Forest Kenton Musgrave (16 September 1955 – 14 December 2018) was a professor at

The George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a private federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress and is the first ...

in the USA. A computer artist who worked with

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...

images, he worked on the Bryce landscape software and later as CEO/CTO of Pandromeda, Inc. developed and designed the innovative MojoWorld software.

Education

He obtained his Ph.D in

Computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1993, writing his

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

on ''Methods for Realistic Landscape Imaging''. He was referred to by fractal pioneer

Benoît Mandelbrot Benoit B. Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of #Fractals and the ...

as being "the first true fractal-based artist".

Software work

Musgrave designed the initial fractal-based programs on which Bryce was based, and later worked on designing the Deep Materials Lab component of Bryce. His work was featured in an article in the January 1996 ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' (Gibbs, "Playing Slartibartfast with Fractals") which discussed fractal curves. The article also described software he had designed which would generate entire Earth-size planets using semi-random procedural 3D, and then allow a user to fly or walk about that world, exploring mountains or forests, and choosing a scene to render to an image. The software eventually became a commercial release called MojoWorld, which went through three releases to end with version 3.1.1.

Cinema work

Musgrave received screen credits for digital effects in the films ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'', ''

Dante's Peak ''Dante's Peak'' is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Roger Donaldson, written by Leslie Bohem, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, and Charles Hallahan. The film is set in the fictional town of Dante's Peak where the inhabitant ...

'' and '' Lawnmower Man''. His MojoWorld software was used to procedurally generate background mattes and terrains on big-budget movies such as ''

The Day After Tomorrow ''The Day After Tomorrow'' is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film conceived, co-written, co-produced, and directed by Roland Emmerich, based on the 1999 book '' The Coming Global Superstorm'' by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, and ...

''.

ZeniMax Media

Musgrave was technical advisor at

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1999 by Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman as the parent company for Weaver's video game publisher Bethesda Softworks. ...

parent company of videogame publisher

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...

, at the time of famous releases such as the RPG ''Morrowind''.

Publications

* ''Texturing and Modeling: A Procedural Approach'' - F. Kenton Musgrave et al., 1998 - *

References

External links

*
Ken Musgrave's websitePandromeda's websiteMethods for Realistic Landscape Imaging - doctoral dissertation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musgrave, Ken 1955 births American computer scientists Yale University alumni 2018 deaths