kermaco futuristic concept design

Adventures in AI

General / 19 April 2022

After many experiments with earlier Artificial Intelligence art tools, I have finally found an entryway into this new technology that could be useful for future projects. The tool is Disco Diffusion, an open source app on Google Collab which generates images based on a prompt. I had tried similar tools before with interesting results, but this one came up with images that were very compelling, and I have been letting it run while I work on other projects and making minor adjustments to the prompt to direct the results in different directions.

What's interesting is that you can specify the names of artists in the prompt and it will generate images based on that artist's style. This is currently a very controversial topic, especially if the artist in question is not credited or compensated for the use of their style or work. It will take some time for the legal aspects to catch up with how to adequately credit creators, hopefully it's sooner rather than later. I circumvented this issue by pointing the prompt to my own work, and it came up with very interesting results.

The tool also produces animations, but they are not a realistic rendition of being in the world, but more of a fractal like zooming and navigating towards the generative nature of what is produced. You can also provide the AI with seed images that it can use to generate the compositions which I will try soon.

In conclusion, I think we have opened a door to something interesting that will only get better. There obviously will be a lot of controversy around this topic until it settles into some sort of steady state, but like everything else, it is here to stay in one form or another. We can still not direct the result with specificity, and even though the images are pleasant to look at, they are still a temporal snapshot and an abstraction.

El Dorado

General / 20 September 2017

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ZBrush Sculpting Workshop: Sci-Fi Design and Development: Gnomon School of Visual Effects

General / 07 August 2017

WHAT: ZBrush Sculpting Workshop: Sci-Fi Design and Development :
Eric Keller, Ara Kermanikian, Steve Talkowski
WHEN: Thursday August 17 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: Gnomon Stage - 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90038 - RSVP HERE
LIVESTREAM at the Gnomom livestream channel HERE

ZBrush Sculpting Workshop: Sci-Fi Design & Development
Thursday, August 17th, 2017, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Improve your ZBrush sculpts with workflow tips and tricks from three ZBrush masters with distinctive styles and approaches: Eric Keller, Ara Kermanikian, and Steve Talkowski at Gnomon School of Visual Effects. Meet the artists and learn from their decades of experience at the Gnomon Stage. The event will cover three unique methods to visualizing the future, including hard-surface, organic, and stylized projects. The workshop is free to attend – be sure to RSVP – and will also stream on Gnomon’s Livestream channel.

Explore Biomechanical Creature Design with Eric Keller

Discover how the new tools and techniques in ZBrush 4R8 can be used to generate unique, Giger-esque designs for sci-fi creature development. “I’ll also discuss how studying invertebrate zoology provides an informed inspiration in my approach to design,” Eric adds.

Master an Efficient Polysculpting Workflow with Ara Kermanikian

Learn how to apply a strategic approach to modeling and creating high concept, hard-surface designs, and see how to utilize storytelling in a design workflow. Ara says: “I’ve learned so much watching my heroes present at Gnomon, and am excited to share some of my work and contribute some of the results of my journey to this lore.”

From 2D Designs to 3D Characters with Steve Talkowski

Journey through the process of designing characters and taking them from 2D to 3D using Maya, ZBrush, and Keyshot, and get an insight into some of Steve’s impressive ZBrush 4R8 designs created during the beta testing period for Pixologic.

“I would like to thank you so much for arranging and sharing online many amazing events at Gnomon. I am trying not to miss any of them. They are so valuable and help [me] to understand various aspects of the industry and artists’ workflows, which you would never read in any article or see in tutorials. Enormous thank you for sharing this knowledge!”
— Anna Kvederis
Schedule

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Master an Efficient Polysculpting Workflow with Ara Kermanikian
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: From 2D Designs to 3D Characters with Steve Talkowski
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Explore Biomechanical Creature Design with Eric Keller

— https://www.gnomon.edu/community/events/zbrush-sculpting-workshop-scifi-design-development?mc_cid=31f0304d7d&mc_eid=4715c5f5b7

Meteor Defense Mecha - MANTIS - Split-Leg Configuration

General / 31 July 2017

Exoplanet based exploration and mining missions are vulnerable to meteor impact due to lack of protective atmosphere. The MANTIS mech would be deployed in teams to protect scientific labs, exploration teams and mining equipment from incoming meteor threats with sophisticated long-range tracking and ballistic capabilities.

Modeled in ZBrush 4R8 and textured and rendered with KeyShot.

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Meteor Defense Mecha - MANTIS

General / 08 July 2017

Exoplanet based exploration and mining missions are vulnerable to meteor impact due to lack of protective atmosphere. The MANTIS mech would be deployed in teams to protect scientific labs, exploration teams and mining equipment from incoming meteor threats with sophisticated long-range tracking and ballistic capabilities.

Modeled in ZBrush 4R8 and textured and rendered with KeyShot.

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