Liquid Crystal

To anyone who wishes to become a master of their craft: take a step back and examine the basic fundamentals of your art.  Understand why things work the way they do.  In this particular case, I took the basic element of computer graphics, the pixel, and studied its division.

Pixels can be divided into three sections: red, green, and blue.  Each of these colors can hold different values (0 to 255) and use the illusion of color vibration to create new colors.   In the example, I’ve created an enlarged example of subpixels, showing off complex colors such as green, orange, and pink.  If you blur your vision for a second, you get a better sense of how color vibration works.  Note that all of these colors are created using red, green, and blue set to different values.  In other words, the colors are all pure and there and all the mixing is done with your eyes.  Due to the fixed layout of these subpixels, a bleeding phenomenon can occur in certain cases.  On the right, you’ll notice a blue line.  This is an artifact of the pink color.  Since the green is muted, the blue is out by it’s lonesome self.

It turned out to be a pretty thought-provoking study, though I’ve struggled to figure out how to apply this knowledge.  Maybe someday I’ll come back to it.

Galaga

Two years ago I captured some photos of various videogames using the long exposure technique. I was mainly interested in the idea of light painting and the patterns that would emerge from all the dancing pixels. In addition to the dazzling array of lights, I noticed that each shot told a story.

The intensity of a boxing match in Mike Tyson’s Punchout! is captured in a way standard screenshots and movies cannot. While we can feel the impact of the blow from a well shot photograph, the barrage of punches in a long exposure shot turns the bout into a supernatural feat.

Galaga transformed more into a traditional light show.  Many of the graphics remain firmly planted in 2D, though the legions of sprites toward the top of the image begin to give the illusion that they are breaking into the third dimension.

The ghosts in Ms. Pac-man begin to take on a more see-through, apparition-like appearance with eerie colored trails of light filling up the pathways.

I apologize for the image quality, this was more of an experiment for me.  In addition to these, I took a photograph of Bubble Bobble, but it’s not quite ready for display at the moment.  I would like to do Mario Bros. and Balloon Fight in the future.  Are there any games you’d like to see shot?