CyberArts

I've been busy lately, and frankly, this blog has been severely neglected. But I've got big plans for this site, and my neglect is partially justified! Since my last post, the beginning of the end of my first semester was just underway, and I had lots of summatives and final exams to tend to. And also, near the end, my interest in the CyberArts program was rejuvenated after a talk with a teacher in the program, and I quickly scrapped together a portfolio and presented. My interview had been postponed two weeks, and that got me repeatedly preparing for an interview as well, which took some time. Below are a collection of images that shows my progress working on my last minute portfolio (they allowed my application in 2 weeks late).

For my application this year, I also included a digital portfolio, which was my tenth item in my portfolio (the maximum amount is 10). You can see it here (leave the window open for at least two minutes to allow the portfolio some time to load. If you don't, it may glitch up and become buggy.)

Logo Concept - Sync

I drew up a logo concept for "Sync" in December last year, but I never got around to making it. So here I am, bored over the summer break, and hey, why not work on all those logo concepts lying around in my sketchbook? Here's my second one I've worked on during the summer break, which has been a lot more busier than I've expected.

The Design Process
Let's start with the small thumbnail sketch a jotted down. It wasn't much to work with, being a bit more than 4 cm across, but it was sufficient enough to scan into my computer and to work from there.

After scanning it into my computer, I made the logo shapes on Illustrator, and the text font in Flash. I then transferred both into Photoshop. Not being able to decide on a good colour palette, I consulted Kuler and my own experimentations with colour styles in the past. What I ended up with was a multitude of different versions, shown below here.

After talking with my friends and having them look over it, I finalized the colour palettes down to these two:

With further experimentation, and a friend who pointed out that sleek designs with plenty of curves looked good on the cooler end of the spectrum, I chose the lower one out of my finalized two. I did so somewhat reluctantly, as I felt that I've made too many logos with a cooler palette of colours than I have made warm, but looking back, I've made logos with all different sorts of colours, just that my main Notitia logo seemed to have the biggest influence on my thoughts. My doubts assuaged, I continued onto the next step, which was just a small makeover to pretty up my logo design, which, as fine as it looked, was still pretty simple. After 45 minutes or so with tinkering around on Photoshop I ended up with what you see below.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Discrepancies with Ford
Now I understand that many of you are aware that Ford has included a Sync system software in all their new cars, in cooperation with Microsoft. However, I'd like to point out that I made my logo and name completely separately without the knowledge of the fact that Ford had already patented official software under the same name. It was not until I was looking for colour palettes that I realized this flaw. This is merely a disclaimer showing the fact that I did not intend to copy their trademark.

Flash - Notitia Animation

Recently I've discovered how to embed .swf files into my blog posts, so I've decided to put this animation I've made for myself from last year into this blog post. You might have to wait for the .swf file to load beneath here. It might lag, so give it some time.

Flash - Website

I've been thinking about making a fully Flash website since December now, but I haven't gotten much further than the pre-loader until now. But don't worry, I'll include a link on the website that leads back to this blog anyways, so it's not the end of this blog. All the layers and ActionScript is going to take a while, so don't be surprised if I take the summer to finish! Here are a couple of in-progress screenshots:

Here's the pre-loader that got me started on the idea of a website in the first place.

I tweaked the layout for a bit, but eventually I settled on a navbar docked to the left.

Here is the home page, complete with glowing effects on the buttons when you hover your mouse over them, as seen here on the "Blog" button, which (should) links back to the blog right here. No worries, I won't abandon this place anytime soon.

However, after further adjustments and adding ActionScript to the buttons, things started to go a bit... out of plan. Things didn't work out the way I wanted them to, and I'm not sure if there's a way back now:

Everything plays at the exactly same time, running in order on the Flash timeline instead of by what the ActionScript dictates. I'm probably missing some code, but the Compiler Errors detect nothing that I typed wrong. I'll look into to see if I can get someone to look what I've done over.

But, in the end, I started this simply as an experiment, so I guess I'll learn as I go along. Hopefully.

Flash and Photoshop Drawing Experiments

Landscape Drawing

Penguin Drawing

Reptile Eye

These were a few drawings I've done in mid-2009. Feel free to rate and comment!