LOS ANGELES, California – My colleagues from the USC Game Innovation Lab and I spent the morning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) conducting the rarest of research activities by looking closely at the actual source material. We were there to see, then deconstruct*, the seminal works of the Hudson River School – as represented by the exhibit Nature and the American Vision – whose aesthetics of beauty and politics are a primary reference for Walden, a game.
(In all our excitement, we forgot to figure out who influenced Cole. **)
* Deconstructing Hudson River School Paintings
P. O. V. & Composition:
….slightly above eye-level, as if standing on a boulder.
__The horizon line is drawn below the center of the composition.
Light & Color:
….creates a sense of depth.
….holds detail even in the brightest and darkest areas, like HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Photography.
__The foreground uses deep, rather than dark colors.
__The middle-ground uses a vivid color palate, and pools of light.
__Distant terrain and the sky use a pastel color palate with luminous, slightly over-exposed lighting.
__Atmospheric haze softens the image, pushing focus to areas without the haze.
__The sun is rarely rendered.
Man & Nature:
__Including man and man-made objects provide a sense of scale.
__Man is not glorified and is in harmony with nature.
__Nature has a glorified grandeur and hyper-realistic quality
**
3 years later Verso, the Huntington's blog, provides the answer in the post titled The Most Influential Artist You’ve Never Met
I was reminded Immersive Environments and Virtual Reality are rooted in Painting.
We scattered and swarmed, scattered and swarmed; as we fell into the world of the paintings. Our virtual ferry ride up the Hudson River was guided by the School’s founder, British-born Thomas Cole, He influenced a generation of patriotic American painters, who used oil paint as a weapon of propaganda and pride. Cole would be proud to know his influence reaches past his passing, as the 4th tallest mountain in the Catskill is named after him, and he would have never guessed a few patriotic video-game-makers would cite, in hindsight, Cole's School as their primary visual influence.  |
| Walden project director Tracy Fullerton, transported to Hudson River, New York, 1830 |
(In all our excitement, we forgot to figure out who influenced Cole. **)
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Lead Artist Lucas Peterson goes for a hike at sunset.
|
* Deconstructing Hudson River School Paintings
P. O. V. & Composition:
….slightly above eye-level, as if standing on a boulder.
__The horizon line is drawn below the center of the composition.
Light & Color:
….creates a sense of depth.
….holds detail even in the brightest and darkest areas, like HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Photography.
__The foreground uses deep, rather than dark colors.
__The middle-ground uses a vivid color palate, and pools of light.
__Distant terrain and the sky use a pastel color palate with luminous, slightly over-exposed lighting.
__Atmospheric haze softens the image, pushing focus to areas without the haze.
__The sun is rarely rendered.
Man & Nature:
__Including man and man-made objects provide a sense of scale.
__Man is not glorified and is in harmony with nature.
__Nature has a glorified grandeur and hyper-realistic quality
“The love of the natural world shines through in these works. Because when I get up close to them, I’m admiring the effort to move between the big and the small, and the reality and the grandeur. It almost feels like moving between what you see and what you feel.” - Lucas Peterson
 |
| Luke and Research Assistant Alex Mathew discussing the use of light. |
3 years later Verso, the Huntington's blog, provides the answer in the post titled The Most Influential Artist You’ve Never Met
"John Martin was absolutely crucial to the progression of Western painting tradition, influencing later generations, most directly Thomas Cole and other Hudson River School painters across the pond.”
"His luminous, epic style was so impressive that storytellers of all stripes—from novelists Jules Verne and the Brontë sisters to filmmakers D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille—betrayed his influence."
