Artificial Infancy Maturing at Exponential Rate

I’ve been following the use of A.I. in generating prompt-inspired images for awhile now, and it appears the number one hot topic is morality. If the A.I. engines aren’t well versed regarding the difference between copyright infringement and Creative Commons licensing then everything that gets created, by anyone, anywhere, is subject to continuous lawsuits. Luckily so far most folks realize this, and it’s been brought to the attention of A.I. developers in droves every day of the week.

Over time I’m planning on “reporting” on A.I.’s progress in not only the legal sense, but more importantly how it’s changing the very nature of how we approach many tasks, including it’s impression on the art world.

Blog Rebrand

For 2023 I’ve branded my blog as “Precursor Design & Research Blog,” more fondly known as “Precursor.” The name was inspired by the nature of many of my posts. I enjoy looking forward to what lies ahead by delving into the past. Sometimes the most rewarding method is to look to the past or how my daughter likes to put it: “let’s go fast! backwards.” Don’t fret. This isn’t another sequel, requel, prequel or the like. This is how I carry on the Blockbuster motto: “be kind, rewind.”

I’ll be exploring logotype and identity evolution of some major brands as well as my own. The five design sets I’ve chosen are: ABC, KIA, Turner Broadcasting, Burger King, and Vinson Studio(s). I’ll be posting it fairly soon so be on the lookout for it.

Superman Thing

AFTER 10 YEARS WORKING WITH THE WEATHER CHANNEL IN FULL-TIME, CONTRACT, AND FREELANCE CAPACITIES, MY FRIENDS GAVE ME ME THIS POSTER AS MY GOING AWAY PRESENT. THE RELATIONSHIP DIDN’T END THERE. WE WOULD COLLABORATE FOR 4 MORE YEARS WHILE I WORKED FOR ARTIFACT DESIGN AND OUTPOST PICTURES.

In the autumn of 2009, a week after an accident at the office, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 1, manic depressive disorder. In hindsight I realized that my creative superpowers were directly related to my ailing mental health. I had been living in this state for 37 years. Somehow I managed to make it this far without any diagnosis, medication, or therapy. So with those three key elements now in place, I’ll thrive and fly again. After 13 years I feel healthy, invigorated, and ready to take the reins of my career again except this time I am going all in on freelance. This way I can better manage my time and more importantly, my mental health. I’ve found that by working 3 months at a time and then taking a break for a month gives me a recharge that makes me stronger and a better human being.

What’s it like being an artist with a mental illness? Do what I did when I was diagnosed years ago and search online for artists, musicians, moguls with mental illnesses. You’ll find out that it’s way more common that most people think. Ernest Hemingway, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, Selena Gomez, David Harbour, Carrie Fisher, Buzz Aldrin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Francis Ford Coppola, Sinead O’Connor, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mariah Carey, Richard Dreyfuss, Patty Duke, Ted Turner, Sting, Linda Hamilton, Jim Carrey, Halsey, Robin Williams, Theodore Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, Tim Burton, Paul Dalio, Woody Allen, and some of my dearest family and friends have all struggled with mental health.

“Knock, knock, Neo...The Matrix has you...Follow the white rabbit.”

— Trinity hacking into Thomas Anderson’s computer setting his path to realizing the truth that he is the “One,” The Matrix, 1999. Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski.

Stigmas surrounding mental illness are finally fading due to folks speaking out, sharing their stories and struggles while proving they don’t have to watch their dreams vanish due to a diagnosis. Now that we know what we’re dealing with we can face our mental health head-on. My psychiatrist and therapist both have the same last name. I’ll give you a hint: “Knock, knock, Neo.” I’ve also had a recurring dream since I was 4. I could float through the house while my family was asleep. I follow patterns in shapes, numbers, and sounds. I pay close attention to my gut instincts while designing and act on hunches daily. Be wary of overdosing on analytics and focus groups. They can easily become creative kryptonite for super-folk like us.

The Triple Lindy

The “triple lindy” dive was made famous by Rodney Dangerfield in Back To School. The dive is fictional, but the heart of the film is fully realized in this underdog scene. Rodney proves he’s still got it even at his age. While being grilled by his professors he exclaimed:

“I don’t take shit from no one. I’m gonna pass this test. I’m staying in school! Who’s next?!”

— Rodney Dangerfield as Thornton Melon, Back to School, 1986

Some days I have to remind myself “progress, not perfection.” For 27 years I’ve managed to work in nearly every capacity a graphic designer can muster, from Graphics Editor on the UGA Bulldog student newspaper to Museum Intern and then onto Broadcast Designer and currently Creative Director. I’ve faced many challenges, but one thing always rang true: never give up. No matter what.

Most days I take a moment to recall a memory that molded me into the rock star I am today. =) Out of all the broadcast design and visual effects work I’ve worked on it’s the old-school techniques and obstacles that I cherish. I’ve woken up 3 hours before dawn anticipating the sunrise we captured in time-lapse with a Latvian master DP at the height of autumn who constantly demanded: “Leaves!”

Back when we shot on film, and the falling leaves were real leaves gathered 20 miles from the shoot, they were dropped by yours truly. It’s quite a challenge to dress a live location selling it as an autumn scene when Mother Nature decides to hold off dropping the leaves a week later than forecast by our own expert meteorologists.

I’ve had some amazing mentors along the way, and passed on the knowledge by teaching other artists my craft, the tricks of our trade. Some of those tricks became realities when companies like Red Giant believed in a handful of concepts I had been kicking around and decided to give me an opportunity of a lifetime. Three or four months later I was given some news that rocked my world.

Surprise. The hunch that started it all became realized, and we got to share it with everyone. Even better, it was free.

RODNEY DANGERFIELD IN BACK TO SCHOOL © METRO GOLDWYN MAYER.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1953)

Knoll 3D Flare Origins

It’s been 13 years since conjuring up the concept for Knoll 3D Flare which also paved the way for Knoll Light Factory 3’s feature set. Knoll 3D Flare (K3DF) from Red Giant Software was the 3D flare precursor to Video Copilot’s Optical Flares lens flare plugin for Adobe After Effects. K3DF was conceived in a hotel room one night while I was up in Boston training the talented artists at NESN, The New England Sports Network, during the summer of 2009. I was preparing for the second day of training and while building some materials I thought why not stand on the shoulders of giants and attempt to create a 3D lens flare rig using expressions and Knoll Light Factory as the base. I used some of Dan Ebberts code from his Motion Script site, a little math, and within an hour or so I had a rig in 3D space. I showed it to the NESN gang the next morning and all they could say was “Wow, how did you do that? Lens flares aren’t 3D.” So with that reaction in mind I sent the AE project file to Aharon Rabinowitz at Red Giant Software. His response was hooking me up with Dan Ebberts to code and design what would become Knoll 3D Flare nearly six months before Optical Flares was released. And Knoll 3D Flare also incorporated true 3D and 3D RGB Obscuration without having to tell the flare manually which layers were foreground layers when working in a comp with 3D layers.

Watch the overview by Aharon Rabinowitz on the Videos page, but that’s not the entire story.

Neverland

This story actually begins with the origin story of Knoll Light Factory. ILM Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll knew they needed a solution to create Tinkerbell for Hook and while observing practical flares through the camera lens he thought he could recreate these artifacts within the computer. John was able to reproduce all of the primitives giving them full control during compositing and post production allowing them to achieve a photo-real look. Some time after Hook was released Knoll began to sell his plugins to the public through a company called Puffin Designs.

Puffin designed and developed software for visual effects, rotoscoping, and offered VHS video courses teaching the fundamentals of the art and science behind visual effects and the post production process. Ron Brinkmann, creator of Shake, and Matt Silverman, rotoscoping guru, were a few of the veterans Puffin contracted to create these videos. Matt has posted some of them here. I personally learned a wealth of information from watching these videos as I transitioned from a graphic designer to a digital compositor.

Knoll’s lens flare technology was ported to Photoshop, After Effects, ElectricImage, and Flame. Lens flares became mainstream in compositing and motion graphics, and other companies like The Foundry and GenArts started offering their take on lens flare plugins. However, even with the new competition, Knoll dominated the scene for over 15 years. In the mid to late 90s I had the chance to see first hand a key element from the film that inspired the creation of this digital lens flare tool.

The Kerner Company

During the mid to late 90s my friend and I decided we wanted to see if we could find the elusive ILM. We were out in San Francisco for a design conference and ended up putting over 700 miles on the rental before week’s end touring Cali. Before ILM we had a quick detour in Carmel. We stopped by Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch for a bite. When I was walking around the grounds I saw an old truck with Kincaid Photography printed on it. My buddy told me Clint used his own truck when they filmed The Bridges of Madison County. Not a bad meal, but after three nights there still no Clint, just his golfing buddies. So on to Marin County we ventured.

We were well on our way to our destination but we were missing one vital piece of info: ILM’s address. Luckily these were the days of pay phones along the highway so we stopped, and my friend sweet-talked the operator to give us the address since it wasn’t listed in the phone book. Something about us having a meeting with one of their engineers. He got the guy’s name out of a Post magazine ad for Blade servers. Before I knew it we were parked in front of the Kerner Company, Optical Reseach Lab, not ILM. It was a front. Had to be. So off we went though the front door, into the lobby, and what did we see? The original matte painting on glass from Hook (see below) and a Stormtrooper down the hallway. We hung out for a bit and then we chatted with some engineers at lunch about hardware, etc. at the sandwich shop next door. We never got a tour, but seeing that matte painting was enough for me.

THE FINAL INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC COMPOSITE OF ROBIN WILLIAMS’ PETER PAN AS HE SOARS OVER NEVERLAND IN HOOK. ABOVE IMAGE © TRISTAR PICTURES.

YUSEI UESUGI WORKING ON THE NEVERLAND FLYOVER MATTE PAINTING FOR HOOK. ABOVE IMAGE © INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC.

Design, Motion, and VFX Gear

I’ve been asked on numerous occasions over the past 27 years what gear do I wield in regard to computer gear for my design, motion, and VFX projects. After years of answering that question, I’m going to distill it down to this: I have specific gear for specific tasks, and I don’t pick sides anymore between Mac and Windows. Both have pluses and minuses. My current gear consists of:

  1. First off, I don’t start with the computers, I start with a napkin, a scrap of paper, a Post-It or two, and a pen (no pencils allowed)

  2. I sketch and make notes for awhile then grab my loupe and take a closer look; then I pull back ten feet and give it the squint test

  3. I continue honing this newest creation, giving it time to breathe and naturally take shape

  4. 2022 Dell XPS named “Vader,” Windows 11 Pro, Intel i9 12,900K, 64GB RAM, NVidia 3090 GPU, 2 x 2TB SSDs, 6TB USB Backup Drive, 4K Dell display, Wacom tablet, MX Keys Keyboard and MX Master 3 Mouse, Adobe CC, Maxon One, Affinity Suite, Blender, Unreal, and Da Vinci Resolve

  5. Mid-2010 iMac 27 inch named “Yoda,” macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2 x 3TB USB Drives, 8TB USB Backup Drive, Adobe CC 2019, C4D R23

  6. 2009 15 inch MacBook Pro named “Obi-Wan,” Mac OS X Snow Leopard, 8GB RAM, SanDisk for backups

  7. 2024 14 inch M3 Pro MacBook Pro named “Rogue One,” macOS Sonoma, 18GB RAM, SanDisk for backups; Affinity Suite, Blender, and Da Vinci Resolve

  8. 2020 5K iMac 27 inch named “Skywalker,” macOS Sonoma, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2 x 3TB USB Drives, 8TB USB Backup Drive, Adobe CC, Maxon One, Blender, and Da Vinci Resolve

Drew...Speechless

One word for the man behind the poster who communicates through his interpretations of many a blockbuster film: speechless. Read more in Hollywood Reporter here. More on Struzan's journey here. One word from Struzan's fans that rings true with all of his imagery: iconic. Kyle Lambert's rendition of Struzan amongst the stars captures the essence of a true Struzan composition: it's not just a bunch of Photoshopped heads in order of billing. There's true grit, fiber, and texture holding it all together.

From the paint splatter to the colored, dramatic lighting and colored pencil, it's nearly all "drew. Except for once the "drew" signature is prominent and not gently hidden in the background. For once it's front and center, and it deserves that sort of recognition. With Drew's posters every picture tells a story. The Photoshop jockeys got it all wrong because they thought it was every pixel tells a story. Long live mixed media.

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IMAGE © KYLE LAMBERT, USED FOR EDITORIAL PURPOSES ONLY.

Ralph McQuarrie’s Universe

After watching Rogue One again recently with my family, I couldn't help but daydream about all of the incredible work produced by the man behind all of the immersive designs that defined the original Star Wars universe. Legendary concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, was the man behind the curtain that dazzled us from the moment we were jettisoned to the galaxy far, far away where a great adventure took place.

The folks who crafted Rogue One paid close attention to every detail down to the bolts that held the X-wings together. Every decal. Every rivet. All images below © Ralph McQuarrie. Used for editorial purposes only.

Ralph McQuarrie also depicted key visuals in other monumental films such as this Bible illustration below of the Ark of the Covenant for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was also involved in the mothership design for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

ABOVE IMAGE © PARAMOUNT PICTURES.

ABOVE IMAGE © COLUMBIA PICTURES.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I recently enjoyed an afternoon of bowling with a dear friend. I will preface that we both score in the 40s – 60s per game on average. We got off to a rough start so I had him take a moment with me to refocus our efforts. I mentioned that we need to take all of our energy; the good, bad, and the ugly, and use it to make things happen for us in a positive way. We both immediately went from just a few pins to spares and strikes. We played for awhile, but suddenly my friend hit a snag. For four frames he was stuck with all threes. We had another pow-wow, and I mentioned that “it's not a sport or a game; it's just math.” After a few minutes he was ready to try again. Strike! He looked in my direction with a huge grin on his face.

With his spirits raised I decided to shake things up a bit for myself. With the bumpers up I thought why not try this pinball-style bumping the ball back and forth across the lane as it headed to it's mark.

So I took a few frames to test my theory, and I got a strike and a spare. I also started spinning my body around numerous times while I was skipping up the lane before releasing the ball. My friend continued having a great game as I experimented with yet another test: closing my eyes while I spun around and headed to the line to release the ball. Essentially I was adhering to Obi Wan Kenobi’s advice to Luke just moments before he blew up the Death Star: “Let go your conscious self and act on instinct.” In doing so we broke free from our minds’ constraints on our performance. By living in and embracing the moment we were able to apply laser focus as we rolled along with the remainder of our games.

After numerous spares and a few strikes we had wrapped up our third game. We tallied our final combined total between three games at 598 points (our usual average was 300 points). Even with the four sets of 3s in a row my buddy beat me two games out of three.

New Year New Work

2015 was a busy year with many new and exciting projects. I finally got a chance to update the design and motion sections of the site. Enjoy recent work as well as some of my favorites from the archives.

Another year has passed working with the amazing NBA TV Design team at Turner. I want to say a quick thank you to a few of the key individuals who contributed to the latest work on this site: Klaus Alleyne, Andrew Enyart, Kwame Thomas, Eric Paynter, Wes Freeman, and Sean Pollack. Also want to say thanks to Simon Coffin for giving me the chance to work with such a great bunch over the past four years. Looking forward to many more to come.

The Lost Art of the Movie Poster

I’ll never forget the Richard Amsel-illustrated movie poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark (below far left) that donned a corner of my teenage room growing up. I was enamored with the rich detail and texture the artist rendered for my favorite whip-wielding adventurer hero.

ALL IMAGES ABOVE © RICHARD AMSEL.

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ALL IMAGES ABOVE © DREW STRUZAN.

Then one day I saw another poster thinking it was Amsel's latest creation, but his signature was absent from the corner. Scribed in a similar location was the simple, understated, lowercase script “drew.” I didn’t know at first sight that the artist, Drew Struzan, was one of the most iconic album cover and movie poster illustrators of all time.

Drew could somehow depict an entire movie’s essence in one illustration. His rendering transcended the film itself, elevating it to a whole other level. His Thing poster is one of the most original and captivating of all of his designs (above far right). And in true artistic fashion, he rendered it in one night. According to an interview with Drew Struzan the paint was still wet when it left his studio. He also had no reference material to draw from, only his own vastly rich imagination.

Both artists’ works all shared one thing: they were all one of a kind original works of art, not mass produced Photoshop-styled montages. These Photoshop jockeys, as they’ve been referred to, merely attempt to capture both Amsel’s and Struzan’s essence, and nearly always miss the mark by a long shot.

Traditional materials could never be completely replaced by modern-era pixel pushers. To explore Richard Amsel’s portfolio visit this tribute by Adam McDaniel. For more information on Drew Struzan watch The Man Behind the Poster. Also enjoy his extensive portfolio site here.

Great Reference Material

Like most people these days I take my camera with me everywhere. You just never know when you’ll find a great reference whether it be a texture, color, material, whatever. Nothing beats great reference material. If you shoot it yourself you’ll notice the smaller details even more. The best way to recreate something from the real world is to first observe that world in full detail and capture as many reference photos as possible. You'll be amazed what details your eyes didn’t actually “see” in person when reviewing the reference photos.

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If you’re in a time crunch and need great reference material take a look at CG Textures. They have an extensive array of catalogued photos from leaking concrete to paint splatter and nearly everything in between.

Visit CGTextures.