Happy New Year!

To ring in 2024, I’ve been invited by the Netherlands (“NL”) to create a piece for CES once again. I’ve been very grateful for the on-going unique, creative challenges I’ve been able to collaborate with them. Here’s a teaser of the piece I created — to be further unveiled at CES in a few days!

There were a few major key points I wanted to tackle in this piece, tying to the NL goals:

For the Netherlands to achieve a circular, sustainable economy by 2050
Integrate a national conversation about Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion and Social Responsibility
To highlight the Netherlands as an innovative country
To distinguish the Netherlands Tech Pavilion apart from the many other booths and displays at CES — a very tech-heavy, tech-focused conference.

Right off the bat, I wanted to integrate plants and floral elements into the NL Pavilion design, especially at such a tech-heavy conference. I believe it shows NL's commitment to working together WITH nature, portrayed by all 70 startups at CES 2024 that all contribute to NL's goals for a circular economy.

Inspiration and Process

I recently learned about incredible women artists from the Dutch Golden Age, erased and forgotten from history and recently rediscovered: Maria Sibylla Merian, Rachel Ruysch, and Maria van Oosterwijck. (In more detail below.) I want to honor their botanical illustration work, ALSO because they were women who worked with paints AND were keen observers and students of science. I personally admire how some women artists of the time taught each other and learned from each others' work. This is all about community, growing together, and lifting each other.

Inspired by their work, I evolved components of their work to create the floral linework around the NL pavilion, using Adobe Fresco for drawing the linework as vectors.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 - 1717)

Merian set the standard for botanical illustration! Her step-father, Jacob Marrell, was a floral painter. Her work exhibits a beautiful intersection of botany and zoology. Not only was she a wife + mother, she was an accomplished author, entomologist, and naturalist. She studied insects closely, specifically the lifecycles of silkworms and caterpillars. She was all about living observation. It is possible that she helped tutor Rachel Ruysch!

Water Hyacinth with Marbled or Veined Tree-Frogs and Giant Water-Bugs by Maria Sibylla Merian

Rachel Ruysch (1664 - 1750)

Ruysch had an impressively successful career of 70+ years painting flowers! Her father was an anatomy and botany professor, who categorized a lot of specimen. Like Merian, she also had a strong influence of science in her artistic practice. Ruysch’s famous still-lifes included flowers that couldn’t bloom in the same season, while also illustrating flowers from a variety of angles. This revealed her deep knowledge and familiarity with these plants. She also impressively became a court painter in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Flowers in a Glass Bowl by Rachel Ruysch

Still Life with Rose Branch, Beetle and Bee by Rachel Ruysch

Maria Van Oosterwijck (1630 - 1693)

Oosterwijck lived independently, was able to join the local artists guild (uncommon for women of her time). Her work, known as “vanitas,” included aspects of worldliness, the pleasures of life, and “momento mori” — reminders of death and the fragility of life. Her work was bought by royalty (King Louis XIV, Queen Anne of England) which kickstarted a trend of floral and still life paintings in her time.

Roses and Butterfly by Maria van Oosterwijck

Roses, Carnation, Marigolds and Other Flowers with a Sunflower and Striped Grass by Maria van Oosterwijck

More notable women artists of the Dutch Golden Age:

Clara Peeters
Judith Leyster
Anna Maria van Schurman (first woman to attend university in Netherlands!)
Magdalena van de Passe
Margaretha van Eyck
Gesina ter Borch
Alida Withoos

How Their Work is Showing up at CES 2024:

Adapted their floral still-life work into digital with Adobe Fresco’s vector brushes

Overlayed floral design on top of pavilion wall design drafts, provided by So Expo

And I took elements of their still-life paintings and incorporated them into the “Sustainable Garden” VR painting, decorating and visually emphasizing remarkable inventions that have come from the Netherlands.

This is a component of the virtual “Sustainable Garden” that will be featured at CES 2024 at the Netherlands Tech Pavilion, January 9. Will you be at CES? Want to see my vision of 👾 tech + 🎨 art + 🌱 sustainability + 💖 humanity?

Come to our virtual “Sustainable Garden,” add to the garden with YOUR ideas of a more eco-friendly, sustainable Earth! The Garden will be available on Opening Day only but you'll still be able to add your ideas thru all days of CES!

TUESDAY, JAN 9
NETHERLANDS TECH PAVILION
Tech West: Venetian Expo @ Eureka Park
Hall G, Booth 62100

Thank you to the Netherlands, the Netherlands Consulate of SF in USA, Sietze Vermeulen and Jacco van der Aart for bringing me on-board with this wonderful collaboration!

More about NL & Climate Change, NL Tech & Challenges, NL & Human Rights, NL circular economy goals.

I Feel Like Writing Again

Estella Tse · June 6, 2022

Writing and blogging was once a vital part of my creative exploration. The last six years, as I’ve been shaping my career and ensuring I present myself professionally, it seems I started to write less and less publicly for fear of embarrassment, shame, or fear of being wrong. And, well, I think that takes quite a hit to my full expression of self and creativity.

So, I’m not sure what to write in this moment. But, here it is. A blog post.

Feelin’ cute. May delete later. :)

Augmented Reality, Resources

How to Make a Black Rose Crown Filter with Spark AR

Estella Tse · June 1, 2020

How do we use our existing skills and knowledge to support the Black Lives Matter movement? In addition to using my social media voice, I want to inspire ppl to use their creativity and skills to make tangible change.

I know how to make cool stuff with new technology.
I professionally create 3D models for a living.

I created a beautiful black rose with Gravity Sketch, made fully in VR. It is available on Sketchfab for $10. 100% of the proceeds will go to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Half will go to Black Girls Code (structural change), and the other half to Color of Change (local action).

Use this asset for your VR/AR projects. Use it to populate your VR environments (if you want, the rose’s color/shader can be easily edited). Put it into a vase in your VR office environments. Place it into your virtual Animal Crossing island and water these black roses with your golden watering can. Either way, you’ll be showing your support to Black Lives Matter by donating $10 for the asset, and it’ll be free for you to use.

I believe there needs to be more accessibility to young black creators, especially those who want to use tech and make cool things with new tech. Below is a free tutorial for making an Augmented Reality filter using the black rose asset.

To young black creators: I’ll give you the file for free. DM me on IG, Twitter, or FB. :) I’d love to see your creations!

1. Download the 3D Model from Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/6SUQY

2. Download SparkAR: https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/download/

3. In SparkAR, create a New Project with the Head Decoration template

You’ll see the new project open and a demo of a man with a AR hat.

In the left side menu, look for the PAUSE button to stop the demo animation. This will help with the next steps.

4. At the bottom of the left menu, click on + Add Asset. Then select Import from Computer…

Choose the Sketchfab downloaded file.

5. Drag “blackrose” from the Assets window, and drop it to the Scene window where it says “dragHere”. This creates it as a ‘prefab’ in the Scene.

Delete the thing that says “deleteMe” :)

6. In the Assets menu, select the thing that says “Standard000000”. (This is called a Shader btw, and is what gives the rose a black color).

On the right hand menu, you can click on the Color box and adjust the color to be a little bit lighter so you can see all the details on the model. Also click on the box that says “Double Sided [x]” so it is selected. This will make sure the model will appear correctly for the filter!

7. Right Click on “blackrose” prefab. Select Duplicate. Do this so then there are 3 “blackrose” prefabs total.

It should look something like this. Double-check and make sure your blackrose prefabs are in the same structure as mine on the left menu. :)

8. Positioning and Rotation of roses. Choose one of the blackrose prefabs, then at the top of the menu, look for the POSITION and ROTATION buttons. These are the tools you’ll use to position your roses

Edit the position and rotation of the roses to your liking! Press the “PLAY” button on the left bar (where “PAUSE” button was before) to see if the roses look good at all angles.

9. Activate your computer’s camera to see how you look with your creation! Above the Play/Pause button, click on the CAMERA button. Choose your camera (mine is called “FaceTime HD Camera”) and click PLAY! Make any edits for the rose positions if you need.

10. Look super cute~

Congratulations on making your SparkAR project!

Do you want to share your creation on Instagram? Read about submitting it to the Spark AR Hub here.

Thanks for following alone, and thanks for supporting BLM by purchasing the black rose 3D model on Sketchfab!

Virtual Reality, Art

"Avaloki" Research: Hokusai Compositional Studies

Estella Tse · February 21, 2020

For The Avaloki, I spent some time to do compositional studies of traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Hokusai was a master at designing movement and space on a 2D surface — it’s incredible.

I did these compositional studies before I painted the traditionally inspired painted scenes for The Avaloki. You can see how these inspired my art direction process for the film here.

The Avaloki is a VR narrative experience available for free on the Oculus store.

Art, Virtual Reality, Resources

VR Painting 101: How Do I Become a VR Artist?

Estella Tse · February 26, 2018

This is the question I get asked the most by fellow artists. I know being a VR painter can sound scary because it involves a PC, hardware you're not familiar with, and hella wires. But it's not that hard! This post is for artists who are not as tech savvy but want to learn more about painting and creating in VR!

I'll walk you through the things you need to know:
- the terminology so you can understand what people are saying,
- the tech involved,
- the creativity apps for VR, and
- my favorite VR artists you must follow!

To answer your question: you just jump in and get painting!

How Did You Get Started?

I was exploring VR in early 2016, going to tech conventions and conferences, trying out every demo I could. Every person who worked in the VR industry, I spoke extensively to them, asked their advice. I didn't know of anyone else painting in VR professionally at that time (the Vive and Tilt Brush didn't officially release until Apr 2016). I knew I was made for this field. I dished out the money to build a new computer and got my hands on an HTC Vive! From there, I spent hours and hours in Tilt Brush, painting my days away. The rest is history!

In short, I had the painting + comfort in tech to get started at the time that I did. I consider myself incredibly lucky with the timing of opportunities.

VR Terminology, Part 1

Virtual Reality
This is when you are completely immersed in VR.
Think: 0% opacity of the real world.
High-end headsets: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR

Job Simulator, an example of a virtual reality experience. One of my personal favorites! Notice how you don't see any of the real world. You are fully immersed.

Augmented Reality (sometimes called "Mixed Reality")
This is when some aspect of the real world is visible (like Pokemon Go!).
The AR content may or may not be integrated with the real world.
Popular AR devices: Microsoft Hololens, Meta Glasses, your smart phones/tablets!

NOTE: This is sometimes called 'Mixed Reality'. The nature of emerging fields is that the terminology isn't set in stone yet so things will be in flux in the coming years.

An example of augmented reality, Holodog, a weekend Hackathon project I created with two other designers/developers. Left is my view using the Hololens — notice the digital dog is overlaid on top of the real life world (and doesn't exist IRL). Only I can see him in this scenario, using the Hololens. (Read more about our hackathon experience here.)

Errr..... Mixed Reality
Combination of both real world + VR/AR
Often used for film shoots or demo videos; videos to showcase content or use of immersive media.

NOTE: This is sometimes used synonymously with 'Augmented Reality' but means different things. The nature of emerging fields is that the terminology isn't set in stone yet so things will be in flux in the coming years.

This is an example of what a "Mixed Reality" shoot looks like. On the LEFT: This is what I look like during the shoot. I'm in a green screen room, I have a VR headset on. There is a 3rd-person camera recording me. On the RIGHT: there are apps that t… — This is an example of what a "Mixed Reality" shoot looks like. On the LEFT: This is what I look like during the shoot. I'm in a green screen room, I have a VR headset on. There is a 3rd-person camera recording me. On the RIGHT: there are apps that take the 3rd-person camera content + my VR content and outputs this view of me & my VR creation. (These photos are from the Google Research blog in the 'Headset Removal' experiment.)

"XR" or "xR"
This is often used to categorize all the "R"s — virtual, augmented, mixed, etc. Some people are using this as an umbrella term for all the immersive techs.

Equipment You'll Need

Headset ("HMD" Head Mount Display)
For the creative apps, you'll have to get either the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. You can do a search online to see what the differences between the Rift and Vive are.

I have both and switch back and forth. I like the ease of tracking for the Vive. I like the ergonomics of the Rift. Both are not perfect, as early tech goes.
A VR-ready PC Computer
The computer has to have a top-notch video card. This is imperative! The best one on the market right now is the GTX 1080 Ti. I tend to invest in the best computer parts in the moment in order to keep it as long as possible from this point forward. You can always upgrade parts as you go, too. Your videocard must be able to run at 90 frames per second. If it doesn't, you will get lag while in VR and you will likely get nauseous!

TIP: You can find already-built computers that will say it is "VR Ready." Do a search on its video card and make sure it's all good.
Physical space in your studio or room to do some VR!

VR Terminology, Part 2

Tech Key Words

Frames per second
I mentioned this in the HMD notes above. How many fps does your video card have to run?
3dof vs 6dof ("Degrees of Freedom")
This pertains to how much of your movement gets tracked. In 360 videos, you can look up, tilt, and look around you — this is 3dof and you are limited to standing in one place for this.

In 6dof, you can do those things PLUS you can move forward/backwards, left/right, diagonally in space.
Haptics
This is when your other sense are engaged: touch, taste, smell!

Content Vocabulary

Agency
How much control the user has in the experience
Presence
The feeling of "this is sooo real!!!", like you are actually there in that VR world
"Experiences"
A lot of people call VR experiences as 'games'. This is not always the case. It's often a hybrid between an interactive game or a film or something else. I've found that "experience" can be a broad, encompassing word.

Creative VR Apps

There are a few out there but I'm mostly going to mention the four popular ones:

Google Apps

Tilt Brush — This is the one you probably saw Glen Keane using! It's a lot of people's first VR experience, and it's one I often use to introduce new people to, too. It's the most intuitive, quickest way to prototype / ideate / play and doodle in VR!
Blocks — This is used to create low-poly 3D models within VR. With a few primitive shapes to build from, you can modify vertices, extrude faces, scale things huge or tiny. This is a superb app to use to quickly create assets for VR because it is low-poly.
(Being mindful of poly count is super important for extensive VR creations that will be turned into films/interactive experiences/games/etc.)

Oculus Apps

Quill — You might have heard of or seen clips from Dear Angelica. A lot of illustrators prefer Quill's brushes and functionalities. You probably have also seen a lot of amazing videos by the great Goro Fujita! New for early-2018: there's an animation feature now!
Medium — This is a 3D modeling tool in VR. Think: sculpting with clay in VR! The extent of how you can model with Medium is incredibly impressive. I've seen very intricate and complex models molded in Medium and then 3D printed out. So beautiful!

If you'd like to explore more VR creative apps, 3Donimus compiled a really comprehensive list!

My Favorite VR Artists!

Liz Edwards
@lizaledwards
https://lizedwards.artstation.com/

Danny Bittman
@DannyBittman
http://dannybittman.com/

Micah404
@micahnotfound
http://www.art404.com/

Sutu
@thenawlz
http://www.sutueatsflies.com/

Anna "Anna Dream Brush" Zhilyaeva
@AnnaDreamBrush
https://www.annadreambrush.com/

3Dominus
@3Donimus
https://www.youtube.com/3donimus

Steve Teeps
@Steveteeps
http://www.steveteeps.com/

Naam
@_naam
http://sketchfab.com/naam

Final thoughts...

I know there's a lot and can be intimidating! Hopefully this helped ease some of your anxieties. It might seem like we know what we're doing in this space, but it is honestly very experimental and hands-on.

So get a VR rig, grab your controllers, and start swinging some VR paint! I can't wait to see what you make!

Honoring Three Forgotten Women of the Dutch Golden Age