Seeking Poetic Expression in the Digital Age, Dennis Allain Wins Ferriss Award

Seeking Poetic Expression in the Digital Age, Dennis Allain Wins Ferriss Award

Dennis Allain’s work stands out as unique in the world of architectural visualization, comparable in the beauty of its light to many master landscape painters. Allain recently won the prestigious Hugh Ferriss Memorial Award as part of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators annual international exhibition “Architecture in Perspective 21” held in October 2006 in Chicago, Illinois.

Architectural illustrators are often major players in real estate development projects, creating the images that bring in the financing to get projects built. According to a survey by CGarchitect.com, the demand for such services is predicted to expand making the field one of the strongest CG industries. As the field moves towards more focus on the art of visualization rather than the technical, architects like Allain are positioned well to take advantage of these trends. In choosing MAXON’S CINEMA 4D, Allain felt that using something not as familiar to the architectural community at large could help differentiate his work and help produce work that would look and feel unique.

The jury cited Allain for his ‘unusual and bold composition and for a complex blend of exacting detail against an ethereal mood of shadows and earth tones’. The 2006 jury included James Baird, FAIA, Holabird & Root Architects LLC, Jon Miller, Hedrick Blessing Architectural Photography and Gil Gorski, ASAI of Chicago.

2006 Hugh Ferriss Memorial Winner for Architectural Illustration by Dennis Allain

Allain’s image “Arthur V. McCarthy Memorial” was deemed the year’s most outstanding work garnering the designation ‘Best in Show’. This year’s competition drew nearly 500 entries from five continents, with 60 pieces selected for the exhibition.

It’s a fascinating image of solidity and change, with the simplicity of the shapes conveying an elemental power. The image is full of mystery, yet seems alive as the darks are warmed by reflected lights and the areas of light melt softly back into the shadows. The namesake of the award, Hugh Ferriss, created imagery that has influenced architects and designers for decades. Ferriss is admired for creating images that evoke an emotional response by endowing his buildings with a majesty that is shared with Allain’s images.

Details from Allain’s AVM Memorial (left) and Ferriss’ Hoover Dam (right)

The Story Behind the “Arthur V. McCarthy Memorial”

The most fitting way to commemorate heroes and historical events has traditionally been to create architecture. Says Allain, “I had an idea to design a building that was in the process of being built and I had just gotten back from a sketching tour in Washington DC. I needed a reason for the building and the first person to come to mind was my wife’s dad, Arthur McCarthy, who had recently passed away.”

As a teenager, Allain spent time in McCarthy’s commercial art studio hearing about branding, identity and how to convey a message. The most important question Allain learned to ask: “What are you trying to say?” Arthur McCarthy was also an accomplished pilot and a biplane appears in the winning image in his honor.

Wentworth Institute of Technology

Allain credits Glenn Wiggins, now head of the Architecture Department at Wentworth Institute of Technology, with teaching him how to see and how to think about design. “Architects are very bricks-and-mortar, but Dr. Wiggins would have us look at scientists, physicists, physiologists and theologians in comprehending the world around us. In that way he opened my eyes to a whole set of disciplines that could help inform my design interests and design approaches.”

Wiggins introduced Allain to the theories of the physicist David Bohm who said the essential need in any field is for a “loosening of rigidly held intellectual content”. Bohm was barely out of Cal Tech when invited to work with Oppenheim on the Manhattan Project. His 1987 book “Science, Order and Creativity”, co-authored with F. David Peat, influenced many, in many different fields. Bohm emphasized that our thinking was in itself fragmented and did not take into account that objects are dynamic processes rather than static forms.

Allain took these ideas to heart and set out on a path of looking beyond the given, beyond the box, beyond ‘tacit knowledge’. Says Allain, “In my current work I attempt to challenge the viewer and unveil colors, textures, rhythms and subject matter in a way that departs from the expected and puts forth a composition that hopefully reveals something new.”

Detail Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for Callison September 2006

Allain deliberately avoids doing things according to the software manual and advocates things like going to a museum instead. “The problem of creating compelling imagery has been explored for thousands of years by the great masters of the past,” says Allain. When using software, Allain also advises going beyond the given. “I have a hair module in CINEMA 4D. Now when am I going to put hair on a building? However, I can use it to understand some crazy looking tree or piping for some fantastic looking furnace. Grab the tools and look how you can apply them.”

Allain’s Design Process

“Once the general background materials are gathered, I will start right into modeling. This could be considered sketch modeling, nothing specific is built. The point here is to set mood, texture and design intent. Once I am happy with the basic concept, I then move to model more detail and build the model up to a higher level of refinement. At that time it is time to light and set the camera angle.”

With 4-day deadlines, Allain appreciates C4D’s speed/quality ratio.

Zoom to explore Allain’s painterly details in “Exostra V”

‘Painting’ in Photoshop

Allain takes the CINEMA 4D render and brings it into Photoshop, painting over the image in a series of layers. Says Allain: “I will paint onto an image until it gets to be about 200 to 250 Megs in size, then save the image as ‘STG2’, flatten it and begin to paint all over again. With each stage I add more and more detail until the piece is finally done. Typically, I will have four or five 200 meg files that represent the progress of the painted image. This approach has been helpful in two ways. First, it allows me better computer performance with lower file sizes and it becomes a bit easier to revise images should there be any changes.

Allain’s software choice was not one of the more common as he wanted to distinguish himself by choosing a less generic program. Starting out with Bryce, Allain then went looking for something more robust, trying 3dMax, Lightwave, Form Z and CINEMA 4D. “All programs worked well and were relatively easy to learn,” says Allain. “However, it was CINEMA 4D’s’ exceptional ease of use that helped me make a final decision to fully embrace it.”

“College Basketball Experience”

Interactive Attraction in Kansas City for ESI Design

The Spirit of a Project

Pursuing an elusive photorealism when on a deadline can defeat the purpose of engaging the intended audience, who need to be captured more by the passion and spirit in an image rather than by its exactness to detail. With a lack of understanding that design is a continuous process, stakeholders who require the initial illustration and the final built structure to be identical, are chasing a mirage. Says Allain, “Clients are looking for: energy, inspiration and sex appeal to a certain extent. It is so great to find a client that is open to new ideas and opportunity. They understand there’s an excitement in launching a design process and watching to see what happens in the end.”

The American Society of Architectural Illustrators

CGarchitect.com’s recent survey of the architectural visualization industry cited networking as the most effective way of securing a role in the industry. Joining the American Society of Architectural Illustrators has served that role admirably for Allain who has been a member since 1998. The importance of ASAI for Allain is being able to commiserate with others with the same passion and share inspiration, ideas and imagery. Says Allain; “You feel compelled to push yourself further after seeing so many other great illustrative works.”

ASAI is dedicated to the improvement of architectural drawing worldwide and membership is not limited to professional illustrators. Designers, teachers, students and anyone engaged in the serious pursuit of architectural drawing are welcome. Each year the Architecture in Perspective exhibition catalogue becomes a valued resource for the profession. It can be ordered through ASAI at www.asai.org. The exhibition can also be seen online at the Architecture in Perspective 21 Web Gallery.

Career Path Illustrator

Monks in scriptoriums is more than an apt metaphor for the profession. Just as in the 12th and 13th centuries, cadres of solitary illuminators were diligently creating images to clarify the stories of the medieval manuscripts; today’s professional architectural illustrator also spends the major part of his time in solitude. This is, of course, part of the territory. Acquiring the skill set required to be an architectural illustrator demands a singular dedication. Those who make it in the field consistently show a need to succeed demonstrated by remaining in learning mode a majority of the time.

Alain’s advice: “You have to stay true to your colors. Just recently, I was in a forum where someone was commenting that they need to get a plug-in to do watercolors. If you pander too much you will end up kind of okay at five things and not wonderful at one. I concentrate on a look I think is cool and then work hard to make that perfect. You are always chasing that perfection. Do the values work? Is the mood right? Are the tones correct? Are the vantage point and camera angles interesting and intriguing? Does it flow compositionally and pull the viewer into the center of the image? You can become a jack-of-all trades/master-of-none. Over widening your net, can dilute what you are trying to express.”

Allain basically taught himself 3D computer graphics. He would pick up magazines at Borders, read the manual on the commuter train while traveling to work and keep his mind open to tutorials that were not especially about architecture. “Even an article about how to take perfect baby picture is still going to have something there you can take away. That brings us to the idea of taking something that was used for one thing and applying it in a whole other way. Don’t close yourself off to things because they are seemingly distant from your discipline.”

Dennis Allain Design Studio

In late 2004, Dennis Allain announced the creation of his new Boston based design studio, dedicated to providing inspired architectural design and visionary illustration that both challenges the imagination and invigorates the creative process. Before starting his own studio, Allain provided design and illustrative services for major construction, entertainment, toy, comic book and retail companies. Some of Allain’s non-architectural work can be seen at the “Play!” website, a primary source for hiring toy and interactive game artists. In January 2007, Allain will speak at the Virginia Center for Architecture and in April at Mt. Ida College in Boston.

Allain’s studio equipment includes a Boxx, Dual Core AMD Opteron Processor 275, with 2.21 GHz 2.75 GB of Ram and 500GB Storage, Windows XP Pro operating system , Wacom Intuos and Epson Stylus Photo 2200 color printer for proofing. To his credit, Allain has his monitors and printers calibrated on a regular basis, a chore many illustrators put off. His software choice is the CINEMA 4D Studio Bundle R9.6 by MAXON and the Photoshop Creative Suite 2. Allain, who always goes for software upgrades, will be purchasing CINEMA 4D R10.

Allain is a perfect example of the future in architectural illustration; a beautiful combination of the capacity of technology and the artist. This quote by Allain from the ASAI website expresses this synergy well: “Seek poetic expression in the digital age. Allow yourself to do a tiny bit of experimenting no matter what the deadline.”

For more informationon Dennis Allain’s design studio, please visit www.dennisallain.com

Article by Marsha Carlson