The creative cycle.

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Recently I was listening to a radio show. A panel of profession artists were talking about there work.

Asked about the creative process. She described it as:

Observe,Observe,Observe,Create.

There is a natural pattern to the way we tease solid ideas out of feelings and concepts. Many people have written about this.

I like to summarize my process as.

Consume, Collate, Copy, Create, Compare.

It reflects my first inspiration because consuming copying, and comparing are all ways of observing.

  1. Observe / Consume
  2. Collate
  3. Observe / Copy
  4. Create
  5. Observe / Compare.

Consume

First I consume the world around me. Actively collecting ideas from the books, galleys and Internet or passively noting things as I go around my daily life. My ideas germinate as I observe the world around me. I subconsciously absorb the information, and consciously seek out things that feel right.
Feeling right  is the key here. Our Brains are pattern matching trying to find things that fit new concept. I don’t need to justify the choices with too much reason. That will just get in the way. I need to promote the right frame of mind to help the subconscious process the information.

Soon I’ll have a pile of images which are a mixture of mood, style, overall design and interesting details.

Collate

Whilst I may like the feel of the ideas I’ve created. Not all of them are compatible. This may lead to different strands of design being developed. However if these two strands cannot be integrated a choice must soon be made over which route to follow. So while consuming I’m also sorting and categorizing.

UFO … example industrial vs alien

Copy

Eventually I start trying things.

 

Scripting Tip: Useful equation to blend between two values.

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This is a simple but very useful equation to blend between two values A and B.

( A * w ) + ( B * ( 1 – w ) )

w is a weight value.

Blend maths for compositing and rigging

When w = 0 the answer is B,
and when w = 1 the answer is A.

( A * 0 ) + ( B * ( 1 – 0 ) ) = A
( A * 1 ) + ( B * ( 1 – 1 ) ) = B

This equation is used all over computer graphics. It the basis of compositing pixels, and can be used to make controls for technical animation ( see this eye rig setup for 3dsMax )

Tutorial: Using the maths as an expression in Eyeon fusion.

In this tutorial I use an expression script to animate a blend between two changing positions. This allows the creation of a new point based on the current position of two other points.

You can download a sample file here

 

Note: using *  in algebra …

The convention is write equations concisely without the * for multiplication like this:

A w  + B ( 1 – w )

This is because hand written algebra tends to use single letters for variables, and multiplication signs can get confused with the variable x. While this form is easier to read, it can be confusing were people are  used to reading computer code, and are expecting * for multiplication and long variable names.

Dumb tip of the day: Flick panning in Photoshop

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Flick Panning in Photoshop

Disable flick panning in photoshop

If I’m working fast I hate waiting for the interface to catch up  with me. In Photoshop Holding the space bar to pan is cool. Waiting for the image to stop sliding is not

So I spent 5 minutes throwing and catching an image… and actually it’s intuitive and kinda fun.

Flick to throw and tap to stop

Alternatively you can disable the feature here.

Edit > Preferences > General > Enable flick Panning

Merge Tool Maths

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This is a brief breakdown of the maths behind Fusion’s Merge Tool.

The Operator modes are well documented. But, I’ve done some digging around to uncover the maths behind the Apply mode, Alpha Gain and Burn In.

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