Howard Abrams: Orange Test
Artist(s):
Title:
- Orange Test
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2003
Medium:
- Lightjet print on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper
Size:
- 48 inches x 27 inches
Category:
Artist Statement:
In the past, large-scale, high-quality, computer-generated art was difficult and expensive to produce. Pricey software, supercomputers, and rare output devices were all needed. Similar to most technologies, as computer-generated art develops, the process becomes cheaper. Open-source software, inexpensive home computers, and online service bureaus have transformed computer-generated art from an elitist hobby to simply a set of cheap tools to create art.
This collection was created using only open-source tools on a home computer and printed on archival-quality photographic paper using an online service bureau. The final result is a large-scale print for less than 100 dollars, including tax and shipping.
The prints presented at SIGGRAPH 2003 focus on creating complex images from simple shapes and colors through photon mapping and other photorealistic processes. The two images taken from the series “Orange Test” are high-resolution versions of test images from an upcoming HDTV animation. Although they are only stills from an animation, they stand on their own when printed at high resolution.
This is most apparent in “Orange Test 1: Caustics,” which consists only of an elongated semi-transparent orange sphere, a white plane, and two spotlights. From simplicity, an unimaginably complex image arises. Beautiful yellows emerge from over saturation. Quantization errors in the photon-mapping process yield complex hairline curves that, even at 48 inches x 27 inches, one must be within a few inches of the image to see.
