The 4 images below were inspired by this journal doodle from late 1983.
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 5, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 5, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 5, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 5, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 4, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 4, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 4, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 4, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: June 4, 2021
Untitled Houdini/Redshift: May 17, 2021
Waiting for Somen Houdini/Redshift: August, 2020
Multiple "Fractal Landscape" images, originally created in 1985, were used as texture maps in this new piece rendered in 2019. (See the "Frac Land" images located under the 1980s for more information.)
Frac Land Redux Houdini/Redshift: October, 2019
Disney Cloud with Metaballs Houdini/Redshift: September, 2018
3-Dementia Houdini/Redshift: April 21, 2018
Name tag outside an apartment door entrance. A red sphere for her, a blue cube for him.
Red Sphere Blue Cube Houdini/Redshift: November 2017
A sequence of test images generated with Octane Render.
I loved the software, and the render speed was amazing compared to CPU renders. However, I never used Octane on any real productions and ended up making the (happy) transition to Redshift, instead.
Octane City 1 Houdini/Octane: August, 2015
Octane City 2 Houdini/Octane: August, 2015
Octane City 3 Houdini/Octane: August, 2015
Vertically tileable animation that was (never) used as a background element in the menu window of an older version of the AFCG web site.
CG Transitions Houdini/Mantra: November 2004 (no audio)
Self portraits using the experimental shader "Radiant" with Houdini.
SP 2 & 3 Houdini/Radiant: 2003
SP 1 Houdini/Radiant: 2003
Metaballs Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Egg Ships Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Barrier 1 Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Stepping Stones Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Barrier 2 Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Barriet 3 Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Barriet 4 Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Sentinels Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Sand Arcs Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Glass Cubes & Dune Grass Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Wire Spheres Prisms/Mantra: mid 90's
Texture and geometry deformation tests created in the mid 80's.
Textured Columns Omnibus/Crystal: 1986
Chrome Column Omnibus/Crystal: 1986
Textured Blocks Omnibus/Crystal: 1986
Chrome Column Omnibus/Crystal: 1986
The 12 images below were created in 1985 using a single, 8 bit monochrome fractal pattern combined with flat geometric shapes, and rendered with an experimental displacement shader written by David Gordon.
Limited shading options were overcome by extracting soft-edged "slices" of the grey-scale fractal texture, rendering each slice with different shader parameters, copying the soft-edge values to the alpha channel, and compositing the rendered slices together to create single images.
The 720x486 resolution images were rendered and composited on a VAX 11/780 computer located at the Omnibus New York studios, and photographed from a monitor using a Pentax 35mm still camera.
This series of images was later submitted, and accepted, as my entry for the 1986 SIGGRAPH Art Show. However, along with the acceptance notice, the Art Show Committee asked that I select only one or two pieces for the exhibition.
In my youthful arrogance I told them I wanted all 12 images in the show.
I never heard back from the SIGGRAPH Art Show committee and, because of work deadlines, I never followed up. Sadly, no images from the "Frac Land" series made it into the exhibition.
Frac Land (Series) 1985
This software and workflow was later used in an animated promo I created for Cinemax.
Cinemax Open (segment) Omnibus, 1986
These next four images were created around 1985 using a mouse and paint program that came with the IBM PC. The final output was on grey paper using a dot-matrix printer.
These are not technically "CG" images, but were created using a PC, so, what the heck.
Brain Worm 1985: 18.0cm x 12.5cm, on paper
Floyd, F, Akemi 1985: 18.0cm x 12.5cm, on paper
Run! 1985: 18.0cm x 12.5cm, on paper
Money Worries 1985: 18.0cm x 12.5cm, on paper
From late 1982 through August of 1983, I was working at Vertigo Computer Imagery in Vancouver. While becoming familiar with their hardware and software, and before starting any commercial projects, I enjoyed creating various personal stills and animations.
Various Stills 1982-1983
In late 1980, by some great fortune, I came across an announcement for a computer course to be given at Simon Fraser University beginning in January of 1981. The class was called "Art & Computers" and was taught by Jerry Barenholtz. There were no pre-requisites for acceptance, and the cost was $44.00. There ended up being about 6 other students in the class, which was held on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8PM.
It changed my life.
Having practically no experience with computers, I found myself using an Evans and Sutherland Picture Systems II, front-ended by a DEC PDP-11. This system was capable of real-time vector graphics that could be manipulated by a scripting language, (GRAX), or in real time with knobs and buttons. Jerry was a patient instructor and it didn't take long before I was comfortable with the system and creating various animations.
For final output, a 16mm film camera was set-up in front of the high-resolution monitor, and controlled by software to record one frame at a time.
My first computer animations were created on this system, including "Time Lines", a 2 1/2 minute piece featuring an original soundtrack by John S. Gray. Unfortunately, the film has been lost, and all that's left are a few low-resolution stills and this 30 second segment from a 3/4 videotape.
Time Lines SFU/GRAX: 1981
Time Lines (surviving segment) SFU/GRAX: 1981 Music: John S. Gray
It's a little ironic that my "first computer" was such a high end system, but the experience convinced me to switch over to computer graphics and learn how to program.
However, after the SFU course, I no longer had access to a computer and definitely couldn't afford to buy my own. So, I would hang out at various Vancouver stores that had PC's on display, like, Radio Shack, home electronics shops, and even some department stores.
Once I got on a machine, (after waiting impatiently for young kids to stop fooling around on them), I'd spend as much time as possible, with an instruction book, learning the "BASIC" programming language. Eventually, I'd be asked to leave the store, so I'd just move on to the next one. And, that's how I started learning how to program.
