Artistic Journey

Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post!

This week I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I've come from artistically, and I've realized my journey is longer than I thought, and I have several influences to be grateful for.

My Mom was probably my biggest influence, but only in the way that you never really appreciate. It just doesn't stand out as a singular moment. Instead it was  just that time with Mom... But looking back at it, it's truly where I gained my appreciation for art. My Mom still maintains that I drew a lifelike rendition of a dog when I was 2 or 3. The story is completely unbelievable to me, especially since I can't dream of pulling that off now, some 30 odd years later. She always encouraged my artistic side, many times by giving me examples of what could be done. She was always better than me, but it was stuff that I looked up to. Through her I was exposed to painting, sketching, ink drawing, clay modelling, playing a keyboard, singing, dancing, acting, and writing. It was a very well rounded approach to art. To this day she still writes and still encourages me. My Step-Mom also had her own artistic flair. Right until the day she died she was always doodling whenever a paper was in front of her. Sometimes it was just swirls, sometimes it was flowers. She even had a tattoo of one of her doodles, which (to bring this full circle) was a dog.

When I think of the noticeable influences in my life though, the first to come to mind is my grade 8 art teacher. I HATED him. I could never do anything right in his eyes. And he was always telling me never to leave any white space on the paper. Even when the white space was intended, he would criticize it. At the time I hated him. Now, I think I can understand. And I appreciate the passion that he succeeded in building in me, even if it was a backward approach or maybe even unintentional. Now when I do my artwork I often think of him and his admonition. But I've come to understand it was never truly the whitespace that was the issue. It was the intentional use every space on the canvas. Anywhere there is white space is an area in danger of having not had attention. And in real life, things are rarely truly white. So in the words of my Grade 8 art teacher "Get rid of that white space!"

That same year I had a classmate who I held in high esteem because of his artwork. And he was good looking too which also contributed to his popularity. I however was one of the outcasts and so I never felt I could approach him. Somehow my Mom became friends with his Mom, so I wound up getting to hang out with him for a bit outside of school, but things at school didn't change. Unfortunately, I still didn't work up the guts to talk about his art. So instead we played video games and I had a missed opportunity.

As I grew through my teens I came across the adult magazine Heavy Metal, and I was blown away. Of course I'd seen comics before. I owned some Archie's and some Spiderman's. But this was a whole new level. The stories were pushed to the limits!The art was pushed to the limits! The colours! The thoughts! The details! Now I wanted to do this! How hard could it be? .... Well I don't think I really need to answer that... but in those magazines one artist stood out to me: Boris Vallejo. Whoo! He could paint! The beasts. The women. But more than anything: the presence! It was a piece of artwork that I could look at, and it felt like it took hold of me in my soul. And there was no way I could ever do that...

I continued to dabble and play. I had developed an interest in making video games, so I spent a lot of time at the computer, coding, and making sprites. I suddenly found that I could do so much more on the computer than I could by hand and it was liberating. I could make the images move! I was animating! But still I wasn't good enough to compare to anyone. Just a nameless boy in some hole in the wall of a computer room. Around that time I discovered 3DS Max. Unfortunately it was pirated, but it spread my horizons so much further. I endlessly enjoyed playing with the shapes and the reflections. Boolean objects were my play ground. Then for some reason I couldn't keep using 3DS Max. All this was before the Internet. But somehow I still found Blender. And I hated it! I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The buttons and menus from Max were all gone. And there weren't any Boolean shapes! I couldn't make anything with just primitives! Needless to say I didn't stick to it....Eventually I found Bryce 3D and Vista Pro, and they were fun to play with for a while. Made some pretty cool landscapes. I came across POV-RAY, and it blew my mind what that was capable of. But I had to manually code each shape and vertex... that was too much work...

Sometime after, I got married and had kids. My wife has a taste for art, and my kids have inherited it. My wife and I have now become their artistic role models. I aim to set a good example, and my wife's art hangs on our walls.

Eventually after the Internet became available I came across Blender again, and thanks to BlenderGuru(Andrew Price), I started to see the potential of Blender. I was actually able to make a few things! Andrew became my Blender saviour, and I would never forget it. I would however feel restrained by my own lack of focus and drift away from Blender once again. Recently, I made the decision to actually LEARN Blender, and not just play around. Naturally I looked up BlenderGuru. Andrew truly opened my eyes to the world of 3D this time. He explained how the program was merely a tool, and continued on to explain the elements of good art. Through his podcast I was able to get to know Andrew and his moral code of life. His views on Piracy are particularly influential. And more importantly his views on how to be an Artist are truly inspiring. I have taken many of his suggestions to heart, including writing this blog.

There have been so many aspects of my life which tie back to art, and so many influences, I don't seem to be able to list them all here. But reflecting upon this, it's surprising to see that I never really took art seriously. Recently I was in a car accident, and during my recovery I took the time to think about what I really want to do with my life. I decided it was time to stop randomly shifting through the sands of my life and stay on a steady course. I've gotten out of the sand and onto the ship named Graphic Design. Where will she take me? I'm not sure yet, but I know now that I'm the Captain of this ship. And I will intentionally fill the whitespace of my life.

Some History

Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post!

I've had a few posts now, and I'm starting to recognize a rhythm. It seems like you can expect a new blog post from me once a week. We'll try that out and see how well that works.

That said, I almost didn't get a post done this week. Aside from my Blender education, I've been reading "The Animators Survival Kit" by Richard Williams. I'm only on Chapter 2, but let me tell you, it has certainly held my attention! The book is not specifically targeted at CG artists, but rather Animators in general. Mr. Williams has extensive experience in the animation industry dating back to the Golden Age of animation, when Disney was young. So, while he recognizes the influence and potential of CG, he has a background in the traditional. Personally, while I've never felt particularly skilled in traditional art or animation, though I can see the benefit of it. Especially in regards to composition. As such, I am working on improving my skills in the traditional art forms while also studying Blender. After all, Blender is only a tool used to create Art!

Since I've brought up history... I decided this week to look into CG a bit deeper. There are two abbreviations used interchangeably for this field: CG and CGI. CG stands for Computer Graphics, while CGI stands for Computer Generated Imagery.  In many cases the difference is negligible, but there is, in fact, a difference. Really CG is more a description of the art form, where CGI is a reference to how the art is made. For example, 3D Art, while directed by the artist, pretty much has to be generated by the computer and, as such, is CGI. However, Digital Painting is not actually generated by the computer, but rather the computer is being directed by the artist and so, it is CG.

CG, or Computer Graphics, as a term, traces it's roots back to 1960, where the term was coined by William Fetter of Boeing. Mr. Fetter, however, gives credit to Verne Hudson (also of Boeing). However graphics were being displayed digitally before then. In 1958, one of the first video games(potentially the first, but not typically recognized as such), called Tennis for Two, was designed for an Oscilloscope to be played by guests at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Various advances were made in the field of CG, but it wasn't until 1977 that SIGGRAPH put together the first standard for computer graphics, called the 3D Core Graphics System (or Core). It's hard to imagine now that 3D graphics were a thing at that time, but in fact SIGGRAPH was founded  well before that, in 1969, and stands for Special Interest Group on Graphics. As the name implies they pushed the limits of CG, and continue to do so. It was also during the 70's that some of our currently used shaders were originally conceived. You might not be familiar with the names of the people, but you'll recognize them nonetheless: Henri Gouraud, Bui Tuong Phong, and Jim Blinn. Jim Blinn later laid the foundation in 1978 for what would become known as bump mapping. Of course the 70's also introduced video games to the public with such hits as Pong and Space Invaders.

Of course, it was the 80's that truly revolutionized video games with companies like Nintendo, Sega and even Microsoft bringing video games into our homes. These video games certainly contributed to the interest in CG, but the major innovations were happening elsewhere. In Japan, Osaka University built the LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System in 1982 expressly for the purpose of generating 3D graphics. Using up to 257 microprocessors, the worlds first 3D planetarium-like video of the entire heavens was created by this supercomputer. It remained the most powerful computer in the world until 1984. While that in itself was hugely impressive and a tremendous leap forward for the technology of CG, it was relatively unknown. Instead, it was movies such as Star Wars which drew the attention, and in turn, the largest development activity. Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic raised the bar on CGI during this decade and became the go-to studios for top notch computer graphics. Later, Pixar emerged from within the walls of Industrial Light & Magic to become the animation giant that we know today.

This is a very brief overview of the history of CG, and to be sure there was much, much more going on which advanced the technology to what we know today.

I don't know if the history on this subject is as interesting to you as it is to me, but I'll prevent myself from going on about it further at this time. Instead, I'll give you something a little more visual.

In keeping with the history theme, I present: The Bouncing Ball. This is generally considered to be the first exercise of traditional animators, and is still to this day used as an introduction to computer animation.

Also, as an extra treat, here is the next sign of spring! The First Tree Blossom!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end! I'll talk to you again next week!

First Leaves

Hey guys! Welcome back!

I'd like to share my recent photograph "First Leaves". I took this yesterday and it literally is the first leaves I've seen this spring. I'm looking forward to more!

Now wait... how is a photograph CG? Ah... well there's lots that can be said on that topic. Historically, photography is an ancestor to CG, as are painting and sketching. CG is an illustrative art form, and like photography "a picture is worth a thousand words." It's easy to look at CG and say that it is separate from other art forms, but really it's just a branch off of the main category. An important take away from that, is that skills learned for another art form (such as photography) translate well to CG.

When you think about the fundamental principles of photography (or any illustrative art), you're looking at things such as light balance, contrast, color balance and generally, scene composition. These same things apply to CG. In fact when working in Blender, you're working on a 3D scene. Even if all you're working on is a model, the environment you're modelling in is still referred to as a scene. So literally we're composing within a scene. That is, we're making a Scene Composition. Therefore, the elements of scene composition which apply to other art forms also apply to CG.

So, as the leaves are budding for the spring, my artistic expression is budding through practice in multiple art forms, because it all applies, and:

a picture is worth a thousand words.

What do I want to say?

Robot Worship

Hi guys!  Welcome back to my blog. Today I'm unveiling my first independent 3D rendered artwork! I call this piece Robot Worship. This piece was inspired by the first project for Blender class I'm taking. The project was an either / or thing where I could choose either to model a robot or jewellery. Whichever I chose, I had to come up with a reasonable scene to display my model in. I chose to merge the two together. I also chose to use things not yet covered in the course such as armatures and spotlights.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied, but I think from a artistic composition stand point, the piece could be improved. At the very least, there should be more ambient light so we can see more of the robots kneeling around the dais. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Who Am I?

Hi guys! So I thought I'd start a blog about Computer Graphics (CG). Compared to some, I'm pretty inexperienced, although I do have some experience with The GIMP and I'm currently tackling 3D with Blender. I imagine I'll probably focus mostly on Blender, but we'll see where this takes us. As I start producing original renders and not just tutorial pieces I'd like to start posting my work here (or at least a link).

I thought a bit about the name I would use, and it occurred to me that CG is who I am (literally, those are my initials!) And wisdom is something that I've always felt was a goal worth attaining (and that also starts with my initial!) So put that together with my interest in computer art, it just fit. I have to admit I'm heavily inspired by BlenderGuru, who advised making an online presence for yourself, so I wanted a blog and online identity which reflected myself and my artwork.

I am currently working through an OpenCourse provided by Tufts University and taught by Neal Hirsig. Unfortunately the course is being retired in less than a month, however the course is also a little out dated now. It is designed for Blender 2.6, and at the time of this writing Blender is at version 2.78c (which I have yet to download!) Neal graciously gave me permission to rewrite, redistribute or otherwise use his course in any manner which I felt appropriate, and so I may very well use this site as a place to do exactly that. But of course I'll update it to be a little more current. I haven't finished it yet, but the course does seem to be entirely based on the Blender internal renderer, but according to BlenderGuru podcasts from a few years ago, the intent is to make the Cycles renderer the default rendering engine for Blender. I'm not sure what the status of that is yet, as I'm working on catching up on the news, so I've got a couple of years to catch up on! What I'd like to do, if I ever reshape Mr. Hirsig's lessons is to update them for the Cycles renderer, as that seems to be the direction Blender is heading. But we'll have to see. I haven't settled on a structure or plan for this site yet, as I'm quite thoroughly immersed in my studies. Hope it all goes well!