From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!pauline
Newsgroups: net.graphics
Title: Re: art and c.g.
Article-I.D.: cornell.3990
Posted: Mon Feb 14 13:36:47 1983
Received: Fri Feb 18 07:24:47 1983

Here's a quote from the Aug/Sep 1982 issue of "Business Screen", a magazine
dealing with the more artsy side of c.g., about the cover of that issue:

    "Our cover is an attempt to not only attract the consumer by an
intriguing piece of fine arts but to trick them into thinking that it was
generated by a computer when in fact it was generated by a combination of
traditional special effects."
                    spoken by Mario Kamberg,
                    Vice President and Creative Director for
                    North Hollywood based special effects co.,
                    Silver Cloud Productions

Later on, the article reads,
     "But there has been an ironic turnaround in the use of computer
generated animation....  Today computers can generate a variety of textures
and elements but those same elements can still be executed via old fashioned
motion control and even bottom lit cel flopping."

So one possible answer as to why many quality artists may not be thrilled 
about c.g. is that its not producing anything that is *really* new.  We're 
teaching a new dog a lot of old tricks.  I'm certainly not denying that c.g.
has been a wonderful time saver in a lot of areas, but has anyone ever seen
a piece of computer generated art that couldn't be done by a patient human 
being (or several) with more traditional art techniques?

An old dog is always more comfortable to be around. 
But even if there are marvellous user friendly packages, its also a lot of
trouble and expense getting access to a c.g. facility.

We may be at the stage where we have to "teach" the computer all the old tricks
so that we can better understand what its capable of.  Is it time to move on? 
Seems to me, if you want to attract more and/or better artists to the field,
you have to make it worth their while.  Emphasize something that the computer 
can do and that nothing else can.
 
                                  changing my sign-off to,
                                           pyt

Just an aside:
Computer graphics is the computer science field I enjoy most, but for me,
nothing beats being able to grab my watercolors and pencils and go outside
on a warm and sunny day.