From crystalline formations to iridescent streams, statuesque figures to hypnotic shards in motion, Stu Ballinger’s virtual art leads one into a realm of kaleidoscopic spectacle. He describes his own artwork as somewhere between abstract, psychedelic, and sci-fi and prefers to focus on a cohesive composition and a vibrant color palette instead of what may be traditionally deemed a ‘real subject’. “I find it more interesting to jump straight to the fun stuff,” quips Ballinger.
A budding digital artist and graphic designer based in Horsham, Australia, Ballinger found his earliest inspirations in virtual artists like Grigori Shevstov, who first influenced him to pursue 3D art, and Alastair Temple, whose abstract style became the basis for his initial aesthetics. Overtime, he developed his own stylistic sensibilities and has since been adopting new inspiration from a wide array of sources including social media, music, video games, artistic trends, and so forth, so as to stay fresh and relevant.
“In the near future, artwork will be consumed in a different way,” shares Ballinger as he alludes to the exciting possibilities of contemporary virtual design in emerging interactive media like augmented and virtual reality. ”The artwork that is being created today is going to create some amazing experiences later.”
With the future of virtual experience in mind, his conceptual designs often convey fluid movements, striking compositions, and an acute attention to colors. Using tools like Cinema4D and Octane Render, this process begins in 3D as he creates very smooth, high-poly objects that reflect and refract lights from electrifying color palettes and textures that he develops himself. He then experiments with camera angles and renders, later composing and post-processing all these elements in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. While Ballinger’s process involves much exploration, certainly the end result is always vibrant, dynamic, and sensorial – an abstraction of pure imagination.
Follow @stuballinger here on Instagram, or visit his website at https://stuballinger.art/ for a peek into his multicolored digital world.
Photos from Stu Ballinger
