[Edu-sig] RE: programming for artists

[Arthur Siegel]

>I see it a little differently. Perhaps because I tend to think
>structurally/spatially+visually much of the time, perhaps because I am not
>very 'good' at Math even though I really love it - [something which always
>perplexed my teachers in high school. I spent a lot of time folding paper
>and using scissors from an early age.

But my math is core 'rap' from another angle:

Can one use the Python interface to Blender in any significant way
without a decent grasp of certain mathematical concepts - trig is
basic to defining paths for animation, for example. Or defining shapes.
Or, I would argue, in talking to Blender in any significant way at all.

Given that ones interests are artistic at their core, why bother to learn
programming in pursuit of those interests if not to have more control,
to interface with available tools at a lower level, to  remove barriers
and limits set by others.

At a very practical level, math proficiency becomes key and fundamental
to removing such barriers.  Can one do good raytracing - true artwork -
without
being armed with the right mathematical concepts. One might argue yes, but
a good artist it seems to me won't settle for work_arounds and canned tools
to achieve effects he might want to achieve. He'll go straight at it,
acquiring
the full range of  skills necessary.

In about everything I've seen with computer generated graphics, if one
wants to work with freedom, at a low level of interface to one's
tools - that means a good degree of math proficiency in addition to
the ability the write code, scripts, whatever.

I for one both learned the math to draw the pictures and drew the pictures
to
learn the math, never really knowing or particularly caring which goal
was primary.

Does that count as right side /left side brain dynamics?

Certainly the experience has been exhilarating. And perhaps more than
anything
its that exhilaration I am trying to communicate - not as might sound,
trying to come at other people ideas, sensibilities.

Python/Numeric/VPython kind of rule (as a starting point), IMO.

If I got where I am now 25 years earlier,  I'd be dangerous - eventually.

ART