About the SynthArt Vol. II CD-ROM
This disk is the sequel to the first SynthArt multi-media CD-ROM product, the long-awaited summary of my artistic work in the computer graphics field, since I've began working in it back in 1994. The SynthArt web site, where you can find much of this CD's material, has been accumulating the works during the last six years, but only now I am using a chance to represent these works for a wide publics in the most efficient and rich manner, using all the advanced, recently available achievements in the multi-media technology and advantages of the CD-ROM media.
If you haven't heard of SynthArt and its web site, I quote my own words written on that page: "SynthArt is an ever-ongoing experience in synthesis of the 'cold' and 'perfect' computer images with the real-world pictures and pieces of 'traditional' (but also computer-assisted) art." Most often, I produce and then use as the base of my digital collage works numerous varieties of those beautiful computer-generated images called 'fractals', not mentioning many other kinds of mathematically-synthesised textures. They are combined in a most organic and seamless manner with the more familiar and 'traditional' graphical objects (often spectacularly transformed or altered in some way by the computer too), like photos, old paintings, clip art, fonts, - shortly, with anything what can be used in such creative mix and produce a result which - artistically - might be much stronger than the sum of its parts. Using this concept in the most flexible and consistent manner, I created an extensive number of the still image and animation works, which seem to have found their own ground, respect and admiration in this quickly-changing world of the modern computer graphics.
For a complete experience, you are invited to visit the SynthArt web site, where you can get the taste of this art and philosophy and observe what has been done since year of 1994, in a full scale. This Vol. II and the previous CD-ROM together represent the biggest, and hopefully the best, part of the site's SynthArt collection, but in a much more advanced and satisfying manner then any set of web pages can. Because, when present on a CD-ROM disk, many obnoxious limitations of the web media are removed and there is no reason anymore for sacrificing of the computer graphics' quality.
You can - at last! - enjoy the full-screen, true-color images, augmented with the animated transitions and effects and accompanied by a thoroughly selected electronic music track, - a show that is actually a radically new form of the visual art, what I call "Living Pictures" (which represents the first part of this CD product's contents). You won't find anything comparable to this kind of art on the web of today (if you know any, I will be happy to discover I am not alone), nor among any single- or multi-media CD production found at the computer - or any other, for that matter - stores. Each "Living Picture" incorporates one or more animated effects or transitions of the graphical objects it features, sometimes so subtle that you can see it clearly only after a few times of watching the clip, sometimes meant to leave a strong impact on the viewer, but it always remains a piece of still visual art, in its very nature.
More 'traditional' (in the sense that there are no built-in animation effects, apart from those wonderful transitions), yet absolutely unique slide-show that is called "The Garden Of Mirrors", will introduce you to an imaginary exhibition of the fantasy mirror frame designs, all done in a 3D graphics program, - looking so real, yet 'out of this world'. What's more, each mirror is reflecting a certain person or a couple, sometimes hardly seen in the darkness, but always adding a 'human touch' to the character of the design. True, this is only a work of imagination, but since it's always a 'real' three-dimensional design, you can pick up any of the mirrors, retrieve its digital source model and make it into the real thing!
Similarly, the "Animations" part of this disk is something that is hard to compare with any other sort of animations found on the web or elsewhere. The full-screen size and the visual quality of the represented clips, the featured jaw-dropping digital effects, as well as the mesmerizing contents are of the kind that truly sets these works in a league of their own. "Treasures of Medici" is a dazzling show of the Medici family cameos and other precious objects guided by an ever-changing fractal 'agent'. "From young Marlon Brando to old Don Corleone" is a stunning morph metamorphosis of the great actor's face and fate. "The Liquid Marbles" is a 'slide-show' (a term which is the closest one I could find to use for this show) displays a hypnotizing process where the beautifully sculpted creations of Rodin and Michelangelo get stirred in dripping synthetic canvas.
The fourth part of the CD, the "Fractal Panoramas World",
implements one the most unusual ideas of the contemporary computer graphics,
made using the very fresh Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality technology. This
QTVR technique is meant to produce an illusion of being put inside a scene with
a full 360-degrees view, where there is no left or right edge in the picture,
and every small detail of the surrounding 'landscape' can be reached, 'zoomed
in' and thoroughly observed. While it's possible to find numerous examples of
such QTVR scenes on the World-Wide Web now, the "Fractal Panoramas
World" is simply incomparable with the rest because of the extraordinary
size and quality of its imagery's and due to the amazing fact that you are actually
put inside of a gorgeous fractal 'landscape'! (Well, there are some 'traditional'
photo-QTVRs too, made of a few nature scenes shot in the beautiful country of
Slovenia). And, while observing all the fine details of a mesmerizing fractal,
you encounter those magical 
hot-spots,
- the miniature oval-shaped pictures inviting you to click on them (you see
the cursor changes its shape) and enter another wonderful fractal world, containing
also a set of clickable 'doors' to other panoramas, ad infinitum. Surely, this
will keep you 'traveling' and 'exploring' and 'discovering' for a long, exciting
time!
Be aware, though, that - because of the cutting-edge and not quite mature character of the technology used - this might require a bit more of the digital power than an average home computer can have, and that some 'hitches' might happen during the playback (see the "The show's 'peculiarities'" chapter of this Readme).