The Computer in the Visual Arts

Introducing a dynamic medium for artistic expression and graphic communication

"This is a seminal contribution-a must-read for anyone interested in how computers are used in art and design. Spalter masterfully presents the principles and practices of this vital and rapidly growing field. She blends just the right amount of technology with applications and implications to the visual arts, in an easy-to-read, informative style.." -- Andries van Dam, T. J. Watson, Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education and Professor of Computer Science, Brown University, and coauthor of the authoritative book, Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice.

"At last!" Those are the words that most often greet Anne Morgan Spalter's new book--an introduction to computer graphics uniquely focused on the computer as a medium for artistic expression and graphic communication--the first comprehensive work to combine technical and theoretical aspects of the emerging field of computer art and design.
Integrating theory, examples, and the concepts underlying all the major types of graphics software, Spalter explains the principles and practices that artist, designers, illustrators, and photographers simply must understand to take full advantage of this dynamic, visual medium.
Each program is presented as part of a larger picture, profusely illustrated with diagrams and art works, including many in color.

Coverage includes:
Digital painting and photoediting Digital design and layout The building and rendering of 3D worlds Animation Multimedia The World Wide Web
Chapters on input and output address the wide range of tools and techniques for working with art and design software, and for creating both screen-based and printed works. Excerpts from interviews with artists and computer scientists add perspective to both the origins and the future directions of the field. Although some of the book's exercises require common application software, the main body of this text is platform- and application-independent.

"For years I've been searching the shelves for a book like this, a book that gathers together the loose strands of the 'computer art' movement.... She gives the whole picture- pioneer artists, technical principles, artistic choices, creative uses and misuses, all with the freshness of the hands-on practitioner." -- James Faure Walker has spent the past 10 years integrating computer graphics into his painting, and is currently a lecturer in painting/computer graphics at UCE, Birmingham, England.

Anne Morgan Spalter is currently Artist in Residence, Brown Computer Graphics Group, Department of Computer Science, Brown University and Outreach Director, The NSF Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization. She designed the first computer art course at Brown and taught joint- ly there and at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She has degrees in mathematics (Brown) and in painting (RISD). Her own computer art has been exhibited both in the U.S. and abroad. She is the founder of the College Art Association SIG for Computers in the Visual Arts.

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