The Utah Teapot

The Utah teapot has been the symbol of computer graphics. It was originally created by Martin Newell in 1975, when he was a PhD student at the University of Utah. Later on Jim Blinn, when he was a PhD student at the University of Utah, modified the shape of the teapot model by vertically scaling it. This modified version of the teapot is ubiquitous in computer graphics.

Every year at the university of Utah we hold the Teapot Rendering Competition to commemorate the Utah Teapot with images generated using renderers written by students.

Image generated by Laura Marie Lediaev, the winner of the 2014 Teapot Rendering Competition.

Martin Newell's original drawing of the Utah Teapot for modeling it by hand using graph paper.

Jim Blinn explains why the teapot model is squished after Martin Newell modeled it in a reception honoring Ivan Sutherland during SIGGRAPH 2018.

For more information on the Utah Teapot, you can visit the Utah Teapot page on Wikipedia.