Although I was not able to find titles to any specific pieces, the collection of 3D computer graphics that Paul Wiley created titled “FuturoCity” throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The scenes that he creates are vibrant and fantastical and creates a sense of fun and excitement. The art that is created with code is fun and although its style is considered outdated now, I think they are still interesting to look at now because of how quickly the world of computer generated images have changed. Wiley’s artistic style is captured well in this medium because it allows for relatively quick generations of fantastical landscapes that would take much longer if done by hand as it would have back then.
As soon as I read the prompt, I was reminded of the recent exhibition in the Miller ICA gallery by Jacolby Satterwhite.
Jacolby Satterwhite, Reifying Desire 6, 2014. HD digital video
Among many of his artworks in the gallery, the digital videos created by 3D computer graphics stood out to me the most. It was a very different experience from physical installations and 2D videos, because it seemed to be existing in its own world. The rotation of the camera angle and the individual movement of the characters and elements were really intriguing to me. I think the way lighting and shadow is programmed to be so natural is fascinating. I think this kind of 3D computer graphic medium is very appropriate for Jacolby Satterwhite’s work, as he as transforms existential uncertainty into a generative engine of resilience, reinvention, and celebration.
I admire the artist and his works as they are hyperrealistic works of mythical creatures. The texture in addition to the shadow and lighting is as if the works are sculptures of the creatures he creates. The patterns on the texture of the “sculptures” create an impactful visual appeal to the audience. As an artist who started art only in 2019, I find it amazing that he can create such intricate 3d art.
One particular 3D art that I find interesting is Robert DeNiro by character artist Thomas Rousvoal. What is so cool about this piece is that Rousval is able to combine the personality and legendary facial expressions of DeNiro into an 3D piece art. It looks very realistic without losing that touch of cartoon that elevates the piece. Rousval paid a lot of attention to applying noise and grain to the 3D art, to express the personality of the piece. He uses a real 8K scanner to project onto UV’s, this enables him to start a new sculpture with different shapes while having layers of details of realistic skin.
Link of the artwork:https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6aZZQO The project Ramen is designed by 3D student Laura Keuk. The 3D picture shows a bowl of ramen with a dreamy and peaceful atmosphere. I really admire how the noodles and soup seems so real, as if it is an actual photo taken by a high quality camera. The egg and soup seem so delicious that it makes me hungry when I’m writing this near midnight. According to the website, Keuk imported elements on Zbrush to know where and how the different ingredients touch the soup. And keuk drew multiple layers for the soup, and I guess possibly for the other elements as well. These layers are making the image real. And Kuek also uses a lot random elements to make it real. Keuk successfully created the atmosphere and the image she want.
When I was a little girl, I grew fond of one animated Pixar movie called “WALL-E”. I loved it because it showed people that even robots can learn how to love, how to feel and express emotions for those around them and be more human than many humans on this earth.
I chose a 3D Graphic Project by Dong Liang called “Cambot”. Dong Liang created a touching story where a “Cambot, short for Camera Robot, is a type of robot that will go around and shoot photos under its owner’s command.” However, there was one abandoned Cambot, NO. 406, who encountered a glitch during its production and now doesn’t follow the commands of its owner and only wanders around taking pictures of things he finds interesting, attractive and fascinating. How cute is that? I admire this project because the creator didn’t just create a 3D image, no, he gave this image its own life by having a story behind it. This so-called glitch made this robot have its own personality, look for beautiful things in the world on its own – this glitch made NO. 406 be alive.
The first step in this project that Dong Liang has done was playing around with sketches of the robot to find the right design. Texturing of the image was done in Mari – 3D Texture Painting Software: “I exported a neutral-pose mesh for painting the generic maps such as dif, bmp, spc, and spc roughness, and then I also exported a posed mesh for the rain mask because I want the water trails to follow the gravity.” The rain in the image was done in Maya, a 3D computer graphics application, using the nParticle; for example, to create the rain streak, Dong Liang randomly instanced 5 different streak models to a nParticle system to generate random rain drops as if it was in real life. To set up the lighting, Dog Liand used aHDRI provided by sIBL which also gave him a good bokeh effect when turning on the lens blur. Lastly, “the rain streaks and splashes were rendered as separate pass and were comped into the beauty pass in Nuke.”
The creator’s artistic sensibilities played the biggest role in the final form because, as I’ve already mentioned before, Dong Liang made his work be alive by having a story about it, by giving his robot characteristics of a human being and also, by creating a short clip of NO. 406 which brought that 3D image to life in literal sense. This project radiates warmth, happiness and truth – you might have a glitch yet you’re unique and beautiful in its own way. Maybe having a glitch is an advantage? That’s something to think about.
After exploring some different kinds of 3D generated art, I chose to focus on architectural rendering. The image above is from Archicgi, an architectural rendering studio. Here’s a great article about their process: https://archicgi.com/3d-architectural-rendering-101-a-definitive-guide/
These types of renderings are very interesting to me because of the level of detail, as well as the realism that they present. The article mentions their use of various softwares, including Maya and Blender, which are popular 3D rendering tools that I’ve heard of before. But they also mention some that I haven’t heard of such as V-Ray, Cinema 4D, and Revit. I would be interested to explore these a little more.
I’m sure there are teams of artists that go into creating these images, but I think there is a lot to say about artistic vision in the process. The architecture firm can send the studio their draftings of the building, but I believe the studio is responsible for making it look good. For example, the lighting in the image above has a huge impact on the building, and makes it look very dramatic. If the lighting were flat, the building probably wouldn’t look as interesting.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. It’s the 4th iteration in the Animal Crossing series, the predecessor to its incredibly successful sequel, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which reportedly sold over 31 million copies as of December 2020. Just New Horizons makes up about 47% of all sales in the series of games. Still, as advanced and exceptional as New Horizons is, New Leaf has a charm that keeps players coming back even a decade after the initial release. New Leaf is full of content as a life simulation game, with over 333 possible animal villagers (not including special characters). With time the gameplay may get repetitive, and New Horizons has the same problem. But New Leaf has the added factors of characters with stronger personalities, a beautiful soundtrack, and that sense of nostalgia that has players still thinking fondly of New Leaf. Despite not having modern, clean graphics, the pixelated quality is charming and doesn’t get in the way of gameplay. While nicer graphics certainly look good, it doesn’t make up for content and playability.
The project I choose for this week LO is a light-jet print that reflects the artist’s love-hate relationship with suburbia, called Touring Suburbia/number one, by Dolores Kaufman in 2005. It basically applies the technique of digital painting to create a 2D art that captures a 3D dreamlike scene. The artist applies two contradictory color, blue and pink, to represent his love and hate. Also, the repetitive patterns successfully showcase a scene that gives the audiences a sense of realness, instead of a dull collage. Using digital tools, the creator, Dolores Kaufman was able to re-visualize that dream, to begin to imagine Versailles from individual efforts. Touring Suburbia represents an attempt to recapture a dream once glimpsed.
For 3D computer art, I looked at the artist known as Chaotic Atmospheres from Switzerland. They have made digital art since 2012. As their name implies, Chaotic Atmospheres makes atmospheres and landscapes but alters them in a surrealist way. Specifically, for their project “Shapes in Nature”, their environments will often be large in scale, have exaggerated features of the environment being depicted, and some large geometric shape in the middle that is reflective. The reason I find their work so impressive is their attention to detail. They make both art from scratch and art made from imported textures, both of which are laborious tasks, either writing code to create the images or writing code to take the textures and create realistic environments out of them. Additionally, creating the reflection must be difficult, whether it be algorithmic like ray tracing or hard-coded into the work.
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