Subject: When will it happen? 2005-05-07 - By David P. Angelini
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Joel,
I agree with everything you said about people thinking more about what an
application is capable of rather than what an artist can do with it.....but
there is one thing where the application (regardless of its technology) can
have a huge impact on the ability of the artist.
Believe it or not, it is NOT interface. A user can overcome the clumsiest
of interfaces...it just takes more time and training, but they can be
overcome. I have seen some amazing works of art being produced by
parapalegics using nothing more than a paintbrush strapped to their forehead
or clinched between their teeth. In fact, understanding what they had to
overcome to create such works significantly adds to my enjoyment (and
amazement) of their work. So it if it is not interface nor technology, then
there is only one thing left.
It is stability.
A computer program must be stable and work as expected. If a combination of
the wrong commands executed at the wrong time produce un-predictable results
ranging from corrupted data to system crashes, then would you as a artist
try to push yourself to new goals with that application? Computer art takes
almost as much time as it does talent when you think of all the steps that
are involved. Would you trust that your time and talent with an application
if you knew that there was even the slightest chance that there would be a
fatal rendering error that stopped you right before you crossed the finish
line? Imagine the frustration if you could not see the final results from
all your efforts! All the hours of modelling, texturing and lighting
wasted! And you can add days to that time if you are rendering an
animation. Imagine the frustration if, in addition to not enjoying your
work after all that time spent trying to create it, it got corrupted in the
process! If this happend once to you, would you still use the application?
How about two times? Three? Would you still use it if it happened ten
times? I would guess that we all have some tolerance threshold with
instability, but if any of this happened to you then it may not really be as
high as you would like to think.
You can forgive lack of features and old technology because there are always
work-arounds...in fact, some would say that it is these work-arounds that
make you a better artist. There is no work-around for instability....that
you are stuck with.
So it is true that the technology does not make the artist....but
instability can certainly keep him or her from practicing their art.
Dave Angelini
-- ---- ------ Original message -- ---- ------
> This post from an XSI user put it the best, I feel, about why he used XSI.
>
> "The answer is simple, since you can do anything you want with most
> todays apps, try this and that and make a choice. Choose what you feel
> most comfortable with. Guys here just like XSI, not that it is the best
> or something, go to other forums...they like other software and use it.
> Nothing special."
>
> To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the images that have been coming out
> of Truespace users as of late. My eye for a good rendering is no longer
> the same as an amateur's eye, and it's been hard to give good comments
> about the images on this list. They just don't look that great to me.
> But, the above guy is right in what he said. The technology is so good
> in almost every application on the market, the potential for amazing
> images is possible for pretty much everyone. One of the best TS images
> I've ever seen came out of TS4, and that was due to the fact the guy who
> rendered it knew what he was doing with textures and lighting... and
> didn't rely soley on how good his program was.
>
> There's been a lot of talk about using Vray is TS7. And, the reason
> people are talking about it is because they're too busy thinking about
> what's under the hood of an application, instead of mastering the basics
> of composition, lighting, modeling and texturing. I think talking about
> other apps is okay, but it shouldn't be some focus for a community. The
> focus should be producing *better* art... not heading for the better
> equipped toolset. If you're in a production pipeline, that may be a
> different story, but I don't believe that's something many TS users have
> to deal with, since TS wasn't designed for the same tasks as XSI and
> Houdini.
>
> So my point- if Caligari have anything to worry about, it's that people
> have lost the plot, and think the way to a better rendering is by having
> more features. That's not true. For years applications have been able
> to produce some amazing works. Sure, HDRI, caustics and GI all help,
> but they're not essential for those that replace them with skill.
>
> -Joel
>
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