I have a personal project I have been working on a for a few years now that involves using unrelated elements to generate new forms. The idea originated with my life-long interest in electronic music and a specific attribute known as vocoding, wherein a signal from one source is manipulated with characteristics from another source. I asked myself, what are other ways to explore this approach? I began by taking arbitrary geometric paths from one vector design and then using that to create form. Using this simple introduction I experimented with different ways to create form from the lines. From there I came up with the idea of using paths taken from specific shapes, like the edges of clouds, and then translating between first two, and then multiple paths, and then using those to further establish compelling forms and images, thus the name Cirrus Architecture.
After seeing some very pleasing results I realized I could expand this notion in a new direction by using images of audio wave forms. Even more interesting is the idea that I could use waveforms from insect mandible chatter or insect and avian communication via wing vibrations. What started as a mere experiment quickly turned into something that I could translate as my own artistic style, as seen in the image above. What were originally relationships between vector paths have been transformed into landscapes and structures much like clouds, where what is seen is subjective.
As I said this is a long-term personal design project and my goal now is to translate this into CG. I imagine the main issue in doing this is creating texture maps with alpha channels that accurately depict the fluid structures seen in these images. Below is a detail from Wind In Amber.
The image below has a sort of arthropod quality to it.
A detail:
Click on the above image to see it enlarged. If you look closely you can then see tiny orange figures at the base of the structures on the ground. I put those there for scale.
Below is a detail from the first image in this post:
Below we are zoomed in quite far, such that you can see individual vector lines. As mentioned, when viewed from afar these simple vector lines appear as objects with depth, dimension, light and shading.
These pieces are quite large, some roughly 15 feet in width. Below is one titled Wind In Amber:
So there you have it. Even though I can create these forms with different source material, I call it Cirrus Architecture because the forms, like clouds, are without limits and what we see in them is subjective, like clouds. I hope you like it!
Eric Chamberlain 