Larson Among 'Leading Creators' in CGI Field

Leafing through Peter Weishar’s book CGI: The Art of the 3-D Computer Generated Image, one will easily recognize images from the movies Toy Story, Ice Age, and The Lord of the Rings. Placed among these well-known images is Stephan Larson’s (Art and Design) art, showcasing snake-like tubes and floating squares that somewhat resemble a DNA strand.

“The pictures (like the one at right titled Exploration, Structure) are inspired by biology, physics and chemistry,” Larson said. “It’s the notion that everything on one level is made of little bits and that you can take anything and break it into smaller pieces—cells, molecules, atoms.”

The publisher of the book noticed Larson's images when his work was exhibited at the SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego. One thing led to another and Larson’s art was eventually published among 250 images from the "leading creators in film, television, games and fine art in the Computer Generated Image (CGI) field."

“The book is filled with some of the most respected CGI artists in the world and it is a tremendous honor to be included in their company,” Larson said.

The book description reads: "Stephan Larson has been creating images with computers since an Atari 400 computer showed up in his home. While technology has changed a bit since then, he continues to use computers as his primary production tool, taking periodic forays into drawing using more classical media.

He has been producing animations since 1990; his first notable computer-generated animation, "Mondrian, a Revisitation," was completed in 1992. His work has been shown in more than 100 exhibitions throughout the world including the ACM SIGGRAPH Animation Theater (1995 and 1996), Anima Mundi (2000), and the ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery (2003). Larson has been teaching computer graphics and animation since 1996."

Larson works anywhere from an afternoon to several days on the computer to create three-dimensional shapes. He compares the process to a photographer taking a picture of a still life; the photographer first arranges the objects, then freezes the image with his camera. Larson basically does the same on his computer, digitally.

Currently, Larson is working on new images to be displayed at the DeVos Art Museum during its series, “State of the Digital Art,” in October.

Selections of his art can be viewed at Larson Images.