Rishi Patel had an epiphany when he saw “Toy Story” more than a decade ago. The Smyrna, Ga., resident has long been interested in merging science and art — he graduated with a physics degree from the University of Georgia and enjoyed making clay models as a child — and the Pixar movie drove the point home. “When I saw that, I really saw the potential for 3-D,” he said. Now a designer at IBM, Patel headed a 12-member team that recently finished an ambitious two-year project: a virtual recreation of China’s Forbidden City that opened to the public Oct. 10.

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