[Sergenth]

I just read Chapel's topic and all the responses and it made me remember these questions I had...

(1)How does everyone here see things visually when you close your eyes? Is it blurry or clear? Large or Small?

(2)How do your dreams differ visually in quality from normal day-dreaming?

(3)Has 3d gaming allowed you to imagine things in 3d in your mind better than before?

I ask the first because tonight, as I sat in front of the computer doing some 3d modelling, my mind was very foggy and I wasn't able to imagine what I wanted to make very well, so I went to go sit in a dark room and revitalize my mental vision. It kinda worked, but the truth is that I had planned the model a week beforehand as well.

For my second, I've had some lucid dreams where there is a surprising amount of detail and motion, but less than 6 dreams like this and only 2 that I can really recall. Lucid dreams are cool.

After a day of canoeing, I lay in my sleeping bag the next morning and could, without any effort, (with eyes closed and partly conscious) visualize scenes of lush colorful vegetation scrolling past.. I'm talking perfect parallax and clarity... obviously left over effect from the passing scenery from canoing This happened again last week when I drove down to Virginia Beach, but this time, it was images of scenery rushing toward me.

And after my first straight 6 hours of playing DOOM, I closed my eyes and could see twisty-turny hallways in the front of my vision, a little above my line of sight. They had that glowy "phenobic" look of residual light splotching that can affect the eye.

So tell me about the magic moments when you've had vision beyond vision, sight beyond sight.

[yoszi]

Nobody sees anything ?

When I close my eye I usually see some mechanical parts, quite sharp, b/w they look like drawings. Very seldom I get a glimpse of entire object. Trying to draw that is futile. It's like watching a book with pages constantly flipping. Sometimes i have a dream where I see a familiar drawing, a character but with different head, different clothing. I guess my ultimate goal is to be able to capture all that.

[Nightime]

this topic needs more posts!

1) ... unfortunately, I wasn't blessed with a detailed imagination -- they're ideas with planes.. more or less, take a photograph and apply the motion blur filter...

2) Never thought of that one, aside the fact day dreaming I can control for some fun .... however, night dreaming = sucks --two words: sleep paralysis. Anyone who has this (like me) will tell you they know what it feels like "you're about to die" by some uncontrollable hallucination...its horrible (more or less ex: things that go bump in the night physically appear in front of you..even after "waking up" in daytime)..its a disorder like insomnia, but I guess it makes a good cheesy B Horror flick anyway .. :>

3)Hmm... no, other than when I used to play Quake2 hardcore, I'd be able to run through Edge and see every nook and cranny in my head

There's my take

JJ

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JJ / Nightime
http://members.home.net/jeremy12/web/

[This message has been edited by Nightime (edited August 11, 2000).]

[Brishen]

Excellent post!

(1)How does everyone here see things visually when you close your eyes? Is it blurry or clear? Large or Small?

This varies greatly. Sometimes, I envision comic book frames, other times, realism. But I think my favourite and most prevalent visual style tends to be a very emotional sort of visualization that involves close-ups, facial expressions, words, perhaps more tactile at times than it is visual, emoting all over the place. Oh crap. I'm such a girl.

(2)How do your dreams differ visually in quality from normal day-dreaming?

Oh, hell, my dreams are just screwy. They don't obey the rules of time or sense as my day dreams do. There is almost always some oddly juxtaposed object/event in my dreams.

(3)Has 3d gaming allowed you to imagine things in 3d in your mind better than before?

Yes! At the risk of sounding like a total wussy, I got three words for ya: Legend of Zelda. That game triggered an intense, faded but vibrant style in me, a reawakening of my girlish, sparkly fairy-covered ideals. And it seems to be accompanied by the sound of children laughing.

But there is still no denying that comic book art has the most influence on both my paper art and my mental art. I'm a big fan of lines.



That was a great deal of brainwork for this late in the evening. I've had enough....

Jess

[Anthony]

Well, this'll probably sound strange...

1) I don't really. Sometimes I'll see a vague image, but usually I sort of...see...a concept, or an idea, not an image. I really don't know how to explain it. I don't actually see something, but, well...hmm. I knew this would be hard. The idea is sometimes sharp, sometimes sketchy, but I can always just go ahead and draw it without thinking. That's usually how I start my images actually, including 3d.

2)My dreams are often in 3rd person, watching myself do stuff, but still controlling it. It's just like real life. Sometimes it's 1st person too. But it's always real.

3)Nope. Of course I was doing 3d graphics as soon as I played 3d games, but really I never had a problem with spacial thinking.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[aquamire]

It comes and goes for me. I'll go for months being very frustrated for the fact that I cant hold on to anything I visualize long enough to get down on paper.. however, I've found a technique to combat this.. I start with a semi-rough outline of the object(s) or scene I visualize, and from there procede to fill in the rest, almost like a jigsaw puzzle. It helps to stream the image in my mind.

However, I have a problem with my visualizations.. I happen to be a person who gets very frequent migraines. I've had em all my life, so its not something to serious, at least according to the doc. But, the wierd thing is, when I have one I end up having the wierdest thoughts, and the most surreal and incredible images come to my mind, almost always crystal clear. The catch is that, usually when I'm in this state, my actual eyes are super sensitive to light and everything's blurry, so in effect, I cant jot down or draw anything that I see.

Anyways, if you have somethin in your mind that you find is hard to get on paper, close your eyes and imagine it in terms of black/white, negative and positive space, or as a silhouete(sp?) on white canvas. Quickly sketch on your paper the outline of this silhouete, and from there the rest is easier to fill in. I duno if that's of any use or help to anyone, but it works ok for me.. the more you do it the better you get at it.




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/Aq
[email protected]

[LethargicBoy]

Ahhhhhh, your own personal aybss. you all mention" seeing" with your mind's eye, but what about the other peceptions you have?
when i daydream i totally immerse myslef into an environtment, including smell scent and sight. My favorite mental escape is a "giger-esque" environment with a slight wind howling gently and it's very cold,i go there whenever things arent working out like i want them to in this world.
P.S. i know it sounds insane but it works!

[micke]

Well, i see firework, he he..I'm not kidding
Sometimes i see it combined with more imaginary visuals. But after consuming
various substances it can get more wild

Sometimes if i've been playing too much TETRIS,
well you can guess it...

-Micke

[Striker]

1. What do I see when I close my eyes?
Well, when I'm awake I can picture just about anything I want. For instance, I can picture a tornado ripping accross the countryside and tearing a house to shreds in perfect clarity. I can picture a 3d object in my head, and rotate it in any direction I want. I can visualize the faces, and probably draw them, of almost everyone I went to highschool with. I can usually hold on to the images the pass through my mind, and draw them at a later time, sometimes more than a week later. Generally, if I take the time to fully develop an idea in my mind before I try to get it on paper, or on screen, I have a better chance of following through and completing the entire image as I saw it in my head.

2. Quality of dreams versus daydreams.
Well, quality doesnt really change, mostly the only difference is how much control I have over them. Although I would have to say the best dreams I have are when I wake up slowly, when I'm between the conscious and unconscious states I have a little control over which way things go but the actual images may be a bit more vivid than they seem to be when I'm fully unconscious or daydreaming. As far as being able to remember dreams goes, I notice that I can usually remember most of my dreams when I wake up if I've been drawing or doing anything graphical the day before. I also remember reading about a study done to see who remembers their dreams the most, and artists had the highest percentage of all groups in the test.

3. Has 3d gaming influenced my 3d imaging abilities?

Ah well, let's see. I wouldnt say it made me any better at mentally *rendering* scenes, but I would say that it has made me better at remembering those scenes. For example, several years ago I was really into making levels for quake2, I was always out of town throughout the summers, and therefore had no access to computers, but would still get ideas for levels. Although I couldnt physically build the levels for several months, I went ahead and built them in my mind, to this day I can remember every single room, passageway, crawlspace, corridor, texture placement, monster, weapon placement, of every level I've made, whether I actually got around to building it physically (in editor) or just the mental image.



[This message has been edited by Striker (edited August 12, 2000).]

[Chapel]

1. What do I see huh?
Not much. When I close my eyes to visualize anything its usually blurry except for the part that I am focusing on. Kinda like in TV when the center of the screen is sharp and everything around it is blurry.

2. Dreams: I can recall most of my dreams. My best dreams are the ones that come about 5 minutes before my alarm goes off. I'd like to think I have control in my dreams... but I could just be dreaming? hehe

3. 3d gaming has really effected the way I imagine things. The real world effects the way I imagine things in 3d (the world was here first). Only thing I get out of 3d gaming is some twisted dreams after a 10 hour LAN party. (Me carrying a rail gun and hearing a voice say "Finish Him!" is always a pleasant dream to wake from.)

"..and how does that make you feel?"
We should have a phsychological disorder forum. hehe

[This message has been edited by Chapel (edited August 14, 2000).]

[SushiMaster]

1. I am cursed. I often get ideas (we're talking about the visual ideas here) and I can see every bit of detail in my head. I even get ideas in different styles... like I could get an inked idea, or I could get a "rough sketch" spooge style idea, or I could get a perfect finish or even photo idea. And I always feel like I really would like to be able to produce this image. Unfortunately I lack the technical ability to output all this stuff, express it and get it out of my head. :-(

Perhaps I should forget about technical perfection and just try to draw it out, as bad as it comes out...

2. My dreams are usually crisp in terms of visual details but completely weird in terms of story line, often with quick changes from one world to the next, totally inconsistent. If I concentrate after waking up and write a summary of the dream, and re-read it several months later, I can usually remember most visual details from the dream.

3.
Do I?

Do I?

Hell, I am way too addicted to games. When I played Doom I could see imps everywhere. When I played Settlers I was connecting little roads during class. When I played civilization (whichever version) I was building up armies at school. When I played UFO or X-Com I was fighting off these annoying "�"($"� all the time. Now I play Diablo and I'm casting blizzards as I walk down the street to kill all those demons who are following me :-P

I think I need to play less games... I get too obsessed with them.

Daniel