parallelUniverses

11-minute read Notes for educators: placing modeling within a digital-tactile phenomenological curricular framework. Computers are useless Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. — Pablo Picasso 1 At the time his declaration was made, Picasso’s dictum was true. The digital age was barely launched. The idea of binary, 0-1, yes-no, white-black systems of processing… read more »

6-minute read Small is the new big This final segment contains small chapters of great importance, whose topics did not fall easily into other sections, but whose usefulness, like the “readme” files found in software, is underrated. Chapter synopses CHAPTER 18 — A Hierarchy of Modeling Understanding seven types of modeling, alongside four levels of… read more »

5-minute read D.I.Y. culture The terms for the distribution and presentation of creative output have fundamentally changed since the dawn of our century. The playing field is more level, but it’s also global — much bigger. You have to figure out how to tap into the audience that appreciates your work. You have to do it yourself:… read more »

9-minute read Art is too important not to share. It’s not enough to just make a model! Let’s explore the myriad ways we can present our work to the world. File formats Depending on the type and purpose of your 3D models, we need to choose from an array of file formats that perform very… read more »

9-minute read Before diving into a project, it’s good to ascertain the general startup workflow that will manage any modeling effort. Limiting yourself to working “in the box” or without identifying objects you make beforehand will cause you to quickly lose control of your project. I find the following preparatory steps are quite helpful in… read more »

6-minute read Seven types of modeling We model all manner of objects, qualities, and phenomena because we are creating a self-contained world. We can take nothing for granted, not even the earth and sky! In our workflow, we’ve found it useful to identify seven types of modeling:  These determine the level of modeling: These occur… read more »

6-minute read The idea of a thing A smart artist makes the machine do all the work. Artists are makers, but what do they make? A thing, or an idea? In the contemporary era, processes of making have been batted around between craft (creation by hand), industrial process (creation by machine), and concept (supremacy of… read more »

2-minute read Geometry is a lie … Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. An understanding of three-dimensional modeling rests foremost on an understanding of geometry. We believe we see geometry everywhere — from the sphere of our planet to a rectangular box of cereal out of which you might have eaten… read more »

20-minute read Light Related terms: Value | Tone  Light is reflected into our eyes. But this is only one among many interactions light has with material, the mechanics of which we will explore more specifically in Chapter 12. The source, color cast, intensity, and order of the light on that material greatly affect how things… read more »

18-minute read Perspective in perspective Albrecht Dürer was known as the “da Vinci of the North” because he was fascinated with, and contributed to, the relationship between art and science. Like da Vinci, he was not only a skilled draughtsman but an inventor as well. He applied his energy to elaborate drawing “machines” that could capture… read more »