LookingOutwards-05 – Page 2 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

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I was interested by the 3D computer graphic work by an artist named Mike Campau. He specializes in hybrid imagery, which is a combination of computer generated objects with photography. The photos I attached below are two of the series named Living Sculptures #2, which is a continuation from his Living Sculptures series. It is interesting to see how strange abstract structures with non-human features as in their forms and textures, are given life or even personified by simply adding some clothing and classic portrait lighting to them. We are able to observe and guess the subjects’ characteristics through these graphic portraits, even thought there are no such things as facial features or particular gestures. Also, the combination of the rather serious color schemes and the fun, seemingly fluid shapes create an odd feeling, yet it entices the viewers at the same time.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/19683165/LIVING-SCULPTURES-2

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DIFFUSION from Kouhei Nakama on Vimeo.

Kouhei Nakama is a visual art director. He also works for a company that does work for big corporations. For this project, he uses a variety of generative and particle based animation to bring 3D figures to life in this motion graphics short piece titled diffusion. Nakama has a series of work blending the human form with the geometric nature of 3D graphics. He blends them seamlessly, and at times the body mutates into other forms because of this blending. In this particular piecce, the body is blended with different textures that range from organic to more alien and computer like. The human’s flesh and body is stretched and elongated to its maximum capacity. It changes colors and patterns while questions about evolution are revoked.

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Do you think she is just a normal high school girl from japan? Actually, she is not real for real. She is a virtual character created by a graphic design team name ‘Telyuka’. But she looks like real, acts like real, and she is even competing with real girls in real idol audition right now in japan.

When I saw the picture at the first time, I thought ‘well, she’s pretty but little bit feel like a doll. Too much photoshop.’And after I found out she is a just virtual character, I was surprised by the fact that I don’t feel any uncanny valley which is a huge problem for any computer graphic characters in video game and movies.

Team ‘Telyuka’ said they want to create ‘virtual human’ with personality and feelings communicating with people. They also interviewed that it’s still on progress of developing more realistic modeling of her since she looks less human in the moving video than a still picture. I also think that if they can compensate the current problem with moving and voice, some people would be reasoned she’s alive.

Team Telyuka

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https://www.behance.net/Filiphds

These are multiple abstract images created by a freelance artist online named Filip Hodas in 2015.

These images were made using Cinema 4D, Octane, Zbrush, World Machine, and Xparticles. While the images were mostly made by hand using 3D modeling, some organic and natural looking parts of some of the images were made using a noise function. Mountains, germs, or particles were made using a noise function.

What I absolutely love about these images is not only the abstract shapes and imaginative transformations of nature, but also the colors, lighting and shading. These pictures all use such vibrant, colorful, modern, and eye-catching color palettes that I absolutely love. The abstractions look so real and almost believable as if these were physically made with clay rather than on a computer. What makes these pictures great is how eye-catching and eye pleasing they are. It’s definitely something that deserves to be hung on a wall.

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One of Frank Guzonne’s 3D work displayed on his Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/p/BZJdCaPh_5M/?taken-by=fjg_3d)

For this week’s Looking Outward I focused on the 3D graphic computational artwork of Frank J. Guzonne whose works have popped up on my Instagram feed recently. His works are very flamboyant with his color choices been great and his graphics being quirky. He takes seemingly simple and mundane every day objects and plays around with dynamic movement and lighting in order to create a pleasantly unexpected graphic video work. It seems for each project he makes a unique algorithm that would determine how objects would move in relation to each other and the lighting. Guzonnes 3D renderings allows for creative explorations of fictitious animations.

Although we are currently working on 2D objects, I like how computation can bring about 3D movement and work. This opens up a new creative window in making animation work. I thought this kind of computing would be particularly useful for not only animation but also generating potential real life situations.

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Zeitguised is a creative studio that specializes in VR and 3d printing. They believe in combining the physical and digital worlds and like to focus on the intersection between these two planes.

Giest.xyz is a series they did handcrafted algorithmic textiles. Their design concept is a shift from passive to living matter and they use algorithmic models to iterate on form before building it in real life. The concept uses the idea of a synthetic ghost that is able to phase from one thing to another.

These two images are concept models of that were used for the final product.

These three images are some renderings of the final product. You can view the rest here.

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For this Looking Outwards, I decided to reflect on this piece:

It is called “One is the Loneliest Number” by Stefan Morrell. When it comes to 3D computer graphics, I usually gravitate towards CGI animations and short stories. However, just like what the post says, looking outwards is about searching for inspiration in new things.

I thought this piece was really inspiring because of the immense amount of detail the artist included in each piece of the graphic. If you zoom into the buildings, you can see that the artist rendered every single piece of it: from buttons, to panels, to gateways, to objects, etc. In addition, I really like the concept of this piece. It shows one lonely space craft in a humongous arena. When I looked at this piece, I immediately thought of the phrase: “small fish in a big pond.” I really like the contrast in size and sense of depth portrayed throughout this whole piece.

Lastly, the artist did not release any information on his process for this piece. However, I discovered that Stefan Morrell is an environmental artist from New Zealand and the bulk of his pieces have won awards for being extremely photo realistic 3d.

Find piece in better quality here

Link to Stefan Morrell’s full page of pieces here and here

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Diego Querol is a 3D artist and renders interior spaces as if the render itself was a photograph taken on site. He uses the modeling tool 3ds Max and rendering tool VRay to generate his renders. The entire process of generating an interior render starts from finding inspiration images on composition and details that could hint stories to modeling the interior pieces to adding textures and light. Within the process of rendering in VRay, the scale of the textures must match with reality and the multiple lighting options must be adjusted in a way that would enhance the rendering. For example, the scale of the pattern on the wood cannot be too big or small. And the treatment of glass and reflective surfaces because of the way light behaves on such surfaces (light is absorbed, transmitted and reflected on glass).

This type of artwork can bring a space to reality, which was once imagined. Querol also spends a lot of time and effort focusing on adding in details and filling the space with what is needed in order to convey a story or an atmospheric environment. This can be seen through his Arts and Crafts (below) rendered artwork, which is one of my favourite works of his.

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One piece of 3D art that I found to be very interesting was “I am no Chuck Close” by Patrick Gunderson. I find the piece to be strangely mesmerizing. It is obvious that it is supposed to be a face, but the disjointed appearance of the piece gives it a feeling of unease. A big part of this is how the eyes are obscured. I also feel that the green background gives me the impression that the face is lost in time. This is further enforced by the random crescent moon shapes put around the canvas. The algorithms used to create this were likely very complex. I assume he used a large amount of loop variables to create lines, as well as geometric shapes. It is also possible that he worked on this in a modeling program such as maya or blender.

Gunderson, Patrick. “I Am No Chuck Close.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 11 Mar. 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/gunderson/3345620341/in/photostream/.

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The project that I was inspired by that was related to 3-dimensional graphics is Lee Grigg’s Xgen’s 3D renderings, created in 2014.

What I believe makes these renderings interesting is the fact that each surface is created by elevating or moving a “3D’ pixel to create structures and models. As we know, the basis of all computer graphics is visualizing data, and this is achieved with pixels, the building blocks of all images in computers. It is impressive that even something ground in such structured and calculated can create renderings reminiscent of occurrences in real life. While the artist simply used a program, Maya and Arnold, to create the renderings and graphics. What really impresses me is the program that is able to simulate “vision”, where it can determine shadows, depth, colors, and lighting. That is truly what is impressive about 3D graphics. The artist always seems to like to create 3D models but not smooth renderings but with disjointed and pixelated methods. Below is a link to the referred work.
Maya XGen Colored Cubes and Spheres Rendered with Arnold