To say, "Drawing by hand, it is possible to free oneself from physical constraints of reality and to convey an impression rather than just convey details of a scene's appearance" is to imply once again that "impressions" are merely subjective, and that one's perception is not. To "just convey details of a scene's appearance" is far from being a pedestrian accomplishment, it belongs to the core of the best each and every one of us has to offer, our ("my") brand new point of view on the world.

What this implies is enormous and could contribute greatly — if integrated in one's work at the level of one's Weltanschauung — to the building of better models of perception (and therefore user-centered software packages).

The Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics book has a lot to offer (again, I repeat that I recommend buying/reading it), but it also leaves a lot to be desired.

How can we reach beyond the limitations of the 19th century worldview if, while we aim at non-photorealistic computer graphics, we situate all the work within a Weltanschauung that naively believes (and posits) that the "objective world" is "real" and presents itself to us along the lines of photorealistic images?

"The eye does not work like a camera, and we do not all see the same thing." (This is a running theme in my "Notes from the Underground" series published here on AWN.)

A viewer is not a passive subject. Perception is in (a) constant flux, a constantly changing experience-ing in which we continuously swing from "Where is it?" to "A-ha, there it is!" What one sees is a direct product of what one is, while what one is is also changed by what one sees: "We derive meaning from the experience while simultaneously projecting meaning into it" (Merleau-Ponty).

As far as I am concerned, much of today's animation is obviously trapped in a box, a box made by our naive belief in a 3D world containing solid objects moving about in empty space. I hope that NPR can help us free ourselves of those limitations, but I see only little help coming from this book toward accomplishing that goal.

However, the authors promise a sequel to their book, and I sure hope they will try to review its underlying structure in the light of a better integration of "experience as flux in/of an infinite world" and therefore give us keys to designing software packages that will enter a closer correspondence with the world of "lived experience."

Bringing Into Practice
In light of this NPR book, here are a few quick examples of what three affordable current off-the-shelves applications can do, applications that can help us reach far beyond photorealism.

First are four strokes done in Corel's Painter 7, the software that is still king when it comes to natural media emulation. It was Painter (then at version 4) that made my transiting from natural media to digital (for health reasons) possible.

Here we have a paper texture showing through the oil pastel stroke, followed by the same image being diluted with simple water, then one stroke with an Impasto brush and another. As you can see this is a very rich programme. (www.corel.com)

All doodles by Jean Detheux.

I used the above four strokes as "source images" for four quick images in Synthetik's Studio Artist. I consider this application to be a paradigm shift in 2D work, including in animation as it has many functions that work on a timeline. It is so full of features, it would be the application I would pick if I had to own only one. (www.synthetik.com)