Project 3: Self Eval. (Pictures coming this afternoon)

          

For this third and final project, I wanted to combine the calmer, relaxing feeling I used in my first project with the sense of perspective and sound-with-imagery work I explored in my second project. After playing with the idea of doing another room-based scene for the sense of perspective, I later decided to go for a more abstract route, creating a cloudy, almost dreamy background with spheres floating around in it. The original interpretation was meant to be more magical in nature, but as the project progressed and the music was added, the project took on a more spacey feel, and I decided to bring that out more in the piece in the final stages of design.

            Before even beginning to design this piece, I had to pick a location. My first thought was to project around the pillars to one of the entrances to Goodpaster hall; however, after some consideration and input from classmates, I decided to project on the wall outside the back entrance to Montgomery Hall. This meant that my piece would be best designed as a large, sprawling image instead of a smaller animation. To this end, I came up with the idea of a flowing, sort of whimsical background with some sort of objects floating in it, creating a sense of space and perspective that the viewer could look at for a while and still enjoy. Overall, I wanted this piece to be relaxing to the viewer. This ended up being useful for me, as I had to sit and watch it for upwards of half an hour the night of the projections.

            I started this project in photoshop. I created the image by first creating a few custom “splatter-brushes”, brushes that would spread blobs over a wide area. I then did this in various shades of blue and purple, trying to create an image with several different colors mixed into it. After the base image was created, I used some of photoshop’s blur and distortion effects to blend the colors together, as well as swirling the image to give it a less flat look. On top of this layer, I used another custom brush to spread white dots of varying sizes on top in a separate later and slightly blurred them, giving them the appearance of stars. In the original version of the image, there were also streaks of purple, pink, and green across the front of the image; these were removed later, during the animation stage, when they were found to make the loop of the animation easier to spot.

            The bubbles/planets in the piece were easier to make than I had expected. I made them by using the ellipse tool to create a perfect circle and then using a preset fill setting in which the fill color faces from one color to transparent, creating an almost three-dimensional look. To make the three-dimensional look more convincing, I added lens flares to the bubbles in the colors parts to make it look like the light was directly linked to the color of the bubble. These were created in three different colors in order to create some variety in the image.

            The image was then put into after effects in order to animate it. The bubbles/planets were animated first with some simple patching, and then I made them get larger and smaller over the course of the animation. Second, I used a kaleidoscope effect on the white dot layer I applied earlier, making the layer more dynamic and interesting to look at. I also changed the color balance a few times over the  timeline, making the image shift from blue and purple to red to blue to green and then back to blue and purple. The last effect I applied was the camera; because I had to try to fix this the night of the presentation, there was a minor hiccup in the camera and the animation did not loop smoothly due to the camera stopping before it should have. However, most viewers at the presentation didn’t seem to notice this problem, and I wasn’t about to point it out.

            The music was possibly the most troublesome part of the piece. Though the actual composition of the piece did not take very long, I struggled with getting the piece to loop smoothly for some time, and was unable to get a clean loop going before it was time to show the piece. If there was one piece of this artwork I would fix, it would be this part. The rough loop I was able to produce was very noticeable, and took a bit away from the image, which was meant to be seamless; though the animation itself had a problem as well, it was much less noticeable than this music issue.

            The end result of my work was a vaguely space-themed piece that looped over the course of about a minute. The music was essential in creating this mood; without the futuristic music playing over the image, the setting could have been much more broad, possibly being the original fantasy design I had intended to do before switching to a space theme.

            My work habits were not as good as they could have been due to my SMP due date coming up fast over the course of this project. However, aside from the minor hiccup in the animation and the not-so-minor glitch in the sound file, the art project came together nicely, and I got many compliments on it during the presentation. I think, however, with a little more time applied to the music, I may have been able to fix it and make it sound more seamless. Aside from the animation, I believe the imagery and animation in the piece came together very nicely, and I was very pleased with the results.

            Overall I would give myself a B for this project. Aside from a few minor hiccups the final product was satisfactory, but with a little more time committed to the project those glitches probably could have been fixed. I do, however, think I achieved what I set out to do with this project, given all the compliments I received during the presentation; it was a calming piece that people stood and watched even after it had looped, commenting that it had a calming, spacey feel to it.

Project 3: Proposal

Site 1 (Preferred): Goodpaster Hall Entrance Way
-Audience: Foot traffic to/from campus center or academic buildings from students in Lewis Quad, the Greens, or WC. Also possible noticeable from road traffic, but unlikely to be seen well. Not likely to get large amounts of traffic but in a place that is easy to stop and look at it from.
-Foot Traffic: See above. Busiest around dinner time and between classes; somewhat quieter at night during weekdays but may be busier on weekends.
-Lighting Conditions: Some path lamps nearby, along with possible artificial light from windows
-Social Context: Would pay to tie into science-theme of the building, or might be cool to go full fantasy and contradict the building subject; connection/contract would be interesting with the building either way
-Scale: Hopefully to scale with the pillars in the entryway, possibly reaching above if space permits
-Projector Position: Possibly propped on a table across from the entryway; may be nearby some stairs, care should be taken not to make table unstable or easy to run into/trip over. Plug into outlet inside arch if possible.
-Architectural Elements: Pillars/archway, hopefully projection large enough to wrap around/cover these elements. Also near a door and windows, may or may not be incorperated, possibly give glass spots a separate look to them, time permitting.


Photos of area:

Diagramming/Planning:

Site 2: Montgomery Hall Outside Wall
-Audience: Similar to above, though possibly less traffic at times of day when meals are not involved.
-Foot Traffic: Similar to above.
-Lighting Conditions: Some nearby path lamps and possible lighting showing from indoors
-Social Context: Nothing particularly relevant to the building, but might be interesting to go more abstract than in the other location to go along with the theme of the arts.
-Scale: Cover at least part of the wall, ideally most/all of it but realistically more like half of it
-Projector Position: Propped on a table/similar platform somewhere in the stone "patio"-like area near the wall. Would need to be connected to a plug inside the building, but it would not be too far away.
-Architectural Elements: None, really. Just a wall.



Photos of area:

 

Diagramming/Planning:

 

Similar Images:

As I don't really have a portfolio of art, I don't have any material similar to what I intend to do. I can say that the mood will be more similar to Project 1 than project 2. However, I can draw on old artist research to give an idea.

http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio/32.html    

 

http://www.magierski.pl/portfolio

/37.html

More abstracts parts of the projection found in the CO2 Video Cube (http://www.light-harvest.com/), along with the more wavy, design-based parts of most of that group's projections

I hope to add music to this project, but this will have to be developed alongside the piece and I cannot speculate much on it until the piece starts taking shape.

Project 3: Artist Research

Artist Group 1: Obscura Digital



Obscura is a group of artists who strive to create visually stunning multidimentional artwork including, though not limited to, work in projection. Founded in 2000 by Rodger Raderman and having received recognition for their work as far back as 2006, Obscura Digital strives to create work that not only exists within an environment but works off of it, using its surroundings to enhance the sensory experience for the viewer. Obscura Digital's work has been featured in several prominent places and events, including the Sydney Opera House, Coca Cola's 125th Anniversary Celebration, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

Obscura Digital's work, true to its intentions, makes incredible use of the space it is projected onto, the architecture itself becoming part of the piece. The work done on the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is absolutely beautiful (I cannot easily transfer images to this blog but a link to the piece can be found here), with more traditionally architectural-looking projections being mixed along with images like flowers climbing up the building. This piece is a little more subtly colored than many of their other projections, such as the piece done on and inside the Sydney Opera House (link here), which utilizes incredibly vibrant colors that catch the eye and bring the viewer's attention not only to the art piece but the curves and contours of the architecture.

The colors used in Obscura's work really make the pieces work. Sometimes the colors used contrast with each other, and sometimes they blend very well, but they are almost always bright, vibrant, and incredibly eye-catching. In addition to the colors used, the way the shapes in the designs flow along with the structures, especially within the more abstract designs, accentuate the structural strength and beauty of the buildings in a way that an image not designed specifically for that space would not. Together, the combination of colors that almost pop off the structure and designs that integrate themselves into the structure create a very visually appealing work.

This combination of art and architecture is definitely something I'd like to emulate within my own work. I work in the realm of landscape and ambient pieces, where the environment itself is the most important part of the piece, an expansive picture to be taken in gradually with no one piece of the artwork sticking out in particular. I think I could apply this concept to projection onto a building or other structure and really create an interesting and, I hope, immersive piece.

Information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodger_Raderman
http://www.obscuradigital.com/about/

Artist Group 2: Light Harvest Studio

Light Harvest Studio, founded in 2004, is a group of artists who specialize in large-scale multimedia work. They have been commissioned by multiple big-name companies and groups including NASA, The United Nations, Universal Studios, Adidas, and Daft Punk. Their work consists of pieces done in both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional media.

Light Harvest Studio's 3-dimensional work often exists as an extension of a structure, either one that existed already and was being built off of or one that was built specifically for the piece. The latter can be especially interesting; one of my favorite pieces of this type is the CO2 Video Cube, and 8.2m x 8.2m x 8.2m cube shown in Copenhagen which displayed various videos and animations in representation of the CO2 produced by one person in an industrialized country in a month. An example of a piece built off of an existing work is "As Above, So Below", a piece done on the Manhattan Bridge which, more than the CO2 Video Cube, accentuates the architecture of the building while at the same time creating the illusion of additional 3-dimensional structure. Both mentioned pieces can be found in the portfolio linked to from this page.

Though subtler than some other projection and video artists in terms of color, what really makes Light Harvest Studio's works shine is how well it works in the realm of dimensions, whether working with existing surfaces or creating the illusion of new ones. The viewer is captivated by the constantly moving images on the surface which seem to bring the structures to life, not simply show a work on a screen. I really like how the artists of Light Harvest Studios have utilized not only color but shapes and lines to really make their art pop.

The idea of creating the illusion of additional structure in a projection project that utilizes an existing structure is something that interests me. I have worked in perspective before, and I believe that pursuing faux-3-dimensional imagery would be taking the techniques I've used to the next level. I might consider using this technique along with multiple surfaces, if the area allows, to create an ambient setting reminiscent of my previous work.

Website: http://www.light-harvest.com/

Project 2: Self Assessment

For this project, I focused more specifically on the combination of imagery and sound to evoke a certain emotion of feeling from my audience. Specifically, I explored creating a feeling of tension, not quite branching into pure horror material but still making the viewer's heart beat just a little bit faster. I decided to explore this avenue of combination of media after my first project sounded better with sound added to it but it didn't really have a devoted music piece for it. I drew a lot of my inspiration from video game soundscapes, as in my opinion the sound design in my favorite game has really made the mood stick with me and this was a phenomenon I really wanted to try to emulate. Both the visual and auditory components of my project were meant to be reminiscent of a video game overworld or ambient environment, where not much is actually happening but the viewer is meant to soak in the setting itself as opposed to following a story that they are being told.

During the brainstorming process for this project, I had a few ideas. Aside from the indoor hallway scene I eventually settled on, which was inspired by the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I also consider some more apocalyptic style scenes drawing more along the lines of the Fallout series for inspiration. Ultimately I settled on the indoor hallway scene due to ease of design, though I would like to approach the other scene concepts another time. This may be an approach I take with my next project, if my other ideas fall through due to the constraints of the projection medium.

Like my previous project, I start this project in Adobe Illustrator, creating the line art I would use as a base. Because of the simple nature of this project's design, I spent no more than a few hours in Illustrator, focusing mostly on getting the perspective of the room accurately. Most of the time used in Illustrator that was not dedicated to perspective was devoted delicate line work, making sure the curves of the ceiling looked realistic and making sure all the lines connected properly so that the piece would not look disjointed in any way.

The majority of the work done for this project was done in Adobe Photoshop. Due to the lightly animated nature of this piece, two images were necessary. One was designed to look fairly normal, the other was designed with much lower, foreboding lighting and bloody coloration with literal blood smears on the walls and floor. A lot of time was put into the design of the textures of the piece. I designed my own brushes for the majority of the textures, taking existing brushes and manipulating them to better suit my needs. The bloody scratches on the walls were the most complex texture to create. Not only was a custom brush needed, but the brush strokes were smudges to create a directional appearance, sharpened to make them more jagged in appearance, then blurred a little bit in order to remove a pixelated appearance. Other brushes were more simple; the blood smear brush was a smudge-looking brush that was adapted to vary in shade and transparency in order to create a more realistic appearance of bloodstains. My color choices were fairly straight forward, with the base color scheme loosely taken from photos of church halls and the colors changed to red and brown tones for the bloody image.

A very important part of this piece that did not involve traditional programs used in this class was the design of the music piece I used alongside the art. The piece was created in the music program Logic Pro X. The piece was fairly simple in design, with a low rumble providing a tense base sound and various mysterious sounds playing at random intervals increasing the mood. A heartbeat track was added to the piece as well, drawing from my videogame inspiration where a heartbeat is often added to a stealth or horror scene to make the player subconsciously feel as if the heartbeat is their own and adding an immersive factor to the piece.

The two pictures and the music were combined in Adobe After Effects. Being my first time using the program, I had considerable setbacks using it, which ultimately resulted in several unproductive hours trying to get effects to work only to be forced to start over a few hours in. The animation was created by setting up a camera to zoom in on a focal point over the course of a minute. The two images flashed into each other, loosely corresponding to the music’s heartbeat and other sound effects but not quite syncing up in order to create a sense of dissonance. Some fade and an effect called burning paper were added towards the end to fully enhance the work.

My work habits were more effective than they were for my first project, working on the project for at least an hour at a time a few times a week outside of class. However, my time management was still not quite up to par, as I was left without time to finish every piece of the project that I had set out to do. Had I set a few more hours a week aside to work on this project, and perhaps worked on it more during spring break, I may have seen more desirable results at the end. However, I do believe my work habits were enough to achieve a solid product and I am not unhappy with how things turned out.

The final project seemed to achieve the goal I set out to achieve. When I showed the piece in class, the room went dead silent, the tension clear in the air. I was glad to receive positive remarks on the piece, and one classmate was able to identify the videogame from which I’d derived most of my inspiration, which makes me believe I was successful in achieving my goal. While I was happy with the combination of music and image as well as with the coloration of the piece, the design of the hallway itself was very simple, and in the future I hope to create more complex images of a similar type. Also, due to my only getting to the point where I was ready to use After Effects at the last minute, I was unable to finish every aspect of the project I wanted to include, resulting in a piece that, while effective, was much simpler than I had intended it to be. If I were to elaborate on this project, I would definitely go back and try to add some more complex imagery as was originally planned. On the side of the message of the piece, however, I feel that I was very successful in what I set out to do, both in terms of my own opinions on my piece and judging from the reactions of my classmates.

Had I achieved every goal I set out to meet with this project, I might think I deserved an A for it. However, since some adjustments were done last minute which resulted in time constraints being stricter than anticipated, my goals were not all realized. Due to this being in part the result of work habits, I give myself a B+ for this project, as while I was unable to get everything I wanted to do accomplished I still believe I managed to achieve the overall result I was striving for.

Reading Response: New Media: Guerilla Culture to Gadget Art

Whether to resist or embrace the new, the novel, is always a question in the back of someone's mind when the "next big thing" comes out no matter what the subject matter, and art is no exception. In fact, I would argue that art is especially vulnerable to this sort of question. Whether something is or isn't art is the sort of conversation I hear over and over again, particularly in relation to newer mediums. And yet, even when something is largely considered art, that acceptance by the masses in itself may play a part in lessening the message that art sends. Commercialization can only be truly effective in well-accepted media, and the process of commercialization often sterilizes a message in order to make sure it appeals to the masses, careful not to offend or criticize anything that might be well like out of worry that consumers may be lost. If these messages are so sterilized for the public, though, has the medium ceases to be suitable for art? Or is the message itself unnecessary? It would argue that the message is important, at least for art to truly have a purpose rather than simply be a pretty piece in someone's collection. After all, I would argue that one is rarely offended or inspires by a piece of art itself but rather by the meaning one perceives behind it.

The idea of technological art in itself does not sit well with some parts of the masses, but it is when the very definitions of art are stretched in the name of the message that the public gets riled up. It is by acting for the sake of the message and using art as a medium, rather than creating art to express a message, that these norms are stretched, denying commercialism the sterilization it desires in order to make some sort of point. These messages may not always be positive, and the techniques used to express them may not always be easily identifiable as art, but their presence suggests a desire to express oneself in new and unique ways, whether to grasp the attention of the public or simply to gain a new angle of perspective on an issue.

Despite its resistance to commercialization and standardization, guerilla art, as it may be called, is absolutely the art of the masses. It is not art to appeal to the masses but rather to speak to the masses, to express a message they may not otherwise hear about, to show an angle that the masses may not always be able to see in mass media, or to introduce something new that may be perceived as negative or unacceptable by those who would wish to censor it. People identify with it in a way that they do not to mass produced media, as it has more personality and, truly, more genuine and relatable a message. It is the guerilla art movement that has been able to give rise to new media art, giving it a place to begin where such new ideas may otherwise have failed due to poor reception. Readily available tools in the hands of a population eager to spread its own messages and ideas to the world, whatever they may be. This is, of course, in stark contrast to what may be considered the 'fine arts', what you would consider to belong in an art gallery. These fine arts are in no way a bad thing, but they are not necessarily relatable or accessible to everyone in the way that new media art can be.

Project #2 (May be updated)

Project # 2: Research

Artist #1: Hethe Srodawa


(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)

Hethe Srodawa is a professional concept artist who lives in San Diego. Currently he works for Rockstar Games, but he has also done work for Trion Worlds, Inc., Brain Tangent Entertainment, and Superscape. Being a video game concept artist, he has done work for several well-known games, including Grand Theft Auto V, LA Noire, and Red Dead Redemption. I did not know he worked on video games when I came across Hethe's work in a Google search, but it would explain why I am drawn to his work. Even the work he did not do directly for a game reads like a concept art piece - and rightly so, given his career as a concept artist - and I am heavily inspired by such work.


(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)

I'm hoping to create tension in my next piece, in contrast to the relaxed feel of my first project, so to see both outdoor landscape work and interior environment work that both embodied the sort of feeling I'm hoping to encapsulate naturally drew me to Hethe's work. The colors are largely subdued, brighter or more bold when the eyes ought to be drawn to a particular part of the piece but otherwise allowing the viewer to take in the landscape as a whole, getting used to the environment over time. I really admire this in an environment piece. Whether peaceful or tense, immersion is super important in creating a successful environment, drawing the viewer in and making them wonder what might be around the corner if they could walk around inside.


(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)

While I would not call Hethe's work realism - his work is often of clearly fictional landscapes or environments -  They certainly have enough of a realistic quality to them that they COULD be real, if that world was the world we lived in. (This is true of his character art too; though I have not included those pieces here due to his landscape environments having more relevance to my own work, I will be including a link to his blog at the end of this entry should you be interested.) The lighting and colors of the pieces are often someone stylized, but at the same time the pieces are very down-to-earth, the shapes a bit rough around the edges which just makes them that much more believable.


(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)

I am heavily inspired by video games in almost all the art I do - The project I'm working on right now is inspired by a few, including Amnesia: The Dark Descent as far as ambiance - and to see the work that a professional video game concept artist does is very enlightening. The feeling of the scenes I have included in this post in particular are relevant to both the work I am doing and work that I hope to do in the future, a tense atmosphere that isn't in-your-face scary or intimidating but the longer you look at it you can sense a dissonance in the air, as if the order - or disorder, as it might be - that you're seeing isn't the whole story. It draws you into the piece, and I hope to combine this sort of ambiance with sound to produce a full piece that has a good sense of immersion and atmosphere.

Hethe's Blog: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/
Hethe's LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hethesrodawa

Another cited website: http://kotaku.com/5866552/the-dusty-concept-art-of-red-dead-redemption/

Artist #2: Feliks


(Source: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/Over-The-Stream-390667641)

I could not find a last name for this artist, as every source I found for his art only referred to him as Feliks aside from some signatures on his art that I could not read properly, so the information I could find on him is limited. What I do know from his DeviantArt profile is that he currently lives in Southern Poland and that the art styles he enjoys most are realism, comics, and abstract art. While his pieces are not reminiscent of comics in any way not particularly abstract most of the time, realism plays a large role in his personal work.


(Source: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/brook-331214515)

What drew me to Feliks' art first and foremost was the amazing lighting he utilizes in his pieces. As an artist who is both interested in working on landscapes and who struggles with light in her own pieces, I am blown away by how real the light and shadow in Feliks' work is, creating scenes that look three-dimensional and real enough that I could almost walk right into them. Though the pieces are not quite photographic in their realism - the colors are just that much crisper and the textures just a little more smooth than reality - I don't think they need to be. The environments within each piece are still absolutely breathtaking.


http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/mountain-landscape-299142250

Feliks uses realistic colors and shapes in his pieces, but even so they aren't quite as subdued as the colors one would see in a real landscape. The greens and floral colors of the flora are brighter and clearer, the figures of both the natural and man made features of the environment are smoother and cleaner, and the view of the horizon is bolder and easier to see than in reality, creating an environment that is, arguably, more enticing than a real place. Not only does it look like a place you COULD step into, it looks like a place you would WANT to step into and walk around for hours, not necessarily going anywhere but simply appreciating the beauty of the place. It creates an opportunity to daydream, even for a few moments in passing, before moving on to another piece and another environment to mentally explore.


http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/Lake-300432406

As I have already mentioned, landscapes and other similar environments are something I like to explore and my work, and these realistic yet whimsical pieces that Feliks creates serve as a model that I can strive to one day emulate. By seeing the way he uses light and colors, I can better understand what goes into a piece to make it truly look like a landscape and not just a picture on a screen. I hope that by looking at these pieces and trying to understand them as environments, I can better my own work and move towards creating pieces that look like a place you could explore. I hope to combine such landscapes with my growing experience in soundscape design to create truly dynamic landscapes that draw the viewer into them through multiple senses.

Feliks' DA: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/