NARROWING THE GAP BETWEEN VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLD ART

The lines are being blurred between the virtual 3d world and the real world. Never more so than with the advent of the 3d printer. In fact, since both a virtual 3d model and an actual physical 3d model are called by the same name, it has caused some confusion within our industry. Some were expecting delivery of a 3d physical model to their door, and instead received a 3d animated presentation emailed to their inbox.

At Sidswan3d we are pleased to announce that we have acquired 3d printing capabilities, which is being shipped to us at this very moment. Our website will be updated with an additional tab, explaining the finer detail, procedures and cost.
This service ties in quite nicely with our existing service of 3d visualisation and animation. It allows for the customer to receive both visual material and renders, and a 3d real-world model, depending on their requirements.
For architectural visualisation, this is the next logical step, and opens an enormous amount of possibilities, some which I have yet to explore.
Naturally we have opted for high-end machinery, capable of full colour, multi-material, and extremely fine, layered detail to ensure quality production.
Our hope is that this addition to our service will over time evolve and expand into new areas of art and architecture, growing as we do. Fabrication, product development and the-like are of interest to us.

The most spectacular aspect of this new technology, is that is does not render the previous tech redundant, but rather compliments it and seamlessly blends into it, to create new possibilities.

Training starts soon, and we hope to have the service available towards the end of Aug 2014.
We will be sure to post images of our projects on our portfolio tab, and all social platforms. Of course we will be blogging about it a well.

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From Order to Decay

Coming from a traditional art background, CG and visualisation can seem very technical and linear once you decide to en-devour on this "steepest" of learning curves.
Once you reach a point where you are comfortable enough that you can see past all the technical stuff and can start creating and expressing yourself in an artistic manner, one universal principal seems to dominate.

To my surprise, this one unifying principle applies to all mediums and forms of art, not just traditional art.

In order to achieve realism, photo-realism and the like, you need to simulate and incorporate, to an extent, imperfections and a dash of decay into your art.

In airbrushing a portrait, I would look for the texture of the skin, a scar, a few out-of-place hairs...all these seemingly insignificant elements contribute to achieving realism.
In Architectural visualisation, where every element has a specific dimension and needs to be technically accurate, the final product often looks very sterile and linear.
For this reason so many CG artists and visualizers purposefully create imperfections in their art to make it more believable. They take their perfect image or animation, and create elements that make it less perfect, and at the same time this creates a more realistic render.
Lens flares, depth-of-field blur and colour "blow-outs" are some of the most common.
Overcast skies, mist, fog, rain, wind and dust, all create atmosphere. The best Archviz images, photographs etc (the ones that win awards and accolades), are more-often-than-not shot at dusk, dawn or at night.
Funny enough, these are exactly the type of things traditional artists and photographers try to avoid.
In traditional art it is extremely difficult to produce something that is "perfect", and the opposite seems to be true for CG. Although it has it's own set of rules and dynamics, the one unifying truth is that nature, and even man made structures, all have imperfections. There are no infinitely square angles, there are no infinitely straight lines..there is always, no matter how minute, a transition area between one surface and texture to the next.

When looking at some of the amasing artists out there, I often scrutinize the overall visual appeal of it and always come to the same conclusion. You may be able to create better 3d models, or whatever..but the difference between myself and these truly great artists is their ability to incorporate their artistic ability into their renders. They  fuse architecture with nature, and the subtle imperfections is what creates such jaw-dropping visuals.

So of you, like me, feel that there is room for improvement in your work (and I believe one should always be striving to bettering your work, and never be complacent) take some time to visit some of the most incredible artists in the biz. If you Google, "best Archviz" the first million page results should suffice.

Draw inspiration and suck-up the info, spend more time on post-production and editing, and never let tight deadlines cramp your artistic style.

Good luck.

Sid Swan
www.sidswan.co.za