Difference between analog and digital painting?

#3

then i got a stupid question as well, what is matte painting really, though i think I am doin a lot, but what exact does it cover? is it basically painting done for environments for films and games??

#4

I think analog also may be reffering to art programs made to imitate real life art tools, like Painter. The Ryan Church Gnomon DVD are in the Analog series after all, and he uses painter, I think. I migh be wrong though.

#5

i think in case of the gnomon dvd’s they say analog because a lot of analog drawing teqniques with pencil and markers are covered there as well

#6

Digital is computer generated - analogue is using natural media such as pencil, oil paint, watercolor etc.

Isn’t that the most simple explanation ?

#7

analog refers to anything that is mechanically generated in reality, digital refers to the representation of something in computer memory by a binary system of 1 and 0’s (on or off)

#8

Can we stop using the term analogue when refering to traditional painting and drawing, please? As far as I can tell Gnomon started this and it’s a really silly misuse of the word.

Analogue means anything that is generated by variable, continuous mesaurable quantities, not anything that is not digital or anything that is not done on a computer. Technically, when painting on a computer with a pressure sensitive tablet, your strokes are analogue. The pressure is a continuous, variable, measurable quantity just like the thumbsticks on a game controller. It is analogue.

#9

I thouth analogue meant a way of storing information on casette tapes and VHS tapes… It is not in 0 and 1 ( digital/numerical ) but in a wave type of patern on the tape. I’m no expert I could be wrong.

#10

I generally agree with Cronholio . . . it’s not quite the correct use of the word.

However, I would have to disagree that a pressure-sensitive tablet is an analog input–technically it’s not continuous, but instead usually has something like 1024 levels of sensitivity, so it actually has discrete values.

Hentsteph is also right that the wave patterns on non-digital tapes is considered analog. But be careful. The image information itself (luminance, color, etc.) is analog, but since it’s split up by frames or fields, that set of information has discrete values, which means it’s digital! Craziness!!

(Okay, so that’s a stretch–no one really considers the fact that we divide up things by frames to mean digital, but I’m just taking the meaning to the very end. We’ll just stick to using the terms “analog” and “digital” to refer to the information itself.)

#11

Tradtional isn’t really the right word either, as you can use traditional techniques in digital paint. I also hate the word “painterly” that’s turned up recently.

#12

So let us make up some new words then! :smiley:

Or how about we just use cg and not cg… and kinda cg.

#13

Heh. Need to dig up that dictionary file again.

What about oldschool instead of analog? :smiley:

#14

How about, instead of ‘analogue’, ‘traditional’, or ‘non-digital’:

“ScratchyMessyNoUndo”!

Say it three times… see how it has a beautiful rythm to it? :slight_smile:
Or make it “Scressdo” for short.

#15

I prefer to just say ‘Uh-oh.’ It’s fast, simple and covers all eventualities. :slight_smile:

#16

i agree … lets just not use the stupid term. plan and simply gnomon uses it to seperate 2d vs 3d … my point is drawing is drawing

#17

The main difference? CRTL+Z.

#18

gnomon dvd’s say analog because they play in dvd players and are recorded in dvd resolution

while the digital dvds are 1024 resolution and do not play in dvd, but are computer only

i am sure, of course, i could easily be wrong, i only have a few, have not tried all of them yet, he he

so i think gnomon are refering to the dvd tech, not the way they create the art

>joe

#19

You’re almost correct.

Almost all the Analog titles are DVD’s, but a few are DVD-ROM’s (I think four right now):
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/ana_ble.html

Also, according to Gnomon’s website:

“The term Analog refers to traditional skills training in areas such as drawing, painting, sculpture and design.”

So, there you have it. But Joe had a pretty good idea.

#20

I would agree of others who’ve already noted that analog is not the proper term for traditional media. I think that “computer generated” and “traditional media” are much more likely to be understood by artists or even lay people you speak to about such things.

Of course ten years from now when CG artwork gets its due, we will become “traditional” and some clown will have to come up with a new term (ha).

And while in theory our computers are digital, art programs come awfully close to analog input/output given that our color spectrum (with 24/32-bit color) offers (according to some experts) several million discrete colors. Yes, in theory those are million discrete colors and therefore digital. But to most of our eyes, the look is an analog sweep through the spectrum rather than a collection of points.

Ditto with a gradient. In fact, when we see a collection of discrete colors in a gradient, we figure something is wrong. We’re not in digital territory any more, Toto.

I would bet that some of our computer-generated gradients are actually smoother and more gradual than those transitions created in the physical world with, say, an airbrush.

Now here’s the question: That being the case, does that make the airbrush digital and our computer generated artwork analog?

No? Yes? Maybe CG and traditional is best for now.

–Duncan

Cover artist for HarperCollins’ Digital Artwork for the 21st Century.
See more of my work at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

#21

The word continuous as used here means unbroken, not infinite. Each time you draw a stroke on a tablet you are using an analogue interface to your computer.

It’s continuous in the sense that each stroke on the tablet is generates continuous unbroken line, variable in that the pressure that generates the stroke varies over the length of the stroke and measurable in that there are 1024 levels of pressure, the absolute definition of analogue.

I’m all for just calling it modeling and painting whether you do it on a computer or your kitchen table. It’s all the same. There are subtle differences in techniques you use (for instance the paint or clay on your computer never dries so you can work as slowly as you like) but in the end, it’s the basic techniques are analogous (meaning similar ;P).

#22

Ah, I see your reasoning, but the purist in me still disagrees. But that’s okay . . . it’s not that either one of us is wrong–just different views. So we can still live in harmony. :wink: