Josh Corken Blog

Josh Corken has Moved to joshcorken.com!

2011-05-24T15:40:00.008-04:00

It's been some time since I've posted. And I finally can tell you AND show you why! Lately, I have been taking care of a few things...

Finishing college
Starting my freelance career
Beginning a new chapter in my music career
Launching my new website

...so I have been somewhat busy. You know, the usual. But have not forgotten about you or my blog.

However, I did move. The new address is pretty easy to remember and just as easy to bookmark, joshcorken.com.

Thanks to the help of my good friends, Dave Gable and Allen Pieper, and the StingrayCMS system, the new site will serve as my main hub for everything (portfolio & blog) and more. I won't delete this blog, but I won't update it either.

Yup, this is my last post on good old Google Blogger. I've moved on to bigger things.

Hope to see you on the new site and around Facebook and Twitter, friends! Enjoy!

SIGGRAPH 2010 Los Angeles Recap

2010-09-06T15:01:00.012-04:00

This years SIGGRAPH was bar none an incredible experience, during and after the conference. From the busy volunteer schedule, to partying with Crystal Method in Hollywood, to missing yet another one of my flights, it was surely a time to remember.

I'd like to mention that this post is so late because I moved into a new house immediately after the conference, so it has been a hectic few weeks. Oh, and college classes started back up the same week. Talk about bad timing. Like always, though, I made it out alive and am getting back into the swing of things — hence this post!

Dreamworks Tour

As a student volunteer you get a lot of benefits, along with the confere

nce experience. As a team leader, you get a few more benefits. This year, I was a team leader and our extra special surprise was a tour of Dreamworks the day after we all arrived. We quickly learned why our tour guide, who was super down to earth, explained to us that Dreamworks is the 6th best company to work for. Here is me standing in front of their front door.

Their campus is beautiful and the culture seems amazing! I could see myself applying here next year. Maybe...just maybe. Overall, the tour changed my perspective on studio life and really made me eager to find my way there!

Volunteer Experience

Like I mentioned before, we get some special privileges for being a volunteer. Hell, we make the conference run after all. Your welcome! This year I was in charge of registration. This was the picture hanging up in the office all week. I can refer you to my agent if you are interested in giving me a modeling contract.

If there are any art, technology, or creative students reading this, definitely consider looking into this rare opportunity. It is life changing, not only because you surround yourself with professionals from all over the world, but you make friends and network with them at the same time. Did I mention you get to travel all over the place? Ya, pretty sweet gig. Check out more information here.

The Parties

Yep, the parties get their own chapter in this post! Why? Simply because they help make the entire SIGGRAPH experience. After an entire day at the conference, it is nice to get out and let your mind take a break from all the CG goodness filling every inch of your brain. Getting to know other people at SIGGRAPH at the parties is a completely different experience, and a more fun one at that. I mean, when do you all get the chance to see Crystal Method in Hollywood with all the other CG geeks? Not often. Here is the ticket to get into that party. Each ticket let in one guy and two girls. Needless to say, there was a good ratio!

The Last Day...

...I missed my flight! Uhg. What's new? It was actually a pretty crazy story and a very fun one. If you'd like to check out full details of this experience, which is worth a read, check out this post I wrote for xiik. That's where I work! I'll just show you some pictures that will explain why we missed that flight.

The Great Poking Attack of Twenty Ten

2010-04-22T17:28:00.005-04:00

The name of the Facebook event was [secret] Poke Josh Corken on Sunday @ 6pm and boy, did I get poked! 50 confirmed guests and 54 "maybes" meant they invited a lot of people! I had a total of around 60-70 pokes waiting for me that Sunday night, thanks to my sly roommate, David, and unpredictable friend, Zeb. Notice the "See All" option at the top of the picture below. That is Facebook's way of taking me to another page to display my 3+ pages of pokes!

Why tell you this? Because, pokes matter! You don't have to be good at it, no thinking required and it only takes seconds.

Let's break down the logistics of a poke. Here's a list of meanings behind a poke (but not limited to):

Hi.
Hello.
Howdy.
Hey there, neighbor.
I like you.
You're pretty neat.
Well, you poked me, so I guess I have to poke you back.
I think you're cute, but can't tell by just your profile picture, so I'll poke you instead.
I'm still alive. In case you were wondering.

To me, pokes are quite nice. Who doesn't love getting poked every once and a while? Here's to the poke!

This post was in no way funded or sponsored by Facebook.

Innovate the Pixar Way Book Review

2010-04-21T17:33:00.007-04:00

The other day, I finally finished reading Innovate the Pixar Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, authors of The Disney Way, which I plan to buy next. It is a fantastic exploaration of how Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, Steve Jobs and the rest of the Pixar brain trust created a company around a simple philosophy: "Quality is the best business plan." And it has worked!

In the book, they have given examples of how it has been done and explains how you can bring these types of business traits to your own company...or life, for that matter. Since I do not own a company myself, it has brought insight to traits I should look for in my future employers or advice I can take to my current boss. Not only do they analyze Pixar in great detail, but they also give you some insight on how Google, Men's Warehouse, Nike, Target and other leading organizations.

I totally recommend this book! It's an easy read that took me way too long, but it shouldn't take you long at all.

A day in the life...

2010-04-07T17:32:00.007-04:00

Here is a montage I did for my second project in my first video class. I tried to make it into a short film with a simple meaning. This also acts as visual research for another [3D animated] short film I am currently working on that will be done next year. More on that to come...

A special thanks to my hand actors Danny Kilburn, Nolan Hudson and Nick Truex. Enjoy!

BOSE Around-Ear Headphones Video Review

2010-03-01T16:51:00.004-05:00

I recently finished my product review for my first video class. The video was edited in Adobe Premier and the audio edited in GarageBand. Thank you to my lovely actors and actresses: Hannah Saunders, Paulina Kieslich, Alex Weymouth, and Steven Roman!

If you can't tell from the video, I highly reccommend these headphones. Comments and critiques are most welcome, as always. Enjoy!

2010 Business Card Giveaway Winner

2010-02-13T13:59:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone who participated! It was good to see the number of comments on here and Facebook. I'd like to congratulate Ricky Potts for winning 500 free business cards from Uprinting! That picture is of me and him celebrating his win. Just kidding.

Keep checking back for more awesome stuff from yours truly and possibly some more free giveaways!

Oh, and let's keep in touch. I'd love to hear from you! Check me out on Facebook and Twitter.

2010 Business Card Giveaway!

2010-02-06T11:51:00.005-05:00

In light of 2010 and the new year, I'm giving away 500 free business cards to one lucky reader! You can use these for anything personally or for marketing another endeavor. Either way, it's FREE and all you have to do is leave a comment to enter to WIN!

Here's the details:

500 Business Cards for One (1) Winner
Sizes: 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (skinny card)
Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only

This giveaway is sponsored by Uprinting which does printing online and business cards online. Pretty cool place, if you ask me. Plus, they let me give you free stuff!

So, leave a comment and win yourself 500 free business cards. But, the context ends next Saturday, February 13. Comment now or forever lose the chance to get free stuff! The winner will be chosen randomly and notified after the giveaway is over. Make sure to leave an email address in your comment saying how you'll use the business cards if you win, so I can get a hold of you! Good luck!

Blogging Less and Tweeting More

2010-01-18T19:39:00.005-05:00

As you've probably noticed, I haven't been posting nearly as much on my blog lately, compared to last year. There are quite a few reasons for that and I just wanted to use this post to explain why my blog isn't the complete center for marketing myself now. And don't worry folks, I will still blog a bunch!

Here's my list of excuses. Oops, I mean reasons for posting less! Along with some lessons about each that you will most likely relate to:

1. Life

I have learned a lot throughout my college career, and one lesson that always sticks out to me is the lesson of life. I've been thrown quite a few curveballs in my day, and as I grow older, the more curveballs I'm pitched. Sounds like a math equation Lately, I have taken the time do a bit of relaxing, pursuing hobbies [drums], hanging out with friends and concentrating on getting started on a short film I will be doing with a good friend of mine.

Sometimes, I think it's best to take some time off and just concentrate on other things. At the same time, this will let you cool your jets and let your creativity catch up with you (in this case blog writing).

2. Work

Since I blog for my work, I have literally doubled the amount of writing I was currently. This makes it hard to come home from work and write my own blogs. There are only so many ideas — that are post-worthy — a day that I can come up with, people! I guess you could think about the old saying "quality over quantity."

3. New Blog

Lately, I've also been thinking about making the switch over to Wordpress and leaving the wonderful world of Blogger. With a big change like that, I'd need/want a new layout for my blog. The design will stay the same. I'll always like lions and this color pallet!

Anyways, stay tuned for more on this. It will probably take through the summer for me to completely launch the new blog, but I'll keep everyone posted.

4. Twitter

As common as this is to say, Twitter is super easy, quick and to the point. I like using it to ingest my news and daily bed of information. One feature that they recently launched is lists. Here's a link to the one's I've started. Follow them if you have an account too. Since then, it's become a whole new way to organize for me because I can categorize specific Twitter accounts by genre (ie. News, Graphic Design, Film, Animation, etc).

Tweeting takes less time and is still very productive if you use the service right. Make sure you check me out on there (@joshcorken). I post daily. *wink wink*

2010 Web Design Trends and Predictions

2010-01-06T13:06:00.008-05:00

As the new years rolls around, there have been quite a few posts on some very notable blogs about the predicted trends for web in 2010. Obviously they aren't 100% guaranteed, but these guys usually know their stuff. Here are a few great reads that will probably benefit you, giving new perspectives to the future of interactive design and visions for new projects you take on.

Web Design Trends for 2010 by Web Design Ledger
10 Web Trends to Watch in 2010 by CNN
Pantone is Blowing Up in 2010 by Fuel Your Creativity

Also, here's a good post on some resolutions "freelancers" should keep in mind. I know not all of us are freelance designers, developers, programmers, animators, etc, but these are great points we can still take a lot from.

10 New Years Resolutions Every Freelancer Should Have by Freelance Folder

Oh, and how could I forget an article written by my work [xiik Interactive Marketing] about 2010?! It's definitely a good read, as all the others are.

Five Resolutions Your Business Can't Afford to Break by xiik Interactive Marketing

Be sure to share this, enjoy and have the very best 2010!

Merry Christmas, With Some Help From Woody and Buzz

2009-12-23T12:41:00.003-05:00

Like Buzz says, "...all those toys you get for Christmas, treat 'em nice." Merry Christmas everyone!

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009: My Favorite Short Animations

2009-12-22T02:26:00.006-05:00

I mentioned the Computer Animation Festival in my previous post and feel like I need to share some of the best animations of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 with everybody who wasn't able to make it. So, without further a-due I present a list of some of my favorite short animations from the Animation Festival this year. The reason I say "some" is because I can't find them online. Boo!

Enjoy and make sure to share this with anyone who also had to miss out in Yokohama, Japan!

Anchored

[Best in Show]

by Lindsey Olivares

Pigeon: Impossible
by Martell Animation

Greed
by Alli Sadegiani

Reach
by Luke Randall

Our Wonderful Nature
by Tomer Eshed

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009: The Last Day

2009-12-18T19:44:00.008-05:00

Hopefully some of you have been keeping up with my photo album on Facebook and my Twitter updates because I unfortunately haven't had any down time to write a full blog. If you haven't, go now! There's just so much to do in Japan and at SIGGRAPH that the time for other stuff just goes down the drain.

I can't really sum up everything I've seen. It's just too much! From highly detailed talks on the making of UP, to learning all about story development, the electronic theater screening (which is the best of the best animations and technical papers here at SIGGRAPH), emerging technologies, the art gallery, job fair, how to plan a short film, patch-based image vectorization with automatic curvilinear feature alignment and approximating subdivision surfaces with Gregory patches for hardware tessellation. Just kidding about those last two! I have no idea what they are, but those are some of the extremely advanced technical paper's names. Intense!

Anywho, I'll just let the pictures do the talking from here. Enjoy and if you have a question about one, just ask!

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009: The Arrival

2009-12-14T10:44:00.008-05:00

Whelp, I finally arrived safely in Yokohama. It wasn't as smooth as expected, to say the least, but it was an experience I'll definitely remember for the rest of my days. Plus the other people waiting for me to arrive had a good laugh when I showed up at the hotel. I don't blame them!

Japan is beautiful, clean and modern. All things I thoroughly enjoy...a lot. Sounds like my kind of country! Everything is pretty small though. The rumors are true. My hotel room is tiny! 2 of us are staying in here and barely have walking room. Plus almost have to duck to go in and out of the door, which is saying something because I'm not that tall. Like the famous shirts say: "I'm big in Japan."

It was fun walking around the town all day and getting familiar with the culture. To better learn the ways of Yokohama, we went ahead and rode a roller coaster at the local theme park and went ice skating outdoors near the pier. It was a lot of fun teaching some of the other student volunteers how to ice skate. I'm pretty sure all of them were pros by the end of the day. I have that effect on people! Anyways, I'll let the picture speak for themselves.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my forst shift as a team leader, so I'm really stoked about that! It's great working with such a diverse, yet amazing group of people so closely for the entire conference. These people are some of the best in the world; just know that. I guess you could say SIGGRAPH just attracts that sort of crowd and the student volunteer program makes it that much better.

The Adventure To Yokohama! (Take 2)

2009-12-12T00:19:00.010-05:00

Unfortunately, it's just not my day today. Earlier I posted the story of missing my first flight. Overall and epic tale of me completely screwing up. Or should I say sleeping up? Either way, it's definitely worth the read. So here's part 2 of my journey to Japan.

I'd just like to start off by saying that I am still very grateful that I actually have the chance to visit Japan and be a team leader at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. It's a real dream come true! But, hiccups like this happen and you just have to take the experiences as they come, whether they are convenient or not. After, you just need to figure it out and do the best you can to make the best out of it. That's what I'm doing now — enjoying the time and staying optimistic about everything.

In my case, I am able to hang out here in Chicago and stay in a really nice hotel (Crowne Plaza Hotel) for a discounted price, thanks to the distressed passenger discount with my airline! Not to mention, I can catch up on all that sleep I've lost the past few days. Like I said, though, it's not my day. Of course the hotel room I get has a broken heater, so the temperature is a whopping 63 degrees! Here's a sneaky picture I took of the Romanian dude attempting to fix it.

In the end, I had to switch rooms, which is pretty inconvenient. One plus to this is that I can complain in the morning when I check out and probably get an even bigger discount on this room! I better or else Crowne Plaza Hotels will not be getting this guy's business ever again. I'd like to thank a fellow blogger, Ricky Potts, for inspiring me to complain more on my blog in order to voice my opinion. Ricky has gotten corperate attention numerous times! Let's see if I can't get as lucky as him.

So, tomorrow will be my second chance to get to Japan. Let's just hope I get a good nights rest and don't sleep through the boarding process again! This king size bed and mountain of pillows will probably take care of that for me.

The Tale of My First Missed Flight

2009-12-11T08:16:00.006-05:00

So today starts the adventure of yet another SIGGRAPH conference. This year, SIGGRAPH Asia is in Yokohama, Japan — last year it was in Singapore. I'll be student volunteering as a team leader, which I was honored to have gotten accepted for.

I write to you now still from the Indianapolis airport. "Why?" you ask. "Didn't your flight from Indy leave at 6am?" Yes it did. Without me on it though! Yep, I missed my first flight. But this was more epic than your normal scenario of missing planes. I was completely on time and waiting in the terminal 30 minutes before the plane departed, so I took a nap. 7:30am finally roles around and my body finally decides to wake itself. Confused as hell, I consult the front desk.

"Um, yeah sir, you missed your flight. It left an hour and a half ago," the lady said. I couldn't believe it! I had slept through every announcement telling me to board my plane. Now, let me explain myself. I know there are no excuses, but I'll defend what's left of my honor. The past 2 days I have gotten a solid 2.5 hours of sleep total because I have been finishing final projects early so I wouldn't have to even worry about them while in Japan. I finished them, but that left me no time to sleep! Hence, my looking and feeling like a zombie right now and waiting on the next flight to Chicago.

So now I play the waiting game. My plane arrives in Chicago just 10 minutes before my international flight for Tokyo departs. That means I'm going to be that guy who is running with his luggage, scrambling to make a plane. Stay tuned to find out what happens to me.

Moral of the story: Don't fall asleep in the airport terminal when you've only had very little sleep recently. You WILL miss your flight!

@Animationators -The Newest Twitter Feed

2009-12-07T01:16:00.005-05:00

I'd like to be the first to introduce a new Twitter feed that will become very popular over the coming months: @Animationators! "The #1 animation & film resource brought to you by the animators of Indianapolis!"

I created this to be a very popular and large Twitter feed, eventually putting Indianapolis, Indiana animation and film on the map. It will be completely run and authored by Indianapolis animators and film enthusiasts. I think this will definitely help the Indy area as far as computer graphics, web, interactive and film studios are concerned. Everyone's on Twitter now, so what a great resource to use! Plus this could eventually lead to really good advertising possibilities depending on the amount of followers we gain and publicity it gets.

The overall goal within the next 6 months is to launch a sister website that will emulate that of Smashing Magazine and Web Designer Depot, which just simply give inspiration and write outstanding articles about the world of design and development.

Interested in being an author? Contact me via Twitter either through @animationators or @joshcorken. Here are the criteria:

1. You must have your own Twitter account.
2. You must have experience in "tweeting."
3. You need to be able to find really helpful and awesome links, quotes, resources, etc and write about them enticingly within 140 characters.
4. It is preffered you are good at advertising and writing well-phrased tweets to reach a lot of people and get retweeted.

5. You must live in the Indianapolis, IN area.

6. You must be passionate and willing to sacrifice time to this feed.

Please follow us and spread the word to your friends, classmates, colleagues, professors and anyone else who may be interested. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me!

Artist Spotlight: Ward Jenkins

2009-11-23T02:07:00.007-05:00

In light of a recent school project assignment, I got the idea to have artist spotlights to show off some of the talented artists I have come across over the years. There are always a handful that stand out from the crowd, so it's only fair to study their work and recognize them for their accomplishments.

Today's artist spotlight: Ward Jenkins

Stay at home illustrator and animator from Portland, Oregon, Ward Jenkins has created a style I personally am obsessed with. He runs a blog called The Ward-O-Matic. There, he writes about “art, animation, and anything aesthetically pleasing to the eye." I've been following for quite some time and can attest that everything he writes is really interesting and informative.

All around, a solid artist with a true passion and talent. His style is truly original and his characters are super catchy, which is wonderful to see among the plethora of work out there. Let's take a look at some of his work below (His self portrait is the first illustration). You can check out more of his work and contact him via his new website.

Kronk's Shoulder Angels: Kinetic Typography

2009-11-18T00:46:00.004-05:00

Busy, busy, busy! Yep, that's definitely how I've been the past few weeks. Projects are piling up just around the same time I take more hours at work. But, busy is good, right? Absolutely!

My latest project is this kinetic typography animation you see below. Oh yeah, nothin' but type down there. I chose dialogue from one of my favorite movies of all time, The Emperor's New Groove.

Pixar Celebrates Halloween!

2009-10-31T17:29:00.004-04:00

Yet another reason I would love to work at Pixar! These guys really know how to go all out for their parties. I would also like to say that this past Thursday I attempted to learn the Michael Jackson Thriller dance myself. It didn't go so well.

Thanks to Nate Moody and Cartoon brew for this!

3D Poses with LoMax

2009-10-25T22:54:00.005-04:00

This semester I have been diving head first into animation. It's great and I'm learning to love the challenge. Lately, I have been animating my brains out and just blowing through tons of different assignments to make myself better at the art form. Improvements are showing, so you should see some animation in the next few posts.

For now, you can see a really helpful exercise I did to help develop a keen eye for correct balance and line of action within character poses. Pose Maniacs is a great place to find tons and tons of great poses, which you can rotate to see a 360 view. That's where I grabbed all the reference pictures you see outlined in red. This seems simple, but it's actually quite challenging to make sure all aspects of the character are correct and appear natural. Hence, the extremely tough part to accomplish in animation: the illusion of life.

Below are 5 poses I chose for this project and the respective reference image. LoMax is a free rig to use for Autodesk 3DsMax and can be downloaded here.

Emerson Theater Website Re-Design Final Comps

2009-10-21T00:52:00.006-04:00

Whelp, I finished the 3 website designs! Overall I'm pretty happy with them. From my inspiration, I was able to veer away from traditional layouts a bit more and come up with some contemporary designs. This seems to fit for a music venue such as this one. I do think that they are a bit busy, but that seems like something we could get away with on this sort of project. I'll let you decide that one.

If you've missed what's going on, visit my last post explaining the project and displaying my pre visualization sketches.

Comments and critiques are most welcome, as always. Maybe someone affiliated with The Emerson Theater will stumble across these and make me some money... *hint hint*

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Computer Animation Festival Trailer

2009-10-18T22:00:00.006-04:00

It's here! The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Computer Animation Festival Trailer makes the conference look really promising. For those of you who don't know, last year SIGGRAPH decided to branch out of North America and devote an entire new conference, SIGGRAPH Asia, every year somewhere throughout Asia. It's first year was in Singapore and this year it will be in Yokohama, Japan.

Did I mention I was going? Oh yeah! I'll be student volunteering as a Team Leader for the conference, which I am extremely grateful for being accepted. My experiences in Singapore were amazing and I believe that this year will be even better! The trailer below is just snippets from several animations that were submitted to SIGGRAPH Asia this year. Only the best of the best student and professional films from around the world are chosen to be screened, so you know that these are coming from very talented artists.

Congrats to everyone who submitted this year. I can't wait to see your animations in Japan this December!

Emerson Theater Website Re-Design Sketches

2009-10-14T20:04:00.007-04:00

First, I'd like to announce that this is the 200th post on my blog! Thanks to everyone who has been following along the journey and learning with me. It's been quite a ride!

So, for the next assignment in one of my design classes we all voted on a website to re-design. They aren't actually a client, but who knows, maybe one of us could pitch our designs to them and get a job from it. Either way it will be a nice exercise. I do this at my current job right now actually, so I'm a bit seasoned. The website we will be changing is Emerson Theater in Indianapolis.

The Emerson is an all ages music venue with a capacity of 400. It hosts all original local music acts as well as the occasional nationals. As you can see, they are in need of a new design. I used to go here every once in a while, back in the day, and never thought that so many famous bands came and played there. But, looking at this list impresses me!

So, you can imagine that these designs will be full of grungy, textured graphics and layouts that try to push the limits of traditional grids. My goal is to do that while keeping the user experience very easy and usable. Stay tuned for my next post with the final mockups! Here are the extremely quick sketches and the corresponding inspiration next to each.

Pixar's Official Toy Story 3 Trailer!

2009-10-12T12:29:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure how long you guys have been waiting for this, but let me tell you, it's felt like ages on my end. One thing that didn't help out with the long wait is that one of my good friends and recent graduate of my school, Frank Tai, is actually working on this film. A while ago he told me that when they showed just the storyboards of Toy Story 3 to the crew it made most of them break out into tears! Maybe tears of excitement and joy or a sad part to the story

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the Toy Story 1 & 2 double feature in 3D. Let's just say it was beautiful seeing such aged films hold up to the high standards of today's film critics. It just goes to show that story is king!

Know that I plan to be one of the many people camping out in front of the movie theater on June 18. Enjoy the trailer!

Illustration Friday: Pattern

2009-10-05T01:19:00.003-04:00

Illustration Friday is a great website where artists can go and get a new inspirational topic each week. Artists then submit their illustrations via their blog and hopefully are chosen as the winner for that week. No prizes, just respect here, folks! My last assignment for a design class of mine was to base an illustration off of this weeks topic — pattern. My professor added another word for further direction. My word: reduce.

So, I had to make an illustration based around the words pattern and reduce. Can you say random?!

Now, my illustration has a very subtle pattern in it. The paint daubs are the that element. The reason it's subtle is because I wanted the entire piece to read subtly. That was a lot of subtles. This is more abstract than what I'm used to, which is nice to delve into once and a while. But, as a designer, you can't get too crazy. As always, comments and critiques are highly encouraged. Enjoy!

xiik Interactive Marketing Picks Me Up

2009-10-01T22:08:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but recently I took a job opportunity at a little place called xiik Interactive Marketing (pronounced zeek). I guess they liked me or something. Weird, I know. Go ahead and click on that link. I'll wait for you to browse the website.

Impressive? I think so.

I wasn't hired on for one, but two jobs. My role(s): Assistant Art Director and Account Coordinator. Those are two things I've gotten pretty good at over the years, so I'm fitting right in. I was even part of the inspiration that made my boss decide and get a new office space. Read all out that funny story here. Trust me, it's worth that read. I wrote it!

What do we do you ask?

We freakin' rock, that's what! On top of rockin' your socks off, we effectively take your brand and make it amazing through interactive marketing, custom websites, print design and advertising. The nice thing about us is that we have Account Managers (and Account Coordinators) keeping the client in the "loop" throughout our entire design and development phases. There isn't miscommunication because there is only one source to go to — me!

My other role as Assistant Art Director may sound fancy because it is. At least I think so. Underneath the Art Director, I am the go to guy for all things design related, whether it be conceptualizing website interfaces or revising them.

The adjustment has been really smooth and I couldn't enjoy the people I work with more. They are good peoples! Yeah, I said "peoples." Didn't they used to say that back in the day?

Sarah Fisher's Helmet Design: Final

2009-09-25T15:09:00.003-04:00

It was a tight deadline, but I finally finished Sarah Fisher's helmet illustration with 2 hours to spare! I just gave myself a pat on the back. It's not easy coming up with a design in a matter of 5 days, especially with tons of other stuff on your plate.

Thanks for all the critiques on my previous post. A lot of them helped me tweak the design into this. Although I wasn't able to make huge changes, I still think it's a decent piece. I'd wear the helmet...if I was a girl.

Sarah Fisher's Helmet Design: First Draft

2009-09-23T19:11:00.004-04:00

As you can imagine, the projects just keep rolling in. I've literally never been busier in my life! Enough about me though — more about Sarah Fisher! And no, unfortunately I was not hired by Sarah Fisher for this.

Now, I'm not sure if I should be telling you this or not, but I will anyway. Sarah Fisher announced a unique opportunity for her fans to play a role in her upcoming race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. She wants them to design a helmet to match the pink firesuit she'll be wearing in support of Susan G. Komen For the Cure's promise to save lives and end breast cancer forever. The winner of the design contest will have their artwork displayed in front of national media and thousands of race fans, as well as receive a replica painted helmet as a memento. How cool!

So, for our first illustration project, we were assigned this task. Design her freakin' helmet and win! No joke. My professor really wants one of our designs to be chosen. Here is my first draft. From comments and critiques, I'll make some changes and post my final by Friday. And no, I won't provide the link to the competition! Have you ever hear of Google?

Mac and Ball

2009-09-20T22:06:00.002-04:00

This is my second animation assignment for my CGT 341 class, which many of you don't even know what that means, but it's just the class number. Who cares, right? We were given storyboards and the scene and had to do the rest. As you can see, lighting and texturing aren't my strong points, but I'm fairly pleased with my animation.

I would definitely like to go back once I'm a better animator and see how many mistakes I've made. I'm sure many of you can help me with that. Comments and critiques are most welcome, as always. Enjoy!

Favorite Twitter Tweets #6

2009-09-16T22:32:00.004-04:00

This is a post in a series of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic designer, artist, animator, and 3D enthusiast!

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired.

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@joshcorken Poll results are finally in! The rumors were true: I am, in fact, awesome.

@TFLN Things to remember: Girls don't appreciate it when you yell "Beast Mode!" when switching to doggy style.

@shoemoney iphone i am t-pain app is the best ever http://is.gd/33qzn

@amusingsexfacts Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world

@AnirudhBhalotia "If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy."

@funnyordie Can't afford Beatles Rock Band? Buy a cheap guitar and just learn to play and sing the damn songs.

@FreelanceSw How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly http://bit.ly/nIfp9

@jasonsantamaria Quality typefaces cost money. Accept it.

@lmgold21 Always hoping and wishing for the best, but always ready for the worst.

@comptgraphicdes 21 more items all design geeks must have! / eightyone design ... http://bit.ly/YafdA

@AnirudhBhalotia "Any artist that wants to be the best he can be, animation is what's going to test you the most". - Glen Keane

@jakrose "You don't need a parachute to to skydive. You need one to skydive twice" Overheard

@smashingmag Typographic Design Patterns and Best Practices - http://bit.ly/r7anG

@webdesign_news How To Find Time For… Everything! http://bit.ly/12HcuQ

The Branding Process: Final Logo Variations

2009-09-14T22:40:00.007-04:00

After critiques from my class and professor, I decided to make a few variations of how these logos could be used. Sometimes, when you design a logo and the layout is a bit unconventional, you run into problems with using it in different mediums (ie. letterheads, web, email signatures, icons, etc). I think you catch my drift.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions, they really helped me come to these final logos. Let's just cross our fingers that mine are the ones chosen by my school to be used for their branding. How cool would that be!? And a wonderful portfolio piece at that. Enjoy!

The Branding Process: Final Comps

2009-09-13T23:56:00.009-04:00

As the process started to boil down, I was forced to make a decision on what comp to go with. If you are confused by this posting, please go read the first post of the series first to see what concepts these came from.

It was a tough call, but I love simplicity. Take the Apple logo for instance. Extrem

ely simple, but well implemented. That's my take on this project, as reinforced by my professor. Since DCT is the overall program and the other 4 branches are majors beneath it, I decided to have that encompass every color from the others. My goal is to have people look at each logo and associate the colors to the style and appearance of the degree itself.

There may be some final tweaking to the color orders and whatnot based on the

critiques I get from fellow peers and professors, so make sure to check back Wednesday for any updates to these. Hopefully I'm on the right track though. Here are the final comps of the 5 logos.

Comments and critiques are more than welcome!

The Branding Process: Sketching and Comps

2009-09-08T22:53:00.007-04:00

Logo development doesn't come easy. Anyone who has ever developed a brand for a company knows that it is a lot of work and takes quite a bit of effort. I wanted to present you with a case of my own.

Right now, I am taking a class and our first project of the semester was to create a brand family for a real client. In our case, the client is my school! There are 5 departments within the school and we are to make 5 separate logos, but have them visually relate and flow together. The only downside is the project time line is a whopping 2 weeks. Short for such an extensive design, but nonetheless obtainable.

So, I will take you from concept to creation. This first post being the concept work and the second will be the final digital versions.

This may be sloppy, but once I get to the 3 comps, they come together a little more. But, it doesn't end there! These are just guides for me when I start working on the computer.

So, all there is left to do is get into Illustrator and start browsing ideas to develop one of these 3 ideas into a well designed brand family. Can I do it? I think so! Check back next week for the final 5 logos.

Back to the Grind

2009-09-07T11:42:00.007-04:00

Just like many of my readers (you), I too am a student. Sure I make time to blog here and there, Tweet some stuff, and tell what's on my mind on Facebook, but behind the scenes, I work my little butt off! Juggling between work, school, and freelance can be a tough road. But, it seems like the only way to work your way towards the top and stay competing in the real world of computer graphics. I suggest if you haven't yet, take some time to find a freelance project, whether it be for pay or pro bono. It will pay dividends for you!

In this post, I want to show you guys sneak previews of what I've been working on in the past months. Although I have been working on a lot more here and there, I wanted to show some of my higher end and real world designs. Enjoy!

You are getting a first glance at The Post Script's web page. They are an emerging band from the Indianapolis area, who will soon be a hit sensation. I have also made their shirts and album artwork for the upcoming album "Seasons Change." I won't give all the designs away quite yet though.

As for this website, I have created all of the visuals, layout and design, excluding the logo and branding. This was given to me when I was hired on. I chose this design because it let the organization display a lot of information in an organized, yet stylized way.

Oh, and how could I forget. I got myself some new business cards! What a surprise, right? Don't be fooled. These are going to stay for a long time. Although, I have just been hired on at a new company who will be providing me legit company business cards. Either way, I'll keep these as long as possible. I went all out on them. One sided, but strong and straight to the point. Dressed to impress, if you will.

200 Custom Postcard Giveaway Winner!

2009-09-03T10:23:00.002-04:00

DigitalRoom.com has let two lucky readers win more free stuff. Does it get any better? Probably, but we take what we can get.

So, what did they win this time? Two (2) readers who leave a comment on this post saying how they will use their prize will win 200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoated. Full Color on both sides (4/4). Shipping must be paid by the winner. Offer valid for United States Shipping only.

And the winners for this giveaway are:

Greg Oppman and April Silva!

Congrats to both of you. You'll be contacted very soon about how to claim your prize. Also, I'd love to see what designs and ideas you come up with for using these. Thanks for entering!

Favorite Twitter Tweets #5

2009-08-27T10:23:00.003-04:00

First, I'd just like to say that this is the most occurring series of posts I have ever done. Seems to be quite helpful and convenient.

This is a post of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic designer, artist, animator, and 3D enthusiast!

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired.

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@joshcorken "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." -Forest Gump

@nishanjoomun "Any designer can do SOMETHING. A great designer does the RIGHT thing"

@AnirudhBhalotia If at first you don't succeed... welcome to the club. Almost everyone has been a member of this club at some point of time, so relax!

@tweetmeme @smashingmag 6 Simple Ways For Freelancers To Increase Productivity http://tinyurl.com/kvnvga

@AnirudhBhalotia Every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every moment...should be a celebration of life.

@johncmayer I wonder if someday when I'm married I'll have sex with my wife and then out of habit check to make sure she didn't steal my watch.

@nolanhudson Jimmy Johns is the worlds best hangover medicine

@joshcorken 

@AnirudhBhalotia The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

@OfficialEmery Just walked out store and accidentally forgot to pay fo something I put in my pocket. Oh well it was only an iPod and some xbox games no biggy.

@joshcorken "Shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you'll hit a satellite and those are kinda cool, right?" -Topher

@rainnwilson Dear TV cops, when using a flashlight on one of your shows make sure u don't hold it in the regular retarded way, but sideways, Ninja style.

@fishgun Typographic #tshirt http://tr.im/wyAG

@theknightsurfer Today is the day to make that phone call you been putting off.

We Networked Our Senses

2009-08-24T11:22:00.005-04:00

So, this is a bit late, but needed. A conclusion to the wonderful conference we call SIGGRAPH. Why so late, you ask? I answer you with this question: Have you ever heard of life and its many surprises? We'll leave it at that. But, we won't let that get in the way of saying a few last words about it.

The week started off with a bang and ended with an even bigger bang. They freakin' threw us a parade! Yes, this is New Orleans, but do they always give big conferences a parade to their receptions? What accommodating hosts. As you can see from the picture above, we filled the streets. There was a marching band and a float that lead us right to Marti Gras World where the final party was. Good food, drinks, and people there. An end to a great week.

I will never forget yet another wonderful student volunteer experience at SIGGRAPH! This year there were about 400 volunteers from all over the world, but that didn't stop us getting to know a lot of them. Amazing people you will find here, says Yoda. I'll agree with him. That was really random, sorry. But, I seriously cannot wait to hear if I got accepted to be a Team Leader in Yokohama, Japan which is the host of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009!

As always, IUPUI (and Indianapolis alone) held a very big chunk of the seats here at SIGGRAPH. I believe there were close to 20 students and professors from IUPUI and around 30 (that I know of) from Indianapolis! That's dedication right there. You can expect even more of us to be back time and time again!

200 Custom Postcards Giveaway

2009-08-18T10:49:00.003-04:00

DigitalRoom.com has done it once again! Letting me post a simple blog and letting two lucky readers win more free stuff. Does it get any better? Probably, but we take what we can get.

So, let's get down to the juice of this post. Two (2) readers who leave a comment on this post saying how they will use their prize will win 200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoated. Full Color on both sides (4/4). Shipping must be paid by the winner. Offer valid for United States Shipping only.

There are a lot of ways to use postcards and I don't think it's necessary for me to name a ton, but I will name a few just in case you need some inspiration. Don't we all? Use these custom greeting cards as an extra special invite for your next party or event, as large business cards,portfolio examples, bulk picture printing, or even printed compliments to hand out to strangers on the street. Whatever floats your boat.

So, leave a comment and WIN now! Winners will be chosen within a week.

Digital Room Poster Giveaway Winner

2009-08-11T12:14:00.005-04:00

It was really easy to enter this past contest and it looks like a few people took advantage of it. Unfortunately, some decided to leave out their contact information. Not a smart thing to do when you need to be contacted about winning a contest!

Oh well, more chances for you to win later, right? So, let's get right down to a fake drum roll. And the winner by random number generator is...

AirThom!

Thanks to all who entered! Make sure to check back for more contests, prizes, and free giveaways because there will be more.

Favorite Twitter Tweets #4

2009-08-10T20:03:00.005-04:00

This is a post of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic designer, artist, animator, and 3D enthusiast! These are heavily related to SIGGRAPH 2009, which recently happened this past week.

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired.

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@joshcorken From WIRED Magazine: "if we eliminate cash, it cod put drug dealers out of business, but don't worry pot-heads; you can grow your own"

@joshcorken Twitter tip: If you're collecting unemployment, don't tell people that. Instead say you are "between opportunities!"

@TheLogoFactory Off to buy new wedding band. Lost mine a few weeks ago. Have enjoyed my temporary bachelorhood. *smack!* Not enjoyed. NOT ENJOYED!

@siggraph RT @monaism: Great sound design begins as part of a film's DNA. - Randy Thom, keynote speaker #siggraph

@AnimationMentor The Student Showcase Summer 2009 just released! http://www.animationmentor....

@smashingmag '30 Fresh and Inspirational Portfolios With A Twist' http://tinyurl.com/na8s44

@styletime I don't care if you gave me a High Five or a Hug the only thing you're getting back is an unfollow!

@joshcorken Just overheard a little boy say "I already have a gambling problem, mom. I play the claw machine every day!"

@AnirudhBhalotia "Any kind of relationship is a 2-way street. If its not a 2-way, you better change lanes before its too late. "

@joshcorken Window Pains may be one of my favorite short animations I've seen in a long time! http://bit.ly/RDPY0

@joshchambers RT @avinashkaushik: What does the future hold? Five Futuristic Interfaces on Display at SIGGRAPH: http://tr.im/w32k

Will Wright, Partly Cloudy, Robots, Cyborgs, and the Final Frontier

2009-08-07T11:09:00.007-04:00

Tuesday, the Exhibition opened. The line started to form at least 30 minutes before the floor actually opened, but we were able to watch Autodesk's demo reel from where we were standing. Autodesk always has one of the best spots at the exhibition. Probably because they dominate the 3D software world. No big deal.

What was the first thing we did when they let us in? What do you think?! We rushed to the Pixar booth to get in the already enormous line to get a poster. They give posters and teapots out every year and you will NOT understand how crazy people are for them until you stand in a line that weaves through the entire exhibition floor to get one. This is no joke. I bet if you search Pixar teapot line in YouTube, you will find some footage. Here's the line (we are literally at the front of it too):

The exhibition is always awesome. Free stuff and plenty of big company recruiters to talk to. But, that didn't keep me away from the keynote speaker of the day, Will Wright. Some of you may know him as the creator of The Sims and Spore. An extremely talented man and one funny speaker. This was the best keynote of the whole conference, in my opinion. I think everyone can agree. He spoke about perception and how we react to certain things in the visual world.

(Photo courtesy of CGSociety. People like myself can't take pictures at these.)

Many of you have seen the latest film from Pixar and very popular Box Office sensation, "UP." If you saw that, you must have seen the beautiful short animation featured before called "Partly Cloudy," by Peter Sohn. He spoke about the struggles he went through while directing this film and how he managed to convince the big boys at Pixar to let him do it.

Really an amazing success story by one of the nicest, most modest speakers at this convention. Probably one of the best I've ever been to in my time at SIGGRAPH. Congratulations to him and the team at Pixar for such a beautiful film.

That last part of this title will make sense in a second. Some of the coolest stuff you get to see at SIGGRAPH comes from the production sessions, where they invite artists who work on features such as Terminator, Transformers, and Star Trek. They show behind the scenes footage and breakdowns of exactly how they put certain shots together.

It's brilliant and quite depressing when you see how talented the teams at the major studios are. I wasn't able to stay for the entire session because the Pixar presentation was halfway through this, but I got to see so much about the making of the new Terminator Salvation! It was funny to hear how much work went into making a CG Arnold Schwarzenegger and getting his permission to use him in the movie. You know he's the governor of California now, right? How weird!

The SIGGRAPH 2009 CGTalk Meetup

2009-08-06T17:55:00.008-04:00

Every year CGSociety's forums decide to pull together at SIGGRAPH and plan an event to plug the user names from the forums to the real life faces. Not everyone uses their face as an avatar. Actually, come to think of it, a lot of the users decide to hide their faces. I'm not sure why. Scared of the internet stalkers out there? I dunno.

This year's Meetup was held at New Orlean's Acme Oyster House. Now, granted I am too afraid to eat oysters (No, not because I'm literally afraid. I'm allergic to shellfish.) because I don't want to have to make a trip to the hospital. You understand, right? Regardless, the place was great! We had the whole second floor to ourselves. Not too mention the jambalaya was amazing!

And, from what I heard, the oysters were pretty good. Here's some of the group taking oyster shots. Not sure how that works, but I found it interesting enough to snap a picture of the action.

Here's a picture of everyone who stayed for pictures. That's one good lookin' group! I wonder why half of them have goofy avatars? Shows their creativity though, so I don't mind. Plus, those aren't too hard to remember, but a little awkward when you have to ask when they are the one with Iron Man as their picture.

To add to all the excitement, I woke up the morning after and navigated to the CGSociety home page only to see my face as the most recent news picture! Now that was cool. I was so excited, I decided to take a screen shot of it. Why not? I'm not there anymore, but it was my day claim to fame.
To sum it up, it was amazing meeting the guys behind the forum and the owners/creators of the entire CGSociety website. They were kind enough to bring a few books to hand out for our contributions to the site. That's community right there! Thanks to everyone involved for pulling it together and coming out to one of the best nights at SIGGRAPH 2009! It was truly a blast!

Benjamin Button, Randy Thom, and Much More

2009-08-03T23:01:00.008-04:00

Computer Animation Festival, Courses, Talks, FJORG!, Keynote, Birds of a Feather, Geek Bar, Emerging Technologies, Posters, The Studio, The Sandbox, Posters, Panels, Game Papers, Exhibitor Tech Talks, Technical Papers, and the Exhibition. These are the names you hear most throughout the entire week of SIGGRAPH!

There is now way I'm about to explain them all because, let's be honest, if it's too long, you won't read it. Thought I didn't know, eh?

Today was busy. And when I say busy, I mean BUSY! That's pretty much the whole week in a nutshell. There is literally just too much to see, so you have to run from one event to the next to cram as much information into your brain as possible. Mentally draining? Yes! Fatigue is setting in already and it's only 10:15pm. Here are some photos I took of the conference and even a sneak peek at the Exhibition floor, which opens tomorrow morning!

So, what did I see today? You're going to like this. Maybe it'll induce a bit of jealousy. (Rant in the comments section)

First, to start off a wonderful week of learning, the Computer Animation Festival held a Production Session covering "Building Benjamin Button." I must say that Digital Domain did an absolutely incredible job bringing this character to life! They even showed us a 50 mega pixel picture of Brad Pitt's face and zoomed in so close on his face we could see his pores in extreme detail. Gross, but how many people can say they saw that?

Next, the first Keynote speaker of the week, Randy Thom, gave a talk on "Designing a Movie for Sound." He worked on such films such as Star Wars, Forest Gump, The Iron Giant, Cast Away, Harry Potter, The Incredibles, and Coraline to name a few. This guy knows what he is talking about! This was a really insightful and new type of talk that I think gave the whole conference a perspective on designing sound for film.

I was able to see a little bit of a panel on "Getting a Job in CG for Entertainment," but had to leave early because I had student volunteer duties to attend to. The red vest continues to call my name. You would have to know SIGGRAPH to get that one.

Lastly, I was able to check out the Technical Papers Fast Forward event. Now, these are the kinds of people who innovate the programs you are using this very instant. Technical Papers cover the most detailed of new techniques that have been discovered by researchers from all over the world and it is stunning some of the work they produce! As you can see from the picture below, it was a full house. They even had to open another room for crowd overflow.

That is the first day very briefly. There is no comparison to actually attending this event. Reading about it just doesn't do justice. My advice: come next year or fall behind! This community is by far the most inspiring and motivating in the entire industry and possibly the world. No other place will provide all of these resources and opportunities like SIGGRAPH does!

What NOT to do at SIGGRAPH New Orleans: A Continued Post

2009-08-02T13:25:00.012-04:00

Planning to travel to New Orleans soon, are you here for SIGGRAPH, or have you ever been to the Big Easy? Well, whatever the case, these are things that you should not do or just keep in mind while you are here. All tips and tricks are provided by myself and friends experiences and stories I hear throughout my visit.

This post will be updated day to day, as I retrieve more suggestions based on the mistakes of others. Enjoy, share, and keep checking back for more!

What NOT to do at SIGGRAPH New Orleans:

1. Watch out for man testicles in Bourbon Street.

2. Don't take shots out of test tubes and loose your credit card.

3. Watch out for bachelorette parties.

4. Don't walk alone through dark alleys.

5. When you see beads flying from the sky, don't look up!

6. Don't drop glass bottles off of balconies on Bourbon Street.

7. Make sure your hotel is the right address. You don't want to have to walk 8 blocks or so to the next one.

8. Take taxis. don't walk after dark. Don't stumble into cars thinking they're taxis! People look down on that.

9. "Be careful who you talk to. I wasn't here more then 20 minutes and I had a female bartender telling me about how she was going to kill her husband and get away with it."

10. If you see a tall homeless guy around Canal Street and he lifts his shirt, look the other way.

11. Strippers and computer graphics don't mix!

12. Do not cut in front of anyone in the Pixar teapot line.

13. Don't be late for the bus. The drivers show no mercy.

14. You probably shouldn't go into random SIGGRAPH people's apartments and get stoned. They encourage it on Bourbon Street though.

15. Don't give away your beads to a woman who asks for it. They need to work for them.

16. Do not look into the eyes of the club bouncers. They might steal your soul, and your cash.

17. Don't pat someone on the back, for they will ask you, "Does it look like I need a cookie?" Your answer to this intriguing question will want to be "no", however it would be fun to see how fast a CG artist is compared to a local.

Running on 3 Hours of Sleep Without a Care

2009-08-01T23:48:00.009-04:00

First, I would like to make a suggestion: Never go to a theme park the day before you leave for an early plane ride to a week long computer graphics conference. Let's just say, if my feet could talk, they would be cursing my name and more. I guess the $2.50 flip flops from Old Navy wasn't the best footwear choice either. Blame that one on me.

As a student volunteer, we start working way before the conference even begins. From setting up the store, hauling boxes through what seems to a mile long hallway, and filling 10,000 goody bags for attendees. We really know how to get things done though. Can anyone say assembly line? I'll thank Henry Ford for that one. Here's a shot of the gang behind the scenes. Fascinating what a few student volunteers can accomplish together! I know what you're thinking; "that's a lot of boxes!"

New Orleans is new to me. Never before have I seen such busy night life! Well, maybe Poland competes, but I would definitely put this towards the top. Every pub has a live band playing in it and on every balcony are people eagerly throwing Mardi Gras beads down to the drunken street dwellers of Bourbon Street. I'm actually looking at my pair of purple dice beads that I earned just a short hour ago. Don't worry, no skin was shown. Get your head out of the gutter!

Tomorrow begins registration and another wave of SIGGRAPHers pouring into the already packed city of New Orleans. Will we all fit? With an expected attendance of around 10,000-15,000 geeks, they may need to make some extra room. Watch out 'Nawlins,' SIGGRAPH's in town!

SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans

2009-07-31T05:59:00.010-04:00

It's that time of the year again, when everyone packs their nerdiest shirts, sketchbooks, demo reels, resumes, and computers for a week full of computer graphics and interactive techniques! And let me just say, this is probably my favorite time of the year. You could call it my Christmas. I'm talking about a little conference called SIGGRAPH!

Well, to be honest it's not small at all. The Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques, shortened to SIGGRAPH for obvious reasons, got its start in 1974 and has grown to see attendance numbers rise to 40,000 people. That's a lot of computer geeks! This year, the city of New Orleans, LA will be hosting the 36th international conference.

But we couldn't be more proud of what we do. Yes, we may be a geek in your mind, but we fit right in at SIGGRAPH! But why go to this? What do you learn and how can you spend an entire week there?

So, why attend SIGGRAPH?

SIGGRAPH has a long standing history of being a showcase for cutting edge displays of the newest animation, architectural, illustrative, editing and design software and much more. In addition to an extremely impressive roster of industry-leading exhibitors such as Pixar, Lucas Film, Autodesk, Disney Animation, Google, Sony, and ILM, to name a few, it consistently brings the audience engaging programming and events.

So, let me ask you this: Why the hell not?!

What is Josh doing at SIGGRAPH?

I will be a student volunteer at the conference, the lifeblood and driving force that keeps SIGGRAPH going year to year! I'm proud to say this is my third SIGGRAPH and my second time volunteering. Take my word for it, my fellow student volunteers are some of the greatest, most talented, generous, kind-hearted, and downright awesome people you and I will ever meet! Trust me, I don't say that often.

What next?

As the week progresses, I'll be updating my blog with the best stuff and experiences from SIGGRAPH. And let me tell you a little secret. Come closer so you can hear me. Ok, that's good. Some of the stuff shared at this conference is never shown again or open to the public! On top of that, I will be writing a few posts for the well-known Computer Graphics World, so make sure to stay tuned there, even though I will probably be stealing information from this blog. Shhh! They don't need to know that.

Favorite Twitter Tweets #3

2009-07-30T08:24:00.004-04:00

This is a post of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic designer, artist, animator, and 3D enthusiast!

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired.

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@AnirudhBhalotia If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm - Les Brown (One of the best quotes I heard in a long time) #inspirational

@DesignerDepot 25 High Quality Free Fonts for Professional Designs: http://ow.ly/hiuF

@whereivebeen In Japan, 2 traffic lights simultaneously flashed green for 30 years due to error. No-one noticed til recent accident http://bit.ly/21XEHc

@AnirudhBhalotia "A good deed is never lost: he who sows courtesy reaps friendship; and he who plants kindness gathers love."

@U_Creative Random thought. Twitter is not for sissies. U may quote me on that.

@kurtroswell There is a rarity of courage in the world. Be bold, be brave, and be creative. You might not get rich, but you would've really lived life.

@joshcorken Blizzard's Starcraft 2 Official Cinematic Trailer is absolutely brilliant and beautiful. Thank me later. http://tinyurl.com/ynv8np

@scottmccloud Raisins: You can always pick them out. #honestslogans

@TomZiglar Where you start is not as important as where you finish. Zig Ziglar

@whereivebeen "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” - Seneca #travel

@BirdmanAndersen RT @Fake_Ron_Artest If you want to say Lance Armstrong is crazy do you call him 'nuts' or 'nut?'

@webdesign_news Design Checklist http://bit.ly/Jae0x

@TomZiglar Real Joy is when you encourage someone who then makes a difference in someone elses life. Zig Ziglar. (Today in our company meeting)

@joshcorken It's the story that matters. It can make or break a film.

@uilcrw Jazz and SIGGRAPH 2009 http://www.siggraph.org/s20...

@reactorkc RT @nishanjoomun: Nice comparison between Pepsi and Coke logo evolution http://bit.ly/14QlD0

@TFLN (416): Definitely still drunk while signing the 'responsible adult' form at the hospital

@joshcorken There is no point in having millions of polygons, the latest technology available and countless hours of rendering if the story fails.

@nikibrown RT @justcreative: Imagine Pot Was Legal. How Would You Brand It? - http://tinyurl.com/lnzd9y (via @logomotives @FastCompany)

Pick-Up Lines to Use on Graphic Designers

2009-07-28T14:42:00.003-04:00

I couldn't resist! If you're looking to schmooze that special graphic designer that you've a crush on, this is a way to get your foot in the door and maybe more. Feel free to add more in the comments section for everyone else to read. We all need some pointers, don't we?

I wish I had an Eyedropper to capture the color of your eyes.
Has anybody ever told you that your teeth have perfect kerning?
If you were a logo, it would be for a really premium brand.
I’m just like a global nav; I love to be on top.
Come back to my place and I’ll show you a really naughty way to fill up some negative space.
Would you like to lorem ipsum dolor sit on my lap?
If I went to a stock photography site and typed in the keyword: “sexy”, I bet there’d be a picture of you.
I couldn’t help but notice your eye path went right to my smudge stick.
If I hit Shift + [ will it increase the hardness of your brush?
Just looking at you from across the bar, I could tell you display high Brightness and Vibrance, and have multiple Layers.
You look perfectly put together. Do you display this well in IE?
I like my fonts sans-serif, and you sans-pants.
If you bring the tool, I’ll bring the color palette.
I dig your look and feel.
If you like what you see now, wait’ll you look below the fold.
Let’s “Skip Intro” and just go find a hotel room right now.
When I serve you breakfast in bed tomorrow, would you like your coffee with cream and sugar, or do you prefer it #000?
Do you want to touch my Bézier curves?
What if I told you the fly on my legs opens quicker than a 500kb JPEG file?
Mind if I take you for a usability test?
Let's go to bed and do the baseline shift.
Adobe should've called it InDesire.
I hate Comic Sans too... wanna dance?
I'm sorry, is my div tag open?
You are one hot Firefox... how about some Private Browsing?
I wouldn't hit Ctrl+Z after a night with you.
You're so fine, you must be 1px.
I'll make your clothes 0% opacity.
Can I select your area with my magic wand?
Show me your .tiffs

Thanks to the Crestock Blog for the inspiration!

The SIGGRAPH 2009 CGTalk Meetup Details

2009-07-26T03:19:00.007-04:00

With SIGGRAPH only 8 days around the corner, the party, user groups, and meetups are starting to be finalized. Computer graphics enthusiasts are getting more excited by the second and can't wait to be bombarded with the mind-blowing events it has to offer.

One of the meetups that happen every year is called the CGTalk Meetup. Since online forums really don't let you communicate personally, this allows the members of CGSociety to get together and actually meet each other (without the computer).

Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Time: 8pm
Location: Acme Oyster House
724 Iberville Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 522-5973

I hope to meet all of you there. That is, if you are attending SIGGRAPH this year. If you aren't, let me just say you are going to miss out. Don't worry, you can follow all the action and read about highlights live from this blog!

Everything Changes. Nothing Remains Without Change

2009-07-25T14:50:00.005-04:00

The title of the post is actually a quote by Buddha. Not bad in my opinion. The image of Josh Corken (me) is changing. BoldHeart Design is being phased out and the name of Josh Corken is taking over.

Why? There are further endeavors on the back burner and the name Josh Corken needs to be the focus rather than another company name. Ya dig? Well, you better because it's about to get bigger and juicier than ever! Should I have used the word juicy for that? Oh well, you get my drift.

So check out all that is NEW!

Blog: http://joshcorken.blogspot.com (You are here)
Design: http://joshcorken.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshcorken

The Digital Room Poster Giveaway

2009-07-24T09:03:00.008-04:00

What? More free stuff! You know it. This time Digital Room online printing is hosting the giveaway, so thanks to them.

At Digital Room, they love photos as much as you do. And we all have plenty of them lying around, right? Well, now is your chance to enlarge that special photo you’ve been wanting to display. The photo can be of anything you want, as long it will make you happy to see it enlarged! They can do normal poster printing as well as custom poster printing. Whatever you need!

So, how do you enter? Easy. It will take you less than 3 minutes, I guarantee it!

Just leave a comment below saying what you are planning on printing and I will choose one person at random to take home a free high-gloss or semi-gloss 18x24" digitally printed poster!

I told you it was easy! Oh, and it wouldn't hurt your chances to share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, blah blah blah. You know the drill. As for me, I will be printing a poster that speaks to my heart now. I ride a motorcycle and am proud of it. To be more specific, I ride a BMW. Talk about amazing engineering. So, why wouldn't I print this amazing poster!?

A Closer Look at Character Design

2009-07-21T10:30:00.009-04:00

In the previous post, we took A First Look at Character Design. If you haven't read that, you should before you continue on with this. I'll wait for you so you can catch up.

Alright, I've waited long enough. So last time, we asked questions like what makes a character so appealing and lovable? How can Disney and other masters of the art actually create such lasting personalities? Well, in this post, we will learn about the fundamental steps it takes to develop a strong character. So, what are they?

1. Define your character.

In this first step, we will find out who are character is and define is qualities. Here are some simple questions to think about:

What is the life purpose of your character?
Where is it from?
What is your character afraid off?
What does it think about?
What is their main obstacle in life?
What is its strengths and weaknesses?
What type of friends does it have?

2. Make it human.

This doesn't mean to make your character look like a human. It just means to try and give it qualities in which the audience can relate to and understand. You can use common themes to bring your character to life such as sadness, joy, happiness, love, compassion, success, failure, etc. These will all relate your character to the audience. The less human-like you make it, the harder it will be to make that connection with the viewer.

3. Symbolism adds depth.

Do you want to add yet another level of depth to your character? Of course you do! In this step, you can really add subtle features to your character by adding symbolic traits to indirectly cue the viewer to learn more about it. For example, a small man may drive a very large truck around because he feels like he has to compensate for his height or a lady wears a ton of makeup to hide her real face because she thinks she's not beautiful enough. There are all kinds of ways to achieve this step, but that should get you started.

4. Add some humor.

Or you could add a lot of humor. It's really up to your vision of who this character is. But, you can never go wrong with adding some silly qualities to a character such as size, intelligence, misfortune, parts of the body being misplaced, or even just a funny tone to them.

5. Use reference to start creating.

If you are graphic artist or traditional artist, you will always use reference or find things that inspire you to make that next masterpiece. The same goes for creating a character. By this point, you should know who your character is. Now it is time to create it. If it is a male who is a bodybuilder, you can find pictures of body builders, weightlifters, Olympians, what they wear, how they act, etc. This research will help you further visualize what you want your character to look like.

6. Start sketching!

There are no boundaries at this stage. All you need to do is let your imagination take you to what your character should be. The only limitations are following the qualities, features, and traits of that you decided on in the first few steps. Start finding that certain style you have been looking for in this character and how it appeals to the audience. How will your character be pleasing to look at? Unless you are creating a monster, you may want to achieve harmonious shapes, good draftsmanship and simplicity.

7. Support with an environment.

Lastly, you will want to create a world in which your character lives in to further support the storytelling aspect of this character. That means focusing on design complexity, color, light and staging. The main idea behind this stage is to create an environment that completely supports and illustrates who your main character is.

So, now what do you do? My suggestion is to dive right in. Try your hand at character design and follow these steps to creating your vision. If you decide to make a character after reading this post, go ahead and link the picture in the comments section so we can all see it and give feedback.

Favorite Twitter Tweets #2

2009-07-15T11:34:00.006-04:00

This is a post of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic artist. Since there is so much good stuff out there, it seems like this will be a normal thing for me to do. It just keeps getting better and better!

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired. After all, that's the whole point of this thing, isn't it?

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@joshcorken “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” -St. Augustine

@upcomingpixar Blog Post: Behind the Voices Behind Up! Our thoughts on an interview with Amera Rizk, editor behind the stars: http://bit.ly/8Vojc

@joshcorken The 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time: http://bit.ly/3TZhr (This could take a while!)

@joshcorken "A man does not own anything but the courage and the loyalty in his heart. That's where his power comes from." -Vamsi V.

@AnimationMentor New tips and tricks! Advice from mentor Chris Chua on walk cycles http://ow.ly/gU9f He says watch a video ref and thumbnail simultaneously!

@AnimationCosmic Advice for anyone who's tried writing a short animated film: "Them shits is hard."

@SusanCosmos “Avoid problems, and you'll never be the one who overcame them.” -Richard Bach #quote

@smashingmag 'The Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer' http://tinyurl.com/nh5aes

@johncmayer If you have to tell someone how bad you want it, then you haven't shown them how hard you already work for it.

@Iconic88 One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

@mtheoryx Really well done, and a very cool effect | RT @petapixel: Epic tutorial! 7 Steps to Taking Clone Photographs: http://bit.ly/13j2QT

@Iconic88 Information is learned. Knowledge is practiced. Wisdom is knowing. PLS RT

@AnirudhBhalotia "Never see failure as failure but only as the negative feedback that I need to change course in my direction”

@FreelanceSw 10 Ways to Beat the Hell Out of Creative Block http://bit.ly/TwTCa

@Iconic88 I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.- Thomas Alva Edison

@aaronmarshmusic The car in front of us just threw a banana peel out the window. We ran over it but didn't slip! I don't know what to believe anymore.

You Know You're an Internet Addict When...

2009-07-10T13:31:00.004-04:00

This was just way too funny not to post. I did a similar one while back called You Know You're a Graphic Designer When... and have always wanted to find more of these. Well here it is! I know I'm an Internet addict. I spend usually half my day on the computer because it's my job, but the Internets and Googles are always chillaxin' in the background.

Are you an internet addict? Count how many of these apply to you and post that number in the comment section. Highest number wins! Be honest.

1. You didn't know that Firefox was also a movie starring Clint Eastwood.
2. Your bookmark takes 15 minutes to scroll from top to bottom.
3. There's a permanent ass-groove in your computer chair, but you haven't noticed.
4. You've said "no" to a real date in order to chat on eHarmony.
5. You've rationalized installing a mini-fridge, microwave, and port-a-potty at your workstation.
6. You go shopping every week, but you've never been inside a mall.
7. You don't believe anything you read in a newspaper unless you verify it on a news site.
8. You think that 404 is the number of the beast.
9. You refuse to go outside because of the sun: "it burns! IT BURNS!!"
10. Your eyeglasses have a web site burned in on them.
11. You find yourself typing "com" after every period when using a word processor.com.
12. You refer to going to the bathroom as downloading. And you have an ethernet connection right next to the toilet paper.
13. You step out of your room and realize that your parents have moved and you don't have a clue when it happened.
14. You crank up your surround-sound whenever leaving the room so you can hear if new e-mail arrives.
15. All of your friends have an @ in their names.
16. When looking at a pageful of someone else's links, you notice all of them are already highlighted in purple.
17. You've already visited all the links at Yahoo and you're halfway through Lycos.
18. You can't call your mother...she doesn't have Skype or Instant Messaging.
19. You check your mail. It says "no new messages." So you check it again.
20. You have commandeered your teenager's phone line for a secondary net connection in case your ADSL goes down, and even his friends know not to call on his line anymore.
21. Your phone bill comes to your doorstep in a box.
22. You code your homework in HTML and give your instructor the URL.
23. You don't know the sex of three of your closest friends, because they have gender-neutral nicknames and you never bothered to ask.
24. You name your children Eudora, Mozilla and Dotcom.
25. Your husband tells you he's had the beard for 2 months.
26. You wake up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your e-mail on the way back to bed.
27. You tell the cab driver you live at http://123.elm.street/house/bluetrim.html
28. You actually try that 123.elm.street address.
29. You tell the kids they can't use the computer because "Daddy's got work to do" and you don't even have a job.
30. Your wife makes a new rule: "The computer cannot come to bed.". So you file for a divorce...online.
31. You are so familiar with the WWW that you find the search engines useless.
32. You get a tattoo that says "This body best viewed with Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher."
33. You forget what year it is.
34. To find out what year it is, you search Google.
35. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.
36. You begin to wonder how on earth your service provider is allowed to call 200 hours per month "unlimited."
37. You turn on your computer and turn off your wife.
38. Your wife says communication is important in a marriage...so you buy another computer and add her to the network so the two of you can chat.
39. You refuse to go on vacation where there's no electricity, phone lines, or hotspots.
40. You finally do take that vacation, but only after buying a data-enabled cel-phone, and a wi-fi PDA.
41. You spend half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap...and your child in the overhead compartment.

Thanks to Geek of the Day for the inspiration.

Inspirational 3D Stills #1

2009-07-09T14:52:00.016-04:00

CGSociety is one of the greatest online communities on the face of the interwebs. It really has any for of computer graphics niche on it, allows you to network with other students and professionals, and gives you an overwhelming amount of work produced by these talented artists. Just today my user title went from "veteran" to "frequenter." And as a frequenter now, I feel I must start incorporating the amazing work on CGTalk into the blog.

Today's topic: Inspiration from 3D Stills. The variety of style and creativity between these renders goes to show that this community really hosts every kind of artist out there. I hope these can spark some ideas or inspire you to make some of your own awesome works in 3D.

(Click on each picture to navigate to the artist's original post.)

Jack Zhang

Viki Yeo
Balázs Pápay
Andre McGrail
Alessandro Baldasseroni
Yu Cheng Qu
Olivier Defaye
Quentin Mabille

Favorite Twitter Tweets #1

2009-07-06T20:24:00.006-04:00

I'm trying to be creative, so give me a break! This post is exactly what the title says: a list of some of my favorite tweets from the several people I follow on the wonderful world of Twitter. I've chosen ones that are very inspirational and have great resources for you, the graphic artist. This actually came in handy for myself, so I hope it does for you!

Enjoy the tweets, follow the authors of the ones you like, share this post, respond with some of your favorite tweets, and become inspired. After all, that's the whole point of this thing, isn't it?

Oh, before we begin, go follow me on Twitter!

@AnirudhBhalotia "In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk." -Rita Rudner

@SenJohnMcCain America has been and remains the greatest force for good in history.

@smashingmag People are quick to forget good things you've done, but once you failed, really failed, they'll remember it for the rest of your life.

@upcomingpixar Pixar Quote: "Quality is the best business plan." -John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer WDAS & Pixar) So true!

@AnirudhBhalotia "One person caring about another represents life's greatest value."

@joshcorken The Brainstormer created to help writers, designers, and anyone else come up with ideas: http://www.distractionbeast...

@joshcorken "Never give up on something you can't go a day without thinking about" -Russ Shanafelt

@funnyordie OMG, this chocolate cake is like crack! Oh, wait a second. Nope. This is actually just crack. I thought it was weird I was smoking cake.

@joshcorken RT @mashable RunPee: iPhone App Tells Moviegoers When it’s Safe to Pee http://tinyurl.com/n2rtch (via @tweetmeme)

@Iconic88 "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." -Gibran

@Iconic88 "All things are difficult before they are easy."

Composing for Characters: Disney/Pixar's UP Soundtrack

2009-07-04T13:40:00.005-04:00

First off, if you haven't seen UP, you must go right now! No, I mean now. Stop reading this blog post, check the movie times, bookmark this page for reading after you get back from the film, and go experience one of the greatest animated films ever created!

Thanks to Upcoming Pixar, I am able to stay updated on everything that happens with the feature films, toys, employees, and the entire world in which they live in. This happens to be one of my favorite blogs to follow. And trust me, that's saying something because I follow well over 50 others.

Well, recently they posted this video, which is about the music behind the film UP and how Michael Giacchino composed for the characters. It makes me admire Pixar and just how much effort they put into every aspect of the film.

After watching the above video, I immediately opened iTunes, browsed to Pixar soundtracks, and purchased the entire UP soundtrack. The score literally bring tears to my eyes. It's astonishing how just 8 simple notes can bring out so much emotion!

I'm listening to the soundtrack as I type this and am more than happy with myself for buying the album. It is taking me through the exact same emotions I felt during the movie and I'm not even watching it. Talk about great composition! I promise you that the money you spend on watching UP in theaters and buying the soundtrack is well worth it.

A First Look at Character Design

2009-07-03T11:52:00.007-04:00

The wonderful world of Twitter decided the destiny of this post. Yes, you heard right. How does Twitter decide what I write about in here? Well, it's quite simple actually. I posted a small snippet about how I was trying to think of new blog post ideas and within minutes had 3 prompt responses with all good ideas. These were from people I had never heard of, but it's nice to know there are people out there willing to help.

I ended up choosing an idea from @gilabot. His recommendation was based on his most recent post called Top Character Design #001. This won't be focusing too much on Darth Maul, but he is one intimidating dude if you ask me.

Now, since this is just the first look at character design, most of the characters I will show are extremely well known. You have to love Disney and the other big name creators for providing us with our many childhood cartoons and movies. How did they do it though? Just how did they think up and develop such strong characters that moved and influenced us so much?

Let's take a look at some of the well known characters that we have been introduced to throughout our years. Notice the time it takes you to recognize who it is and how they are feeling. Not long at all! Hence, great design and development.

I could really go on for days with the pictures. There are countless characters that are so distinguishable because they are created so well. That is the power of animation in general. The ability to put life and emotion into a drawing and make the audience believe it has a mind is something that will be cherished forever.

Stay tuned for more posts on this topic, including comic book character design, movie characters, and the steps to developing a lasting character.

500 Free Business Cards! How?

2009-07-01T22:05:00.004-04:00

The title may be a bit misleading, but I'll assure you it's for a good cause. In this case, I will be receiving 500 free business cards of my choosing in the next month. You see, I keep posting about this stuff and you keep getting more chances to win free printing! It's a win win situation, and finally I get to reap the benefits. But how?

Well, UPrinting sponsors blogs. It's as simple as that. The BoldHeart blog is sponsored because it rocks and because I asked. Easy as that. This has probably been my best move yet, considering this helps drive traffic to my site through all of the free giveaways. Who doesn't like free stuff? I mean come on, really?

Why UPrinting.com isn't your average printing company:

1. Blog Sponsorships:

If you are looking to find a sponsor for your blog, UPrinting.com is definitely interested. We
offer giveaways, advertising and more for qualified bloggers.

2. Non-Profit Sponsorships:

The U-Community Program sponsors hundreds of non-profits and education to improve our
local communities.

3. Social Justice Projects:

The UPrinting Kiva account promotes small business growth in developing countries.

4. Green Printing:

UPrinting supports a sustainable future by recycling, using non-toxic inks, and offering eco-friendly recycled paper stocks for business cards and postcard printing.

Pretty cool stuff, I must say! Even though they are a business, which seeks to make money, it is so impressive how much they give back to the community. It goes to show that with any sort of company, there are ways to give back, sponsor, mentor, and help guide the next generation to success. That's a bit mushy, but I think you get the point.

Tips To Success: Time Management

2009-06-30T17:05:00.009-04:00

Time management is by far one of the most important traits for a student, freelance designer, or any other profession in which you have to do 500 things at one time. Why are so many people bad at it? How can we improve our time management? Throughout this post, you will also see a few comic strips regarding the topic. I found them humorous. So, before we begin:

I like to think that I manage my time extremely well. I think others can agree, but I'm obviously not perfect. Nobody is. So, what traits can lead to a person being good at time management? I promise it isn't buying a 36 hour wrist watch! With this post, I will attempt to let you in on some of my secrets and what I try to keep in mind when scheduling.

1. Do not write a check your butt can't cash!

Yeah, that's a lame saying, but true. Don't take on too much work! This can be very stressful and lead to a lot of problems. If you have other projects you are working on, this could affect the quality and time spent on those. You also have to consider your health. Staying up all night to finish that extra website you took on can be bad for you. A good night's rest is critical for your health, mood, and productivity.

2. Use your resources.

I'll use myself as an example for this one. Yahoo is a really great service. I use it for a lot of different things. "What?" you say "There are other things Yahoo does besides organize my email!" Of course! Just like Google, Yahoo is working hard to give you a plethora of free resources.

One of those being the Yahoo calendar. I use this thing to keep track of mostly everything I do, from meetings to deadlines to vacations to more meetings. The wonderful thing about this is that I can set reminders. One reminder send me an email and the other sends me a text. How cool is that! This is just one of the many kinds of resources that are free to use.

3. Small tasks, better results.

You heard! Don't mark on your calendar that you're going to finish that newly signed website at the end of the week. Give yourself time! Time to research, plan, prepare, design, develop, test, revise, test again and launch. There is always time. And if your client says there isn't and wants that website finished, from start to end, in one week, then that may not be the best project to be on anyways.

4. Write it down!

When you're in a meeting or get a quick idea about something you have to do, instead of making a mental note, jot it down somewhere. Your arm, hand, or shoe is always a good place if you're out of paper. Then, once you get back to your computer, type it in to your free calendar resource (see bullet number 1). How are you going to remember everything you have to do unless you have some form of tracking the tasks? Unless you're a master mind, it may be pretty tough.

5. Always have a plan.

You know how your elementary school used to have frequent fire and tornado drills? Well, this is sort of like that. Instead of running into a project blind, know how you're going to approach it. Figure out the time it will take you to complete each task and how many tasks you have to finish. Sort out the deadlines, schedule meetings, and leave yourself some room to breathe. You won't be working 24 hours a day, so don't fill your schedule like you can!

If this post was helpful, leave a comment. If you have any additional advice for others, leave that in your comment to. I feel a series coming on, so stay tuned for more Tips To Success!

The Pixar Touch: Book Review

2009-06-29T05:27:00.001-04:00

This past winter, while I was in Singapore for SIGGRAPH Asia, I bought a book called "The Pixar Touch" by David A. Price. It is an extremely detailed history of the company of Pixar, how it came to be, explaining the perseverance of a talented and determined group of individuals. From chapter 1-11, I was consumed by the story. Even though it took me a while to finish, when I started reading, I never wanted to stop.

This would be the reason that this book is my absolute favorite out of all the books I've read thus far. For me, the inspiration alone was worth the read. When I finished this book, all I could think about was the company I wanted to start and how I should go about setting the tracks for it to take off, like Pixar.

I learned about the backgrounds of the major players who really made Pixar what it is, from Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Brad Bird, Pete Doctor, to Andrew Stanton. These accomplished men will always and forever be complete inspiration and motivation for me. It's absolutely crazy how many hours and how much effort was put into the making of this company.

The organization of the book is great because it starts from the very beginning and ends as far as the book could go (considering when it was released: 2008). David Price chose to start the book with a quote from John Lasseter, which I believe is spot on:

Character animation isn't the fact that an object looks like a character or has a face and hands. Character animation is when an object mover like it is alive, when it moves like it is thinking and all of its movements are generated by its own thought processes... It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life. It is the life that gives meaning to the expression. As {Antoine de} Saint-Exepery wrote, "It's not the eyes, but the glance - not the lips, but the smile."

That quote alone tells so much about his character and the mindset of Pixar in general. I encourage anyone who is at all devoted to animation, the world of computer graphics, or just starting their own company to read this book and take every word in because it will truly inspire you to become something even more than you imagined.

Why I am a Graphic Artist

2009-06-26T14:20:00.004-04:00

I came across a post a while back that really spoke to me. It was written by a designer and listed all of the reasons that person loved being a graphic designer. Even reading through lists like that, it helped me to realize just how much I too love this industry, although it's still somewhat new to me. Here are my reasons. What are yours?

1. You can learn on your own.

I'm not a doctor, and I never plan on being one. But, let's pretend I wanted to become one. Well, there is no way that I could go on the Internet, watch a bunch tutorials and be ready to perform open heart surgery. That's the beauty of computer graphics! You can go online, find tips and tricks, read, and learn just about anything you can possibly think of. On top of that, it's all FREE!

Now, don't get me wrong, school is great and I think it's very important to go to school for graphic arts. But, if you really think you can succeed, you really don't have to because in the end, your portfolio (and your personality) is all that matters. The reason we go to school is to learn from your teachers and get critiques from them and your peers.

2. Let those creative juices flow!

Not only can we learn this stuff on our own for super cheap, but we can really enjoy what we do. This is not mathematics, accounting, or any boring desk job for that matter. Every day, I can wake up with ideas from my dreams or the previous day and sketch, design, model, animate, or write about that idea. How? Because I can! Even designing a website or sketching up an illustration, you can put so much creativity and imagination into it from all aspects of art. There are no limitations to your imagination in this field!

Having a great job within graphic design doesn't mean you don't make money, you can still make a great living. Many creative professionals make really good money and love waking up to go to work. How many people can say that? To me, that alone makes money irrelevant to me. Money is no substitute for happiness.

3. Self employment, or as we call it, "freelance."

Let's go back to my doctor analogy. If I were a doctor, there is absolutely no chance that I could offer my services on the side! Yes, I could offer advice to your sick kid, but I'm not going to invite you to my house and fix your broken leg for a discounted fee. That would be funny though.

A lot of graphic artists never have to leave their house to go to work. Instead they freelance and work for themselves. Since there is so much work in this industry you can make a great living off of just freelance work, in the comfort of your home. I'm becoming even more of a believer in that considering the amount of freelance work I've been getting lately.

4. The community.

I'm going to say that this is one of my main reasons for the passion I have for computer graphics. The people you meet in this industry are wonderful, down to earth, creative, funny, and more than willing to help. What other industries can you think of where the pros generously tell you every secret they know regarding their profession? Not many I assume.

There are endless online communities for graphic artists and each has a special focus or main purpose. Many of those involve making their members better, more informed, passionate, or just networking. I can't stress how important the community is to me. But, I can say that I will pay it forward. Some of the greatest people you will ever meet are out there and you don't even know it yet. Get involved!

5. Start your own studio!

This has been my dream for a while now. We discussed the freelance world of computer graphics already. What if you could take that career one step further? You can!

If you have the right personality, connections, passion, and perseverance, you may just decide to start your own company. Why work for someone else when you can work for yourself? Although this is a lot more work, the reward has to be exponential. Once you have the right contacts and a good team of people to work with you, starting your own studio may be just the thing to fulfill your lifelong dream!

Vintage Design Examples: 1950-1960

2009-06-24T17:59:00.008-04:00

Just today I was reading through my usual blog lists and came across an interesting gallery on 1950's and 1960's color and design. Although random, I thought it was really helpful seeing what older illustrations looked like back then and the way they designed. Instead of just stealing all the images from that post, I took the liberty of venturing out and researching this era myself. It's always nice finding things out on your own.

Notice the choice of color and layout. I'd actually like to try my hand at designing a poster in a style similar to these. Maybe you will?

Well, if you do, link your design in a comment on this post. Also, if you have any suggestions on other unique eras of graphic design or a favorite, make sure to let me know. Enjoy!

The Color Series: Green

2009-06-23T13:16:00.002-04:00

Growth, harmony, freshness, fertility, nature, safety, and money. These are some of the words that are most commonly associated with the color green.

This post continues the highly regarded color series I have started. If you are just now joining, you should go read about red and orange. Here I will offer suggestions for color pallets and how to use the featured color on the post. Suggestions through comments are most welcome, plus requests for the next color study is encouraged.

The color green has great healing power. Why do you think your dentist's walls are all green? The reason is because it is the most restful color for the human eye. This means that the color of those walls evoke a specific response in you either calming you down or making you even more uncomfortable. I highly doubt there is one good dentist who has red walls.

Green also suggests stability and endurance, indicating growth and even hope. Growth could be traced to the color of our money: green. Obviously this color is used to promote safety. We don't run through an intersection when the light turns red now do we? When the light turns green, that tells us the intersection is safe to drive through, assuming a drunk driver isn't running the light.

Here are some really nice green based color pallets that you are free to use. And if you do use these as a base for one of your future designs, please make sure to post a link to it in the comment section for all to see!

Dark Green: is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-Green: can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua: is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive Green: is the traditional color of peace.

Do you have theories about the color green you have discovered that I didn't include in this? Any ideas on how to make the next Color Series post even better?

Pixar's UP Grants Girl Her One Last Wish

2009-06-22T11:22:00.006-04:00

A truly touching story comes from one of the animation big dogs and my personal favorite of the lot: Pixar. Not the happiest story, but very moving, nonetheless. Colby Curtin is no ordinary girl. She’s got a rare disease taking over her body, vascular cancer. Ever since she saw the trailer for Pixar’s Up, she’d been excited to see the sky high adventures of Carl and Russell. But as circumstances would have it, she never got to do so in theaters because of scheduling issues and her deteriorating health condition.

Colby said that she did not want to pass away before she saw the new Pixar movie. (I probably would have said the same thing.) One of her family members frantically called Pixar and luckily found someone who could help! The Pixarian flew down to her house with a DVD of the movie and a bag full of Up goodies one day later. The family enjoyed the movie (and their last moments with Colby) that day.

After the movie was over, the girl was asked if she enjoyed it. She was in so much pain all she could do was nod "yes." 7 hours later she passed away, but she died with her final wish granted.

This really is a beautiful story that I highly encourage you to pass along. It shows that Pixar is much more than just an animation studio, they are passionate individuals who are extremely down to earth. I'm also not just saying that because of this story, but because I've read a lot about the company and how they run things.

This also highlights the wonderful design environment in which many of us have the privilege of working in every day, the amazing people you meet, and the good deeds they do for others. This is the main reason I am so passionate about the computer graphics industry and why that passion will never die, but rather only continue to grow!

Back to the States with Zach Morris

2009-06-19T14:28:00.007-04:00

As you may have figured, I'm back from the wonderful country of Poland! After a month of teaching, exploring, drinking, and adventure, it's time to get back into the swing of things. That means work!

The blog posts will continue as usual, bringing you the greatest information, my work, the most beautiful pieces of art, design, and animation from the pros, and best of all: FREE giveaways! Since the BoldHeart Blog is now a sponsored blog of UPrinting.com, I have the chance to give away tons of free stuff! Make sure to keep checking back for contests, giveaways, designs, and any other amazing/cool/interesting things I find on my day to day endeavors on the interwebs.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and join the Facebook group!

On a side note, Chestees showed me this video today that I thought was hilarious. This will explain the title of this blog post, "Back to the States with Zach Morris." I'm sorry, but I will completely admit that I was and still am in love with Saved By The Bell! I know you are too. Don't even try to deny it!

Enjoy the video and look forward to some summer activity from you friend at BoldHeart!

The Best of Poland 2009

2009-06-18T10:06:00.013-04:00

Over the course of a month, I took well over 500 pictures. Granted all are from Poland, many are from different cities within. This post serves as a favorite pictures kind of post, since I took so many pictures on my trip.

But, how could I pass up an opportunity to win $250 for my best photo? Well, as you can see with this post, I haven't passed it up and I sure as heck need the money! Who's hosting the contest you ask? Our good friends over at UPrinting! I'm sure you could have guessed though. UPrinting.com is a leading online provider of business cards, color brochures and mailing postcards. I recently held a poster giveaway where 2 readers easily won free poster printing! Make sure to check it out and stay tuned for the next giveaway!

On with the pictures! The first listed is my favorite of the bunch, but what follows are just some extra eye candy for your enjoyment. You didn't come all the way out here just to see one picture now did you? So, I'll start you off with my favorite picture of the summer so far:

There are no fun captions to describe this picture because it really isn't a fun photo. Rather, this was taken at Aushwitz on the train tracks that took so many people on their last train ride. The flowers, candle, depth of the track, and lighting all work together to bring out a hopeful, but sad sort of feeling. It was really powerful standing on those tracks.

Here are the rest of the photos I think were the best from my trip. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Poznan, Poland 2009 (Week 1)

2009-06-09T09:38:00.021-04:00

As another week has slowly passed, more festivities bring themselves to us. We've been able to see quite a bit of the city, and countryside, even struggling through our living situation, which is 45 minutes away from the center of the city. This is also where we teach, so every day is a hefty commute. The internet isn't too hot here either. I guess you could say that it's the opposite of high speed. I'm lucky to be writing this blog actually. The pictures took about an hour to upload!

More pictures you say? Ok, I'll get on with it! So, I was talking about the middle of the city in my last post called the "rynek," which means market square. Here are some more pictures from the lively part of town. It always seems like there are things going on, kids chasing pigeons, creepy statues coming to life, and balloons for all!

I haven't shown you where we teach yet, so I guess it's about time. Not that it's anything special, but here are a few pictures of students and the building we are in. The school initials are WSKIZ and that's the way it will stay because there is no chance in hell I can pronounce the real name. Oh, and if you're wondering what is on that student's head, it's a pair of headphones with fake apples attached to the side. How creative.

What do we do in our free time? We cook out, play cards, have strawberry fights, sit on the computer, sleep, and play chess. I bet I lost you at strawberry fights! Long story short, there was a strawberry war. I'm sure that helped paint the picture. Maybe the photos below will. This cookout was a success and to say the least, we were all about five pounds heavier after the meal!

To end a pretty busy week, we were taken out to tour the countryside by the mayor of that city, which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. Either way, it was very interesting actually finding out he was in fact their mayor halfway through the day during some casual conversation between us and our translator, who by the way looks like Misha Barton (Marissa from The OC)!

To sum it up, the experience was amazing and that day was probably one of my favorites of the entire trip. We took a hike through a beautiful park and played soccer against a bunch of 10 year old Polish children after. We were on the girls team! Dinner finally came and we ate at this amazing hotel, deserted in the middle of nowhere. After that, we ended up at a sort of carnival where we had a special table reserved for us and to make a weird story even more weird, I ended up with some old guys baseball cap because I looked at recycled batteries.

Poznan, Poland 2009 (Day 1 and 2)

2009-06-07T11:47:00.012-04:00

Well, I know it's been quite some time since my last post. Being in another country and trying to see everything physically possible leaves little time to do much else but sleep. Let's not forget the terrible internet connection where I'm staying! It's funny being spoiled with really fast internet at home and coming here to have it cut out during peak hours of the day.

Since I've been gone (from blogging) for so long, I'll just start at the beginning, from arriving to everything I have seen. When we first arrived in Poznan, after a 10 hour train ride, a futbol (soccer) match had just ended. Police and their extremely intimidating German Shepards flooded the platform to keep the crazy fans from rioting. A taxi drove us to our new apartment unscathed. Here is where I sleep.

To anyone who doesn't know, that is my roommate, Chris, in the picture not me. My bed is on the left and actually quite comfortable to say the least. The following pictures are of the kitchen, bathroom and outside of the house (respectively). The kitchen is what you would normally think of, but our bathrooms are pretty small. That seems like a trend in apartments and dorms here. It suffices though.

And, of course, you can't walk one block without running into at least one kabab stand. Let me tell you, they are delicious! I have had around 7 or so during my stay in Poland.

The streets are really pretty because they are so full of life and enrgy. There is always things happening, people walking around, and the occasional drunk singing Polish songs! Here are some pictures I took while exploring the streets.

Poland being about 90% Roman Catholic means that there are some absolutley astonishing cathedrals! I have never seen such beautiful archetecture, stained glass, and amazing alters in all my life. The pictures speak for themselves, so I will say no more.

Aside some rough patches like the internet and the extremely long travel time to and from the city, the first two days were interesting. It is great seeing how different even the cities within Poland are. There's plenty more to come tomorrow, when I'll be posting a synopsis of week one and way more pictures. Stay tuned!

BoldHeart and UPrinting.com Poster Giveaway Winners!

2009-05-27T04:09:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago I held a contest sponsored by UPrinting.com, where 2 lucky winners would be selected to win a free poster from the UPrinting Online Poster Printing service, featuring its signature easy-to-use website and the famous free file review, a complimentary proofing service which requires no upfront payment.

Each winner will receive the opportunity to print a poster for free using the UPrinting website. Shipping and handling is free for the U.S. and Canada only.

So, let's get to it, shall we? Drum roll please! After selection by a random number generator, the winners are:

Chris Huckaba and Lance Goyke!

Congratulations to both winners of the very first Bolheart Blog giveaway and thanks to all who participated! The winners will be recieving an email within the next week or two with instructions on how to redeem their free poster.

Make sure to keep checking back for more giveaways in the future because there will be plenty more to come!

Rzeszów, Poland 2009 (Week 1)

2009-05-22T10:15:00.017-04:00

We arrived in Rzeszów, Poland this past Saturday and have been treated very nicely by the UITM college that we are teaching at. As the week winds down, I have realized just how much I miss home. It isn't until you are gone for quite some time until you actually notice your need for the ones you love.

Now, I'm not saying this ins't a trip of a lifetime, because it is. I am simply pointing out that nothing will ever be as good as home. There is no replacement!

Enough of my venting about being away from home, now for some of the good stuff! The first night we walked to the Renik, which stands for the Polish market square, to site see and get a feel for the people and culture we will be immersed in for the next few weeks. To say the least, we were pleased! We caught the last day of their National Free Mueseum holiday, so what better to do than travel 10 meters under the earth in hundred year old catacombs!

What?! A real dead body? No way! Just kidding. It's fake. This did happen to creep out quite a few of it's victims. We had a good laugh. The catacombs were very interesting, nonetheless. Maybe not quite worth the 2 hour wait, but still enjoyable.

Now, I bet you're curious as to where I am teaching and sleeping. I'm a mind reader, so don't be too surprised! The first picture below is the front of the building where we teach. My bedroom (the second picture) is just around the corner from here. Literally a stones throw. Looks cozy, doesn't it? I'm acutally sitting right at that desk as I type this post. Weird, huh?

This is the classroom we teach in and a decent amount of the students in our class. Some have been cropped out, but I will post more pictures of them and the classroom in the next blog post. I can't spoil you by giving it to you all at once now can I?

Too busy for basketball? Yes, we are. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to tear up the court and make it rain with 3's. On the other hand, frisbee, billiards, poker, and eukre seem to be our choice of liesurely activities. There were actually a couple injuries in our heated game of frisbee. Computer graphics students and professors really know how to throw down.

Talk about a small car! As you can see, my peer's arm is about a fifth the size of the entire car. We have now coined these cars as "meep meeps" because we figure they probably go "meep meep."

I will be posting one or two more blogs while in this city, so stay tuned for more sites, fun, and adventure from Rzeszów, Poland!

Warsaw, Poland 2009 (Day 1 and 2)

2009-05-18T04:58:00.011-04:00

After a long and treacherous 11 hours in the air, I finally made it to Warsaw, Poland on May 15, 2009. The plane ride was nothing compared to my trip to Singapore. Talk about jet lag!

We arrived at night, which meant our schedules were a bit more thrown off than usual, but I seemed to manage. Our hotel beds were nice and comfortable. I would even go as far as saying they were better than the ones back in the United States. Above is a night shot of a gift from Russia: a big clock! Below is the same picture, but in the morning.

Poland obviously takes pride in their malls. Or least least Warsaw, Poland for that matter! I have never seen a more interesting and stylish roof to a mall before. We were actually able to catch the crew cleaning the windows. They didn't seem to like us when we took pictures of them, so I'll refrain from posting those.

It really seems like Poland is trying to "one up" America (if you will) with their attractive architecture. Below is a picture of the entrance to the movie theater in the mall. My first thoughts were everything but a movie theater. You just never know when you'll run into a country who has a strip club or casino in their mall!

From my pictures, you would think Poland is in the middle of spring cleaning. I noticed quite a few cranes throughout the city. I imagine they are in the process of building some more really fancy malls.

It's great to see that motorcycles help dominate the road here. They don't hesitate to give it a little gas! It makes me miss the states that much more.

And what would a vacation be without stopping by a bookstore? I saw a few famous series in the store such as Twilight and Harry Potter, so I had to take a picture. I also made sure to read all of the Polish Harry Potter books just to make sure it was an exact translation. Turns out they are.

Poland, Here I Come!

2009-05-14T03:20:00.005-04:00

A while back, I wrote a post about my acceptance into the study abroad program for my school. The trip is to Poland, where we will be visiting two cities and teaching at the universities. Teaching, you ask? Yes, us students will be taking the reigns and educating the Polish students with the plethora of knowledge we have concerning computer graphics technology.

Don't get me wrong, I believe I am completely capable to teach all of the material I have learned. In fact, this blog has even helped reinforce a lot of the design techniques, tips and tricks I've learned along the way.

So, where's Poland? I asked the same thing when I was accepted. I'll admit it.

There's Poland! For all of those who aren't too bright out there, it's in the green circle. Quite a distance, eh? I'm looking forward to the plane ride because not only do I get to catch up on sleep, but I also get to read a couple books I've been putting off for quite some time! There better not be a baby behind me or else someone's going down! Not really, but still.

Here's me in the future, in Poland and enjoying the wonderful scenery.

Stay tuned to the blog because I will be posting pictures of my travels and will even be writing about the adventure along the way. For those of you wondering how long I will be gone, I'll be away for one month, so expect quite a few similar posts. Don't worry though! You will get your weekly dose of great design articles, inspiration, tips, and tricks.

BoldHeart and UPrinting.com Poster Giveaway

2009-05-12T15:27:00.007-04:00

You heard it first! The BoldHeart Design blog, with the help of UPrinting.com, is giving away free 16x20 inch posters for two lucky readers! Any design, picture, or drawing you want printed! Could one of them be you?

For over 25 years, UPrinting has been a trusted leader in Online Poster Printing, featuring its signature easy-to-use website and the famous free file review, a complimentary proofing service which requires no upfront payment. UPrinting offers convenient marketing support services such as design, lists, and direct mailing to help grow small and medium-size businesses nationwide.

There are two opportunities to enter, and you can enter once using each method in a way to help your odds of winning:

1. Leave a comment in this post telling me what you will do with your poster printing prize.

2. Write a post about this contest on your blog. Your post must include a link back to this post, as well as one to the sponsor - http://www.uprinting.com/Poster-printing.html.

Sounds like a good deal, huh? I wish I could enter, but it's my contest, so that just wouldn't be fair. All entries must be received by the end of this week on Sunday, May 17, 2009. The winners will be announced here within the next couple weeks. Two (2) winners will be selected at random from all entries. (Note: the limit for the number of wins per person, which means that even if you put in two entries, is one print.)

Each winner will receive the opportunity to print a poster for free using the UPrinting website. Shipping and handling is free for the U.S. and Canada only. Winners from other countries will still receive a free print, but will be responsible for the shipping charges to their location.

So, what are you waiting for? Comment on this post, write your own post about this contest, or do both and win a free 16x20 inch poster! How will you used your free poster?

Michio Kaku: Time Travel, Parallel Universes, and Reality

2009-05-12T14:06:00.000-04:00

Now, this may not be related to graphic design, but I'll tell you that if you aren't interested in this, you will be. Ricky Potts, a fellow blogger, has just recently talked about NASA and the Hubble telescope, which sparked this post. Also, I will admit that just tonight I went and saw the new Star Trek movie. Great movie! And like they say, it wasn't my dad's Star Trek!

Anywho, Michio Kaku has explained something so complex very easily. You will soon learn how smart this guy is! It involves time travel and parallel universes. According to him, it is theoretically possible to travel back in time and “meet your mother before you were born.” How? Well, first we need an incredible amount of energy, in the case of time travel, the energy of a star!

With this being said, if your mother falls in love with you how were you ever born? Good question! Michio says that there is a simple solution to this. That is, you would be forced into a parallel universe, where your life would then branch off into another path or "stream." I have many questions I would love to ask this guy, but for now, his theories and explanations for everything make me believe it is all possible. One day, technology will easily allow us to do things we can only dream of right now and this scientist is a constant reminder of that!

Watch this video and think about Michio's theories. Do you think they're possible? What are your thoughts on time travel and parallel universes? I'm curious!

Amazing Desktop Backgrounds (1)

2009-05-11T09:03:00.019-04:00

We all love desktop wallpapers. And we love the beautiful ones most! You wouldn't set it as your background if you didn't, right?

Through this series, I will be posting my favorite selections of wallpapers for your computer. There are countless backgrounds out in cyberspace that are just ripe for the picking, so I'm going to make them even easier to pick. I know, I'm so nice.

If you have created a wallpaper of your own, comment with a link to it! If you have found some awesome ones that aren't listed here, guess what you should do? Yes! Leave a comment with the links here! I'll consider including them in the next post of the series. Enjoy!

The Best of the Worst Album Covers (Part 1)

2009-05-08T17:43:00.013-04:00

I came up with this idea just today and thought I could have a lot of fun doing a series of these. Have you ever seen an album cover that almost makes you want to throw up? I'm sure you have! One of the following album covers has done that to me for the past year and it's about time I share it with the world. How could a famous musical artist settle for such horrific artwork and photography? It boggles my mind! If I was in the spotlight, I would want my entire visual identity to be amazing just like my light show! Wouldn't you?

So, what goes into album artwork? Quite a bit. Right now, I am in the process of finishing up some for The Post Script's new album and have had a blast illustrating it! But, as much fun as it is, designing something so precise is hard work. The imagery of the album should be spot on to what the band sounds like and how that album speaks to the listener. Looking at bad examples of design is always nice because it helps give you a clear sense of what not to do.

Granted, some of these bands you may love and cherish, their artwork frankly sucks! I am a big fan of one, David Gray, but the artwork for his album, White Ladder, is extremely poor and looks like a 6 month old created it. There's a possibility that deep down, in someone's mind, this really means something and has strong concept, but I don't see it. And I doubt the rest of the world sees it either. Although these bands may or may not produce great music, their album artwork is hideous!

If you know of any terrible album designs, leave a comment with links to them and I will make sure to include them on the next post!

Beautiful 2D Animation "Onwards" by James Jarvis

2009-05-07T18:43:00.005-04:00

After posting my first short animation, I have a new view on animation itself. I really have a feel for the long hours and hard work that goes in to the best of the best and respect the creators just that much more than I did before. This is one of those animations.

Created by James Jarvis and beautifully directed by Richard Kensworthy, Onwards has incredibly unique animations and drawings! This animation piece was sponsored by Nike, which is really awesome because it allowed this artist to really showcase his work without being pushed one direction or the other. I'd also like to point out that this is a good example of how important stretching is.

Taylor's Temptation Final Animation

2009-05-06T07:27:00.001-04:00

For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, this will be of no surprise to you. I have been working very diligently on my first ever 3D short animation for an Introduction to Animation class I am taking. The film is called Taylor's Temptation, based on my short story I wrote shortly before the class began. It was a fun story to write, but after working with it for so long, I can't wait to get writing some funnier ones!

Being my first adventure into 3D animation, I have to say that it was a blast! At the same time, it was extremely frustrating at times and very challenging to overcome obstacles when you are so unfamiliar with a program. But, once I got through the initial learning curve, I was in much better shape. I've taken this as a learning experience and nothing too serious because I plan to create much better films in the near future!

I won't stall any longer. Enjoy my first short film, Taylor's Temptation!

Introducing the MacBook Wheel

2009-05-05T10:54:00.007-04:00

For my latest assignment, I was to make a 3-page magazine spread of any gadget of my choosing (fake or real). Naturally, I went with something fake! The follow text is taken from the article. It almost makes me want to buy one!

"The all new MacBook Wheel has hit the market and is creating more hype than the iPhone! The internet is buzzing over Apple’s latest invention, the MacBook Wheel. This is a revolutionary laptop that does away with the keyboard for good. You will have to say goodbye to the keyboard and say hello to the future of laptop computers.

Apple has replaced the keyboard with a sleek, touch sensitive click wheel and has said that the MacBook Wheel will make typing a thing of the past. This is such a compelling story from the guys over at Onion News Network, they even show us one of these so called new laptops and how the new system works.

Our own reporter, Chuck Norris, was fortunate enough to talk with someone who is an engineer, designer, and creative director for Apple. He shows the reporter how the MacBook Wheel works, and we can see just how simple the system is to type with after quite a bit of practice. The employee from Apple says that everything is a few hundred clicks away and he doesn’t lie when he says this. It only took him 45 minutes to type a simple email!"

That's all fun and games, but as many of you know, there is no such thing as a MacBook Wheel...yet. I wanted to choose a product nobody else would and thought this would be fun and funny to create. This MacBook illustration was done in Illustrator and the whole magazine spread was created in InDesign (my first ever journey in the program).

I also love how Wired Magazine presents their information and lays out their content and graphics. That served as inspiration for my project and I think helped make it seem like a real magazine spread/cover you would see in there. I believe my choice of composition worked well to achieve a visually pleasing article. Now, let's just see is Wired Magazine notices this and scouts me!

As for the many of you who are in the dark about the origin of the MacBook Wheel, there is a video that will explain everything. The Onion News Network is a fake news source that comments on current events, both real and imagined. It's almost scary just how professional the videos and article are. The reporters must be extremely talented actors or real news reporters who flunked out of college. Either way, it's hilarious! Enjoy!

5 Helpful Tips for Design Students

2009-05-04T09:25:00.007-04:00

Myself being a graphic design student and freelancer, I am constantly being pushed to my limits, balancing school work and client work that actually puts money in my pocket. It's a tough challenge, but something that many of us tackle each and every day. But, what if you are a student and don't seem to be gaining that many clients for freelance projects, leaving your portfolio full of projects that 50 other students have in theirs?

(Illustration by Frank Chimero)

Here are 5 extremely simple, yet helpful tips to get you going in the right direction to further your career as a student.

1. Don't be afraid of the web.

As a student, there are many projects that you create digitally for print, 3D, or even traditional style art, but where's the love for web? The reality is that the web is taking over a lot of graphic design houses and only the students who are skilled in either coding, web design, or both appeal to these companies. Make an effort to make a personal project for yourself solely based around web design. Buy a book or two or three to learn about it and see where that takes you.

You never know, this could lead to something great that you never knew was possible! Get your personal portfolio up and running, create a blog, or make a website for you aunt's doll clothes business. Do something that gets you familiar with the web because the students who get hired are the ones that know their way around it!

2. Experiment.

Design within the design principles and then break them! As students, we have the most freedom when it comes to projects because we are our own clients. It's not every day a designer in the professional world can say that he or she purposely broke their design grid because they though it looked cool!

So go nuts, if you aren't already nuts. Experiment with different styles. The majority of students and even professionals early in their career still have not found their style of design and until you do find it, you've got to try on different pants (figuratively speaking). This can help us all grow as designers and allows us to avoid suffering the consequences of an angry and frustrated client who isn't getting their way.

3. Make yourself some business cards!

I've lived by this rule as long as I knew just how cheap it was to make custom business cards for myself. I'm already on my second batch and design of business cards, which was a major step up from my old ones. There are so many online printing stores out there where you can literally get 100-250 business cards for as little as $20. In this case, money really is no option.

Just by simply handing out one business card to the right person could land you a $1,000 job! You never really know and that is why you have to be prepared. So, after you have them printed, make sure to carry some in your wallet just in case. Also, once you have made your own business cards, others may even hire you to make theirs; granted they like your design. This happened to me and they turned out great! True story.

4. Take your class projects one step further.

Were you assigned to create a logo for your class? If so, take it a step further by creating some print ads for it. Or, if you're really daring, make a website (or how the website would look) based around the visual identity of your logo. This could be somewhat time consuming, but in the end will pay off more than you could imagine. It could also help you with tip #1 above. Who said killing two birds with one stone was hard?!

5. Be able to talk about your work.

You need to make a habit about talking about the beautiful work that you create! It may seem amazing to you and other designers, but the HR department at a non-graphic design based company may not understand. In that case, you need to explain the reason you chose red and not blue for a "danger" poster. The easiest way to do this is to participate in your critiques during class or attend portfolio reviews that your local SIGGRAPH chapter hosts (hint hint).

Thanks to Niki's DesignO'Blog for the inspiration!

The Color Series: Red

2009-05-03T14:31:00.014-04:00

Fire, blood, energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination, passion, desire, and love. These are the words that are most commonly associated with the color red.

I recently wrote about the color orange and why I changed my blog layout. You can read all about it there. As I was writing that post, I thought it would fun to make a series out of color meaning, where I would write all about a certain color, break down the meaning, and offer suggestions and color pallets for inspiration. This is the second of many posts in my new color series.

Back to the passionate color. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. Important? Very.

Red brings text and images to the foreground (if used correctly). You can use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions. It's a perfect color for "Buy This" or "Click Here" buttons on Internet banners, websites, or anything print. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings. Now cam down for a second, don't get too excited! Think of red lips, nail polish, red-light districts, and the overused "lady in red." It is widely used to indicate danger with things like high voltage signs and traffic lights. This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.

Here are some really nice red based color pallets that you can use. Oh, and if you do use these as a base for one of your future designs, make sure to post a link to it in the comment section for all to see!

Light Red: represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink: signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark Red: is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown: suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Red-Brown: is associated with harvest and fall.

Do you have theories about the color red that you have discovered that I didn't include in this? Any ideas on how to make the next Color Series post even better?

75 Ways To Draw More

2009-05-01T07:52:00.000-04:00

Do you draw? Or should I say, do you draw enough? I think many of can answer that question with a simple "no." It's unfortunate, but the reality is we get caught up in work, school, and distractions that drawing is always on the back burner. Truth be told, drawing is extremely important in any aspect of design. As much as we love to rely on the computer for our design needs, it just isn't practical relying on it to do all the work. It's something that you need to practice and continue to do as much as you can.

Drawing lets you quickly get ideas out of your head and on to the paper. It's extremely cheap and fast, so why do we put it off? Are we scared that we are not good enough at traditional art that we stray away from the dreaded pencil and paper? Well, whatever your case may be, it's time to get over it! Start drawing! Draw everyday. Draw anything and everything you can.
But, just in case I wasn't able to get my point across, Michael Nobbs has just the thing to really help you to draw more. I came across his Flickr account this past week and was immediately intrigued at the creativity and very simple way to influence and inspire others to simply draw. He has created a few simple illustrations that are free to download, creating a booklet of 75 ideas to get you away from the TV and drawing more.

This is truly inspiring and has actually gotten me to start drawing more myself. I still need to work on drawing more, so to force myself to I will post some of my drawings that spark from this. You may laugh or cry, but at least I'm drawing. I highly suggest checking his work out and printing a booklet for yourself. Oh, and if you decide to start drawing more, make sure to show me some of the masterpieces that were sparked by this!

Chromotherapy: Can Color Really Heal?

2009-04-30T09:13:00.002-04:00

Chromotherapy, sometimes called color therapy or colorology, is an alternative medicine method. It is claimed that a therapist trained in chromotherapy can use color and light to balance energy wherever a person's body be lacking, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental. Of course it should not be confused with Light Therapy, which has been proven to relieve things like major depressive disorders.

Just like we learned in color theory, Chromotherapists claim a scientific basis for their practice, proposing that colors bring about emotional reactions in people. When performing chromotherapy, color and light is applied to specific areas and acupoints on the body. Because colors get associated with both positive and negative effects in color therapy, specific colors and accurate amounts of color are deemed to be critical in healing.

Here are some explanations of what each color targets to heal and an image (not the greatest image, thanks to Wikipedia) to display the areas the color is applied.

Red: Used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Orange: Used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.

Yellow: Used to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Green: Targets the heart.

Blue: Used to soothe illnesses and treat pain.

Indigo: Used to alleviate skin problems.

Violet: Targets the top of the head.

There has been much criticism of the practice, just as anything this far out usually receives. Does it really work? Can color heal parts of your body or mind? What are your thoughts on color and the healing process? Would you pay to have a Chromotherapist attempt to heal you?

7 Tips to Stop Procrastinating

2009-04-29T07:13:00.002-04:00

As much as we would all like to think we are always "on schedule" and "timely," the harsh reality is that many times, when faced with a project deadline, you are always working until the last minute to finish it. There is no shame in this. In fact, I've heard rumors that people work much better under pressure. There is obviously a lot of pressure when you're still working on a project 5 minutes before it's due to the client.

But, that isn't always the case. Procrastination is actually one of the most common problems we face today. There are so many distractions and ways to become sidetracked. How can you avoid them? Below are 7 ways to help you stop stalling and actually start doing.

1. Stop thinking and start doing.

You will always have a plan for a project. But could too much thought be a burden? The answer is yes. Instead of getting caught up on how to create the "perfect plan," which we all know does not exist, try to set a solid, well-structured plan that can be created in a reasonable period of time and execute!

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

If you put off something hard, it will most definitely make it impossible. As you continue to put something off, you can't help but think about it more and more. The reality is that when you are dwelling on the task at hand for so long, it actually becomes a negative thought. This makes for a very tough project to accomplish. So, plan a little and take the proper action.

3. Just take the first step.

It's really easy to get overwhelmed when you look too far into a project. Sure, it is something you should be thinking about, but not suffocating yourself with. When you have trouble beginning the first step, it's hard to get out of that funk. Soon enough you're wandering the internet for hours in hopes to put the project off anymore. So, take that first step. It will put you in the mindset that you are being productive and putting effort into the task.

4. Start with the hardest task of your day.

Sometimes we dread calling that super annoying client or writing up a 5 page research paper. The fact is you will have to finish it no matter what. The trick here is to do the hardest thing you have to do that day first. This clears your mind and completely relieves you of the stress you would have if you put it off. Feel good about yourself and start the day off right by tackling what you dread the most first!

5. Just make a decision. Any decision.

Theodore Roosevelt said it best, “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

That quote pretty much speaks for itself, but do not take it lightly. We are faced with hundreds, possibly even thousands of decisions a day. You may not always choose the best possibility, but at least you are taking action to way onward!

6. Face your fear.

It's many times hard to just take action right away. Putting it off is always the easier solution, but why is that? We could be scared of failing or worried that we will look like a fool. The reality is you have to take responsibility and just do it! Even if you fail, it only makes you stronger and teaches you what not to do next time. Take a hold of your fear of starting and just start already.

7. Finish it.

Is there something that you have put off for so long that you just haven't gotten around to finishing it? There's always something with all of us and the truth is that this can be very daunting. It can put you in a very negative state of mind even though you may not realize it. Just try to finish what you started. But, if you start a project that you don't like or think you could do better, then do it over. Restart and make it even better. You'll feel a lot better about yourself in the end!

Thanks to the Positivity Blog for the inspiration!