Imaging

Creating images using computers covers a wide range of techniques and more importantly creative skills.

Traditional methods of image making, such as painting or photography have their digital counterparts that extend the creative possibilities. Great as computers are - it still takes human ideas and energy to get things done.

Someone once asked me where I get my ideas from. I made this poster to explain.

Magic Art Computer poster

Digital Montage

Bacchus and Ariadne

detail detail detail

This is my version of Titian's masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne that I made while taking the Advanced Digital Imaging course at the University of Sheffield.

All the objects in the scene were found around the house and then individually photographed. This produced about 60 objects which were manipulated to create the required colour and shadow. Some items to note are:

  • Distant grass made from beige bath mat
  • Sea cliffs made from cream crackers
  • Tree trunks made from twigs - leaves made from cactus
  • Bacchus's bright pink robe made from old grey floor cloth

Restoration and retouching

Old photo restored

This kind of imaging can be a lot of hard work and practice to get right. I've seen photos that look like they've had the contrast whacked up high and over sharpened so much that there's not much detail from the original left.

This photograph was taken in 1912 and in addition to the major damage there were hundreds of tiny scratches that needed fixing.

Photography

portfolio images

After the ADI course at Sheffield University I also to a class in digital photography.

3d Rendering

battery charger
pipe gizmo

I made these images using a 3d program by making wireframe models and then applying textures, before rendering them out to files. The process is much like real model making but without the sticky fingers.

Robots from 'Silent Running' These robots are from the movie Silent Running - an old favourite of mine. I had looked around the internet for a 3d model of one of these little guys but all I found looked rubbish to me. So I grabbed lots of stills from the DVD, drew plans and made my own.