3D Artist Creates Flourishing, Generative Sculptures with NVIDIA RTX and AI

Want a change of art? Try using AI – that’s what 3D artist Nikola Damjanov do.

Based in Serbia, Damjanov has over 15 years of experience in the graphics industry, from creating 3D models and animations to creating high quality visual effects for music videos and movies. Now an artist at a game development company NordeusDamajanov’s hobbies include participating in creative projects using the latest technologies, such as NVIDIA RTX and AI.

Recently, Damjanov experimented with generative art, which involves using algorithms to create new ideas, shapes, forms, colors or patterns. And when Damjanov was invited to take part in his country’s Art Biennale, an exhibition that showcases creative pieces by local artists, he decided to design something new: a 3D-printed sculpture.

With help from NVIDIA RTX and AI, Damjanov sped up his creative workflows and produced a physical 3D sculpture of a flower with intricate detail and patterning.

AI for art

To bring his sculpture to life, Damjanov started with 3D digital design. Her floral sculpture is inspired by the aesthetics of microfossils and radiolarians, which are complex mineral skeletons.

To capture such elaborate detail, Damjanov used the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU and harnessed the power of NVIDIA RTX rendering and AI denoising. These abilities helped him easily create the 3D model and realize the intricate details of the flower for the sculpture.

“The AI ​​denoising powered by NVIDIA RTX just makes it easier to develop the look, because the feedback loop is much shorter now,” he said. “You can quickly get a very decent approximation of what the final render will look like.”

Damjanov then did most of the RTX rendering and generative modeling in SideFX Houdini, a 3D animation application software, and the OTOY OctaneRender engine.

In generative art, it is important to define rules that define the limits of the creative process, so that the computer can follow these rules to create the new work of art.

For Damjanov, having these rules and relationships in place in the system made iterations and design changes easier. With the rules in place, he could modify minor details and aspects, and immediately see how the rest of the design would be affected by the adjustments. For example, Damjanov could modify a petal on the flower to be twice the size of the current size, and everything else related to the petal would react to the new size.

Once he finalized the design, the hardest part of the project was testing all the physical parts of the sculpture, the artist said.

“Because it was a very complex design, we had to test and print specific parts to see what came out,” he said. “I ran simulations to try to find an approximate center of mass. I also had to print specific parts to find a design that would be structurally sound when printed.

After three weeks of printing, Damjanov reached a 3D design that would produce the flower sculpture he envisioned for the Art Biennale.

Damjanov uses RTX-powered AI denoising and rendering in most of his projects. He is also experimenting with using game engines for his work and implementing NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling for increased graphics performance.

“I remember when most of my time was spent waiting for something to complete, like renders done, maps baked, mesh processed – it was always a pain,” he said. “But with the power and speed of RTX, artists have more time to spend on creative tasks.”

Check Damjanov’s work on ArtStation and learn more about NVIDIA RTX.