[bigshot]

Art is part of human nature. It doesn’t have a nationality. Non-artists think it’s like magic- something that spontaneously happens in a flash of inspiration. But art is a process. It’s a series of hundreds and thousands of small decisions made by applying fundamental principles.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with quite a few major artists. At the studios, I tended to gravitate to the top talent, and they accepted me as a peer and allowed me to work alongside them as their right hand man. But I wasn’t their peer. I knew I was nowhere near being in their league. Some people have an ego that makes them want to be the smartest man in the room. I’m the opposite… I want to be the smallest, because that puts me in the position to watch and learn from someone who possesses true greatness. From the beginning, I’ve surrounded myself with truly great, creative people. I’ve learned how they think and how they work, and I share that with the next generation through my educational non-profit. You slowly become the people you surround yourself with.

There was a day when I was sitting quietly observing while one of those great artists was being interviewed by a journalist. He was being asked some question like, how do you draw like that, or something like that… I don’t remember the question. But I vividly remember the answer.

“Drawing isn’t something you’re born with and it isn’t magic. It’s a million tiny decisions made as I move my pencil across the paper. All those decisions are judgements based on the fundamentals of art that go back for centuries. When you, as a non-artist look at a drawing, you see a naked lady or a tree and you think of the context of what women or trees are like. But you could hand me a drawing by any great artist, even an old master, and I could talk about it for more than an hour and never even mention the subject. Every line is put there with purpose. There’s a reason behind every mark on the paper. As an artist I can see all of that, and I know what the artist who drew it was thinking. I can see what they struggled with and what came naturally to them. I can see what was unique to their way of thinking, and what was taught to them by the long line of artists who came before them. I can see all that… while you are looking at a naked lady or a tree.”

I’ve watched great artists speaking and instructing other artists, breaking down the fundamentals behind line, values, composition, balance, flow, color and a whole range of attributes the fundamentals of art cover. I’ve heard the same concepts coming out of wildly different artists’ mouths.

Like I say, some people want to be the smartest guy in the room. They’ll talk in philosophical, semantic and circular ways to try to convince you that they know better and you should just trust them to know all these things for you. But I’m not one of those people. I try to talk about things I know and explain them simply and directly in the spirit of sharing information the same way those great artists shared the concepts with me. It’s a way of passing it forward that is important to me because of the incredible generosity of the great artists who shared their process with me. You can take it or leave it, but if you’re going to argue against it, you’ll need to be a truly great artist yourself. I’ve learned from enough of them, that by now, I can recognize the tiger by his stripes.

 

[gregorio]

Some people have an ego that makes them want to be the smartest man in the room. I’m the opposite… I want to be the smallest

You don’t have an ego and want to be the smallest man in the room but no one can argue against you unless they’re a truly great artist?

They’ll talk in philosophical, semantic and circular ways to try to convince you that they know better and you should just trust them to know all these things for you. But I’m not one of those people.

I refuted your assertions with information that can be fact checked, absolutely none of which you’ve addressed. Instead you’ve responded with a complete deflection based on nothing but your experience, that can’t be fact checked and is effectively nothing but a semantic and circular argument that we must trust you (and can’t argue with you) due to all the great artists you’ve supposedly worked with. All of which demonstrates that you are exactly “one of those people”!

You can take it or leave it, but if you’re going to argue against it, you’ll need to be a truly great artist yourself.

You’re joking right?

I’ve learned from enough of them, that by now, I can recognize the tiger by his stripes.

Except apparently when you look in the mirror!

I take your lack of addressing a single point I raised and instead deflecting with a monologue of “experiences”, that you have no response, your assertions were not correct and you’re just trying to protect your ego?

G

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

You don’t have an ego and want to be the smallest man in the room but no one can argue against you unless they’re a truly great artist?

I refuted your assertions with information that can be fact checked, absolutely none of which you’ve addressed. Instead you’ve responded with a complete deflection based on nothing but your experience, that can’t be fact checked and is effectively nothing but a semantic and circular argument that we must trust you (and can’t argue with you) due to all the great artists you’ve supposedly worked with. All of which demonstrates that you are exactly “one of those people”!

You’re joking right?

Except apparently when you look in the mirror!

I take your lack of addressing a single point I raised and instead deflecting with a monologue of “experiences”, that you have no response, your assertions were not correct and you’re just trying to protect your ego?

G

Dude you need to chill out. You sound like a complete narcissist. You all are discussing art now, not audio. People are allowed to have a voice and opinions. I’m the last person to defend @bigshot, but you’re being unnecessarily harsh here.

Have some bourbon and take a breath or two.

 

[Ryokan]

I refuted your assertions with information that can be fact checked, absolutely none of which you’ve addressed. Instead you’ve responded with a complete deflection based on nothing but your experience, that can’t be fact checked and is effectively nothing but a semantic and circular argument that we must trust you (and can’t argue with you) due to all the great artists you’ve supposedly worked with. All of which demonstrates that you are exactly “one of those people”!

Don't forget It is an internet chat room at the end of the day.

 

[bigshot]

It's OK. I'm not reading anything he says. It really doesn't matter what I say. It goes to the same place, so I choose to engage in more productive discussion. I understand that he sees me as a challenger and feels he has to try to cut my legs off to build himself up. I don't care. That kind of stuff doesn't work in the real world outside our own heads. I'm not competing with him. I'm just discussing subjects that interest me and cheerfully following my passions in life.

People can choose to be any way they want online. But I don't have to play to their tune. If I'm not having fun, I'm doing it wrong. I know how to have fun.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

It's OK. I'm not reading anything he says. It really doesn't matter what I say. It goes to the same place, so I choose to engage in more productive discussion. I understand that he sees me as a challenger and feels he has to try to cut my legs off to build himself up. I don't care. That kind of stuff doesn't work in the real world outside our own heads. I'm not competing with him. I'm just discussing subjects that interest me and cheerfully following my passions in life.

People can choose to be any way they want online. But I don't have to play to their tune. If I'm not having fun, I'm doing it wrong. I know how to have fun.

Challenger for what? This is a discussion forum. People are supposed to discuss topics here. You all are not playing a sport and you all are not getting paid here.

Everyone has a right to have a voice and opinion. He shouldn’t be attacking every single thing you say. And you shouldn’t have to defend every single thing you say.

 

[bigshot]

Exactly. It has nothing to do with the forum or me. It's a personality quirk. But I'm going to stop talking about it now, because it just encourages more bad behavior.

 

[bigshot]

To get onto some more interesting tangent, since the topic of bitrate has been asked and answered too many times already, there is an interesting thing about the pre-internet age that I took advantage of as a youth... the telephone book.

I grew up in Los Angeles, and at the public library they had all the local telephone books. I was interested in golden age animation, so I would jot down names from the credits of cartoons I liked and I would take the list to the library and look for them in the phone books. Then I'd call them and politely let them know that I admired their work in a particular short and ask a couple of questions about how they had made it. Every one of them was happy to answer my questions, and a lot of them invited me to meet with them to spend an afternoon interviewing them. I always had questions prepared and my focus was their creative process. At the time, I was just interested in the subject, but in retrospect these great artists were generously mentoring me. I find that I use the information they shared with me in my career all the time. I wasn't the only one doing this. I mentioned to a colleague that I had done this, and he said that he did the same thing. He had gotten his dad to take him to visit Stan Laurel at his apartment in Santa Monica for a lesson in comedy writing! I would love to go back in a time machine and tag along on that visit!

It's funny. We think that the internet brings us closer to celebrities and great artists. They all have email addresses and social media accounts. But for some reason, the telephone was a much more effective way of communicating in some ways. And I think these great artists enjoyed the company of that clever, polite kid who knew so much about their careers and wanted to know more. I owe a lot to them. I make an effort to make myself available to young artists like that. There aren't a lot of them, but I make a point of setting aside time to mentoring them.

 

[Ryokan]

I mentioned to a colleague that I had done this, and he said that he did the same thing. He had gotten his dad to take him to visit Stan Laurel at his apartment in Santa Monica for a lesson in comedy writing! I would love to go back in a time machine and tag along on that visit!

That's awesome he's one person I would've loved to have met to, another is Patrick Moore. I used to think he must've been like his character to play those parts so convincingly but I came to learn he was a very clever guy, and had enormous talent.


Is DSD better than PCM which can be stored in different formats Is it more analogue sounding?

 

[bigshot]

Both sound the same- audibly transparent.

 

[Ryokan]

DSD is new to me, it's it a more efficient way of playing music?

I have visited the road where Patrick Moore lived and had I known then I could've knocked on his door as I heard he never turned anyone away who was interested in astronomy.

 

[71 dB]

Is DSD better than PCM which can be stored in different formats Is it more analogue sounding?

It's better in snake oil marketing, because audiophools think it is more "analog" than PCM.

 

[Ryokan]

It's better in snake oil marketing, because audiophools think it is more "analog" than PCM.

Should've guessed. Are there any advantages with DSD for a 1 bit player?

 

[71 dB]

Should've guessed. Are there any advantages with DSD for a 1 bit player?

DSD was developed for archiving studio tapes digitally in a way that is very immune to random bit errors. Since DSD is the derivative of the signal, any random bit error means just a microscopic change in the signal that doesn't show almost at all when the bitstream is integrated into the original signal. So, DSD is a good archival format, but for music consumers it doesn't offer any benefits over the good old PCM and in music production DSD is a pain in the ass, because it can't be edited hardly at all. It has to be transformed (integrated) into PCM for editing and then transformed (derivated) back into DSD, which is cumbersome.

 

[Davesrose]

It's funny. We think that the internet brings us closer to celebrities and great artists. They all have email addresses and social media accounts. But for some reason, the telephone was a much more effective way of communicating in some ways. And I think these great artists enjoyed the company of that clever, polite kid who knew so much about their careers and wanted to know more. I owe a lot to them. I make an effort to make myself available to young artists like that. There aren't a lot of them, but I make a point of setting aside time to mentoring them.

Email has the potential to be just as influential: it's about introductions. When I was in college, it was the time that colleges were getting broadband internet and at first my college email was with a UNIX UNET interface. I was becoming interested in medical illustration. At that point, there was some limited information on the internet about the field, how there was an association, and how you could send away for a directory. So I received the directory for illustrators, and first saw there was one at my college at our medical hospital. I was able to spend the afternoon with him seeing what his tasks were as well as his background. Further still, through e-mail exchanges I was eventually able to get an internship at New England Journal of Medicine for medical illustration. Some of this might also be who you know instead of what you know: like the lead medcial illustrator wasn't a trained one, but she was also a childhood friend of my aunt. What's funny is that as soon as I showed up, they wanted me to do a pen and ink of a skeleton: because apparently they had once tried another internship (and that person somehow only knew how to draw seashells and nothing else).

As I started focusing on 3D animation, I would be able to see some special features on DVDs about some workflows. It was greatly expanded when I'd go to Siggraph and sit in on lectures from animation teams. What I thought most interesting: because of the nature of movies going from project to project: they are very open about sharing their workflow for 3D artists so that they will pick it up whenever they get back to working with them.

I've also found that email is good for just a general messaging system for someone not in your sphere. For example, I found that Robert Reich is very active with e-mail. At one point I emailed him about economic theory, and I was impressed that he emailed me back with an individualized message.