Apocalypse Cow

Studio Artist user Victor Ingrassia recently completed the visuals for a video made for Fin Records called "Apocalypse Cow". The video is associated with composer David Hahn's recent limited edition colored vinyl record release on Fin Records.

Victor had this to say about the project. "I used Studio Artist for all the animation. I captured the original source video in a wide range of resolutions; much of it small low quality web video. I liberally upscaled and enhanced these captures in Studio Artist in preparation for animation at 720p HD.

My toolset consisted of a mixture of preset and custom image operations, vectorizer and paint synthesizer patches. The finished animation includes a mixture of auto rotoscoping and hand auto drawing. I animated in a range of frame rates (from 6-30fps) to optimize the look and feel of different sections. I explored alpha for the first time in Studio Artist to create elements for compositing in Final Cut Pro. 

It was an interesting challenge to create video for such a short piece. Great care was taken to not waste a frame and moving forward with confidence was critical."

This project lead to Victor being commissioned for a Fin Records music video, with an anticipated release date in Match 2012. Victor's demo reels showcase a wide variety of Studio Artist auto-rotoscope and paint animation styles, and are available for viewing on his web site. Victor also has a number of awesome Studio Artist generated video examples on his vimeo page.

Occupy Online Collection - A Study in Controlled Randomization

Studio Artist user Tucker Stilley has put together an online gallery of his most recent experiments in controlled random generative art creation. The finished art gallery images are derived from working with collections of images randomly web spidered from online articles about the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Tucker worked in tandem with his cybernetic collaborator Nguyn-9000 (aka Studio Artist) to put together this series of art prints.

Tucker uses Studio Artist's Gallery Show features to help him explore the possibilities of working with controlled generative randomization as a creative process. He generates a large number of art images using automated Gallery Show runs that process his web harvested topical imagery, and then culls through the results looking for keeper images. Tucker's end goal was a series of detailed giant prints, so the actual finished processed images are 60" wide.

Tucker has this to say about his recent experiments. "I have been using Studio Artist for almost a decade now and every day I am surprised, I haven't even scratched the depth of possibilities. I got very interested in Studio Artist's generative and random qualities when I became paralyzed. In this case, I became interested in the effect of custom presets applied to vast folders of images spidered off the web. The resulting composites were dreamy and freakish and called out for action.

If you've ever "tried" to make something random - but controlled, you'll know what I mean - it's hard work! "

Tucker talks more about this and other projects on his blog.

For more information on Gallery Show check out these Studio Artist tips.

Charis Tsevis in the News

Studio Artist user Charis Tsevis's work was quite prominent online this fall in the aftermath of Steve Job's passing. Tevis's stunning Studio Artist generated photo mosaic imagery was featured in many Steve Jobs tribute articles.

The Greek Reporter featured Charis in an interview article that discussed his approach and techniques used to generate his artwork. Charis talks about his use of Studio Artist to build photo mosaic imagery and other visual effects, as well as his thoughts on being a digital artist in modern Greece.

History is the Art of Forgetting

Studio Artist user Michael Wright is a special guest at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica on November 30th. The final evening in a series of presentations that take a look at high profile artists who broke boundaries and created new forms of art media. The discussion will center on EZTV's CyberSpace Gallery, one of the world's first galleries dedicated to computer art.

The evening also features the debut of a new video art piece by Esther Kiss, as well as the rarely seen Outside Looking In - One Last Visit With Timothy Leary. The 18th Street Arts Center is at 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA. The presentation begins at 8 pm on Wed, Nov 30.

Here's a link for more information on the presentation.

Here's a link to Michael's daily portrait virus project. Michael uses Studio Artist to create his daily self portraits.  Here's a link to a previous Studio Artist news article that discusses a stack filtering project based on Michael's portrait virus images.

Deconstructed Faerie

Studio Artist user Tucker Stilley (aka NewJack Rasputin) has recently completed an ipad picture book called 'Deconstructed Faerie'. All of the book's imagery was created using Studio Artist 4.

Haunting imagery mashed together with eerie original music make 'Deconstructed Faerie' a must have experience for the ipad. It was the official Winner of Best New Media at the Secret International Outdoor Arts and Film Festival, 2011.

For more information on 'Deconstructed Faerie', check out this site. Or you can purchase 'Deconstructed Faerie' here on the iTunes app store.

You can check out Tucker's main web site here.  Tucker is also a member of the Studio Artist User Forum.

OSX 10.7 Lion Requires Studio Artist 4

Apple Computer recently released it's new OSX 10.7 Lion operating system. Studio Artist customers running older versions of Studio Artist prior to version 4 need to upgrade to version 4 in order to run Studio Artist on Apple computers running OSX 10.7 Lion.

Digital Image Transfer : Creating Art With Your Photography

Studio Artist user Ellen Horovitz has recently completed a new book titled 'Digital Image Transfer : Creating Art With Your Photography'.  It is a guide to transferring digital images into alternative and mixed media art. The cover photo shown above was created using Studio Artist, which Ellen calls 'her favorite software program'.

The book expands on traditional photo transfer, taking it to an entirely new level using digital software techniques and a wide array of innovative materials and methods, including cocoa powder, Citrasolve, copper, and packing tape. Starting with traditional photos, digital files, and instant photo emulsions, Horovitz fashions 2D and 3D art pieces, showing readers how to use conventional processes and new exploratory techniques-even left-over materials-in the creation of meaningful photo art. Ellen discusses Studio Artist as well as other digital art programs in her book.

Ellen has a blog at Pixiq, and is a professor and director of graduate art therapy at Nazareth College of Rochester. More information on her new book is available here.