Today, the goal of digital rendering is to create the most photo-realistic image possible. While this type of render certainly is helpful in portraying a hypothetical, designed environment to the client, I feel the majority of photorealistic rendering is unable to communicate the sensations and spatial experience of the built environment. In order to restore this to architectural imagery, I am studying the techniques and aesthetics of Impressionistic art in an attempt to apply these methods to digital rendering and render manipulation.
One of the main problems with trying to create a digital photorealistic image is that no matter how the images is rendered or manipulated, the viewer knows that the image isn’t real. Some materials seem fake while others seem too real. In the attempt to create the most “real” representation as possible, designers tend to loose the goal of the image, which is to communicate the experience of the space to the client. Designers often get so caught up in the details that they loose sight of the overall image, so that each detail taken individually reads well, but when combine become flat, hypo-realistic, or hyper-realistic. Another issue is that the way that the computer translates information into an image is not the same way that the human eye (and other senses) collects and translates information in the brain to understand the experience of a space. In a computer rendered image, everything in the image is in sharp focus and the field of vision is extremely distorted.
One of the main problems with trying to create a digital photorealistic image is that no matter how the images is rendered or manipulated, the viewer knows that the image isn’t real. Some materials seem fake while others seem too real. In the attempt to create the most “real” representation as possible, designers tend to loose the goal of the image, which is to communicate the experience of the space to the client. Designers often get so caught up in the details that they loose sight of the overall image, so that each detail taken individually reads well, but when combine become flat, hypo-realistic, or hyper-realistic. Another issue is that the way that the computer translates information into an image is not the same way that the human eye (and other senses) collects and translates information in the brain to understand the experience of a space. In a computer rendered image, everything in the image is in sharp focus and the field of vision is extremely distorted.
The two following images are examples of computer rendered images that attempt to create photorealistic images. Both are extremely successful; however, they each suffer from some of the basic flaws in computer rendering.
In this image of a courtyard, the material quality of the built environment is extremely realistic, especially the glass and wood flooring, but the natural materials (the trees) are extremely fake. Also the field of view is much too over-extended vertically, creating extremely awkward and unrealistic viewing angles, most notably at the bottom of the image.
This particular image suffers from hyper-realism. Each individual element in this image, examined on its own, is extremely realistic, but when all of the elements are combined into one image, it doesn’t read as reality. The use of a uniform lighting quality and atmospheric perspective do help to unify the image and make it read more like an actual site. The dramatic viewing angle does make for a dynamic image, but it doesn’t accurately represent how a person would view this building or experience the site.
Impressionism, rather than attempting to represent every detail of reality as objectively and completely as possible, is “an expression of sensations” (Venturi 39). For Impressionist “reality meant an ideal vision of space, conceived as light and color… They reduced the subject matter… in order to keep the content of a work of art in the state of sensation” (Venturi 44). Artists based many of their paintings on the ephemeral effects of light and color in a scene. In fact many Impressionists, most notably Monet, painted the same subject matter multiple times in order to capture the different sensations and emotions that are evoked by the same space under different conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen_Cathedral_(Monet)
In addition to using light and color to communicate spatial sensations to the viewer, Impressionists severely limit the amount of information that they put on their canvas. In fact, one of the major critiques of Impressionist works is that they were unfinished. However, by limiting the amount of detail in the image, the viewer is forced to focus on the sensations elicited by the overall image. And even though there is la limited amount of information, the viewer still fully understands the subject matter, which raises the question whether all of that detail is really necessary.
Impressionism was not just a new way to paint, it was a reaction to the Enlightenment based principles that dictated art at the time. According to enlightenment thought, nature (in fact everything) could be objectively analysized and completely understood. This led artists, as well as scientists and philosophers, to try to regulate and classify their work. Renoir, an Impressionist painter, “contended that the chief point of an artistic problem was irregularity. He stated that in art as in nature, all beauty is irregular. Two eyes, when they are beautiful, are never entirely alike… Beauty of every description finds its charm in variety. Nature abhors both vacuum and regularity… Regularity, order, desire for perfection (which is always a false perfection) destroy art” (Venturi 39). I believe that this is one reason that digital renders tend to become hyper-realistic because the designer doesn’t include the minor imperfections in material and pattern that would be present in real life, and the computer renders the information perfectly, which leaves the designer with an eerily too perfect image.
The following images are examples of images that exemplify the basic techniques of Impressionist painting in communicating spatial experience: light, color, limited information, imperfections and irregularities.
http://www.michaelarnoldart.com/JW%20Turner.htm
The English painter Mallord William Turner is believed to have been one of the first artists to break from naturalism and focus more on portraying the experience of a space or landscape, especially through light and the manipulation of his palate.
Claude Monet is considered the “archetypical Impressionist”. In fact the name of one of his paintings, Impression: Sunrise, gave the new artistic movement its name. This painting of the Hotel des Roches Noire, Trouville uses yellow tones to evoke a sense of warmth, both physically and emotionally. Monet also breaks with the naturalistic tradition and tries to capture motion and atmospheric condition with the billowing flags. The composition is set from human perspective and does not extend past the cone of vision. Monet also uses an extremely limited amount of detail in representing the scene, but it is completely understandable.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir developed a lot of his impressionist technique doing plein-air paintings during his travels of Europe. This painting of Saint Mark’s Square in Venice uses pure unmixed pigment to create the intense color and light reflected off of the cathedral’s dome and façade. The cathedral is rendered in much more complete detail than the rest of the square, denoting it as the uncontested subject of the painting. The much more sketchy quality of the context still gives the viewer enough information to understand the plaza, surrounding buildings, people, and pigeons.
Vincent Van Gogh is technically classified as a post-impressionistic painter. However, he uses many of the same techniques developed by impressionist in his own work. His painting of the covered bridge has a color palate that gives the viewer a feeling of an overcast day. His drawing style gives a very limited amount of information and has a very simplistic, rudimentary style, but the viewer still understands how the bridge is put together, the quality of the space, and how users interact with the space and each other to a certain extent.
In searching for current rendering techniques that exemplify Impressionist ideals, I found very little. Digital renderers are preoccupied with creating photorealistic images, so few digital rendering methods exist that are congruent with the techniques of impressionism. There are some rather feeble attempts to use a mix of layering multiple renders and applying different styles to each layer (either during the render process or in photoshop) to create a more artistic or watercolor effect.
http://sunsignav.blogspot.com/2011/04/watercolors.html
A more effective rendering method is watercolor rendering by hand. This method requires the artist/designer to make decisions about what information to include or eliminate and gives the artist/designer more freedom in expression and color.
The next step in this project is to model and render a design project using Revit and 3DS Max. I will pick 3-5 spaces to render. Starting with one space, I will paint the image following impressionist techniques and document my thought process and procedure as I create the image. This will give me a better understanding of the process of creating an impressionist image. I will then use these insights to inform my rendering and manipulation process in creating a digital impressionist image. This will likely require more research in skill and techniques in digital rendering and a fair amount of experimentation.
Digital resources:
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.
Venturi, Lionello. "The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1 (1941): 34-45.
Webster, J. Carson. "The Technique of Impressionism: A Reappraisal." College Art Journal 4 (1944): 3-22.
