Subtitle: And why NPR may not be for everyone Recently, I published an artwork of a mermaid. Quite proud of it. Here is my breakdown of the render on PeerTube: As shown in a livestream, this artwork also served as an exercise, exploring various stylized looks. I’ve tried lots of different styles over the years: realism (often through VFX), minimalism, cel shaded, and painterly. I made a goal this year to articulate and define my art style. What have I been recognized for? What could make someone see a new artwork or animation of mine and know, “Yeah, that’s Spencer’s?” What feels the most me, to me? And what type of stylization should I go for? The Cons of Stylized Art What? There’s cons? I thought you wanted this. I know, I know. But I always think it’s important to weigh why not to do something: Trendy. Good news, it’s popular. But that means it easily blends in with everything else. Just about every 3D artwork I’ve seen online the past month is cel-shaded or painterly. Spider-Verse started a new shockwave of stylized animation, and I mean it in the best way. Not inherently a bad thing. Just an uphill battle if I want to stand out. Requires more artistic rigor. One of my theories of why technically minded artists (like me) start with VFX is that it allows us to focus on realism instead of artistic skills. Stylized renders may seem simple, but it also requires a lot more craft in knowing what aesthetically looks good. Grounded in imagination. It’s a no-brainer, sure. There’s good reason why old cartoons are so, well, cartoony. Or that Spider-Verse borrows from comics so heavily. Stylization allows you to do things reality can’t. And they make themselves more effective by leaning into a distorted reality. For similar reasons, a realistic medium is effective for stories where reality bears down on the characters. These are not easy cons. I’ll need to think on if there’s compromises, or if I just have to utilize multiple styles for different stories. Many of my art ideas work in stylization, but others genuinely work better when grounded in reality. Finding a Balance Something I’ve been looking into is a sort of blend between realism and stylization. I’ve seen others use “physically based cel shading,” and that’s something I’ve tried in a couple past artworks. To do this, you render physically-based shaders, meant to look passably photorealistic. Then, with compositing or further shading, convert the photorealism into cel shading (often with color ramps or something similar). This could also be applied to painterly shading, or even dithered styles. I think what I like about this idea is that it lets me apply all the visual aspects of realism and lens effects I know and love, while still having a distinct stylized visuals. You can see this in my entry in the Worlds Next Door challenge, and even ESCAPE from a few years ago. Striking high-contrast visuals, with enough realistic detail to fill a virtual canvas. The Importance of Evolution The frustrating part of all this exploration, is there’s never a moment of, “Okay, that’s it. No need to explore or change it.” I could change styles in a few years. Refine it, edit it. A life event may happen that puts me through a “Blue Period.” It’s a fluid, ever-recurring decision. I don’t like it. I could just stubbornly insist it never changes, but that’s assuming I know what’s best, now. The question returns, yet so do I. But that is what I’ve been thinking about the past couple months. What styles I’ve done, what I’d like to do, and which may need further exploring. Because once my add-on course is done, I’m aching to get back into art. Genuinely, I have lots of ideas I want to explore.