The Yosemite Extreme Panoramic Imaging Project
The Yosemite Project was a modern update on an age old photographic technique of re-photography. Yosemite is one of the most dangerous National Parks in the US in part due to the rockfall that occur along it's steep cliffs. The Yosemite Project was an attempt to document all the detail along the walls of the park in a cohesive way to better understand how the park is changing. By using state of the art gigapixel techniques, 3D integration and the hard work of 70 volunteers we were able to create a single baseline image that represents the entire park.
Greg Downing, Eric Hanson
Greg Downing specializes in image-based 3D technologies and computational photography techniques. His photographic work has been displayed in some of the nations most prestigious museums including the American Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He has worked on the development of photogrammetry and stitching software at Realviz and in film production as a technical director at Rhythm & Hues and Sony Pictures Imageworks on “Narnia”, “Spiderman 3? and “I am Legend”. He teaches at Gnomon School for Visual Effects and has published professional training DVDs on photogrammetry and panoramic stitching. He has presented at professional conferences for both photographers and visual effects artists.
Eric Hanson is a visual effects designer specializing in the creation of digital environments. Having worked with leading visual effects houses such as Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, Dream Quest Images, and Walt Disney Feature Animation, his work can be seen in “The Day After Tomorrow”, “Cast Away”, “Mission to Mars”, “Fantasia 2000”, and “The Fifth Element”, among others. He has authored four educational DVDs on digital environments for The Gnomon Workshop, as well as having published two books on Maya technique, Maya being an Autodesk game design and 3d modeling program. He is also an Associate Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, leading their curriculum in visual effects. Eric is a member of the VES, IVRPA, PMA, ACM/Siggraph and attended the University of Texas at Austin. He wishes he could sleep more.
