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| AMATEUR'S ANECDOTES |
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Gestation's Rewards
Written by Philip M. Ware
vol. I, article 4
Gestation's Rewards
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another installment of Amateur's Anecdotes. This time I want to talk about the creative process that goes into my works and what I feel the rewards are.
First, let's get this out of the way, right now -- planning isn't something I do very well. I would say that the only scenes I have ever planned were those for clients that had very specific ideas. Usually, I just sort of toss primitives into a scene, throw around some lights, change a few textures and see what works. This method doesn't work for everyone and, in fact, drives just about anyone but me...nuts... Also, notice that I said I would be discussing the rewards of the process, not the benefits, or anything like that. I'll get into why later.
You've gotten a glimpse of my process in the previous paragraph, but I'm not sure you grasp, quite, the chaos that goes into my creative process. I liken it to sculpture. 99.9% of the sculptors out there prefer, I'm assuming, to take a slab of marble and chisel away slowly, carefully, until they have the sculpture they want. Me, I sit the marble down, grab my sledgehammer, and smash the heck out of it. Then, I piece back the marble until I put together the sculpture I want. This philosophy carries over into my programming, too, so watch out if I post any code that looks like I just made it up as I was typing...
What my process does for me is to allow my mind to forget what that marble slab looked like, forget what other sculptures there are out there that look like they came from that slab. I can concentrate on an image in my mind (when I get one - an image, not a mind) and not worry about how it will fit within the marble slab's schema, because at this point, the schema looks a lot like nothing. Bearing this in mind, also note that I usually don't have any idea of what I want to make when I sit down to make an abstract rendering. I only know that I like certain characteristics in my work: lots of reflections, shiny glass, maybe some shiny metal, and good lighting (maybe some creepy lighting). I am also learning that I like volumetric lighting and fog, but those are usually afterthoughts in my process.
Well, I say I've got a process. Yet, I proclaim chaos, basically. I admit, it's sort of haphazard, but I do have a set pattern for the first few moments of the gestation period of the rendering. I take the camera, place it at around 0,10,0 in the scene, place a light or two, flanking the camera at 10,10,0 and 0,10,-10 or some such. Now, it's time for a plane or two. I've become enamoured with making non-liquid substances look liquid. My past two have object sitting in or over metals that have seen more solid days. Here's where the creative process takes over, but only in a couple of programs... I find that Lightwave diminished my tendency to be abstract since it has a separate modeler -- I have to *intend* an object to be the way it is, I can't just create the object and deform it real-time... Oh, well, right? Most of my abstract things pop up in POV-RAY using either MORay or POV-SB, or even Breeze, to monkey with the initial layout and lighting issues, and then taking it into POV and diddling with the specifics, there.
What this means is that there's only moderate structure as I start changing locations, here, surface textures, there, and light sources, elsewhere. It's a process of letting my instincts wash over my ideas of what a scene should look like and setting my weirdness free. (the debate is out as to whether this is a good thing or not.) As an example, my most recent rendering, "Crystal Visions," I wanted a white marble floor with white marble columns surrounding two green glass balls with red, green and cyan point lights. As you can tell from the finished product, that's not exactly what happened. If you haven't seen it, it's two clear glass balls sitting on iridescent, perturbed, chrome plane with an agate pigment with the columns being made out of glass, also. The lighting became a little more sinister as I took out most of the area and point lights and put in 3 spotlights, two of which were in front of the balls pointing back the camera. This happened over the course of a couple of afternoons just monkeying with it, and I must say that I am more pleased with the outcome that I think I would have been had I left it the way it was -- even the though the original looked good.
That brings me to the final topic -- the rewards reaped from my process. What I got most out of "Crystal Visions" was the feeling that the process flowed naturally and what I ended up with was what the scene was meant to be; sort of a fatalistic approach... Because of my process, however, I let the scene guide me to what it wanted to be, and that makes me feel good. Most of all, what I get is a feeling of satisfaction. I am satisfied that the scene I rendered came about naturally, free of pre-conceived notions about how it should look, free of undue influences and, most of all, came about out of my brain. That's probably the best feeling -- sort of the "I made this!" idea. I guess that's what I'm preaching, here. Step free of the pre-conceived, done to death, ideas. Steer clear of the same old, same old. Use your mind, and more than that, use the scene. Let the scene tell you what it wants to be! "Go forth, Grasshopper! Go forth and explore!"
Would you like to add, share, or correct some information? 3D ARK welcomes your contributions. Send mail to: webmaster@3dark.com
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