erstand how they affected surface topology. That is, why does an arm look the way it does, what muscles affect the shape of an arm and how does that shape change when those muscles are used. In the past surface topology was the main consideration an artist might have. But that is no longer the case. Now as digital artist work to create virtual realities that include increasingly realistic simulations of people, animals and even insects (as well as fantastic creatures and monsters), we need to know not just why the surface topology looks the way it does, we need to know how they move and why. That means understanding the bone structure in order to simulate joint placement and movement in 3D characters. We need to understand how muscles and tendons not just cause movement, but also the limits of that movement. So a good basic knowledge of biology has become increasingly important to digital artists because increasingly we are expected to produce very realistic results. You can’t do that if you don’t understand what it is you are trying to recreate.
This is another science that affects digital artists, and it might be a surprise that it does. While we no longer have to mix paints from mineral compounds as 19th century artists once did, we do still have to understand why things look the way they do. That means understanding color and what causes color; chemistry helps us understand this. Why, for example, is some clay grey and other clay is red? Chemistry answers that question. Knowing those answers helps us as digital artist to make better simulations of reality. We know why things are the color they are, and when they should be a different color. Chemistry also begins teaching us the basics of physics, and physics is something you will really need if you go into any kind of game design or virtual simulations.
Of the three sciences, Physics is perhaps the most important to digital artists.
Physics is about understanding reality and since much of digital art deals in some way with depicting or simulating reality an understanding of physics can be very helpful and even necessary to achieving good results. This perhaps most evident in game design and movie animations where you are literally simulating reality, everything from a character being able to walk, run and jump to simulating fire, fog and smoke to various lighting effects (being able to realistically simulate light is critical in digital art). Physics plays a direct roll in determining the behavior of rigid and soft body simulations (so that a rock acts like a rock, a foot is soft as it should be and when a virtual foot steps on a virtual rock everything looks and behaves the way the viewer expects), cloth and fluid dynamics (so that clothes hang correctly from the body of blow realistically in the wind; and flowing streams or drops of rain behave the way they should), as well as more exciting things like explosions, guns and space ships. Game designers and even animators have to consider physics when doing any of these things.
But physics helps the digital artist in other ways as well. While chemistry helps us understand why things are the color they are, physics helps us understand how light affects color. This is especially true for translucent objects like skin (and both biology and chemistry help us understand just how many things are actually translucent). To make skin seem more realistic we need to simulate the way light penetrates into skin before being reflected back. This is done in digital virtual art using a technique called Subsurface scattering. Ironically the same math used to calculate this in 3D rendering software is very similar to the math used by particle physicists to predict the behavior of sub atomic particle. But that’s because light is made up of photons, and to get a realistic appearance you are literally simulating sub atomic particles. Particle physics is also used to simulate things like fire, smoke and fog in 3D animations and virtual reality. There’s a lot of physics behind the latest computer games we play and if you want to create game