The Utah Teapot predates the Stanford Dragon by 20 years, and was already famous in graphics (at Siggraph, for example) and had a cameo in Toy Story before the dragon was made.
"Inspired by" might be better than "original pot" because as anyone can tell (including you!), they aren't 1:1 matches.
Almost any 3D artist doing objects, especially a new category of objects they haven't done before, will do so with 3 or more reference images from every angle and model based on those, pretty tightly initially at least. But even with that, you add your own style and taste into the modeled object, and almost never will say that what you referenced from is the "original object" in that manner.
"Inspired by" works well though and doesn't remove anyone's agency or lessen their "creation" of it :)
I work at the University of Utah. They had an incredible graphics symposium a few years ago[0]. I got a render of the teapot signed by several of the speakers, which is a prized possession. There was another guy there with an actual replica teapot which he got signed. I was pretty jealous.
Sadly Alan Kay was unable to attend so I didn't get to meet him.
I did the high school summer computing institute at the U in the early 2000s. The first part of it was working with C shape edit and doing graphics with alpha_1 and a bunch of other fun things, the second part was building a rover in Lisp.
Alpha_1 has a direct lineage from the development of the teapot and was the basis of Featurecam
Tangential & graphics-related: there is a story where Jim Foley requested a pirated Eastern European copy of his text (… which heavily features the Utah teapot) as a souvenir.
He found it hilarious that every single equation in the pirated book were reverse images.
I saw the Utah Teapot at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View when I visited in late 2004. I didn't know it was there. I immediately started calling friends, while standing there in the "Visible Storage" exhibit gawking at it, telling each of them, breathlessly: "I'm looking at _the_ Utah teapot."
I was told later by a docent that my reaction was not uncommon. >smile<
I was just discussing with my coworker how the demo program for the 3D Spacemouse is rotating the Teapot. Takes a bit of practice, but makes CAD more fun.
I’ve had both an original Friesland/Melitta Utah Teapot and the ~2017 reissue.
The interiors differ between the original and the reissue. The latter has an integrated ceramic strainer near the spout root not present on these models updated interior geometry.
Which begs the question: Why the Utah Teapot in Dublin, Ireland?
Seems to have been part of a bigger collection:
> The sculpture, titled Smithfield Utah, was created by artist Alan Butler. It was formally unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland. It is the second of six new sculptures being created as part of Dublin City Council’s Sculpture Dublin initiative. The work was inspired by the shape of the Utah Teapot, a ‘virtual’ teapot form designed by mathematician Martin Newell in Utah in 1975. https://www.thejournal.ie/teapot-sculpture-smithfield-square...
Personally, it seems less like "Inspired by the shape of the Utah Teapot" and more something I'd create myself when I was a beginner with 3DS Max 9 back in the day. Most people will just see a normal teapot, a very small selection of niche visitors will recognize it as the Utah Teapot, available as a default object in 3DS Max since forever.
dang | 15 hours ago
The original Utah teapot(1.4L) is in stock - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31178947 - April 2022 (7 comments)
Why a Computer History Museum Owns a Legendary Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29259548 - Nov 2021 (1 comment)
Show HN: Teapong – A two-player game for fans of Pong and the Utah teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22137758 - Jan 2020 (12 comments)
Bézier Curves and Surfaces: The Utah Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19690575 - April 2019 (7 comments)
The Utah Teapot: Most Important Object in Computer Graphics History - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11209690 - March 2016 (52 comments)
Utah Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7280289 - Feb 2014 (17 comments)
CalChris | 15 hours ago
dcrazy | 8 hours ago
jupitr | 15 hours ago
darknavi | 15 hours ago
I guess they want to make their mark like Stanford dragon[0].
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_dragon
ginko | 15 hours ago
I'd say the Utah teapot is much better known in CG circles than the Stanford dragon.
pimlottc | 15 hours ago
sien | 12 hours ago
dcrazy | 8 hours ago
dcrazy | 8 hours ago
- Ed Catmull
- Raphael Rom
- Henri Gouraud
- Jim Blinn
- Bui Ton Phong
I think they “made their mark” when they essentially invented 3D graphics.
dahart | 7 hours ago
jolt42 | 15 hours ago
tniemi | 14 hours ago
omoikane | 14 hours ago
https://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/spec3/node89...
Surprised to see the teapot got another update this year.
account42 | 3 hours ago
GeeDoubleyou | 13 hours ago
car | 13 hours ago
[0] https://spectrum.ieee.org/behold-the-worlds-most-famous-teap...
mjg59 | 13 hours ago
embedding-shape | 45 minutes ago
Almost any 3D artist doing objects, especially a new category of objects they haven't done before, will do so with 3 or more reference images from every angle and model based on those, pretty tightly initially at least. But even with that, you add your own style and taste into the modeled object, and almost never will say that what you referenced from is the "original object" in that manner.
"Inspired by" works well though and doesn't remove anyone's agency or lessen their "creation" of it :)
apitman | 13 hours ago
Sadly Alan Kay was unable to attend so I didn't get to meet him.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui3R1Dlmsk0
OhMeadhbh | 9 hours ago
prpl | 8 hours ago
Alpha_1 has a direct lineage from the development of the teapot and was the basis of Featurecam
vconnor | 2 hours ago
Incidentally, I've been following the incredible Interactive Graphics course on YouTube by Cem Yuksel (mentioned in TFA for his improved teapot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVCuWQV_-Es&list=PLplnkTzzqs...
xattt | 12 hours ago
He found it hilarious that every single equation in the pirated book were reverse images.
simtel20 | 11 hours ago
1. https://youtu.be/3NQuHpUyZbI?is=sjkQcadU6_IHjgr0
EvanAnderson | 11 hours ago
I was told later by a docent that my reaction was not uncommon. >smile<
rhcom2 | 11 hours ago
TheJoeMan | 10 hours ago
wslh | 10 hours ago
[1] https://www.meskanen.com/history.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realsoft_3D
agildehaus | 9 hours ago
Oh, and the 3D pipes screensaver.
pmg | 7 hours ago
The interiors differ between the original and the reissue. The latter has an integrated ceramic strainer near the spout root not present on these models updated interior geometry.
This listing appears to show a “vintage” teapot with the strainer on photo 8 - so I guess the plot steepens: https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/melitta-friesland-minden-teekann...
fauria | 7 hours ago
rauli_ | 4 hours ago
embedding-shape | 48 minutes ago
Seems to have been part of a bigger collection:
> The sculpture, titled Smithfield Utah, was created by artist Alan Butler. It was formally unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland. It is the second of six new sculptures being created as part of Dublin City Council’s Sculpture Dublin initiative. The work was inspired by the shape of the Utah Teapot, a ‘virtual’ teapot form designed by mathematician Martin Newell in Utah in 1975. https://www.thejournal.ie/teapot-sculpture-smithfield-square...
Personally, it seems less like "Inspired by the shape of the Utah Teapot" and more something I'd create myself when I was a beginner with 3DS Max 9 back in the day. Most people will just see a normal teapot, a very small selection of niche visitors will recognize it as the Utah Teapot, available as a default object in 3DS Max since forever.
lwhi | 5 hours ago
anabis | 5 hours ago
zombot | an hour ago
If there were a digital city somewhere on the net, accessible to everyone, that would be a great place to put it.
fundatus | an hour ago