Surreal-Muse

The last couple of Black and white images i have done, it occurred to me that part of the "retro" look, is the aspect ratio. It makes the framing a little different, depending on the focal length. I have opted to use a 6X7 dimension as that's what a huge portion of medium format film cameras use for print size. Honestly not sure what resolution i should go since i don't have a clear indication of what resolution film stock is. I don't want to go too big but i don't want too small either i am trying to give a good size based on the viewing in dA.

When it comes to vintage style photography what do you gravitate toward?

More and more we see AI that creates artwork, where you do you see this trend heading. And what are the implications of artists going forward. Is there going to be a trend where people no longer create art. It seems like this is the direction we are heading. If a person can generate an art work by typing a few prompts into a text box and click a few buttons to get a stunning image what use will artists have. It used to be that these AI were mixing and matching things it found on the internet, and i have to think its still doing this. However its getting better at being creative when finding colors and shapes.

Programs like this have generated 100s of thousands of images so now its iterating on itself. Eventually it will, in my opinion have no need of our images and completely make images from its own work. Where does this leave the visual artist. How long till we have AI creating music as well and any and all creative human endeavor will be gone. Or not. What are your opinions on this.

I have had some time over the last few days to make the rounds of various content sites. I thought maybe over the 2 years of the pandemic we would have an influx of stupendous new 3d assets and possibly some new creators.

I have found quite the opposite, it seems like the 3d content that has been pushed out the last couple of years has not grown. Maybe it is because i am further down the road and have need of higher quality assets and lighting systems. It seems to me that most of what i see is mediocre at best. Don't get it twisted there are some highly skilled content creators but they seem to be in hover mode for some reason, not a lot of things over the year. The new creators on the scene are making assets that are taking 3d backwards as far as fidelity.

I am just wondering if its me being more critical or this is the general consensus of art creators, i want to like things, i want to love environments and clothes and objects, but it all feels phoned in without much thought to who uses it or how it will be used, if it will holdup under scrutiny etc. I find my lack of of environmental scenes growing so that i kit-bash and reuse things that are above average but i am racking my brain to some extent to find usable environments. Its 2022 and yet i see people still using some pretty sketchy textures. At the very least you should be at least using 2048X2048 size textures at this point. And those who do use higher res textures phone it in on the normal and bump/displacement maps which makes the high res textures kinda useless unless you know how to make your own normal and bump/displacement maps. Outdoor scenes that use tiled grass etc...really! Tiled grass? Every program out there as far as i know has random instancing capability and we get tiled ground like its 2000.

What are your thoughts on the 3d asset creation scene, am i being snobbish or is there a feeling of genuine disappointment?

I have been playing off and on with out of focus renders as well as in my photography. Sure there is something to be said for perfect focus renders and photos with the proper light exposures and perfect color balance. I submit however its not always desirable in an artistic function.

Ultimately we are creating a scene that is visually compelling as well as invoking some emotion out of the viewer. Does not matter if you are making erotic works or non-erotic works. The human form alone is not enough to convey visually appealing works. There has to be something more. Camera angles, light setups, exposure levels, depth of field. Humans do not see the world in perfect HD vision. There is a very narrow field in the center of our vision that is tact sharp and high resolution but going out from that its low resolution and foggy, we fill the gaps of what we cant see by logical assumption.

Artistic license gives us the freedom to experiment with the vision of the piece without compromising the shapes and forms we put on our digital canvas. I submit that we can play with the vision we shape in our artwork from a visual perspective to give us visually appealing images. Its why i love film photography for its imperfection. As an amateur photographer as well i find its funny we keep chasing higher mega pixel cameras and now 8k video as if Humans see different. The only real benefit to high camera resolutions is the ability to crop in further and still retain details, which frankly make us photographers lazy. Get the shot you want to see without thinking "Hey i can just crop in later to what i want."

Anyway, play with framing, play with focus, play with exposure values that are not normal, play with colors. Make an image that is unique. Grow as an artist. After all we do not want every persons work to be the same as every one else. Artistic freedom is about exploring the bounds of your imagination, something that was lost on me in the beginning. Sure i have some work that follows trends, some that have a theme in a series, but i try to make something unique and i hope that show.

If you want an example of what i am talking about check out https://www.deviantart.com/who-is-chill

I have followed this photographer for some time and they always have very compelling images. Its not your standard fair. Enjoy.

I am gonna get carpal tunnel syndrome with this new stack mechanic!