After reading through the book, I think another sub-category should have been created: Nearly-Nude-CG-Girly. Out of all the images presented in the book, more than 50 were of computer graphics girls in various stages of undress. Granted, some of these are quite spectacular works of art, most notably those by Steven Stahlberg, Linda Bergkvist, Pascal Blanché and Robert Chang. Many, however, are quite a bit over the top. Do me a favor. If it’s Saturday night and you don’t have a date and you’re thinking to yourself, “Hmm… I think I’ll paint… oh, I dunno… a naked… girl! With big breasts! In armor! And… and… and, yeah, she’s nude (not naked — that’s vulgar)!” Please, take a look at Bergkvist’s Nelicquele and study it. Notice the form, the detail, the light and the composition. Please. I beg of you. If you’re going to draw a naked lady, look at the talent here and try to emulate it. Otherwise, put on your pajamas, eat some ice cream and go to bed early.

One of the things I was pleasantly surprised to find was that quite a few of the entries used humor as an element. Something I absolutely love is when artists let themselves get silly. Too many fall back on the dark, brooding artistic image that we all know and love so well. A true artist must suffer! You don’t have enough pain in your life! How can you expect to achieve enlightenment if you’re smiling all the time? Bah, humbug. Humor is one of the most difficult and most refreshing things to create. I was overjoyed to see a few entries by Jimmy Maidens in EXPOSÉ. Again, I’ve been following Maiden’s Web page (www.boring3d.com) over the years, and I’m in awe of his composition and dry wit. My favorite image of his (not included in EXPOSÉ) is You Smell Like Dead Bunnies (archived 10-06-03, available on his Web page). Check him out, and while you’re at it, check out the layout on page 9 of EXPOSÉ. This spread just made milk spurt out my nose. On the bottom of the page is Malachi D. Maloney’s image Insatiable Appetites, one of those sexy CG girls I was mentioning earlier. She’s lying on her back, nude, looking longingly at the camera. At the top of the page is Maidens’ Sunday Fluff XX, a sultry image of three naked pigs lying in the grass. To look at the page and see naked pig and woman in basically the same pose just made my heart soar. It’s not often you see that kind of editorial humor in a publication like this. Bravo!

Another aspect of EXPOSÉ I enjoyed was the fact that it brought some areas of computer graphics that I don’t often see to my attention. As my main focus is in animation, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at architecture or CAD, but as one of the largest growing segments of the computer graphics industry, it’s important that it isn’t left out in the cold. While I’m impressed by the sheer grandiosity of some of the works presented in this section, especially those by David and Anthony Wright, Igor Knezevic and Chen Qingfeng, it was the smaller, more intimate work of Jon Hey’s Carlyon Bay — typical apartment interior — that really grabbed my attention. I guess I just really want that apartment.

Unfortunately, the category of visual effects didn’t deliver as much as I had hoped. It would have been really great to be able to see some of the top visual effects work from the industry over the past few years (Lord of the Rings, Moulin Rouge, Monsters, Inc. and Amélie). Unfortunately, as Ballistic Media states in the introduction for this category, they weren’t able to include many of these images due to copyright issues. Perhaps studios will be more eager to include their work in future productions of EXPOSÉ.

Another thing I would have liked to experience would be some moving images. Many artists are creating absolutely stunning art that would be a joy to be able to see in moving form. In fact, many works couldn’t be presented any other way. I’d love to see a VCD or DVD come with EXPOSÉ in future issues. Actually, forget that. We’re talking the future here, right? Just beam it into our brains, Ballistic Media! We can take it! Use that new-fangled nano-technology. Just make tiny TV screens and inject them into our eyes!

Ballistic Media has done a commendable job with EXPOSÉ. Even though there’s a huge community of computer artists out there, CG art is still a relatively new medium. Artists are still learning how to push technical boundaries set by the computer, as the software companies are constantly upgrading and improving their products. There’s a lot of “computer art” out there, and not all of it is as pleasing to the eye.

Ballistic Media and their advisory board have undoubtedly worked hard to narrow down the submissions they received to create a book that shows considerable breadth of work. They say right on the cover, it’s the “Finest digital art in the known universe.” This is quite a claim, and aside from a few unfortunate exceptions, EXPOSÉ delivers.

EXPOSÉ 1: Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe created and edited by Mark Snoswell and Leonard Teo. Mylor, SA, Australia; Ballistic Publishing, 2003. 186 pages. ISBN: 0-9750965-2-4 (softcover edition US$49.00, hardcover edition US$59.00).

Jason Schleifer is currently on holiday after living and working in New Zealand for more than four years on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a senior animator and creature technical director. He currently has two DVDs for sale through Alias Systems (www.alias.com): Integrating a Creature Rig Within a Production Pipeline and Fast Animation Rigs. When not enjoying the generous variety of seasons available daily in Wellington, he spends time with his lovely wife, two dogs and works on his short film Jonh and his Dog.