Creative tools for pixel Picassos

By CHRIS BARTON

McKenzie creates her art using a computer program instead of a brush - although at first glance much of her work looks like any other painting or print. And like the limited-edition print in a gallery, McKenzie's works carry a number, such as 31/150. That means it's the 31st print out of limited run of 150. But where is the original canvas?

This is one of the key arguments about computer-generated versus traditional art: with computer-based art, the original exists only in digital form as a file somewhere on the artist's computer storage disk.

To some, that presents a problem: if there's no tangible original, then it's not art.

But for others, such as McKenzie, it's irrelevant how the art was created - especially if she sells out the entire print run at around $US3000 a print.

As Mark Thomas, founder and president of New Zealand company Right Hemisphere, puts it: "People sometimes confuse the medium with the term 'art'. It's the hand of a human that makes art."

Mr Thomas' company makes Deep Paint - an example of the kind of software McKenzie and thousands of other artists use to make their art.

He sees software a just another tool at the artist's disposal. But, with reference to the world of "3D art," he argues that software itself could also be art. An example might be the program that creates a particular special effect or animation sequence, or "models" a particular character or object.

Mr Thomas admits, though, that there is very little good 3D art.

"3D art is typically the domain of geeks, and geeks typically don't make good art," he says.

The term 3D art appears to cover a range of computer-based graphic art, often with computer game, fantasy or sci-fi themes.

But in its purest sense it refers to art created using 3D modelling software such as 3D Studio Max, Maya, SoftImage or LightWave.

The modelled characters or objects are then rendered with other software painting tools such as Deep Paint3D and ultimately used in animations.

But there's also quite a bit of 3D art created using more two-dimensional drawing tools which often incorporate photographic manipulation such as Photoshop, Photo Paint, Painter and Deep Paint.

For an idea of what's available, take a look at critical depth.

David Camp, a former maths/physics major, may be typical of many working in this space: "I could be viewed as a folk artist because I lack graphics training, but that only means I'm free to explore my inner landscape in my own way, and I've always preferred to forge my own path ...

"It was the sight of light passing through a prism that woke the artist in me. I am like that prism. Energy passes through me and manifests as art."

But regardless of how the artistic urge manifests itself, what all these artists have in common is their use of computers to create art in a new medium.

Take bloops - " ... you take a 3D primitive [usually] and throw a volumetric texture on it and then put the camera in the middle of all of that. Then you just move the camera and tweak the texture until ... Voila!"

Indeed. Mark Thomas sees the biggest future for 3D art in streaming animations which create 3D interactive worlds across the internet.

He points out that such graphics can be much less bandwidth-hungry than streaming video because one is only sending small files describing a world or a scene in terms of its geometry and texture.

But for now, he sees the internet as an "enabler" for 3D art - acknowledging the field has narrow appeal.

"Everything is driven by an audience. On the internet, artists can find billions of viewers."

Links

McKenzie

Critical depth

David Camp

bloops

Some 3D art viewing

3D Ring

3D Artists

Deep Paint Gallery

Renderocity

Pixelpoint