This collection showcases selected CGI digital works over a 15-year span to highlight how I have used the various tools available at the time to express my creative vision and how the nature of the tools also impacts my creative works.
I began in creating CGI digital works in 1999, to put that in perspective with what was happening with CGI in the broader world, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released that year. This was the first motion picture to heavily use CGI characters and scenes throughout the movie. This was done through their own CGI software. It would not be until 2001 that a film would be made with off the shelf commercial CGI software. The software I started with, Bryce 4.0, for landscape creation was very advanced for its time and while still expensive, was rare to be accessible to the average consumer and useable on their PC. Prior to my entry into the college juried art show, there was a CGI entry in the high school juried art show that preceded it. That CGI entry was an architectural rendering with basic color shading, no textures, reflections, or transparency. If I were to guess it was probably rendered output from a CAD program. Since my renderings were far more advanced this encouraged me to submit “Garden” to the college show and this is how my first work was publicly displayed.
With any piece of software, it gets regular updates and upgrades. Bryce changed owners over the years, and each one has added enhancements along the way. I also grew as an artist. Bryce lends itself to simpler scenes, with fewer objects, less complex lighting. As a result, my Bryce renders tend to be more surreal than photorealistic. “Driftwood” completed in 2003 is a classic example of this surreal type of work. Compared to a latter work in 2009 like “Planet Rise” you can see that the render engine has improved so while the scene itself is still Sci-Fi, the render quality is starting to approach something more photographic.
Today there are more advanced CGI software packages than Bryce available. In 2014 I started using Vue. Vue is used by major motion picture companies. This was a major step up in capabilities in a lot of areas, sky, rendering, and especially populating the environment with vegetation. If I want a very photorealistic landscapes like in “Prairie” with lots of vegetation, detailed sky, etc. I will select Vue. This allows me creative flexibility since I have Vue for photorealistic scenes and Bryce for surreal scenes.
In this medium you are only limited by your imagination and the tools with which you work. In this respect the art and technology are intrinsically linked and as such the art will always be a product of its time.
My first 3d CGI digital art creation. Also, my first work to be exhibited. Displayed at the Brauer Museum of Art for a juried student art exhibit. The scene is quite complex with 14 light sources combined with transparent textures in both the water, columns, and garden walls. At the time it took 3 days to render this scene. Despite the amount of light around the fountain making illuminating the surrounding area, this is a nighttime scene. From the very beginning the title of each work has been accompanied by caption that ends in an ellipsis. I select specific words for a caption for different reasons. Sometimes to point towards the source of inspiration, or to highlight something in the picture, or perhaps allude to something that is absent. In all cases it there to pull the viewer into the work. Why do I do this? I challenge you to search this site for the only other time I use the ellipsis in a non caption setting for that answer.
When creating virtual worlds there is a balancing act that takes place. Create enough to be seen on camera but don't waste time creating what won't been seen off camera. Sometimes off camera content can influence lighting, shadows, and reflections so that does need to be taken into account. If you don't have framing in mind how much content to create can be difficult to narrow down. Driftwood is an example of this. The forest created for this scene is actually quite larger than what finally appears on camera. As the caption eludes to this is a dream world. The trees are inspired by the Bald Cypress.
Here is a question for you to discuss. On which planet is the sun rising? The one your on? The one on the horizon? Does the caption help you? Am I going to give you an answer? No! Is that frustrating? Maybe, but it is also fun to discuss these types of things because there isn't necessarily one answer or a right answer. When I was a docent there was one landscape piece with two men fishing. The sky was a purple/red tone. When I looked at the picture I saw two men fishing at sunset. When my fellow docent saw it she saw two men fishing at sunrise. Until we actually talked about it we could have just stood there looked at the exact same piece of art and seen two differently completely different things. What was the difference because in her experience people only fished in the morning and therefore it was a sunrise. In my experience people fished at both times of day and but the coloring more closely matched with what I experienced at sunset.
While most images require some minor color adjustments post rendering, Photoshop is listed here for the post render lens flare addition.
Prairie showcases the environment generation features of Vue. After selecting desired plant varieties Vue randomly populates the entire field in a few seconds rather than having to place each plant manually taking several days to cover the camera view. That frees me to focus on the other elements, tree, sky, composition, and camera placement. The atmospheric rendering and environment make for a photorealistic image. This image may occasionally appear in the photo reel on this website's homepage. Did you think this was a photograph the first time you saw it?