The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

I think you and everyone else is doing great with the "variations on a theme" regarding this month's tutorial, Frances.

Now, just to mix it up a little: I've attached a vector trace of the green glass icosahedron, as it seems visually interesting, at least to me. I used Vector Magic, probably the most advanced bitmap tracing program out there today.

The reason I did this, is I'd like to offer a view to members of what the thing looks like when a computer program sort of posterizes the continuous tone image. I know I can learn from it, and perhaps others can, too. Look at how the green light accumulation, the Fresnel effect, is drawn at the lower right of the object.

Use the color sampler (eyedropper) tool to sample some of the colors. I discovered that the colors are a lot duller than I thought, and this is because our eye/brain perception is inaccurate when it comes to evaluating the saturation, the purity, of color we see. It's part education, part biological.

But I digress. I think the auto-trace is an interesting way to look at an emotionless dissection of a photorealistic image. By looking at the steps Vector Magic used to create the shadow, I can learn how falloff in light can be recreated.



Have fun with this thing. Because if you don't, it's pointless work! Yuck!



My Best,
—Gary