3D Graphic Art

Eamonn Burke

Alex Grey – Fear Innoculum Cover

This visual was the cover art for the release of a recent album by one of my favorite bands, TOOL, designed by their artist Alex Grey.
What I really love about this artwork is that it establishes not just a 3D image, but a 3D environment. The piece is very atmospheric in its arrangement, and also has a strong sense of perspective and motion. In order to achieve this,
Grey used his artistic sensibility. Specifically, the behavior of the top and bottom borders of the image really reinforce this sense of immersion, as does the emanating light which generates ominous highlights on the eyes and contributes to the image’s tone of mysticism.
His contrasting use of blur and definition enhance the sense of movement.

I could not find the software that Alex Grey used, but I would guess it is Rhino or a similar one.
I also guess that this is a more complex version of our classwork now: using one coded element (a 3D eye),
using nested loops to repeat that component and guide it along a warped path, adding a light source with something like V-ray,
and taking a perspective angle view.