ART BREEDER. USING AI TO CREATE ART

Okay, I have to admit, this is the coolest thing that I have come across in some time. It's always been one of my deep interests what makes an iconic image, and of course...

Vincent Van Gogh's Self Portrait Paintings (yes, there are 35 of them) with probably the most famous one from September of 1889, reinterpreted appropriately enough by Dutch artist Bas Uterwijk

who also tackled – and what could be more iconic – The Statue of Liberty from 1885 and Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa from 1519...

Probably THE most iconic, famous, parodied, copied, re-interpreted and viewed painting of all times...

which led me to the ART BREEDER website as I was drilling down on how these photorealistic images were created using artificial intelligence and neural networks. If you want to get away from your Netflix binge and do something more creative and fun, check this out:

What do you think?

BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST

 I can't believe I never posted this, but better late than never. And it's the right time of year. Was pegged to help build these OOH visuals for Samsung's Holiday campaign last year and one of the things I love doing is banging against the limits of Photoshop's canvas size. Built, rendered and composited these while traveling in snow covered British Columbia, which was perfectly inspirational with the help of a local California team to do the onsite heavy lifting of modeling, rendering and logistics. This one went to the 837 store in New York but the 30K OOH master really shined for this store wrap, even just for a week at the new Samsung Retail store that opened just in time for Christmas at the Stanford Shopping mall.

Thank you Meng, Alvin & Patrick for entrusting me with this project. By the time I went back there to share it with the team as a surprise a week later during our Christmas Lunch, the store was already opening... well, glad I got to see it and took pictures while I could.

A COMMERCIAL FOR A COMMERCIAL

How do you pitch the idea of doing a commercial? With a commercial, of course. Just off the Kinestral industrial where Michael Wilde hired me, I turned the tables on him and hired him for the VO and music on this. No need to "pick two and call me in the morning". This one was fast, cheap AND good enough to show off. And one of those "if you do this now, you'll get the commercial later." Hahaha. I've heard and fell for that one before. But it's all good, Mike. Sometimes, if not most of the time, things are out of our hands. The most important thing to me has always been traction, and that the work works.

JUST GOT PAID TODAY

Got me a pocket for of change. It's been a while, but a payment here and there trickled in for this industrial, finished some time back. Thanks, Michael Wilde for this fun project and thank you Kinestral for coming through after all. And thank you John Godbee for your good Cinema 4D work to support this.

A combo of Cinema, Keyshot and AfterEffects motion for this Michael Wilde concept, music, VO and final cut.

NEW WORK

It's been a while since I posted anything here, as I have been busy learning to draw, riding my motorcycle and finding a new woman to call my own. But without further ado, here's some of the latest...


A loop for the new Samsung Retail Store that opened recently in Southern California. A gig for Michael Fisher of MYKNYC in New York City and Tom Stempfley of Samsung Electronics in Dallas, Texas. And here's a look a how it was used along with the way pointer motion loop we did as well (thanks, John!) for the new two-story Samsung Retail Store...

And what else did we have here... oh yes, a still image render for a change...

An OOH-res Key Visual for Alcor eye correction lenses. A gig for art director Slade Seaholm and Art Producer Susan Dore of HBC in Austin, Texas.



And from earlier this year, a logo design including putting it in motion for Mike Fisher's documentary about Fire Island.



Last but certainly not least, I reconnected with Michael Wilde, one of the greatest art directors and craziest and most beautiful minds I've worked with. He was one of the first to entrust me with his ideas back in 2006 with the Ghirardelli pitch. Bite it before it bites you. Know what I mean?

FOUND ARTISTS BOOK

Nice surprise in the mail today. Got my Found Book. I love these guys. They care about design and the details. Best portfolio events, best website and best source book in the industry.

200 BEST DIGITAL ARTISTS WORLDWIDE

And second, I just got a sneak preview of the spread with the three images that made it into this year's bi-annual "200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide" which is both an exciting shot in the arm as it's an honor. With most of the studio work these days being confidential and/or architectural in nature, I honestly wasn't sure we'd have enough top-grade material to be selected for a third time in a row. But thanks to Trevor Oldershaw and Ronny Northrop at Y&R San Francisco, who gave us a shot to go wild at creating these ass-kicking nanobots critters, we made the cut. And speaking of "Thanks To"... a shout-out to all the amazing artists that partook in these is in order too. John Godbee, Devin Nickoloff and Ben Guestella contributed their 3D modeling, texturing, and lighting chops to create these the cool blue meanies now featured in the Fantasy World of Luerzer's Archives unique global CGI compendium. Congratulations and thanks to all of you!