LookingOutwards-05 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2018] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Eunice Choe – Looking Outwards-05

These are three icebergs from the series.

Chaotic Atmospheres, a Switzerland based 3D artist created beautiful renditions of icebergs in his series titled, Caustic Icebergs (2013). I admire this series because the icebergs are very aesthetically pleasing and the artist does a great job of displaying an environment with grace and drama. While all the icebergs appear to be similar, the subtle differences between them allow the viewer to see new compositions that can stand alone. Chaotic Atmospheres used Acropora, which is a voxel modeler by Voxelogic, to create the icebergs. The icebergs all started off from a base, but the artist changed the parameters to make each iceberg unique. The artist also utilized the rendering software, Vue for the glowing water and sky. Chaotic Atmospheres incorporates his artistic sensibilities in the series through his attention to detail and ability to capture a scene in nature in a very realistic and captivating way. The artist’s use of color and various textures can undoubtedly catch someone’s attention.

The artist incorporates a glowing effect to the icebergs and sky.

Julie Choi – Looking Outwards 05

(Video from Pixar explaining their process behind the film)

This is the process of how the movie, The Incredibles 1 was simulated before its production. The process of the visual creation of the main characters are made with sketches by designers and is sent off to the animator. The animator then takes the design to simulate one of the scenes on the digital screen. The simulation is a graphically computed shape with certain motions of the characters’ body parts. To make the movie dynamic as it is, a lot of testing and iterations were made through this technology. Their concept of making a normal guy into some powerful character was planned within this platform. I was inspired by their process work that heavily utilized 3D computer graphics since this movie was produced in 2004. I was quite surprised that they had innovative simulations more than a decade ago. Also, The Incredibles is one of my favorite films so it was interesting to take a look at their work behind the project.

Ean Grady-Looking Outwards-05

http://niessnerlab.org/projects/thies2016face.html

Title: Face2Face
Creators: Justus Thies, Michael Zollhofer, Marc Stamminger, Christian Theobalt, Matthias Niebner
2016

TUM Visual Computing has created technology that allows “real-time face facial reenactment of a monocular target video sequence (e.g., Youtube video). Which essentially means that if a person is in front of their commodity webcam and have a video playing of another person talking, this webcam can allow the person’s facial expressions to replace the person in the video’s, in real-time. The project creators track facial expressions of the source and target individuals using a ‘dense photometric consistency measure’. Reenactment of the source’s facial expressions on the target is achieved through fast and efficient ‘deformation transfer’ between the source and target.

I find this work more interesting than inspiring, not to say it isn’t inspiring. It is especially interesting how fluid and realistic the facial reenactments look on the target (video example linked below). Obviously, this was made in 2016 and so the technology now is most likely better than what is shown, however, it is great that such technology exists. A more advanced version of this technology could bring a plethora of possibilities to many different fields, including drastically revolutionizing entertainment or even as a potential means of creating holograms.

Video below is a demonstration of the real-time reenactment.

Christine Chen-Looking Outwards-05

Above is Filip Hodas’s piece Post-apocalyptic Hello Kitty created in 2017
Source: https://scene360.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/filip-hodas-02.jpg

Filip Hodas, a computer graphic artist from Prague, used computer softwares to create a series of 3D rendering artworks portraying pop culture dystopia. He used Maxon Cinema 4D, Octane Render, Substance Painter and Photoshop to create these stunning renderings. What I admire most about his pieces is how incredibly detailed they are. He used the softwares for illustration, computer animation and visual effects to create pieces that are so detailed that they are almost like photos. I just can’t believe that all the intricate scratches, shadows of depth, and textures are created with computer programs which again make me realize the impressive capacities that computer programs help us achieve.

His sense of style and futuristic ideas behind this series is also very unique and interesting- to think of objects, items and icons of current pop culture, such as Hello Kitty, Mario, Mickey Mouse, Sponge Bob……etc., as things to be turned into defunct, ominous forms when all living on Earth have disappeared millions and millions of years from now. It is also quite shocking for me to see these characters, which seems to be related to innocence because of how popular they are among children, be portrayed in such a negative way. I almost didn’t recognize the items portrayed within the pieces because of how different they are.

Julie Choi – Project 05 – Wallpaper

bubble wallpaper

function setup() {
    createCanvas(600, 400);
}

function draw() {
    background(255);
    drawPatter(); //call function drawPatter
    noLoop(); 
}
function drawPatter() {
    // draw blue background line
    for(var i = 20; i < width; i += 60){
        strokeWeight(7);
        stroke(60, 211, 206, 50);
        line(i, 0, i, height);
    }
    // draw red background line
    for(var p = 10; p < width; p += 90){
        strokeWeight(3);
        stroke(255, 66, 0, 70);
        line(p, 0, p, height);
     }
    // draw the bubbles with ellipses with low opacity
    for (var y = 50; y < height + 50; y += 100) {
      for (var x = 50; x < width + 50; x += 100) {
          noStroke();
          var r = (y/200) * 255;
          var w = (x/200) * 255;

          fill(r / 32, w, 180, 50);
          ellipse(x, y, 30, 30);

          fill(134, w / 2, r, 50);
          ellipse(x + 18, y + 15, 30, 30);

          fill(r, w, 100, 50);
          ellipse(x + 18, y - 10, 30, 30);

          fill(r, w, 100, 50);
          ellipse(x + 10, y + 23, 20, 20);

          fill(r / 40, 0, 100, 50);
          ellipse(x + 10, y + 10, 10, 10);

          fill(r / 2, w, 100, 50);
          ellipse(x + 10, y + 10, 10, 10);

          fill(r, 0, 100, 50);
          ellipse(x + 30, y + 30, 50, 50);
      }
    }
}

I enjoyed this assignment because it really allowed me to be creative. My wallpaper is a pattern of colorful bubbles, and I was inspired by the old wallpaper I had as a child. Although it does not look similar to my actual wallpaper, I had fun making new designs from my memory.

Kai Zhang-Looking Outwards-05

Image result for doctor strange cgi

The Making of Movie CGI Effects – Doctor Strange

At the bottom of the page is a video that breaks down the computer generated imagery of the blockbuster movie Doctor Strange. I’m rather fascinated by the making process because at current time it’s getting more and more difficult to differentiate the CGI and real shooting in large budget Hollywood movies. And the reason is due to the rapid increasement of computing power and software capabilities.

However, one might not expect from the process is that the CGI making is not all about 3D generated objects that’s plugged into the filmed footages. There is a combination of 2D and 3D layers that makes up the full imagery, for example, the fogs or the ashes are usually 2D painted. And also a lot of the “people” in the movie aren’t real at all. In some cases, to create some of the visual effects, modeling human figures and manipulate it is even more efficient than shooting using chroma key.

The methodology is straightforward. Exporting 3D imagery into 2D workspaces and layer them in the timeline. Aftereffects is usually the most common tool to use. But in most cases, despite different components are exported from different files, algorithms are used to make sure they line up in 3D spaces. For example, the light-whip is tied virtually to the hand in another work file. Also, a large portion of the physical reaction of objects, particle effects, etc. are calculated using 3D engines that embeds all the physical equations needed for the result. One rather amazing thing is – by moving sliders of the physical reaction level can often result in totally different film styles easiliy perceived by the audiences.

In the end, the combination of different aspects of the element are tied together and rendered out as static imageries (frames) and played in the sequence, which results in the final grand state of the art.

Image result for doctor strange cgi

Alexandra Kaplan – Looking Outwards – 05

Image from Nicopicto’s Duracell Advertising Campaign

Nikopinto is a global 3d animation and illustration studio. One project of theirs that really stood out to me was their Duracell print advertising campaign. It is a series of 3d graphics of a bunch of Duracell bunnies creating different shapes such as a rhino or tornado. I think that it has some really cute aspects (all of the bunnies!) as well as having an overall eye-catching image. Looking at it from a coding standpoint, I am sure that the many layers of bunnies have some sort of algorithm to have some sort of structured randomness.

Dani Delgado – Looking Outwards 5

Lil Miquela is an instagram “model” created using 3D computer modeling techniques. While not much is known about the artist or their motivation to create a full social media page for their model, other than that they work for a startup named Brud, I find it very impressive that the page amassed thousands of followers who believed Miquela was a real person from Brazil. While there is much controversy that surrounds this project because of this, I believe that as an art piece, this project is both beautifully rendered and raises some important questions: Have computer graphics advanced so far that we can create realities indistinguishable from our own? Are we now a society focused on purely visuals without needed any further context? Do we not care? The instagram, which has been publishing content since 2016, is only gaining a larger and larger following with time.

While this is not necessarily traditional computer graphics, I believe that Miquela is an impressive work of both computer generated and performance art (as we follow “her” lifestyle, we become a part of the artist’s performance).

Lil Miquela was hired by many brands to “model” their clothes due to her popularity.

Link to “her” instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/

Xindi Lyu-Looking Outwards 05

The prize winning generative art series in 2015 during Independent Festival of Creative Communication in Chroatia in 3D category– “Papilarnie” really pushed and blurred the boundary between 2 dimensional lines and three dimensional forms. Graphics of this series were published in the second part of the album “The Magic of Lines: Line Illustration by Global Artists.” The author of this art series, Polish artist Janusz Jurek, showed the seemingly “deconstruction” of human features, while adding volume to the overall form but also showed movement and a sense of tension within this dynamic piece.

This art series really inspired me because it is a successful outcome of attempting to use simple geometries or modules to create a incredibly dynamic art piece, and also it showed that capturing a moment in the constructing process could result in very interesting outcomes.

Kevin Thies Looking Outwards 05

Da Vinci in color space

Monet in color space

Walking in Color Space is a series of data visualizations by Leonardo Solaas produced in 2010. The data represented takes pixel rows and draws a line between the two points in HSB color space. More contrast means the resulting line will be longer, and more visible. It also highlights the colors the artists used. Images were generated using Processing, but unfortunately the blog describing the process has been taken down.
The models themselves become dynamic furry masses, and I appreciate that the artist took a new look at old pieces as well as newer ones. It’s the kind of data where you could take a guess and just figure it out by eye, but because the level of detail is so fine, it just makes it more interesting. By virtue of its digital nature, it could be possible to either move interaction with the pieces to a fully digital landscape, like being able to hold them in your hands in virtual reality, or they could theoretically be translated to the physical realm via 3 printing, although that would be one delicate print.