Maryanne DellaSalla turned a photograph of a grapevine three-dimensional without ever touching a hammer, chisel or file.
Her medium was a computer screen and her tool Maya, a 3-D graphics and animation software used by many artists, videogame developers and filmmakers.
"I could play with this for hours," said DellaSalla, manipulating the arms and angles of the image. "I've always been interested in design, but I'd never tried a 3-D editor before."
A rising senior at Cannon-McMillian High School, DellaSalla experimented with Maya as part of a three-day programming class new to this year's Pennsylvania Governor's School for Information Technology (PGSIT). The instructor was Kenneth Huff, an artist whose 3-D images created with Maya have won awards throughout the U.S. (see http://www.kennethhuff.com).
Huff's goal with the teens was more about turning them onto the technology than about turning out finished art. So, after showing the students how he had created some of his work, he let them loose to experiment and play with the software.
Andrew Mastbaum dove right in. Even before the end of the first morning, Mastbaum had figured out how to recreate one of Huff's images.
"I've done some work in 3-D before, but this is above what I've used in power," said the senior-to-be from Cumberland Valley High School. "It's cool to use industry-standard software."
In allowing the students to explore the software, Huff was following his own learning style. An anthropology major in college, he has no artistic or technical training.
What inspires him is technology, a fascination that began with his first computer. "When I saw 3-D visualization was possible, I was hooked," Huff said.
Drawn to nature, Huff captures the details, patterns and forms of everyday objects from wilting leaves to drying mud and shells.
"I want people to slow down and look a bit more at things so as to appreciate their beauty," Huff said.
A photographer who prefers old-fashioned black-and-white pictures and chemicals for development, DellaSalla was intrigued with Huff's exploration of intricate detail.
"I never really knew how to have that level of intricate detail with technology," DellaSalla said. "The images and texture are so realistic and beautiful."
