lilySQ_0101

The path to the realization of visual structure and color is different from painting with oils than working through a color monitor.  The mediums requires different approaches to realize similar goals.  At the outset oil paint is a messy substance and a dead medium to which one gives life. Initially it is flat and opaque. Through the  mixing of colors you build color saturation and intensity to represent something. For some painters this  process may require the juxtaposition of complimentary tones of color to achieve a quality of light.

The emitting light from a color monitor can give colors the same degree of saturation. Dealing with color saturation and intensity through the monitor is like reverse engineering. You do it backwards. Over saturated color needs to be taken down and brought under control. Sometimes I use atmosphere or transparency to soften a color. The use of ambient light can help with saturation.  It can give more life to darker colors. Intensity is affected by the setting and position of the lights. A shader enables me to modulate a color across a surface. It is always a challenge to keep a sense of a color field.

I first used a tool to fragment a 3d object. A 2d version of the fragmentation tool was developed for my Hummingbird film in 1967. Then I made copies of the fragmented object and created groups. The animation has several groups which move independent of one another.

Unlike a planned storyboard for a narrative film, I do not have a particular plan for the movement and timing of abstract forms in 3d space. Also, it is unlike 2d abstract animation where the movement is up, down, right, left or back and forth. My forms must move along a curve through 3d space. The forms change their appearance as they rotate and alter their speed along this curve.

My approach to planning is non-linear and unpredictable involving a great deal of experimentation. I like to play with combinations of form color and movement. It is a mixture of insanity and algorithmic thinking. I don’t have the tools I really want. But I do have tools which work within certain limitations. Sometimes these limitations force me to be more inventive in finding solutions. This is where a sense of the ridiculous helps.

When I learned about the painting of Paul Cezanne, I was impressed by the way he seemed to think of the relationship between objects and space. Objects were not isolated from each other as he established a relationship between them by what he called “the passage shape”.  The passage shape being an abstract shape which combine elements of two adjacent objects. The contours of the objects are varied by this abstract shape creating  transitions from one to the other.  (Even empty space is an object.) This idea is most noticeable in his unfinished paintings.  The painting became a two dimensional abstract visual field. As  visual structure his paintings have a truly remarkable clarity and stability.

As a former painter I try to use  aspects of the concept of transition between space and object in my animation.  Generally in all of my work. However,  within the domain of three dimensional computer graphics  and especially with time it is indeed a challenge. Sometimes I succeed.

I try not to think of isolated objects existing in a 3d world space. Animation in particular is not a matter of arranging objects in space over time. The issues are more complex.    

I’m inclined to think of space as having energy and a material substance.  Space has density and as a substance , perhaps particles, it is comprised of layers of transparency. This notion helps me to establish  a relationship between objects and what we call space. Transparency in particular helps me to achieve a transition between 3d objects and space. For me, such a concept of space as a material with
layers of density helps to establish the transitions required for a unified visual field. 

Chuck Csuri, Painter/Animator