The artwork I am choosing is Big Hairy Bush- Hair Particle Drawing by Don Relyea. I admire that the algorithm and its intended pattern is based on natural occurrences of hair. It is artwork that was accidental, a result of noticing that hair bunching together could create different levels of shade and make an artwork similar to one that would be drawn from charcoal. The hair image is of George Bush and symbolizes how all politicians have something ugly that they hide. Hair is pushed by media and modern beauty standards as something that is ugly and should be hidden. Therefore, this concept creates an efficient, inventive, and playful social commentary, that also shows artistry on the part of Relyea.
‘Oscillon 520’, by Ben Laposky, US, 1960. Museum no. E.1096-2008.
Benjamin Francis Laposky was a mathematician, artist and draftsman who is one amongst the early computer graphic visualizer. His work titled Oscillon, a collection of images generated using oscilloscope to manipulate electronic waves. Laposky utilized long exposure photography to capture the movement of these waves that appeared on the screen. These waves were manipulated using cathode ray oscilloscope with sine wave generators and various other electronic circuits that the abstract art. The most interesting thing about Laposky’s work is the abstract quality achieved by geometric precision related to mathematical curves and Lissajous Figures.
I admire the Weeping Woman by Carlos Ortega made in 2012. I admire the 3D quality of the character and cloth. The light and shadow are a big part of making this happen. I also admire how the colors blend together to set the mood for the work. The work is based on a version of the Mexican legend of “the weeping woman” and the song called “the weeping woman” by a Mexican band Califanes. I believe the colors, and how the character is posed, and how the ghosts are made reflect the creator’s sensibilities. It was made using Autodesk Mudbox, Autodesk Maya, mental ray, and Adobe Photoshop.
This project is an excellent example of graphics combining 3D computing and nature.
Through algorithms and renderings, it simulates the natural ecosystem and explores the local trees, vegetation, fungus, and many other species and forms, as well as their relationships with each other.
The renderings of plants including moss and wood in this series of works are very realistic. The use of light is also very elegant and appropriate. The ratio of sunlight to shadow is just right, which makes the overall look very attractive — where the sun shines is where our vision focuses on, leading people to the incredible shapes of the fungus. The colors of the presented works are mainly shades of yellow and green to present the plants. The colors of the plants are different but also echo each other with wood in brown. The color collocation is very harmonious.
Artist: Don Mupasi Work: “Adventures in Space” (2021)
Stills from “Departure”
The work I’ve chosen to look at is “Adventures in Space”, a collection of NFTs by Don Mupasi, a UK bAsed 3D visual artist and photographer. One thing I admire is how effectively Mupasi is able to establish tone and atmosphere in his works. Each piece tells a story and the various small details catch the viewer’s attention, inviting to examine the work closer and learn more.
One of Mupasi’s major inspirations for his works include music he’s listened to or works he’s read, and these manifest in the scenes he creates. Speaking of his work, Mupasi says: “Visually, I try to convey this through scenes and compositions with a lot of color and exaggerated elements – like large suns, moons, hills, mountains, lush forests, etc. I place and move my characters in those scenes to convey certain feelings and meaning from those moments.”
“To The Moon”
The primary program he uses is Cinema 4D and After Effects. Given that his animations involve movement through space, he probably first renders the digital models in Cinema 4D and then combines them in After Effects, using layers and keyframe easing to fine tune the overall composition.
I find Filip Hodas’ ability to take characters and images we’re so familiar with out of the worlds to which they belong super fascinating. The Super Mario mushroom and the Gameboy building are some of my favorite of his works. As someone who struggles with realism using paint/graphite, I’m particularly impressed by his ability to create things that are very much in the world but still have this surreal glow about them. I can’t imagine trying to make work like this at all, let alone on a computer.
I struggled to find a comprehensive online catalog of his work, but this article provides a decent overview of his style.
An artist named Gleb Kuznetsov created a piece called Crystal Clear. It depicts hard materials interacting with light. The crystal is a translucent sphere with cracks that create individual pieces. The size of the piece changes and as it does so, the reflection of light in the background also changes. I found this artwork very interesting because of how it depicted the way light interacts with an object to create reflections and refractions. A Lot of other works created by this artist are centered around how different objects interact with light. Many of their works feature translucent objects to really emphasize refractions. This kind of 3d art can be useful for designers when they are testing to see how buildings/ objects interact with the environment, which is something that is important to consider during the design stage. In order to do this and make the light refractions accurate, the artist must have had to use Snell’s law formula and various other formulas that are derived from the study of nature.
This week, I am looking at the work of Eric Wong. Wong is an architect, designer, and illustrator. In 2021, Wong designed the digital world of U from the movie Belle. The architecture of the world is modular based. The images of the world were produced by arraying simple 3D sculptures or architectures. These elements are simple, but as they multiply, they produce an image of a world. I believe the work is completed with a 3D modeling software such as Rhino. The arraying could possibly be done with code using Grasshopper scripts. I really like Wong’s work as it shows other fields that architecture can start to fall into as well as the world building aspects of architecture.
I am most inspired by the work of Thomas Mangold. He is an artist from Dortmund, Germany that uses variations of shape, colors and dimensions in all of his work. He works with various mediums but most recently he has experimented with computational art. He makes all sorts of 3D art, but my favorite is his animal combinations where he combines two or more animals to create a very interesting and memorable final product. For example, he has combined a shark and a panda called Bluefin Tuna, and an elephant with a mouse called Mosquitofant. Mangold’s work is so unique that companies like WWF, Syfy channel, and Playstation reached out and partnered with him. He was also recently named on a list of the 30 best 3D digital artists of 2022. Although I am not familiar with the methods he used to create the artwork, I know that the overall concepts and levels of detail are very impressive.
The artwork I came across while looking into 3D computer graphics was a series of pieces created by the studio Nervous System. The studio takes research from the body and cells. The creators based there computational systems on the ways that cells divide, and subdivide into parts that produce a wrinkle-like blob. Through this, the artists at Nervous System takes the generations from the rules following theses biological systems, they 3D print these very elegant objects at all types of scales. The inwards and outwards folds though may seem random, are a result of a fairly simple set of rules. Additionally, I found it quite interesting to see how such a overlooked concept of the human body, is scaled both up and down into a piece of art that can be held and experienced in different ways. It many ways, it gives a new perspective on the connotations or understandings we already have of existing forms in nature and in our everyday lives.
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