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Orange, Test 1: Caustics
48" x 27"
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Artist Statement: In the past, large scale, high quality, computer generated art was difficult and expensive to produce.
Pricey software, super computers, 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 outputted on archival
quality photographic paper using an online service bureau. The final result is a large scale print often
costing less than 100 dollars, including tax and shipping.
The prints presented here focus on creating complex images from simple shapes and colors through
photon mapping and other photorealistic processes. The three images that make up 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"x27", one must be within a few inches of the image to see.
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