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Seeking Poetic Expression In the Digital Age
Dennis Allain wins Ferriss Award.
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The jury cited Allain for his "unusual and bold composition and for a complex blend of exacting detail against an ethereal mood of shadows and earth tones."
Allain's image, titled "Arthur V. McCarthy Memorial", was deemed the year's most outstanding work, garnering the designation "Best in Show". This year's competition drew nearly 500 entries from five continents with 60 pieces selected for the exhibition.
When using software, Allain also advises going beyond the given. "I have a HAIR module in CINEMA 4D. Now, when am I going to put hair on a building? However, I can use it to understand some crazy-looking tree or piping for some fantastic-looking furnace. Grab the tools and look how you can apply them."
Allain takes the CINEMA 4D render, brings it into Photoshop and paints over the image in a series of layers. Allain says: "I will paint onto an image until it gets to be about 200 to 250 Megs in size, then save the image as 'STG2', flatten it and begin to paint all over again. With each stage I add more and more detail until the piece is finally done. Typically, I will have four or five 200MB files that represent the progress of the painted image. This approach has been helpful in two ways. First, it [improves] computer performance [due to the smaller] file sizes and it becomes a bit easier to revise images, should there be any changes."
Allain's software of choice was not one of the more common, as he wanted to distinguish himself by choosing a less generic program. [Allain started] with Bryce, then went looking for something more robust, trying 3ds max, LightWave 3D, Form Z and CINEMA 4D. "All programs worked well and were relatively easy to learn" says Allain. "However, it was CINEMA 4D's exceptional ease of use that helped me make a final decision to fully embrace it."
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Dennis Allain
The American Society of Architectural Illustration
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