Art Created in the Digital Medium

The Artist's Digital Art Tools

One of the most exciting aspects of the digital art creation process is the wide variety of tools at the artist's disposal. When you couple the variety of tools with the fact that any mixture of these tools can be used collectively to create a given piece of art, the result is that the digital artist is far more liberated than his traditional counterparts.

Computer Graphics Software Used in the Digital Art Creation Process

The graphic software that I use can be separated into two broad categories. One category would be the traditional 2D paint and image processing software. The other category would be what is known as integrated 3D software packages. In addition, there are various graphics utilities whose only purpose is to facilitate the opening and reading of various image files. For example, the FITS Liberator Photoshop Plugin is a package that makes it possible for Photoshop to open and read astronomical image files, such as those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. NASAVIEW is a utility that allows the user to open and convert to a standard graphics file format the Planetary Data System IMG files used to store the images returned by the various planetary exploration missions.

There are a variety of 2D graphics software products that I use to either create images, manipulate existing images, or to just experiment with for the purpose of gaining insight. These packages are:

• Adobe Photoshop
• AIP4WIN Astronomical Image Processing Software
• Apopyhsis
• Corel Painter
• Ultrafractal

The primary 2D graphics application that I use is Adobe Photoshop. In addition, I have written some small Perl applications for use in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop.

In the realm of 3D graphics software, the following are my principal software tools:

• Corel Bryce
• Nutek Lightwave
• Pandromeda Mojoworld

Bryce was the first 3D graphics software that I used. This was followed my Mojoworld, which I still use on occasion. Lightwave has since become my 3D graphics package of choice.

Hardware Used in the Digital Art Creation Process

The computer hardware platform I use consists of a desktop running Windows XP Pro and, when travelling, a laptop also running Windows XP Pro.

The hardware that I use in the image creation process consists of the following:

• Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet and Pen for painting, drawing, etc.
• Nikon digital camera for image capture
• Nikon 35mm camera in conjunction with a Minolta film scanner for image capture
• Epson 1270 printer for image proofing

For final printing, I use a professional print service that caters to the needs of the digital artist.

The art that I create is always some combination of the above tools. Perhaps the only exception is the creation of abstract and astronomical images, many of which are created exclusively in Photoshop.

The empire of man over things is founded on the arts and sciences alone.

Bacon, Novum Organum