Nov 222024
scotteaton
Aug 152024
Scott’s Eaton-Houdon écorché
WINTER SESSIONS
Enrollment is now open for the Winter sessions of my anatomy and figure sculpting courses (if you would like to get started right away, you can register as standard-enrollment student on any course).
My in-depth courses are designed to teach the skills every artist needs to produce inspiring, professional figurative work. These courses have been taught to artists and studios around the world, including Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney Feature Animation, Sony Imageworks, Sony Playstation, Warner Bros, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Valve, EA and many others.
If you are looking for an intensive course to level up your figurative art skills, consider one of these:
COURSES
- ANATOMY FOR ARTISTS
The most comprehensive online course covering artistic anatomy. No prerequisites are necessary, just a sincere interest in learning about the wonderful machine that is the human body! more…
- DIGITAL FIGURE SCULPTURE
An intense ten-week course in the tools and techniques of digital figure sculpture. This course is recommended for students with a firm grounding in anatomy (the Anatomy for Artists course is recommended) as well as an intermediate knowledge of ZBrush. more…
- PORTRAITURE & FACIAL ANATOMY
The companion course to Anatomy for Artists, this course explore the anatomy of the face in-depth. It covers the construction of the skull, features, facial fat, musculature, expressions, and the Facial Action Coding system (FACS). Every great figure needs a great face, this course teaches you the anatomy you need to build it. more…
May 282024
TITLE: Perpetual Now (two figures), excerpt
MEDIUM: Digital (video + machine learning)
RESOLUTION: 4k, vertical, 60fps
DURATION: 6:40, seamlessly looping
DATE: 2022
Apr 232024
click for larger
Apr 082024
TITLE: Crossings I (Shibuya), Istanbul edit
MEDIUM: Digital, 4k, 30fps
DURATION: 45 seconds
DATE: 2024
The first in a series of works highlighting our ubiquitous loss of privacy to public surveillance, here hijacking a public webcam pointed at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Unknowing participants create a data painting/collage with their bodies as they go about their daily routines. The work uses the current state-of-the-art in AI/machine learning tracking algorithms to identify and follow people in the crowd – each person assigned an ID and probability that they are human (displayed on the bottom of the screen at the start and end). Coloration is derived from their direction of movement, length of time that they have been identified and tracked, and their alogrithmic “humanness”.
This excerpt was designed for a daily take-over of the screens at Istanbul IGA Airport in April 2024.
Apr 032024
I am excited to announce that one of my experimental moving image pieces, Intersections, debuted in Times Square in August 2023 as part of their Midnight Moments series. For the entire month the piece took over 90+ screens across Times Square at 11:57-00:00 each night.
More images and details HERE.
Apr 032024
click for larger
Apr 022024
TITLE: Intersections
MEDIUM: Digital (machine learning, animation)
RESOLUTION: Various (4k wide, 4k tall, 8k ultra-tall, 8k ultra-wide)
DURATION: 3minutes, looping
DATE: 2023
An experimental work that reflects on the vast technological landscape that surrounds us. The piece evolved from a single QR code photographed in a dirty alley, advertising an event long past. This source image, a simple but iconic reminder of our data-saturated existence, is distorted and remixed through layers of random processes using animation and machine learning. The original data is completely transformed into a cascading landscape of evolving geometry, structured but abstract and unpredictable, intermittently evoking ideas of the towering architecture, Art Deco, and endless city blocks of New York City. The result is a meditation on the complexity and unknowability of the digital landscapes that surround us.
Mar 102024
I have a new work debuting at the Alon Zakaim Gallery in central London in April. This exhibition pairs contemporary artists (me and others, mostly painters) with works from 20th century artists – Picasso, Dali, Chagall, etc – and asks us to react with a new, contemporary take.
I am paired with a larger than life-sized alabaster bust from Jaume Plensa, a Spanish artist known for his large scale portraits, often compressed in one dimension. My ‘reaction’ is a moving image piece – an aging, kaleidoscopic, digital portrait that borrows stylistic elements from early 20th century art movements (cubism, constructivism) and remixes these with a recipe of photogrammetry, digital sculpture, machine learning and rendering. The work – flat, colorful, evolving and ephemeral – is a counterpoint to the static, polished, ageless bust of Plensa. Hopefully when appreciated together, they contrast and compliment each other, sparking conversation. Images to follow after the opening.
Curated by Virginia Damtsa
Feb 202024
TITLE: Spherical Enumeration
MEDIUM: Laser-fused polyamide
DIMENSION: 33x33x30 cm
DATE: 2022
Exploring the idea of a spherical zoetrope (a physical impossiblity). Here animating an abstracted figure cyclically standing, kneeling, and raising arms, abstracted through one of my experimental ‘geometry’ neural networks (used also in Intersections. The sculpture above is an excerpt from the animation.
Nov 162023
Talking about the making of Spherical Enumeration
I recently gave a talk at the VIEW Conference, in Turin, titled:
Out of Distribution: Thriving Creatively in the Age of AI
The talk gives my current take on the state of AI and how we, as artists and creatives, need to think about situating our work in relationship to this ever-more-disruptive technology. (the talk now available on-demand on the VIEW Conference’s plaform here). The talk blurb:
In this densely illustrated talk, Scott explores how we can maximize our human creative potential in the face of the tidal wave of capabilities from the latest AI tools. He explores the trajectory of the field of AI, covering the critical ideas that have led us to where we are now. He asks the question on everyone’s mind – what space will be left for artists and creatives as more powerful AI inevitably arrives, and how should we think about situating our work and careers in the face of this constantly accelerating technology? Scott showcases his recent projects and gives examples and anecdotes from his own work with machine learning over the past seven years, including a behind-the-scenes look at his recent takeover of Times Square.
Talking about the importance of drawing in one’s creative practice. Mini-me and large me, juxtaposed.
Nov 102023
TITLE: Entangled II
MEDIUM: Digital (photography, high-speed video, machine learning / AI)
RESOLUTION: 4k, vertical
DURATION: 5:00
DATE: 2019
Investigating the proposition that the sinuous, overlapping curves of viscous fluid flows match the folds, contours and overlaps of the human figure. The work takes high-speed video of paint in water and processes it through a custom neutral network (my “BODIES” network) to elicit continually evolving, rebirthing, almost human forms. The work plays with preception and our human-brains’ wiring for pareidolia – seeing and recognising things, especially human forms, in random objects.
