– CGI using blender (please download blender before our next class together)

– Basics of CGI cinematography (how to make a great moving image)

We will look at the principles of lighting, staging, composition, and how it affects 3D space.

In film, set design can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood, which can evoke physical, social, psychological, emotional, economic or cultural signifiers. It can also be used to direct the viewer’s eye. Contemporary artists working at scale similarly design immersive spaces that stage a scene and direct visitors through space. This is relevant to how you set a scene in CGI and we will end this class with an exercise in designing a space using some of the principles and techniques discussed in class.

CGI Cinematography

Chris Brejon

He created a good tutorial about lighting and cinematography.

https://chrisbrejon.com/cg-cinematography/chapter-5-master-lighting/

Also, we can get inspiration from films.

• Orson Welles (see 3rd Man, Citizen Kane)

  

• Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood)

  

• Wes Anderson (Life Aquatic)

  

• Jacque tati (see Playtime)

  

• Hitchcock (see vertigo)

  

• Stanley Kubrick (see 2001 space odyssey)

  

• Alejandro Jodorosky (Holy Mountain)

  

• Deni Villeneuve (Bladerunner)

  

• Claire Denis (High Life)

  

We can get inspiration from artists.

• Tai Shani

  Born London, 1976. Tai Shani’s practice encompasses performance, film, photography and sculptural installations, frequently structured around experimental texts. Taking inspiration from disparate histories, narratives and characters mined from forgotten sources, Shani creates dark, fantastical worlds, brimming with utopian potential.

  

• James Turrell

  Born Los Angeles, 1943. For over half a century, the American artist James Turrell has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception. Turrell, an avid pilot who has logged over twelve thousand hours flying, considers the sky as his studio, material and

  canvas.

  

• Pipilotti Rist

  Born Grabs, Switzerland, 1962. A visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art. Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abstract art, having a preoccupation with the female body.

  

• Judy Chicago

  Born Chicago,1939. An American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture.

  

What exercise I did?

I used Blender to create a twisted ring, a liquid plane and a concrete background wall.

A demo video shows multiple rendering modes.