|
|
I began
using perspective drawing in my paintings in 1963, and because perspective
was not really taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, I taught
my self the disipline from books and by trial and error. Since 1987
I have been using VIDI's Presenter 3D, a software package for
3-dimensional modeling, rendering and animation on the Apple Macintosh.
Since 1989 I have done a number of computer aided paintings, doing
3-D renderings (or sketches) and projecting them onto a canvas as a
guide to a finished painting. It's a wonderful software product, and
has greatly expanded the possibilities of my art.
|
Modeling
and rendering a cube.
Since 1964
when I began including pictorial space into my paintings I have done
thousands of cubes, slabs, blocks, etc. Modeling and rendering a cube
is a simple task, even simple minded, but as an artist that is what
I do, and have done over and over in my pre-computer perspective drafting
and in VIDI since 1987. Drawing a 3D cube using the computer is a lot
easier than drawing it the old fashioned way. One of the simplest things
to do using Presenter 3D is draw a white cube [using a Primitive] and
render it. This view uses a virtual forty-five degree wide-angle lens. |
|
"Lighting" the
cube.
The cube's
color is changed from white to red. The cube is placed on a bit-mapped
textured rug on a black floor, balanced on its edge, and lit with two
suns, thereby creating two cast shadows. |
|
"Painting" the
cube with light.
But if one wants
not a shaded white or red cube, but rather wants to "Paint" a cube
with a red-orange top and bottom, green front and back, and red sides,
ones modeling stratagies must change a bit. The white cube was lit
by changing two white light source suns to green and red lights, thereby
painting the cube with colored light. Of course the hidden sides of
the cube are still white (or shadowed grey), but we don't know that,
and assume that they are colored. The cast shadow of the green light
is red, because in the shadow there has an absence of green light,
and the shadow of the red light is green. Mixing the red and green
light sources gives the unshadowed rug areas a yellow-brown cast. |
|
Adding
a Room, Transparency, and Refraction
Next, the
Cube is placed in a virtual room with a marble tiled floor. The suns
are replaced with "point lights" and a soft "spot" light is used to
flood the walls with white light. The Cube is given a Transparent Glass
property including the light bouncing refraction as well as reflectivity. |
|
|