From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!turtleva!ken
Newsgroups: net.graphics
Title: Re: art and c.g.
Article-I.D.: turtleva.169
Posted: Tue Mar  1 01:58:28 1983
Received: Tue Mar  1 07:47:00 1983
References: cornell.4037

Pauline xxx made the statement that all computer graphic art could be
done using conventional media.  Well, I maintain that art composed with
conventional media can be done with computer graphics, and challenge
her to prove that her statement is right and mine is wrong.

Simulation of artwork composed in a different medium is not the
foremost desire of computer graphic art, although it has proved useful
in bringing artists up to speed on computer graphic equipment.  I was
one of the engineers on the Ampex Video Art (AVA) project, which was a
2-dimensional graphic composition system designed especially for the
artist:  no switches, keyboards or knobs, because all interaction was
through the use of the electronic stylus and menus.  We invited all
sorts of artists to use the equipment; others begged us to use it.
They customized it by creating special brushes, favorite palettes, and
useful sub-images.  Their comments were extremely useful in enhancing
the basic paint system.  Some of the effects generated were similar to
those of pen and watercolor, acrylic, and oil, in addition to
surrealistic images "characteristic of computer graphics".  One
techno-artist even went so far as to simulate the low resolution
graphics of the TRS-80 by blocking, or "pixellating".

Scan-in capability was important to enter sketches that had been drawn
in a more familiar environment.  Magnify was important for details.
Simple ways to create the color map suitable for anti-aliasing
(although they didn't understand the theory, they liked the non-jagged
lines), including random color map generation and reorganization, made
choosing the palette less tedious.  Grid overlays gave a reference for
orientation and scale, whereas arbitrary overlays made it easier to do
frame-to-frame animation.  Powerful titling capability was
indispensable for the television news graphic artists, including
multiple fonts, sizes, colors.  Of course, massive storage capability
for intermediate drawings was a must.

Some things which were not implemented, but were suggested as important
factors in choosing to buy the equipment were:  Support for animation
including automatic generation of a series of size changes and
translations.  Full color to allow mixing of colors in a way that
color-mapped systems cannot.

			Ken Turkowski

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