Dr. Marc Hannah: The Computer Scientist Who Brought Worlds to Life

Sometimes an inventor designs a device for a specific purpose.
Sometimes it’s to try something new. But successful inventions
often shape industries beyond those they initially intended. Dr.
Marc Hannah built an invention with far bigger effects than
anyone could have imagined—like bringing dinosaurs to life,
building liquid robots, and letting the Titanic set sail one more
time. 


Raqi Syed gives some context on the evolution of special effects
in the movie industry. Mark Grossman explains how the graphics
world was more than ready for an upgrade. Tom Davis recounts the
difficulties that he and his team had getting people to
understand what was possible with the Geometry Engine. Luckily,
Steve “Spaz” Williams defied his bosses and showed them its power
to bring worlds to life, starting with Jurassic Park. Camille
Cellucci explains that from then on, everything changed for the
movie industry—and for the broader world of graphics.


For more on the history of computer graphics, Mark Grossman
recommends this post. 


Steve "Spaz" Williams shared a short doc about the making of
Jurassic Park. 


If you want to read up on some of our research on Dr. Marc
Hannah, you can check out all our bonus material over at
redhat.com/commandlineheroes. 


Follow along with the episode transcript.