gonzo wrote:

> 
> Interesting!  Actually, I could always draw well, what was frustrating to me
> was getting shading and coloring to look the way I wanted.  (The same
> issues as CG... lighting & texturing!)  I always wanted realistic detail
> that was simply beyond my drawing skills to produce.

There is of course a separation between the perception of form, the 
volumetric shape of an object, and the perception of surface qualities 
which often work to negate form.  This was made very apparent to me when 
I would try to paint my favorite subject, shoes.  The way light plays 
across the lustre of leather, especially black leather, often has little 
to do with the form.  When I first began I would actually spend half of 
the working time making a detailed contour drawing in pencil in order to 
understand the form and the way light shaded the surface according to 
it.  I would then transfer this drawing meticulously to the surface of 
my canvas and fix it down with a fixative before I began to paint over 
it.  With the overpainting I would describe how the surface actually 
looked, even if it worked against form.

> 
> But getting that is so much easier in 3d.  Not to say that lighting is
> easy... but in 2d you have to visualize the highlights and shadows, then
> figure out how apply them onto the subject accurately.  In 3d, you don't
> highlight the objects, you simply move the light around, the highlights &
> shadows will follow!

> 
> And not to say the objects aren't important too, but in 2d its all one and
> the same; you draw the objects, and then color them and the highlights and
> the shadows are all together as part of the coloring process.  In 3d, I can
> work on the models and textures separately, combine them in a scene, and
> then worry about lighting.
> 
> And in 3d if I don't like something, I can change it. That in itself adds a
> lot to my creativity, because a scene is dynamic.  I may see something
> halfway through a project that changes my whole perspective and I change
> the scene to fit my new perspective.  In 2d that's called a lot of wasted
> paper/canvas/enter_medium_of_choice.
> 
> 
Yes I believe that it is the 'mechanics' of modelling and the 
'mechanics' of programming that makes for such a satisfying marriage of 
the two.  Conceptually you can separate out the contributing parts then 
watch how they all work together.

Post a reply to this message