87 sales and marketing technical support, Symbolics, Inc., New York City. Since 1987 Andy Kopra is a member of the research and development staff, Symbolics Graphics Division, Los Angeles, California.