This Blog Is Retroactive

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

If only we who were and are in the field of Arch Viz were given the time, resources and freedoms to create something like the masterpiece above…

Obviously this short video, The Third & The Seventh, is a work of great passion and dedication, which is really what enables Alex to create such beautiful 3D visualization.  I am awed and humbled.  You can watch the video here, but I’d advise going to Alex’s Vimeo page and opening it in full screen for the best possible experience.  I really didn’t think that Architecture could be so moving until I saw it presented in this way.  Bravo Alex!

I was browsing through the pages of Nick Campbell’s blog, Greyscale Gorilla, the other day when I came across the iPhone app he created called ShakeItPhoto.  Basically, it takes your iPhone pictures and makes them look like a Polaroid photo.  As a fun little bonus, the app makes a Polaroid sound when you take or make the photo, and the more you shake your phone, the faster the image “develops”.  It was only 99¢ so I thought I’d give it a try.  I really like it.  I took some time to use it on a number of photos I already had on my phone, with some really satisfying results, shown above.  What is it about placing an image inside a white square border coupled with subtle vignetting that instantly makes a badly taken picture look better?  I don’t have the answer, but I like the result.  If you feel like sharing your iPhone Polaroids there’s also a Flickr group and a webpage called PhotoShakeDown.  Thanks Nick!

If you’re active on the internets and you don’t use a Gravatar I highly recommend it.  If you don’t care what your avatar image looks like when you post on forums or comment on blogs, then I wouldn’t fuss with it.  However, if you’re like me and you want your avatar to be the same everywhere, then a Globally Recognized avatar is the way to go.  It’s linked to your email address so anytime you comment on a blog and enter your email address it will automatically appear.  It’s also an easy way to have an avatar image in the proper format readily available to link to, in case the site you’re on doesn’t support Gravatars.  I was tired of the Gravatar image I had so last night I made a new one.  I think it’s fun.

I’ve always had a great fondness and appreciation for Northwest Coast art, that is, the style of art created by the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America.  I’m not sure why.  I also have a great fondness and appreciation for the Northwest Coastal region in general, especially the climate and amazing natural scenery.  If I believed in reincarnation I’d have to guess that I was an artist among those peoples in a past life.  See some examples of authentic Northwest Coast art below, followed by the work of some present-day artists who obviously share my admiration for this venerated art form.

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Arch Viz, or Architectural Visualization, is a boutique industry within Architecture, or within Computer Animation, depending on which way you look at it. Either way, it’s an industry I was a part of for the last eight years, until this past January when I was laid off (again).  You might think this editorial is colored by my bitterness towards the field that rejected me, and you could be right.  However, the truth is I haven’t felt good about the direction Arch Viz has been heading for some time now, and it’s my honest opinion that this industry is on its last leg.

Let me just say, I mean absolutely no disrespect to any of my friends or colleagues still working in the viz biz.  I respect the work you do and appreciate, enjoy and value the renderings and animations you produce.   I’m just not sure anyone else does.

I think one of the main indicators of the demise of this industry is that the only company around that seems to be growing, or at the very least maintaining the status quo, is one that outsources all the real work to China.   I won’t name any names but they are, in my view, the Wal-Mart of Arch Viz.  Their modus operandi is to swoop in, with lots of money and resources, and do the work you used to do faster and cheaper, and frankly, better.  Rest assured, there’s nothing any small studios can do about it, except perhaps adopt their practices.  This is how the downward spiral begins.

I actually interviewed with this company.  They do employ some artists over here, just to put all the final touches on their renderings and movies.  They didn’t offer me a job, thank God, because I just might have been desperate enough to take it.   They expected me to work twice as much as my last job for two-thirds of what I used to be paid.  That’s what this industry has come to.  To stay in it, we’d all have to work for just as long and just as cheap as all those people they outsource to in Asia.

Another problem is that the architects and developers that hire Arch Viz artists don’t take them seriously or value their service as much as I think they should.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Macro-economists say that the market will always adjust accordingly and that the price something sells for is always the right price.  Perhaps that’s the problem.  The “right price” is not nearly enough to justify the amount of work that goes into it, and that doesn’t bother architects or developers in the slightest.

An architect I worked with once said to a group of us, “Let’s face it, 3D visualization is a skill, not a talent”.  I don’t even remember the context of it.  I didn’t take offense.  It’s actually true, and it’s also demonstrative of what architects think of those of us that do this.  We are tools, not artists. We’re not designing, we’re not creating.  He didn’t say that we weren’t talented.   He was just referring to the work we did, not what we are.

We should face it.   Arch Viz is not where we planned on ending up.  No one plans on doing that.  Unless you’re an architect that creates renderings and animations for your own projects, Arch Viz is probably something you just fell into.  We’re all just displaced artists from different backgrounds.  A couple of guys I worked with were fine art majors.  A couple others were architecture majors but they went right into visualization.  Another guy I know is a self taught motion graphics/video editing guru, and a couple more are like me, with a background in computer art and 3D modeling.  I would venture to guess that all of us would rather be drawing, or painting, or modeling characters for video games, or creating visuals for television or film, or designing a website in flash…almost anything besides going through the fourth round of an architect’s design revisions and fighting with weird rendering artifacts at 3:00 in the morning.  If what I’m describing sounds like nonsense to you, that’s probably because it is.

Back in the summer of 2007 I was in San Diego at an Arch Viz conference, and we met a guy who worked for the company that developed RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content), David Silvernell.  He had since started a new company that sells a variety of 3D resources.  He had some interesting insights into the industry and I found it hard to forget when he said to us, “Get out now.  There’s no future in Architectural Visualization for production artists or the studios that employ them, especially now that everyone’s started outsourcing to people in Asia”.  At the time, I thought it was a bunch of paranoid gibberish, but I was still rankled by it.  Mostly, I think, because deep down I feared it might be true.  Looking back and knowing what I know now, I’m surprised I was so incredulous.

Go here to see the Arch Viz work I used to do.

I also posted this article on the CG Architect forums, and I think it stimulated some really good back and forth discussion about the state of the industry.

Go here to read a 5-part series on the 3D Visualization industry by Andy Catterick that is way more thought out and informed than mine.  Kudos Andy!

Images courtesy of Montreal Vinyl.

Kidrobot, makers of all things wonderful, whimsical and vinyl must be picking up transmissions from my daydreams.  Behold their new line of 3″ vinyl figures, based on the super fantastic amazing funny cartoon show Futurama!  It’s like someone decided to take two things I treasure (3″ vinyl figures and Futurama), mush them together, coat them in awesome and then break off tiny bite size pieces.  I am wondering though, where’s Professor Farnsworth?

Where indeed.  More often than not, artistic inspiration comes from the most unlikely of sources.  Take the movie 21 for example.  It’s not the greatest of movies.  It’s somewhat predictable, and pandering. Overall, it was definitely entertaining, but I doubt anyone would consider it a prime example of expressive and innovative artistic direction.  That being said, 21 provided me with not one but two sources of creative inspiration that sent me in a design direction I never would have thought of on my own.

This in and of itself is not that remarkable but I do think it’s important to note that artistic inspiration can come from anywhere and anything.  It can be mundane or extraordinary.  In this case, it was rather mundane.  These scenes and the pieces in them I found inspiring were so short and inconsequential it’s a wonder they registered at all.  Here’s a still from one scene in the movie.

See anything inspiring?  No?  Take a look at that old-timey folder!  Before I saw this movie, I had forgotten how cool those old pressboard folders were.  They’re also bound at the top of the folder, not along the spine.  It totally changes how you interact with the pages.  Also, check out the rich caramel color of this folder.  This style of folder is iconic.  This might all seem apropos to nothing but I was trying to decide what to do with my print portfolio at the time.  When I saw this scene I knew I had to make my print portfolio out of one of these classically styled pressboard folders.  Alas, it was impossible to find any folders anywhere in the same gorgeous color.  I settled on mint green.  I’ve included some pictures of what I came up with.

Not only is this a fun and unconventional way to present your work in a print format, it was economical.  The pressboard folders are inexpensive.  The text and illustrations are just clear full-sheet labels that I printed on, cut out, and stuck to the folder and dividers.  The most expensive part was probably the paper I printed on, which was HP Advanced photo paper.  I would suggest sparing no expense with the paper you print on.  It made a huge difference in the quality of my printed images. Anyway, I was pretty happy with the result, all of which came from one little scene in 21.

The other scene in the movie that I found inspiring probably contains imagery that could more obviously provide me with some creative direction.  See below.

Ahhh, neon light reflecting off the glossy black surface of a Lincoln Town Car.  First off, I love neon lights, and I love glossy black surfaces, like iPhones or designer sunglasses.  What really does it for me is the combination of something kitschy and garish like neon lights merged with the ultra-luxurious, sophisticated feel of glossy black.  Put them together and it’s a formula for something really striking.  I’m sure this has been done dozens of times.  However, when I watched this movie I was in a creative frenzy and hungry for more inspiration, so this scene really popped out.  Unfortunately I haven’t done anything with these ideas yet.  I’m saving them for later.  I plan to implement this imagery into a design for a revamped version of my online portfolio.  I love the design I have now but I know I can really kick it up a knotch by emulating the feel of the image above.  As it is, I’m still wrapping up a little bit of version 1.0, so the new version probably won’t show up for a little while yet.  No matter.  Inspiration like this doesn’t disipate over time.

Ben Jenkins, the founder and creative director of One Fast Buffalo (a creative agency here in Dallas) said on his website, “I truly believe that creative people do not just ‘have’ ideas.  I believe we are just better equipped to search and find them.”  Amen brother.  All one has to do is look around.  A pressboard folder, a parking garage, a crappy photo your fiance took of you…any of these could possibly be the origination of something really special.

Today my friend Ty called me out of the blue and asked me to accompany him on a short field trip to Deep Ellum to meet with local photographer and gallery owner, Hal Samples. Ty is an art director and was considering using Hal to shoot the photos for a brochure he’s putting together. I was happy to get out of the house and desperate for some creative stimuli and inspiration. Our little expedition did not disappoint and I enjoyed the afternoon even more than I expected. I saw some great art, met some interesting new people, talked shop, and faith, and headed home that afternoon feeling expectant and energized.

I didn’t know what to expect as I was just along for the ride. Ty had never met Hal before or been to his place either so we arrived in Deep Ellum and kind of just wandered into Hal’s Gallery, downstairs from his studio space. On exhibit in the gallery was an installation by a Texas artist named George Fowler. Hal refers to him in his blog as a “wire bending magical warrior of light.” I can’t disagree. Metal is Fowlers primary medium which he uses in many different, unusual ways . Hanging near the front was a huge American flag constructed of red and blue hammered metal.  There were also fish, flowers and interestingly shaped sculptures and lamps, all made of dense, twisted wire. I’ve included some pics below.

Hal’s gallery manager  came down and escorted us upstairs to the studio space. We met Hal’s bulldog, Cash, who was just waddling about, as bulldogs are wont to do. Apparently she also has her own blog. Doesn’t everybody these days? And their dogs? Hal was wrapping up a meeting with some clients so Ty and I took some time to look around the wide open studio on the second floor that Hal refers to as SPACE. They rent it out and use it for any and all kinds of events and production shoots. It really is a great location. All the original hardwood and brick has been preserved, not to mention an original mural on the brick wall downstairs in the gallery. Some of Hal’s photographs were displayed on the walls. I am not a photographer, but I have a great appreciation for it, as long as it’s something new and it’s done well. Hal’s was.

We met and talked with Hal, and saw where he works (and sleeps I think). I was really digging his entire set up, including his workspace, his studio and his gallery. I don’t know how he ended up getting to create this type of environment for himself, his work, and the work of his friends and colleagues, but it’s something I aspire to. I often daydream of a large studio space where I can work and create, and have a place for my dogs too.

I don’t know Hal. I was only able to visit with him and his gallery manager for a very short time, but I do admire his work. He is also very active in the Dallas arts and music scene and a great advocate for the homeless and other disadvantaged people in and around Dallas.  They also do some interesting things there at SPACE. For instance, on Sunday evenings they have a potluck dinner and church service where, instead of worshipping with music, they worship through drawing, painting, poetry, etc.

So, visit his website, and maybe visit his gallery if you get the chance. You’ll not only get to see some great art and photography, you might also learn how more about what Hal does and how art can make a difference.

I recently accompanied my family to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the Olafur Eliasson exhibit, Take Your Time. Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist who has, for the past sixteen years or so, created numerous art installations and sculptures that use geometry, space, and light as their medium. His works will often take the form of immersive optical illusions or large displays, using seemingly simple things like colored lights and reflections, but amplifying them in such a way as to inspire astonishment and wonder. I’ve been to this exhibit before, but enjoyed it so much the first time that I knew I wouldn’t mind experiencing it again.

They didn’t let us take pictures at the DMA, so all of these following are pictures I found on the web.

This was the first thing we saw as we walked into the exhibit. I think it’s called Ventilator. It is exactly what it looks like, a fan on the end of a rope, that would turn on and off. Meh.

You know, I say “meh”, but I still included a picture of it here, right? I will admit, it was amusing. I suppose the wonder of this piece is in the completely random path it takes as it recklessly swings back and forth across the room.

This piece shown above is called Multiple Grotto. I’ve included a picture with a person standing in it so you can really get an idea of the scale of this thing. It was huge. The inside was lined with mirrors, and when you were inside looking out, you could see just a tiny piece of the outside through each protrusion. The images from outside coupled with our own reflections would bounce around this severely fractured and reflective interior, creating an effect not unlike being inside a giant kaleidoscope. The picture above really doesn’t do it justice. We were all lined up waiting for our turn to step inside, like little kids.

Please step inside the 360° degree room for all colours. This installation consisted of a large, unbroken screen, set up on a circular frame. In between the screen and the frame were lights that would slowly cycle through all these different colors. It was weird because the light was completely diffused throughout the entire space. It almost felt as thought we were bathing in it. The top picture gives you a pretty good idea how it was constructed. The other pics shown above are just a few of the colors it could display. We kind of just meandered about the space as the entire room shifted in color. We may also have stood there staring at the wall like zombies. It was mesmerizing.

See and read much more after the jump…

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