Sketch #14

Sketch in ink created as part of final project. Things changed drastically from this and the previous sketch, but they were a good starting point.

Sketch #13

Sketch in ink created as part of the final project.

Sketch #12

Flower sketch, done in ink

One neat chair

http://www.kibardindesign.com/collection/collecton3/deep-forest-chair.aspx

0.7 quicktime upload

The youtube link in the previous post looks much nicer, but I am including the Quicktime (compressed) file here as well.

Assignment 0.7: Animation

Youtube link to my animation

I struggled with 3dsmax, but most of the issues I had were technical. Yet again I realize how important it is to have a stable computer environment, as well as plenty of disk space!

I went over the 300 frame assignment by a fair amount, but 300 frames felt too short for the slow pace I was trying to set.

The music is a clip from "Move the Clouds" copyright 1982 by BMG Entertainment (Windham Hill Records). To the best of my knowledge the short clip is covered by Fair Use Laws. For this and other awesome music, I highly recommend the Shadowfax album and the other fine albums released by Windham Hill Records.

Weekly blog: 11/10 - 11/16

This website, which describes itself as being dedicated to:

A full-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces.

The CG certainly is stunning.

Sketch #11

Sketch of my 3d animation project (assignment 0.7)

Weekly blog: 11/3 - 11/9

The official website of Banksy, a world famous graffiti artist (more on him is available wikipedia: here).

Some of my favorite escapades of his: he snuck several pieces of his art into various museums and hung them on the wall.

Weekly blog: 11/3 - 11/9

The crazy self portraits of Li Wei are showcased over at webdesignerdepot here. Pretty crazy stuff.

Sketch #10: Funky Flower Thing

Created in ink and colorized in gimp after I scanned it in.

Assignment 0.6: 3D Max Lighting Fixture

I've used Maya and Lightwave in the past, and I found 3dsmax to be fairly user friendly. Like all programs of this nature there is a steep learning curve, but I think with time I could become as proficient with this program as any other 3D program.

Weekly blog: 10/27 - 11/2

Another crazy collection website is oddee.com; my favorite collection on their website is Alien looking places on earth. Pictures of Socotra Island show that it has some of the most bizarre plant life I have ever seen.

Weekly blog: 10/27 - 11/2

This lego red/blue chair:

(copyright www.uphaa.com)

Is one of the many crazy things that can be found on the uphaa website. Other collections of interesting things they have:
Libraries of the world
Bridges of the world
Various light sculptures

Sketch #9

Created in Corel X, a nifty sketching program with tons of brushes and other excellent drawing features.

Weekly blog: 10/20 - 10/26

forgottendetroit.com

This website had a wide variety of photos of various abandoned buildings in Detroit. It is a shame to see some of these spectacular buildings in the state they are in, but you can still appreciate these classic examples of pre-depression architecture.

Sketch #8

Fashion Statement

Created in GIMP with the help of a Wacom tablet. Skinny models creep me out.

Weekly blog: 10/13 - 10/19

One of my favorite web design websites is csszengarden.com. I really like their huge collection of CSS templates, which provide a great way to learn how to add some really nice elements to your website.

Weekly blog: 10/13 - 10/19

I recently stumbled upon this Light art performances website. On it are a variety of pictures of art created using lights and long camera exposures. A very intriguing idea that is a clever use of some simple concepts.

Non-Designer's Design Book

Since we got our portfolios back today, it reminded me of a really awesome book, Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams (no, not the actor). This is a great introduction to some simple design principles that have helped me many many times over the years. I have the first edition, which is a steal if you get it used on amazon.

Weekly blog: 10/6 - 10/12

The Designboom.com website is packed full of great articles, images, and interviews relating to industrial design. The recent bike rides article shows some interesting and amazing bicycles various people have created (the wicker bike is particularly intriguing).

Weekly blog: 10/6 - 10/12

I love the work displayed at the Design Museum website. In particular I like the Jan Kaplický exhibit currently there; his designs are beautifully organic looking. If I'm ever in London I'll be sure to drop by this place.

Sketch #7

This is actually an old sketch, but I like to look at it now and then to remind me of a few things. It is the first sketch I ever drew that actually looked like a 3d representation of an object. I drew it in the first art class I took a few years ago. I remember being very intimidated when I started the class, but I soon realized that everyone else had already being creating art for years and that I shouldn't compare my art to other people's art. Created in charcoal.

Sketch #6

Ink doodle sketch. I don't know what it is either.

Weekly blog: 9/29 to 10/5

Illuminated manuscripts:

website here

One of many such places on the internet with some beautiful pictures of illuminated manuscripts. The search interface is a little clunky, but still this is a great resources for finding specific illuminated manuscript images to use as references.

Assignment 0.5

Sketchup is quite a bit clunkier than other 3D programs I have used before, but once I got the hang of various functions it wasn't too bad (I used undo quite a bit). Using layers more might have helped, since it would have been easier to hide/unhide various things and would have made selections easier. Once nice thing about it: there are tons of tutorials all over the net.

Weekly blog: 9/29 to 10/5

This beautiful image, copyrighted by Ben Cooper, is an amazing shot of the new Delta rocket lifting off from the launchpad. It cost him a lense, but it was well worth it.

Article here

Sketch #5: Rooster

Charcoal sketch of a rooster head.

Weekly blog: 9/22 to 9/28

The animations at Aniboom offer a wide range of inspirational shorts, made by people all over the world. The website describes itself as:

A virtual animation studio partnering with animators from around the world to create high quality 3d, 2d and flash cartoon animations. aniBoom cultivates animated content by leveraging the web providing online animation opportunities such as animated competitions and free online animation software.

Weekly blog: 9/22 to 9/28

I am inspired by the animation of William Barr, whose Luftwaffles short recently won an award at the 10th International Festival for Digital Film and New Media. He created this short when he was a student.

Sketch #4: Odd Bird

I created this sketch using an ink pen. It started out as a shell which then morphed into a bird!

After scanning I touched it up in a few places using GIMP.

Weekly blog: 9/15 - 9/21

Faboarts Gallery

I'm actually not sure what this person's real name is, but I love his artwork. His use of color and his simple style always inspires me to pick up a pencil and start sketching. This kind of work would make for beautiful children's book illustrations.

Weekly blog: 9/15 - 9/21

(Image copyright Michael Whalen; click image to visit his website)

This image on the cover of The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey not only caught my eye as a teenager and introduced me to a whole new genre of books, but his art also appeals to me as an artist as well. His use of light and color are amazing, and the level of detail and complexity in his paintings is beautiful, breathing life into alien and fantastic creatures and landscapes. The depth he is able to convey in his paintings lends itself well to eye catching book covers.

Weekly blog: 9/8-9/14

This site inspires me because it is an excellent place to learn about color theory. It also has a very useful palette picker.

Assignment 0.3 | Illustrator | CS4

Using a variety of line widths, colors, and shapes inspired by my haptic models I created these four images in Illustrator.

Sketch #3

Charcoal sketch

Weekly blog: 9/8-9/14

Font Freak is an inspirational and useful website because it has thousands of fonts available for free download. You can search and preview fonts, making it easy to find exactly the right font for a variety of design needs.

Weekly blog: Sept 1st - Sept 8

National Geographic Magazine photography pages feature stunning images from all over the world. Not only are the images amazing, but they are all helpfully categorized so you can easily find what you are looking for.

Assignmen 0.2: Six best pictures

Sketch #2

I call this sketch "Frustration".

Yeah, sometimes I feel like this.

Weekly blog: Sept 1st - Sept 8

The surreal art of Kris Kuksi (see his website here) is truly amazing. His sculptures are intricate collections of hundreds (often thousands) of large and small parts. The level of detail is mind boggling; I would love to see an exhibition of his in person some day. His works are a real tribute to taking the time to make something impressive.

Interesting article about photo rights

Article about a designer using an image without permission.

Weekly blog:Aug 24th - Aug 31st

No matter what kind of image you are looking for, you can probably find it on google images. This is a great place to find everything from clipart to reference subjects. Not only does Google index random images on various sites well, but it also recently added the Time LIFE archive, which is amazing.

Links:

images.google.com

Time LIFE archive

Weekly blog:Aug 24th - Aug 31st

There is a constant stream of visual artwork posted to this site of every kind imaginable. Hundreds of groups cater to a multitude of styles and types of drawing/painting/sculpting/etc. that allow you to enter contests and get feedback on your own art.

Website: www.deviantart.com

Assignment 1: 3 images, 4+ transformations

Assignment 0.1: Object

I've always liked the symbolic nature of keys, as well as the intricate design of old keys. These images are copyright their respective owners; the images are located at:

http://flyowa.com/Flight424/old-key.jpg
http://www.va-locksmith.com/images/061.jpg
http://lapelpinplanet.com/media2/img/catalog/CC417-Skeleton_Key.jpg

Assignment 0.1: The City

I've always liked buildings with lots of odd shaped lines and curves. The bahrain building reminds me of a rollercoaster, while the Westerdok apartment building has an odd layered effect that is intriguing. The Russian Gazprom building with it's curves and giant arch looks like a giant logo.

Images located at/copyrighted by:
http://bahrainwtc.com/
http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/project/uploaded_files/11111_MVRDV Westerdok image002.jpg
http://www.thedesignblog.org/images/miraculous-russian-gazprom-building_4_49.jpg

Assignment 0.1: Landscapes

I've always liked the stark outlines of desert landscapes, with lots of shadows and highlights. They also tend to have beautiful combinations red/orange/brown colors. The first picture also incorporates an natural arch (I also like the symbolism or arches/gates/doors).

Lastly the path through the cherry trees is an archetypal "path through the trees" kind of shot. Again, another highly symbolic theme, which would make a great background.

Links to images/copyrights:

www.keeptravel.com
www.nationalgeographic.com (desert and cherry trees)

IFDM group over on Facebook

For anyone who is interested, I created a group on facebook for UNM IFDM people.

First sketch for class

This is a quick (15-20min) sketch I created using a wacom tablet in a free program called gimp. Below is a brief time lapse of my sketching process.