The Undiscovered Country The Art of Pictorial 3-D Stereo Animation Ina Conradi School Of Art, Design and Media Nanyang Technological University Singapore e-mail: inaconradi@ntu.edu.sg Yew Yong Xiang Ivan School Of Art, Design and Media Nanyang Technological University Singapore e-mail: YEWY0003@ntu.edu.sg Abstract—With new electronic media, novel ways of thinking in visual arts have emerged that are constantly redefining traditional and digital painting methodologies. By taking advantage available 3D hardware and software technologies, it is possible to introduce stereo imaging as a novel visual art form and to a wider audience. While refashioning earlier media of painting, perspective and experimental digital animation, artists are closely exploring the relationships between the overlapping worlds of visual art, architecture, and new technologies. At the same time, the viewer is becoming essential in the construction of the image contributing to a new set of aesthetic and cultural principles. The Undiscovered Country will focus on 3D stereo art content development. Keywords: pictorial, experimental animation, 3D stereo, painting, monoscopic surface I. INTRODUCTION As digital imaging fuels stereography at every level of image capture (generation, manipulation and display) the need for a fundamental pedagogy and toolset is evident daily [1]. Recently completed research into artistic digital image methodologies has continued with explorations of 3D Stereoscopy in the art of animation and digital media expression. The major advantage of stereoscopy in fine art is that the work no longer remains flat and restricted to the two-dimensionality of the canvas. Once fused by viewer, pictorial elements appear to protrude in front of the display surface and others recede, making the experience more immersive (Fig 1). [1] Example of using fluid dynamics to paint. Anaglyph view of 3D stereo animated piece titled Chryscholla © Yew, Y. X. I.[2] II. “UTOPIANS OF THE IMAGE” In fine arts, human perception plays a central role in establishing a channel between the artist and his audience, over which emotions, feelings and ideas may be communicated. Our intellectual experience complements spatially and formally, to the optical phenomenon perceived by the eye, and renders them into a comprehensible whole. On the other hand, photographic camera reproduces the purely optical picture. In painting, some of the monocular depth cues such are light and shade, relative size, interposition, textural gradient, aerial perspective, motion parallax, linear perspective, have been vastly exploited and exaggerated to compensate for the absence of binocular depth cues (binocular disparity and convergence 1 3 [ ]. Binocular depth cues are provided by the two retinal images perceived, from our left and right eyes. In the presence of binocular depth cues, the human visual system is able to evaluate and appreciate depth information [4]. When stereo pairs of images are created and presented to each eye, care must be taken to properly reproduce these cues, otherwise the viewer will experience discomfort. The suggestive phrase ‘utopians of the image’ is used by stereographer, artist, Ray Zone in his article on 3D stereography. He said that the discovery of stereography 2 5 preceded the invention of photography as well as motion pictures. He says: “In fact, the realism of the very first stereo view cards drove the invention of motion pictures. These inventors looked through the stereoscopes and a saw a 3D image, and asked themselves, ‘What’s missing?’ Well, motion was missing, so as utopians of the image, they set out to add not just motion, but sound, and color, and depth” [ ]. The artists, painters, filmmakers are continuing to create experiences that are not simply mimicking reality. In fact, they are embracing the ways that works of art are different from reality [6]. In today’s hybrid mixed media art works, depth is still very powerful perception tool. To arrive at “a painting which shall not be distinguished in the mind from the object itself,” is 1 The simultaneous inward movement of both eyes toward each other on the object of attention in an effort to maintain single binocular vision 2 literally meaning is rendering the forms of volume on a flat plane