The Gnomon Workshop, a Hollywood-based visual effects school, recently released a four-DVD set entitled, The Techniques of Syd Mead, that propels the viewer headlong into Mead?s creative process. Hang on, effendi, it?s a wild ride, but one that is supremely rewarding if you can practice what he preaches.
Each of the four DVDs begins with Mead addressing you, the audience, as though you had dropped by his studio for a little one-on-one. After the briefest of introductions, though, it?s into the lessons. Mead?s voice patiently describes what he is doing at any given time, but there is also time for him to fill in background as to why he is partial toward certain styles of architecture or clothing. It is Mead?s ability to set forth his rigorous process while illuminating the pros and cons of various stylistic decisions that make this set of DVDs so worthwhile.
Mead begins each piece of work by thinking of some kind of theoretical or futuristic vehicle. In this case, it?s the Hypervan, a four-wheeled vehicle with narrow, shrouded wheels to support the vehicle at slow speeds and to provide some amount of aerodynamic lifting when traveling at higher speeds. The vehicle looks like the shuttlecraft Gene Roddenberry would have liked to have made for Star Trek... if he?d had the budget. Sleek and smooth, the Hypervan has no windows, instead employing holographic imaging to display the world outside to the van?s driver and occupants. Mead has produced several studies of the Hypervan during his career, so it?s not surprising that he would return to it for this lesson.
Starting quite literally with a blank tablet, Volume 1 of The Techniques of Syd Mead demonstrates how Mead deftly executes a series of thumbnail sketches of the Hypervan. The thumbnails are short on detail and long on suggested masses of light and dark that represent the vehicle as it is set into a scene composed of architecture and vegetation. Each thumbnail reinforces the fact that even the most colorful painting must start out as a composition that works in black and white. Because they?re small and quick, it?s possible to explore a wide variety of compositions, each employing a unique perspective. To paraphrase Mead -- if it looks good at this stage, it?ll look just as good (or better) done larger and with more detail.
In Volume 2, Mead explores producing a series of Value Sketches by using several of his more dynamic thumbnails to produce line drawings, while still experimenting with different perspectives and viewpoints. At the end of this lesson, the student will have created a gray-scale value study to help block out simple yet effective lighting for the scene.
Volume 3 explores Mead?s process of creating a color preliminary. The color preliminary utilizes up to 20 colors to build up the line and value studies in the previous lesson. It is finished in approximately four hours, enabling Mead to produce a number of them within a relatively short period of time, each employing a different color palette.
The final volume shows Mead rendering the final illustration using gouache paints which are quite literally opaque water colors. Mead himself explains that this is a very difficult medium to master, but his results speak volumes about how successful one can become with a little bit of skill and a lot of time and patience.
Saying that this review has talked about everything Syd Mead covers in the four DVDs is like saying the Crayola sketch I just made of a Da Vinci fresco conveys the depth and movement of the original. Seeing is believing, and it is unbelievable the amount of material Mead covers in each DVD.
It?s important to note that while Mead uses computers in some of his work, it?s only after he has used the most basic of tools -- pen and paper -- to organize the project in his head. Because he has, the computer is never allowed to take over the process; it remains subservient to the needs of the artist.
Upon finishing The Techniques of Syd Mead, one is struck by a single, slightly overwhelming thought (especially in this age of artistic non-conformity): Syd Mead would employ the same rigorous artistic routine regardless of whether he was designing the futuristic vehicles for Tron, Aliens, or Blade Runner, or making a painting of the coin-operated Red Baron mechanical ride outside your local drug store.
What?s not so overwhelming is the knowledge that if you practice hard enough, you can do it too.
