Interview with Troy Sobotka - Part 2

This episode is the second part of my conversation with Troy Sobotka who is a Vancouver based lighting, rendering and all-round image creation person. You may know him as the designer of the Agx render transform. We dive further into the mechanisms of visual cognition and picture formation. He shares a vast knowledge and collection of reference material on this topic. See download link below for additional material.

In past years he has written an online blog called the Hitchhikers Guide to Digital Color. I would highly recommend people to read it.

We discuss:

• (00:00) - Intro.
• (01:11) - Episode summary.
• (01:43) - Visual examples of phenomena.
• (01:59) - Light and shade.
• (03:57) - Gilchrest’s gamut compression.
• (05:51) - Simultaneous contrast.
• (06:21) - Shimmer / luster.
• (07:26) - Induced contrast.
• (08:06) - Glare halo.
• (08:31) - Hermann grid.
• (08:57) - Watercolor effect.
• (10:31) - “Chevreul Effect”.
• (10:57) - Crispening.
• (11:46) - Neon Color Spreading.
• (12:18) - Chromatic induction.
• (12:46) - Gamut Compression/Expansion.
• (13:18) - Chromostereopsis.
• (14:11) - Face vase, Rabbit duck, Necker Cube.
• (15:39) - Kanizsa triangle.
• (15:57) - Dr. Tse cognition examples.
• (17:54) - Not the pixel you thought you saw.
• (18:45) - Pictorial exposure.
• (20:37) - Gain and offset dimensions.
• (21:47) - Image examples.
• (24:47) - Decomposition framework.
• (26:54) - Newtonian physics metaphor.
• (29:20) - Interview starts, stimuli are not color.
• (34:43) - It’s all constructed. Dr. Hoffman interface.
• (36:56) - What is pictorial exposure?
• (42:12) - Correlated signals “luminance” and “chrominance”.
• (47:28) - Colorimetry’s limitations.
• (56:38) - The domain of Metrics.
• (01:05:22) - The domain of Stimuli.
• (01:07:21) - The domain of Cognition.
• (01:08:32) - Three broad Mechanisms of cognition.
• (01:09:28) - Current predicament of image makers.
• (01:18:31) - Increment and decrement signals.
• (01:23:48) - Gain regulation.
• (01:27:46) - SDR vs HDR.
• (01:32:19) - Field propagation.
• (01:34:47) - Can output transforms be dynamic?
• (01:37:36) - Three Cognitive processes.
• (01:38:53) - Form decomposition.
• (01:44:47) - Why is the canvas flat?
• (01:46:47) - Form computation.
• (01:48:26) - Form assignment.
• (01:52:59) - Towards practical examples.
• (01:57:12) - Gain and offset dimensions.
• (02:05:03) - Cognition limits.
• (02:07:43) - Leading the eye.
• (02:08:54) - Brand colors, vanta red.
• (02:10:41) - Example of gain and offset.
• (02:13:05) - Why not just desat to white?
• (02:15:25) - Some history of picture formation.
• (02:16:31) - Versioning.
• (02:22:17) - Look creation and display transforms.
• (02:27:48) - Ergonomics.
• (02:35:35) - Bigger, better, faster.
• (02:42:00) - Outro.
• (02:41:33) - End.

Download link for additional images and pre interview discussions: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2o8hwqfyx9lc42dobysjg/EP0006_TROY-SOBOKTA_PART_2.zip?rlkey=jpi8ol0tnivqyugv3p6varx02&dl=0

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