I recently stumbled across the work of Samuel Conlogue, and couldn’t even comprehend what it was that he did. I knew he was an artist, and I knew I was really impressed by his work, but I was confused.
The world of computer-generated design can be very confusing to those of us who aren’t all that technologically inclined. I mean, I do a lot of my own coding on my websites, so I’m completely impressed with myself, but it ends there.
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He created these using a COMPUTER.
Also, I’m fine with showing my kids these images, but he also warned me that when he presented his work to a high school class, he got feedback that “…some of the kids present felt uncomfortable with the sexual nature of the full body images. The one parent in attendance apparently agreed. It never occurred to me this would be an issue in a class of mostly 17 and 18 year graphics students. So considering this I would suggest only using the shoulder up images.”
I’m throwing caution to the wind and posting the images, but I’ll let you decide if you want to show them to your kids.
Here are some more pieces I snagged from his portfolio:
I asked him to explain to me what he does in terms that a child would understand, because I think kids should see what artists in the real world do. Contrary to what I believed when I was little, not all artists stand behind an easel all day, full of angst.
Here’s what he told me:
I produce images and animations by creating three dimensional characters, environments and objects or whatever you can imagine in a 3D graphics program. Once you have built the objects in the computer you can create textures and materials to give parts of the objects different properties like metal, paint, glass etc. Finally you add lights of different types, colors and intensities just like a photographer would in a photo studio. Then the final step is to “Render” which is where the computer calculates the light, materials and objects to create your final images.
So what do you think? Cool, huh? Or are you still thinking about how impressed you are about me doing coding?
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That’s amazing!
I got taken to task once for stating that I thought CGI was less of an artform than the old-fashioned hand-drawn animation. I was under the impression that someone simply clicked on a menu and selected, say, a background of a grassland and a herd of buffalo and the computer generated everything generic template-style. My friend convinced me, though, that there was just as much intricate work involved in coding the artwork into a computer than there was painting it by hand.
But I do have to say I’m still also mightily impressed by traditional artists who are able to paint or draw photorealistically by hand.
I’m definitely ignorant when it comes to CGI but I am also so impressed and curious about what all sorts of artists do. This work just blew my mind, and I love that kids can consider these sorts of creative careers. I’m mightily impressed by traditional art as well! Oh, geez. It’s all good.
Really cool stuff. I’d love more on how he does it. Will he share a video he made on how he does it or what it is used for? I think this will inspire kids to pursue this career direction!
That’s a great idea- I’d be so into seeing how some of this stuff is actually executed.
Artists of all kinds are a different species to me. I’m convinced that they see things in the world that I will never see.
Those graphics are very exciting when I think that they were done on a computer, but my excitement ends there, because I can’t wrap my mind around how it works. I’m just a step beyond looking at a computer and thinking “boop-beep-boop-beep-beep” and flashing lights.
Yeah, I’m pretty impressed that you do your own coding. What is that? I push letter buttons on my keyboard and they appear on the screen.
I love that the link to your latest post is ‘electronics are trying to kill me’. And I was basically bragging about doing coding because every time I do something and it doesn’t explode my computer, I’m shocked.
This is really cool – and the sort of art I could see my son getting really into!