Ballistic Publishing's Exposé 4

Nov 27, 2006 at 12:00 am by Store Staff


Exposé 4 published by Ballistic Publishing is the latest in a series of computer graphic image showcase publications. Daniel Wade and Paul Hellard came together to produce this fine record of the best of the best of digital images. Why? Because, web sites come and go, and the work of the best digital artists should be preserved in print. Indeed, on page 5, Dan and Paul wrote, “Though digital art has had to fight for its credibility in the traditional art world, publications like the EXPOSE series have shown that great art is great regardless of the medium.”

EXPOSÉ 4 has 20 categories: Fantasy, Exterior Architeture, Interior Architecture, Portrait (painted) Portrait (rendered), Action, Conflict, Faery Folk, Creatures, Environment, Cityscape, Matte Painting, Science Fiction, Abstract and Design, Product Design and Still Life, Horror, Surreal, Humerous, Whimisical, and Transport. Of the 5200 entries received by the publishers, only a few of the best were chosen for each category, with Excellence given to the runner up and Master awarded to the top images of the category. The Grand Master Award Winner was Stephan Martiniere. Stephen certainly put the detail into every image whether it was a sailing ship on the dock, or a science fiction scene in a war torn city.

Clothos, the image by Carolyn White which took the Master for Fantasy, was so powerful and crystal clear, I felt like I was standing right there watching the character spin her web.

The Exterior Architecture images were absolutely photo realistic. It appears today with digital art that there is no difference between an artist concept of a building in a city, or the photograph taken weeks after the project is actually completed. Congrats to Lewis Quinn and Richard Moss for Master and Excellence awards, both artists from Great Britain.

Equally stunning were the Interior Architecture Master and Excellence winners, Geoffrey Packer and Paul Manning, both also from Great Britain. And it didn’t stop there. I found the detail, lighting, and composition of Kamal Birdi’s "Fine Dining" image to be quite captivating. Kamal is from Bahrain.

The Painted Portrait Master, Melanie Delon from France, and the Excellence winner, John Kearney from Great Britain, worked entirely in Photoshop to produce portraits better than any brush or graphite or render. One of the most stunning images was from Marta Dahlig of Poland, "His Only Friend." This section that was done also in Painter and ArtRage, simply is the heart of artwork in the digital media.
 


"Healing"
3ds Max, Brazil r/s, Photoshop
Hyung-jun Kim, KOREA  


The Rendered Portrait category was equally spectacular. Master Greg Petchkovsky from Australia produced an awesome creature with just a touch of rememberance of dear old grandma. Ecellence winner Hyung-jun Kim of Korea provided a wonderful young lady holding a white bird. The realism is fantastic. And yes, there was a vixen with a sword somewhere in the mix.

Chih-Han Hsu from Australia took the Master for Action with the "Leviathan" image. Skan Srisuwan from Thailand was awarded Excellence for the complex scene "The Conductor." The action category has everything from bicycle riding, to superheroes, to Godzilla-sized robots walking the streets of a frightened city.

The Conflict category sported three masters. Dave Seeley from the USA for his "Battle of Bunker Hill" shared the category with Master Ted Terranova of the USA, Simon Robert of Romania, and Luis Nunez de Casro of Spain. Alessandro Baldasseroni of Italy took the Excellence category along with Raymond Swanland of the USA, Don Mak of Hong Kong, and Monsit Jangariyawong of Thailand.

The Faery Folk Master was Patrick Parish of Canada with his "WoodWalker" done in Photoshop and Painter. Kyung Up Hyun of Korea took the Excellence category with "Angel Warrior" done in Painter.


 


"WoodWalker"
Photoshop, Painter
Patrick Parish, CANADA

 


One of the wildest categories was the Creatures section. Xiao-Chen Fu of China produced the "China Summoner" in Photoshop for the Master award, and Excellence was awarded to Glen Angus of USA for "Thor." There were dragons and lizards and snakes and dinosaurs and oh my, you have to go see for yourself.

The Environment Master went to Daniel Dociu of the USA and Mark Simonetti of France. Thierry Diozon of Canada took the Excellence award. One of my favorites was the "Dr. Hartog Mansion" done in Photoshop by Marjin Giesbertz of The Netherlands.

Cityscapes Master went to Daniel Dociu of USA, along with Ekarat Abhiratvorakul of Thailand and Toni Bratincevic of Croatia. Excellence went to Stephan Martiniere of USA. The Cityscapes clearly required a lot of painstaking detail and time to complete the complexity of the images represented in Exposé 4.

Matte Painting Master went to Dylan Cole of USA for a photoshop work called "Cuoti City" nestled in the plush green mountains of fantasyland. Excellence went to Deak Ferrand of USA, also a Photoshop work.

Sparth of USA took the Master Science Fiction category. Excellence went to Frederic St. Arnaud of Canada. The future is in the eye of the artist.

Abstract and Design was a category that reminded me of a cross between Monte Python’s Flying Circus and fractal imagery. Congrats to Tim Borgman of Germany for the Master award, and Excellence to Cherie Treweek and Jannes Hendrikz of South Africa who collaborated on their entry.

Perhaps the most lucrative category was the Product Design and Still life. Here, the latest in Cell Phones and binocular cut-aways and soda bottles were displayed. Kornel Ravadits of Hungary took the Master award, and Carles Piles of Spain was awarded Excellence.

Of course, what is art without a horror category, eh? Master went to Jean-Yves Lelcercq of Belbim, and Excellence went to Wendell Penedo of Brazil.

The Surreal category is appropriately named. Master went to Andrew Mamo of Australia, and Excellence went to Dennis Sibeijn of The Netherlands. Jonathan Kemp’s Cyborg head looked familiar with regards to a few concepts shown at SIGGRAPH 2005.

Humorous was indeed humorous. From bowling snowmen, to little girls playing surgeon on their teddy bears, everyone brought a smile to my face with their art. Masters were Chris Ollis of Great Britain, Bobby Chiu of Canada, Ramon Acedo of Spain, and Oliver Wetter of Germany. Excellence went to Blaz Porenta of Slovenia.

Whimsical included light bulbs that were self-aware and could plug themselves in at will and an obsessive and slightly disgruntled rabbit with brightly colored Easter eggs. Master went to Andre Kutscherauer of Germany. Excellence went to Jonny Duddle of Great Britain and Ken Won of Australia.

The final category, Transport, has everything from motorcycles, to trains, to cars, to airplanes, to docking space ships. Master went to Fernando Faria of Brazil, Partin Lised of the Czech Republic and Andrea Bertaccini of Italy. Excellence went to Kurt Miller of USA.

Now for the software. Photoshop was in the lead as the most popular program used for the images. In no particular order, there were images that used Painter, Sketchup, 3DS Max, V Ray, VIZ, finalRender, Maya, Cinema 4D, AutoCad, AccuRender, Brazil r/s, Z-Brush, Mental Ray, Lightwave, SoftimageXSI, After Effects, Deep Paint, Combustion, Poser, Premiere, Body Paint 3D, vue d’Espirit, Illustrator, FreeHand, Sketchbook Pro, Rhino, Bryce, and Solidworks.

If you want some inspiration and oohhh and aaahhh imagery, this is the book for you!

Exposé 4 from Ballistic Publishing $49.95 (USD) 

 

About Ballistic Publishing

Ballistic Publishing is the leading, award-winning, independent publisher of books for the digital arts industry. Dedicated to producing the highest quality publications celebrating the talents of digital artists worldwide, it is setting high standards in all areas of publishing from the quality of content, design and delivery to its responsiveness to the market. Ballistic Publishing shares a strong affiliation with the digital arts community through its sister organization The CGSociety (The Computer Graphics Society). Ballistic Publishing is based in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, with offices in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) and Tampa (Florida, USA).


All supporting images are copyright to their respective artists, and used with permission from Ballistic Publishing.
All content and images cannot be copied, printed, or reproduced in any manner without written permission.

Tech News is a regular featured column with Renderosity Staff Columnist Eric Post [EricofSD]. Eric reports on breaking technology news, as well as other areas, through articles, interviews, and product reviews.
November 27, 2006
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