Современные информационные технологии / 3. Программное обеспечение

Student Demenchuk A.

National Technical University of Ukraine

“Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”

Role of NonPhotorealistic Rendering in contemporary book illustrations

The growth of computer technology was a powerful impetus for the development of innovations in book design. However, despite the widespread usage of computer graphics in book design, the related problems have not received sufficient coverage in the available theoretical sources. The exception are educative publications, a kind of self-instruction for users (see, for example: [1], [2]). However, as rule in such publications the problems of book illustration are not touched and the analysis of computer graphics as an art form is not given enough attention. Meanwhile, computer graphics is an important innovative means of artistic creativity, and research in this area is timely and relevant. It determined my interest in this issue. In this article I will try to identify the distinctive characteristics of computer graphics as a specific type of art, to uncover the features of non-photorealistic visualization and to describe the tools for performing book illustrations using computer technology.

The term "illustration" can be understood in different ways. In a broad sense, this is every image that explains the text. There are many drawings, works of painting and sculpture, which were performed on literary topics, but at the same time had an independent artistic significance. O. Daumier's paintings, based on the novel by M. Cervantes "Don Quixote", V.Serov's drawings to IA Krylov's fables and many other works of this genre, are widely known. In a narrow sense, illustrations are intended for perception in unity with the text to help to better understand the content, more specifically to imagine the era, life, the environment of the characters of the book. Computer graphics allow artists to realize ideas that are difficult to do using traditional techniques. Computer graphics is increasingly integrated into the book illustration sphere, competing with traditional techniques of drawing. What is the difference between the computer graphics product and the traditional artist's illustration? It is generally accepted that with "manual" work, the illustration is endowed with special expression. Indeed, using the artistic possibilities of traditional means of drawing, texture and direction of movement of a brush or other instrument, the artist not only determines the form, but also gives the picture energy and rhythm. Using computer graphics for artistic design, it is necessary to clearly realize that the computer here acts as an artist's tool, like a pencil, pen or brush, but, of course, having its own specific capabilities. A number of unique properties that this kind of art has, distinguishes it from all the traditional ways of creating a graphic image. First of all, it's easy to manipulate with the image, the ability not only to erase some of its parts and add new ones, but also replace one color with another, brighten, darken or even change the whole color scale. Using the graphical editor, you can create complex multi-color compositions on the computer screen, edit them, change and improve, enter various font elements in the drawing, and get ready-made printed products based on the created compositions.

We should recognize that since the advent of computer graphics, emphasis has been placed on the creation of photorealistic images. The methods of creating such images are quite complex, but the result is an image that looks unnatural, although the details are drawn very accurately. The desire to eliminate this deficiency led to the development of a new direction in computer graphics, widely used in book illustration, and called NonPhotorealistic Rendering (NPR). NPR includes methods of imitating traditional artistic material styles and means. At the same time, most of NPR methods are modeling traditional art forms: 1) painting: watercolor, simulating various configurations of brush strokes; 2) drawing: ink, pencil, charcoal, pastel. Software (digital tools) used to create CG NPR illustrations include widely used graphics editors Adobe Photoshop, Painter, and of course hardware, such as different configurations of graphic tablets from different manufacturers. The most professional are the digitizers of Wacom. Graphic tablets significantly facilitate the process of digital drawing, allow you to create the effect of the force of pressing and tilting the pen. The main task of NPR is to combine the beauty and emotionality of traditional artistic representations with the speed and flexibility of computer graphics. NPR provides artists and designers with new opportunities for creativity - they can take advantage of computer graphics, and at the same time, illustrations made, in fact, traditional means, do not lose visual appeal and emotional expressiveness. CG NPR-illustrations differ in the synthesis of brightness and saturation of colors, characteristic for computer graphics, with the materiality and vivacity of art techniques that are typical of traditional types of drawing.

In this article, it was important for me not to describe the technology of preparing computer book illustrations, but to show that this kind of graphic art is realized on the basis of a complex and multifaceted synthesis of the laws of traditional artistic representativeness and the possibilities of computer programs. Nonphotorealistic visualization provides a combination of high quality of book illustrations and the efficiency of their preparation. This type of graphic art is relevant and promising and requires further development.

References

1. Berezovsky VS Basics of computer graphics / VS Berezovsky, VA Potiyenko, I. O. Zavadsky. - K .: Type. Group BHV, 2009. - 400 pp.

2. Levin A. Sh. Self-teacher of computer graphics and sound. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2006. 640 pp.

3. Tutubalin DK, Ushakov DA Computer graphics. Adobe Photoshop. Tomsk: Educational Center "School University", 2005. 92 pp.