Igor's t-shirts airbrush embroidery and iron-on photo transfer multimedia design shop

Airbrushed beanie caps for jr. pioneers hockey

2012-01-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

This is what 22 airbrushed beanies look like.

Keywords: airbrushed beanies jr. junior pioneers yellow gold red crimson burgundy black water based acrylic paint custom t-shirt shop in denver colorado evans and broadway harvard

Gerard of MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE wore my t-shirt at Comfort Dental Amphitheater

2011-09-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

I airbrushed a t-shirt for Gerard of My Chemical Romance. Blink 182 headlined, we got four great seats and ALMOST pimped backstage. Next time!

Keywords: airbrushing on medium m gildan white short sleeve t-shirt tee with unicorn airbrush airbrushing airbrushed design for gerard lead singer my chemical romance comfort dental amphitheater blink 182 rancid concert denver englewood colorado fiddler's green

Some of my stuff on AMERICA'S GOT TALENT tonight!

2011-07-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so this is pretty crazy. The kids from the Rocky Mountain School of Dance & Performing Arts in Arvada, Colorado are on America's Got Talent tonight! I airbrushed all of the unitards and tanks... Happy birthday to me! (I turn 40 tomorrow:)

This was a sample that was adjusted to look like the final in the very top picture.

Keywords: airbrushing on unitards tank tops for kids Rocky Mountain School of Dance & Performing Arts in Arvada, Colorado SILHOUETTES on america's got talent prime time nbc television

Airbrushing on animals

2011-06-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you let me drink Coronas while I airbrush t-shirts at your graduation party:) And yes... It was water based paint and washed right out.

Keywords: airbrushing on animals dog with face painted on rump rear butt eyes tail as nose funny concept

Airbrushed automobiles

2011-05-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Some airbrushed vehicles on t-shirts. I charge between $60.00-$80.00 depending on the complexity of the automobile.

Keywords: airbrushing airbrushed cars vehicles automobiles on t-shirt sweatshirt truck with 454 corvette zr-1 art airbrushed helmets airbrushing on cars vehicle airbrushing in aurora denver colorado

Airbrushed t-shirt for expecting mother

2011-05-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Airbrushing on a yellow t-shirt for pregnant woman.

Keywords: i can't wait to meet my big brother airbrushed design on a yellow t-shirt for pregnant woman expecting mother t-shirt design printing art design sayings cartoon comic book balloon wording

Airbrushing on t-shirt

2011-05-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

Airbrushed t-shirt for a loyal customer.

Keywords: airbrushed t-shirt for chemical engineering student transferring from the pacific to the atlantic side of the country girl humming bird beer beaver otter bumble bee football airbrushing in aurora denver colorado

March of Dimes Walk t-shirts

2011-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

My friend Kjell Moe and family do the March of Dimes every year. I made some t-shirts for them for the event. I used a Motown record for the basis of the design for the "MOETOWN" theme. I then made 11 by 17 inch t-shirt transfers!

Keywords: iron-on transfer and logo design for 2011 march of dimes walk kjell cindy beverly ian stefan moe moetown records custom graphic logo design iron-on 11 by 17 inch light fabric yellow t-shirt color transfer

Some more airbrushed shoes

2011-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

Airbrushed shoes being done at the shop.

Keywords: dead end industries ind astreets yellow bubble airbrush lettering on low top nike zoom brand athletic shoe nike swoosh painted over batman vs joker airbrushed shoes

Airbrushed infant shoes

2011-02-02T12:46:00.001-08:00

A tiny pair of shoes for our baby Simone... Cute! Check out more airbrushed shoes.

Keywords: airbrushed shoes infant baby toddler shoe art pink high top converse chuck taylor style airbrushed name in cursivr script lettering simone with green stem leaves flowers

Airbrushing at ZUMIEZ 100k party 2011

2011-01-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

Super stoked to be invited to the ZUMIEZ 100k event for the third straight year up in Keystone Colorado. Big shout outs to the Deathwish and Bakerboys distribution crew... Them cats were real cool. A huge thanks to Lori Patterson as well for inviting me back out. See you next year? More pics from this event.

Keywords: mike carroll with stevie williams and dustin dollan sheppard fairey with shaun white jim greco shakejunt bearings crystal cervantez with shaun white pic

Airbrushed Chuck Taylor Converse

2010-12-13T22:30:00.000-08:00

Some airbrushed shoes I've done recently for a customer as Christmas gifts.

Keywords: airbrushed christmas gift presents with cross and butterfly designs on a shoe chuck taylor converse pink and gray grey pair shoe with airbrushing by igor tkac airbrushing on shoes in denver colorado

Ultrasound Iron-on Transfer Custom T-shirt

2010-10-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

My wife created this ultrasound t-shirt with our baby Simone's ultrasound picture. It was a great hit everywhere she wore it. It would look amazing on our new high quality transfer paper (requires lighter fabric) and makes a great gift for your pregnant friends, your pregnant family or your pregnant self!

Keywords: Custom tshirt on our new full color iron on transfer paper of your baby's ultrasound photo image and the name of your baby with embroidery or airbrushing. Makes a great baby Shower gift or present for a pregnant mommy to be. Same day service in aurora denver colorado

Iron-on transfer on t-shirt

2010-09-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

We've got some amazing new iron-on transfer paper at the shop now. Large 11 by 17 inch format, vivid color, matte finish and it withstands tons of washings. Looks like a silkscreen print... No minimums!

Keywords: new iron on transfer papaer 11 by 17 eleven by seventeen full color photo photograph transfers on t-shirts in aurora denver colorado same day service

Airbrushing at a BatMitzvah

2010-08-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Some friends of the BatMitzvah girl holding up their shirts at the event.

Keywords: airbrush artist airbrushing t-shirts tshirts tee shirts at barmitzvah batmitzvah event in aurora denver colorado

Airbrushed Tupac on NIKE Airforce ones

2010-08-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Tupac airbrushed on both sides of some Nike Air Force Ones shoes.

Keywords: custom portrait airbrushing on shoes tupac amaru shakur 2-pac both sides of nike athletic basketball shoes air force one 1

Some shoes I've airbrushed recently

2010-08-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

More airbrushed shoes.

Keywords: custom airbrushed shoes converse chuck taylor all star old school basketball shoes will you marry me ana design congrats mirror image logo shoes with matching visors fold down chucks floral pattern

Cradle swing animated flash loop of Simone

2010-06-22T18:21:00.001-07:00

Having some fun with my Sony VX-2000 digital camcorder. I want a Canon EOS 7D so badly!!! Here is a film flash loop of Simone swinging. I've got some ideas on how to composite some of these regular 480p shots in to 720p composite clips. This graphic is only 1.5 megs.

Keywords: animated film concept flash loop of simone tkac swinging in a nature's touch cradle swing filmed on a tripod with a sony vx-2000 digital camera camcorder

Airbrushed visors

2010-06-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a few visors that I've airbrushed for promotional purposes. Thanks to Michelle Cervantez for modeling. There are more hats on our site!

Keywords: airbrushing betty boop cap visor brim pink panther hat cap visor all eyes on my airbrushing on visors and caps igorstshirts.com

In THE DENVER POST!

2010-06-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've been doing airbrushing for the Denver public libraries as a part of their Summer reading program for about ten years now. It's pretty successful... The kids get to take their t-shirts home so they like it! This is a blurb from the denver post about the program. My hand is moving so fast, the airbrush is blurred out:)

Keywords: igor tkac airbrushing in the denver post for the denver public library summer reading program igorstshirts.com

Corel DRAW X5 software manual

2010-06-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

The folks over at COREL asked me to write the tips and tricks portion of the illustration chapter for the new CorelDRAW X5 illustration suite. Very happy to be a part of the team!

Keywords: part author of the tips tricks illustration chapter in corel draw x5 software manual book igor tkac igor's t-shirts igorstshirts vector illustrator

I'm a daddy!

2010-05-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Simone Michelle Tkac was born on April 14th at 7:16 am. She's super sweet!

Keywords: igor and crystal's baby girl simone michelle tkac born april 14 2010

1957 Chevy airbrushed t-shirt with embroidered lettering

2010-02-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

This airbrushed t-shirt was done for Crystal's dad as a Christmas present. I airbrushed Joe's 1957 Chevy on it and my mom finished it off with some embroidery. Signature Igorstshirts.com baby! This is fairly elaborate and could run as much as $150.00. Any decent photograph will work of just about any subject. Will ship to anywhere in the world.

Keywords: 1957 chevy with corvette grill airbrushed t-shirt tee short sleeve long sleeve sweatshirt hoodie hooded garment with embroidery for joe cervantez as a christmas gift automobile restoration project

Airbrushed shoes and cap

2009-12-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Some airbrushed stuff I did last week.

Keywords: airbrushing on shoes airbrushed shoes for sweet sixteen 16 name carly airbrushed caps hats virgo zodiac sign symbol

Funnel cloud over downtown Denver

2009-06-25T18:03:00.001-07:00

The weather has been crazy this summer here in Denver. I took this pic on my girlfriend's balcony from around the High and Colfax intersection. This view is facing west.

I've always wanted to get a funnel cloud or tornado picture... Too bad I didn't have my cannon with my ef-400 lens. I took it with Crystal's Nikon.

Keywords: tornado funnel cloud from colfax avenue cheesman towers apartments balcony williams street photographs from igor tkac and crystal lee cervantez

Airbrushing on caps

2009-05-13T15:30:00.001-07:00

Some pictures of caps I had airbrushed a while ago here at igor's t-shirts.

Keywords: airbrushing airbrushed hats caps with embroidery combination la girl thuggin tupac cap pac hats db denver basketball airbrushing and embroidery in aurora denver colorado

My vector ship a daily deviation

2009-02-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

My vector spaceship drawing made the front page of deviant art! About 5,000 views for the day... Cool.

Keywords: concept vector spaceship art as daily deviation on deviant art february 2nd 2009

The Denver shop presents IN COLOR

2008-12-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

My bro Tony finished his fourth skate video "IN COLOR". Come check it out and join us at the Mayan theater on Monday, December 29th. The show starts at 9pm. See you there!

Keywords: the denver shop in color skateboarding video premiere in denver colorado at the mayan theater monday december 29th 2008 william spencer hollarado

Mob Town Records vector logo illustration

2008-12-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

I was asked to draw up a concept logo design for a local music label... Probably a take on the MOTOWN label. CorelDRAW... About six hours.

Keywords: mob town records 2009 vector logo design client illustration downtown denver wrapped in ribbon

Titanic airbrushed shoes

2008-08-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

These joints went out to Adam in New Jersey. Business has picked up on these ever since my airbrushed shoes blog has been showing up in google images.

Keywords: airbrushing on shoes titanic boat ship vessel on one chuck taylor all star converse canvas shoe ghetto gear logo on the other shoe the deadliest catch sea crab ship shoes

Airbrushed Morrissey skateboard griptape

2008-08-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Airbrushed a piece of skate grip requested by the Denver shop for Noel Sinclair Boyt. Check out airbrushed griptape.

Keywords: Noel Sinclair Boyt sparkling white unicorn blog moving from denver to seattle cuz my girls family is dope anthony mellick skate shop in denver hollarado

Soccer design airbrushed shoes

2008-07-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Keywords: airbrushed shoes all star chuck taylors chucks converse soccer design with lettering fonts name

Airbrushed Chuck Taylor Converse shoes

2008-07-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Airbrushed a pair of black hi-top Chuck Taylors over the weekend.

Keywords: flower design and lettering airbrushing airbrush airbrushed on high top chuck taylor all star converse shoes with fold up down flap animated flash loop

June 21st... Go Skateboarding Day!

2008-06-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to photo some pros... Park skating but none the less. Commerce city, Independent demo, sponsored by The Denver Shop. Rick Howard, Geoff Rowley and a few others. Used my Canon Rebel xti with my ef 400 lens. 100 and 200 iso, small f-stop... Mad zoom.

Keywords: commerce city skatepark go skateboarding day june 21 twenty first Rick Howard geoff rowley the denver shop tony mellick on the mic microphone mc loco independent truck co company demo demonstration denver colorado hollarado red bull vans off the wall

conceptships blog on the front page of CGChannel

2008-03-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

CGChannel front paged a post from my good friend Joel Carlo highlighting my conceptships blog. Thanks J!

I like cgchannel. A while back, they front paged one of my animations on a competitor's website (cgsociety) ,where it was hosted. You gotta love that kind of integrity.

This has started out to be a very good year... Art promo wise.

Airbrushed wedding dress

2008-03-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was sent this photo from a customer that recently celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary and got re-married on vacation to celebrate. They asked me to airbrush the wedding dress to spice it up and make things a little more fun.

I've airbrushed many things but never a wedding dress. She looks pretty hot though... Yeah?

Keywords: airbrushing flames on a wedding dress gown airbrusher airbrush artist in aurora colorado denver airbrushing airbrush painter tshirts t-shirts

Hollarado concept motion Flash web graphic

2008-03-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hollarado.tv animated web concept motion graphic flash loop.

Keywords: anyhony mellick the denver colorado shop skateshop skateboard shop evans avenue hollarado skate video animated concept flash graphic loop web logo header aftereffects corel draw coreldraw flash dreamweaver photoshop skater skates skating skateboarding skateboarders

I scored a two page spread in Imagine FX!

2008-03-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Crazy but true. One of my CorelDRAW vector illustrations is featured in the reviews section of the April 2008 issue of Imagine FX.

I would like to thank John Falsetto and Gerard Metrailler of Corel and everyone else at Corel corp. who helped make this possible.

And to some of the best friends that a person could ever have...

Joel Carlo... This guy is a badass. He gets printed in mags like it's walking around the block, does not let it get to his head and pushes/inspires me more than anyone. Has articles in Imagine FX, 2D artist and more. He has taught me everything I know about Flash.

Shane Grajczyk... Lead print designer at Qwest here in Denver Hollarado. Recently featured in Advanced Photoshop magazine. Nuff said?

Anthony Mellick... I've known this guy for twenty years. More like a brother than a friend. Recently featured on the front page of The Denver post sports section for the making of his skate shop video Hollarado! He has captured one of the sickest tricks ever on DV... HERE.

Tommy Mcmillion... The best dad that two little girls could have. Some of his beats have been featured on Starz/Encore free preview segments. Check out inlay entertainment and listen to the banger loop on the home page.

And then there is Chris Blarsky of Absolute extremes who first turned me on to CorelDraw at around 1997 0r 1998 who has recently landed a cover of cpu magazine with his cpu logo pc mod.
This spread would probably never have happened if it wasn't for him... So THANKS man... I owe you a beer... Or two.

Thanks to all of you guys... Holdin' Denver down in the audio and visual departments... 2008 is starting off big... Let's do work!

Holla!

Keywords: 2 two page spread in imagine fx effects magazine corel draw x3 coreldraw x4 vector illustration tokyo taxi featured artist igor tkac igorstshirts.com future publishing computer arts magazine

A drop of blue

2008-02-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

Some digital photography with a theme of blue.

Keywords: digital photography high resolution photographs blue theme themed zoo animals captive shots pentax istd cannon rebel xti ef-400 long lens ricoh macro tree frog amazon blue bird 2006 nissan 350 z art action pose figure running maquette 140 gallon oceanic fishtank with track lighting gnu snowboard blue light scandinavian furniture design

Colorado train car model

2008-02-12T19:35:00.001-08:00

Here's the thing... I've been working with corelDRAW since version 7. I didn't realize that I could import my vector data into a 3D application (I use Lightwave) until version 11 but when I did... It changed my work completely.

Above is the first object I made in Lightwave. I had taken some photographs of a train yard in Denver around the Stapleton district area... I drew it out in corelDRAW and imported all of my vector data as version 6 Illustrator files via the EPSF loader in Lightwave. I couldn't believe that I could use my vector work as a background template guide and I could also use the actual vector data in my modeling. WHAT?! I had basic modeling skills before I ever opened a modeling package. Crazy.

After I finished the crossing post and the pole, I decided to make some tracks.

The tracks were relatively easy. I mapped texture and photo images onto my geometry from my 35 mm AGFA slide library I had built up over the years studying photography.

I made a road even and added some rocks... It lead for me to try and model a train car for my scene. I thought that a basic square box car would make a great first model attempt. I could figure out my corelDRAW to Lightwave work flow, learn how to texture, light and composite and still make a basic model that I could be proud of.

This is what I came up with about three months later. All the geometry besides the simplest basic primitives were drafted up in corelDRAW and imported into Lightwave as Illustrator version 6 data.

Here is a test night scene render.

Below is my final render... I tried to light it so it had a dusk alien abduction feel to it but I don't think I pulled it off...

Here is an animated sequence I put together a few years later for CGSociety's EON challenge. The rings on the red blinky lights are circles made in corel draw applied as a translucency map.

There is a high definition 24 frame per second flash loop of this animation here.

Check out my slice and bend technique using the corelDRAW to Lightave pipeline.

Keywords: photography from denver train yard box car lightwave train car model drafted in corel draw coreldraw extruded modeled beveled image mapped mapping photoshop train crossing street high definition resolution render alien abduction aftereffects adobe animation animated 24 fps frames per secon flash loop embeded within html blog post blogger google

Lighting up 2D illustrations within a 3D software application

2008-02-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hey there,
This is a nice 3D lighting on 2D images trick for us people who have a hard time coloring our comic book style of art using "traditional" methods. I use lightwave but pretty much any 3D software package should work just as good.

Here is a space marine Starcraft fan art image created by Alexander Popov. It is nicely drawn but colored quick and crude. It is relatively easy to turn this into a more cohesive and atmospheric image even with this basic of a coloring job.

Notice the super saturated blues and purples in the image above. The marine also doesn't seem to fit in the scene as a whole... Lighting wise... And there is little sense of drama, mystery or atmospherics present at this moment. So...

Open up your 3D app. of choice and make a rectangle with an aspect ratio the same as your artwork image. If your image is 30 by 20 inches then a 3 by 2 rectangle will work. If your image is 32 by 21 then a 3.2 by 2.1 rectangle will do. Click on the face of the rectangle that you are going to map the image on to, name it and map your drawing onto it.

Above is what the space marine looks like mapped on the rec and lit in Lightwave layout. Notice that I enlarged my rectangle to a size where lights become smaller for tighter positioning and brightness control. I have also enabled lens flares on the space marines suit to add a little more drama. Below is the final colored version.

One of the most important lights is the overall global light... The bright blues and purples will desaturate and become more cohesive by dimming this light as well as giving it a color... I chose a greenish color for this scene. The overall rectangle that the image is mapped on to can also be diffused or brightened depending on the situation. Notice the blue light on the marines face to separate and highlight it in the scene.

The next step might be to make more layers for this scene, setting them up in 3D space and maybe "filming" the scene with the camera's f-stop setting set to blur fore and background objects. Particles such as rain, dust or fog might also bring your piece of art to another level. Animation is another option. Maps can be made to heighten specular, transparency or luminosity properties of certain areas of the marine as well.

I cut the figure from the background in this example. This gives the option of back lighting the character as well as creating more drama with the positioning of the mountain and other background features.

This is great exercise for someone who can draw and color fairly well but is afraid of jumping to a 3D modeling app. Learning to light will help your coloring immensely and vice-versa.

Thanks for reading my lighting 2D images in a 3D software application tutorial. Check out my lighting up vector images with a 3D application tutorial. Later!

Keywords: alexander popov starcraft space marine concept fan art lighting up 2D two dimensional images in a 3D three dimensional program application lightwave compositing blizzard entertainment

I made the CorelDRAW X4 gallery

2008-01-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Corel corp. used three of my vector illustration images in their new CorelDRAW X4 vector illustration graphics suite software package... Complete with a link to this blog. I would like to thank
Gerard Metrailler and Corel corporation. Thanks.

Check out the new CorelDRAW forum. A must join community for CorelDRAW vector illustrator pros.

Keywords: coreldraw x4 x3 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 corel draw graphics suite corel painter photo paint vectot graphics tools corel corp Ottawa Canada

Airbrushed shoes

2008-01-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

I started airbrushedshoes.com in 2002. I've airbrushed hundreds of pairs since then. I'm working on new designs that will spin 360 degrees in Flash and will post those when finished. Check out my airbrushed shoes blog. Thanks!

Keywords: airbrushed shoes airbrushing on shoes getting my shoes airbrushed painted tupac chuck taylors makaveli converse all stars air force ones reebok basketball shoes nike sb 20th limited editions high rolla k-swiss kswiss 50 cent japanese kanji shoes personalized custom apparel wear boots timberlands fubu sneakers topanki

Czech tech raster digital concept ship sketch

2007-12-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why I see technical primitive shapes in perspective when I close my eyes. I have a much harder time drawing organics such as animal and human figures. It's weird... That's probably why I like vector art so much.

Check out my concept ships blog.

Happy new year!

Keywords: digital concept ship conceptships sketch czechoslovakian stealth airplane spaceship digital tablet drawing sketch illustration crocodile krokodil czech republic slovakia slovak republic lietadlo

A vector illustration approach to text in corelDRAW tutorial

2007-12-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

Hello,
One of the most important and powerful tools within corelDRAW is the interactive transparency tool, circled in red below.

Open up DRAW and practice on a solid object with this tool to get a feel of how it works, if you have never used it. It's super easy and once you get the hang of it... Your illustration will improve exponentially. Got a feel for it already? Nice... Let's make something.

First thing is to choose your text and font. I chose the basic font "compacta"... Solid black and boring. I pressed the p key to center the graphic.

I filled it with a pastel green color and gave it a darker green outline. Still boring!

I duplicated the graphic and made it a dark forest green color. Using the interactive transparency tool, I made the top left of the word opaque and gradually faded the transparency towards the bottom right. The layer looks like this.

Press the p key to center over the main graphic and it shoud look like this. Much better already!

I duplicated the main graphic again and made it a brownish green color, I then faded it using the transparency tool shown below.

Press the p key and this graphic should center itself over the main graphic to look like the example below. It's a very subtle effect... Compare with the above version. Layering subtle layers on top of one another like this will start to distinguish your illustration from other pieces and achieve harmonious color schemes (if done properly) as well as add depth to the image. We're going to do a lot of this.

Next... I duplicated the word corel again but this time I deleted the fill and used only the outline. I deleted the portion of the outline that would have been in the shadow, made it a bright yellowish green and used the tranparency tool on it shown below. The letters can be broken appart as well using the break curve appart function and the transparency tool can be used individually on each letter for even more control. I faded it accross the word as a whole.

I then centered it across the main graphic shown below. This is kind of a "generic" rim light effect to act as a light in the upper left hand side of the graphic. It's looking better but still rather flat. I like to think in terms of lighting when working... How am I going to light this for a more aesthetically pleasing image?

Duplicate the word corel again, you're going to be doing alot of that. I made it yellow this time and used the transparency tool again. Experiment with custom colors for the best effect. I found this color yellow to work well while other shades did not work as good. Using custom colors will seperate your illustration as well... It's important to establish a good custom palette of colors.

Center this image on to your main graphic. The yellow layer sort of imitates a yellowish light emitting from the bottom right of the graphic. It's looking better and more interesting already!

I then made a blue layer and lit the bottom left. Notice the smooth transition of color from cool to warm across the graphic now. By layering like this you are creating thousands (if not millions) of colors in your image using only a few.

Next, I made a Dark red box with a navy blue outline and ordered it to the bottom of the stack of layers. The same process will be applied to the box to give it a more interesting and multi-dimensional look.

I made a light towards the bottom right...

The image looks like this...

I made another light...

Now it looks like this. Super subtle... But effective. Experiment with layering a lot. Notice how much warmer the image is below compared to the previous version.

I duplicated the box, made it dark gray and used the interactive transparency tool to darken the upper left of the graphic.

Centered it across the main graphic. Notice how that bright green rim light is strategically placed to push on the dark area of the box for more contrast.

A blueish purple light from the bottom left.

I made three versions of a shadow for our word graphic... One for the bottom left light source, one for the bottom right and a very subtle one for the top center. Notice the value changes where the transparent text overlaps... Depth and realism in illustration is achieved by layering many MANY transparent layers to show form by the way of shadow, light and surface properties.

I placed the shadows strategically to bump up the contrast, thus separating the text from the background... Notice the darks between the E and the L. Also, note the very subtle shadow below the base of the letters... SUBTLE transparent layers make subtle color variances. Super important. More realistic shadows can be made by rasterizing the layer and bluring it as a bitmap graphic. Below is the finished image.

A little clip art with shadow added.

The interactive transparency tool is the key for solid vector illustration. It's ease of use is the primary reason I love corelDRAW so much and it alone has made me a much better and more versatile artist. I hope you've enjoyed my interactive transparency tool on text tutorial.
Happy holidays everyone!

Keywords: corel draw vector illustration text tutorial using the interactive transparency tool lighting approach to look like a raster method application

The incredible hulk computer mod

2007-12-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

My friend Chris Blarsky of absolutextremes.com made this PC mod out of an incredible hulk toy... People are going nuts over it! Check out the Flash presentation HERE.

Keywords: incredible hulk pc personal computer mod modification marvel comics working machine hulk holding mother board mobo over head chris blarsky of absolute extremes

William Spencer's front flip in the Hollarado video

2007-12-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Check out this Flash loop of William Spencer's frontflip from my good friend
Tony Mellick's Hollarado video. It's a local Denver Colorado skateshop vid from The Denver shop. Check out William's whole Hollarado part on YOUTUBE.

William is also doing stunt double work for such stars as Orlando Bloom and The black eyed peas. He also stars in the new Dewmocracy commercials that are frequently airing on television and there is supposedly a reality show being pitched to MTV about this guy's life to air sometime next year that might be titled Hollarado.

I actually came up with the word Hollarado... Believe it or not. I yelled out "Hollarado at ya boy" one day just goofing off and my buddy used it as the title for his vid. Crazy.

Keywords: william spencer doing a running front flip down the civic center ten stairs landing on his skateboard clean rides away time stretch remapping in aftereffects converted to a 29.97 animated flash sequence loop hollarado the denver shop colorado skateboarding skateshop mtv viacom

Interactive concept design

2007-12-05T14:45:00.001-08:00

I wanted to include this interactive Flash example at the end of my droid bike tutorial but I might as well make a separate post for this animated sequence since the other thread got so heavy.

My good friend Joel Carlo took my CorelDRAW droid bike vector illustration and made this interactive Flash comp. The bike's motion could be a Flash generated random motion script (keyframed here)... He also added buttons to display various optional background settings that update in real time... Go ahead... Click one and see for yourself:)

Can you imagine sending out a piece of animated artwork where the art director gets to see the foreground image interact with various background elements? A fantastic concept!

Flash animations can be creatively kept small (file size wise) by mixing raster with vector elements. So, for instance... One could render out a raster animated sequence of the bike foreground elements, looped, with all FX as a millions of color animation to preserve the alpha channel and retain transparency. One could then make separate vector layers with independent timelines for various background elements.
Example: The bike could be a 24 frames per second raster animated loop moving for 48 frames (2 seconds), while a vector moon in the background could take a minute or two to slowly pass the width of the frame (click on button 4). Add interactivity, HD aspect and 5.1 surround sound to the mix and I think we are seeing the future of concept design.

Thanks!

Keywords: interactive flash loop concept design with revolving backgrounds exchanging with foreground animated loop render droid robot driving woman in a futuristic anime style motorcycle in the rain

Vector droid bike

2007-10-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

From vector concept to high definition animated Flash loop.

The first thing I did is make some quick vector sketches to pick a design I like... I chose to do it in vector format using CorelDRAW as opposed to a paint style sketch using a raster application. Here are some initial vector vehicle concepts.

I wanted to explore the relationship of a robot or droid driving a human autonomously while the passenger (in this case a woman) sleeps. I liked the above designs but I wanted to explore a more unique use of space and ended up with this illustration... A little over 800 shapes/layers in CorelDRAW 12.

The final design is perhaps a little provocative if not perverse but I was looking for something different and some legendary Japanese masters like Soroyama, Shirow and Otomo (known for their adult themes) inspired the illustration along with Syd Mead... Of course!

I like using vector illustration for hard surface technical design... I find that the precision of the vector lines dictate the direction of the design making tighter shapes that perhaps might not be so obvious using a raster method. I tend to concentrate on the shape and function of the design, not on atmospheric or color elements at this time, since the color in this stage (at least for me) is only used to gauge form and technical function & surface properties.

I map the vector image onto a polygon in Lightwave and light it up there... It's a great way to get cohesive color on all elements of the illustration especially since all effects and camera movements as well as animation will be done there.

Here is my image map that I rasterized from CorelDRAW and mapped on a poly in Lightwave. I left the wheels off as they will be a separate element ready for animation.

Here is my transparency map... I use a bounding box around these images to retain registartion during my mapping process... Since it is all vector art, the clean edges lend themselves well to 3D mapping. The black ends up transparent and the white opaque... Note the gray on the windshields for semi-transparency.

I then extract only where I would like some glow for my light making a glow map. The white shapes in this diagram show where glow will be applied. Here is the final glow map.

The image below was sort of a eureka moment for me. It was my first try at lighting a vector image within a 3D application and I was somewhat pleased at the result... In fact, I feel that there is something in this picture that did not translate as well in the final animated image.

Now it's time to make our wheels... This here is a fairly precise draft of our wheel done in CorelDRAW.

I then did a "quick" vector sketch in CorelDRAW of the wheel in three quarter view... A little wonky but it gets the concept across.

These are the actual Corel vector lines exported as an Illustrator version 6 file and imported into Lightwave via the EPSF import.

I made this fork for the dual wheel in Lightwave using the CorelDRAW data.

Here is a refraction test render... Why not? Getting a little sidetracked and experimenting can be a good thing. It keeps things less monotonous bouncing between different techniques like this... Fun and educational:}

This is the basic wheel... Modeled, lit and rendered in Lightwave.

Here is the final fork and wheel(s).

The tread on the tire is a CorelDRAW vector illustration pattern applied as a bump map in Lightwave... Shown below.

Here is the two dimensional CorelDRAW illustration with the three dimensional wheel render from Lightwave.

An upper right angle...

I actually contemplated on modeling this droid bike and girl in 3d... But as detail oriented as I am... I would not finish it. On top of that, my spline modeling as well as organics are not on the level they need to be in order to make this correctly. Maybe one day.

Anywho...

Back to our 2d image. Here are some various concept renders for our animation.

I like the old Japanese idea of mixing technology with nature so I opted to focus more on the second image of the two. This is my final animation in a 24 frames per second Flash format.

The trees are Lightwave objects rendered as flat pieces and comped in Adobe Aftereffects. The rain was done using particles in Lightwave. The lightning is stock footage from artbeats comped in using a blend mode. You can see how I made the road right over here...

I used the same method for our female passenger. Here is the CorelDRAW vector illustration.

Here is the transparency map used in Lightwave.

This is a lit Lightwave render...

And here is a reflection test using a photograph of Denver Colorado. I left reflections out of the final animation as it was making the woman hard to read. It's missing them badly though.

You can see the final HD 1280 by 620 version tight over here!

On a side note... Dave Jerrard of Lightwave notoriety gave me great tips on refraction while I was working on this project. He even remade my shape for the example. I pasted it below if anyone is interested. Later!

Originally Posted by igorstshirts
This is a simple object that I've made to test the power of refraction. I was going to light it with an HDRimage but decided against the render times.

Rendering with HDRI as your light source is a little different than regular rendering, so be warned. Specularity and Glossiness are ignored in this type of rendering since they're actually cheats to get reflections from bright spots in the environment. With HDRI, the specular hits are included in the HDR image, and will only show up if you make the surfaces reflective. Now, you can keep these two channels working if you decide to use some lights in the scene as well, but in the times I've used HDRI, I found the render times to be much faster if I turned off all the lights. No more calculating shadows! In the end, the rendering time was pretty close to the time it would take if I used an Area Light set to a quality of 5.

Quote:
My question is though... Does this look right? It's for sure better than I could illustrate it any other way but... With all of these complex reflections and refraction going on... It's hard to tell... Right?

Actually it's easy once you know what to look for. In the image, you can see how the plastic cover splits the image of the lights inside into two distinctly different images, and one of them is even slightly magnified (the lights seen through the curved surface). This indicates that the lights are actually inside a solid, rather than surrounded by air inside a thin plastic cover. If you ever look at a an aquarium, you'll see that at the corner, you can see the same objects duplicated in the front and the side panes of glass. When the aquarium is empty, there's almost no refractive distortion. This is because light that goes into the glass is refracted only through the thickness of the glass. When it reaches the other side of the glass, it hits air again, and is essentially "unrefracted" back to its original path. You see this any time you look through a window, empty glass, even your monitor. In the filled aquarium, the ray hits the glass, gets refracted, and hits the other side of the glass, which is bordering the water. Water is denser than air, so now the ray is refracted by the water (there's no air between the two materials) so you don't need an air surface - just a water surface. Then the ray goes on to hit glass again and then air.

In Lightwave, the same rules apply. A ray will be refracted when it hits a surface, and it will stay on that refracted course until it hits a surface with a different refraction index. Since Lightwave uses single sided polygons by default, if a polygon is facing away from the camera it's not rendered. Only the visible side will have any effect on the final images. Any ray hitting the back side will pass through, never knowing it went through a polygon. So, if you modeled a lens cover without any inward facing polygons, the ray will have no way of knowing that they passed through a thin section of plastic and entered a hollow interior. The result is that the plastic cover will appear solid. Much like your image. I made a duplication of you model to illustrate this. In this image, the plastic cover is made of single-sided polygons. Note how the lights inside are seen differently through the side and again through the curved front, like you would get from a solid piece of plastic.

Looking at your model, it appears that you tried to use double sided surfaces to get this unrefracting effect. This seems logical at first, and with some plugins, this method does work. Straight out of lightwave though, it doesn't. As I mentioned above, a ray will be refracted when it hits a surface, and it will stay on that refracted course until it hits a surface with a different refraction index. This is important to remember. Refraction only occurs when a ray passes through one density to another. If you have two materials that are transparent and have the same refractive quality, then one would disappear if it was placed in the other. There's a magic trick that uses this very property, in which a small plastic disc, about the size of a coin is dropped into a glass of water. The disc, having a refraction index almost exactly the same as water, then becomes completely invisible. People hear the splash and think a coin was dropped in the water, and are amazed that it's disappeared.

Turning on Double-sided in the Surface Editor will do the same thing. You'll think that now that you have some inward facing polygons, that rays will unrefract, but in reality, they're passing through the outer plastic surface, and then passing through another plastic surface (where you'd want them to enter air) that has the same IOR that it passed through in the first place. Since this would be like a ray passing through water into more water, no change occurs. The ray could pass through any number of these surfaces (up to the currently set Recursion Level), and its path would not be affected. You WILL see other surface properties added though. Specularity, reflections, color, etc. will be essentially added up as the ray passes through each transparent polygon. This is what appears to be happening in your image, where you can see a thin reflective inner edge along the closest curve. You can see a similar effect in this image, where the only difference is that Double Sided is turned on. You see a interior reflective surface, but the lights inside still appear split.

The fix for this, as has already been mentioned, is to create an inward facing set of "air polygons", that will tell a ray when it's leaving the plastic. First, make sure all your plastic polygons are single-sided. A quick way to make the air polygons is to select the plastic ones, and copy them. Now, change the surface name of the polygons (which should still be selected) to air, and flip them. Now these are facing inward. Finally, paste. This will replace the original polygons that you copied back onto the model with their original surface intact. If you're using normal polygons, feel free to merge points. If you're using subpatches, DON'T merge.

Finally, the same object again, this time, back to single sided surfaces, but with the addition of the air polygons.

Notice how the lights no longer appear split or magnified. There's still some minor distortions, but only along the corners of the cover, where they should be.

Quote:
Originally Posted by igorstshirts
I like how you punch up the lights like that too, made mine seem alot flatter than I thought it was. I couldn't get the beams to leave the circular patterns on the front piece of the plastic either. Nice!

I think you were using a reflected image on your render, so I just tried to get close using a couple area lights at 50% intensity, both of which are behind and to either side of the light. I have two spotlights inside the light where the LEDs are, with Inverse falloff, and a slight amount of translucency is applied to the plastic surface. This was also rendered with Monte Carlo radiosity, set to two bounces.

Quote:
P.S. I like your cool white light from the top too... Separates the object from the background so nice. Your lighting is just excellent all together.

The light from the top is from the Textured Environment, which uses a pitch gradient, starting with a mid-grey at the top, going to white near the horizon, and finally to black just below the horizon. The soft light look is actually a reflection of this gradient. You can still get some happy accidents in Lightwave, just like you can with a real camera!

Quote:
What should the ref index be for the plastic. You are saying that it needs to differ from the ref index of 1.0 for the polys labeled air in order for the proper refraction to occur. Right?

Correct. In my cases, I usually use the same air surface over & over, which is white, about 50% specular and glossiness set to 30-50% just to get that extra reflection you should get off an inside surface. The transparency is 100% and I turned smoothing on, with the Maximum Smoothing Angle set to 30 degrees. I almost never leave this higher than 40 since I can get nice smooth 45 degree bevels on most objects and the lower value prevents them from smoothing into the rest of the object.

There are so many types of plastic, you could almost use any value. I used 1.34 in these examples, which is just a touch denser than water. I wasn't after anything specific. Just something that was enough to reveal the differences.

He Who Has Gone Into Insane Levels Of Detail And Accuracy On Some Projects.

Thanks Dave!
..................................................................................

3D modeling with CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator

2007-10-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
I'd like to show another example of how easy it is to transition from 2D vector illustration to full on 3D modeling using CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator and a 3D application of your choice... I use Lightwave 9 in this example... Let's go!

Designer techniques ran a challenge a few months back for contestants to design a recreational futuristic moon vehicle. It could be flying or roving but had to meet certain criteria in order to qualify for the competition.

The challenge ran for over three months but I only saw it posted three weeks before the deadline so I had to design quick. No problem... I've got CorelDRAW!

I sketched out a bunch of designs but settled on this concept here. It's sort of based on the model T Ford because of it's basic function and purpose as an early automobile. Since aerodynamics don't play much of an issue on the moon and that this moon car would be one of the first of the new generation moon vehicles, I found the shape and design retro fitting and quite adequate.

The idea is that the capsule with the recreational travelers could be hoisted on and off the chassis with ease and little strain on the moon wandering passengers.

Okay so... Next I vectored out my moon vehicle using CorelDRAW. This is somewhat of a time consuming but very necessary part of the design process. I will show why this method of design pays off in the long run here in one second.

Here is the 2D vector illustration.

I start by blocking out generic shapes in CorelDRAW until the design aesthetics are pleasing and all of the working, moving, mechanical parts are issue free. In this case, the wheel mechanism had to travel in a motion that would leave our travelers level over the ever changing rough terrain of the moon's surface.

Here is the final wheel mechanism showing a range of motions done in CorelDRAW X3.

The ability to assign pivot points to a multiple set of grouped objects in DRAW is invaluable in working out the multiple separate joints that are needed for the design to function properly. I worked it out with generic shapes by trial and error until the design function was equal to the design proportions that I was looking for.

This is where drafting all of your work in a vector program like CorelDRAW starts to pay off, before the step of modeling. Just convert the CorelDRAW vector data to an Adobe Illustrator version 6 file and import it into your 3D application of choice... In this case, Lightwave 9.

Once the data is in the 3D program, the shapes can be extruded, beveled, textured, lit, rendered and animated... Even back out to vector (using the Swift plug-in) if desired.

Here is the CorelDRAW data extruded, lit and rendered out of Lightwave.

The tread pattern on the tire is a vector CorelDRAW graphic used as a bump map.
Here is the final moon vehicle render using mostly CorelDRAW parts and Lightwave.

Here is the final rendered wheel. It is a little distorted because I used a short camera lens for the vehicle to take up more of the rendered frame.

Needless to say that I did not place in the top three of the competition but I am still satisfied with the final concept render.

If you are an avid CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator user, your whole library of existing vector art such as logos, flames, wheel designs or whatever else you may have can be modeled and animated easily using the above technique.

You can see the winners of this challenge right here.

Later!

Painted space ship sketch to final vector concept

2007-09-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a recent concept ship sketch done in Photoshop to be used as an underlying blueprint for a vector illustration.

Here is the same concept elaborated upon in CorelDRAW X3 as vector art. Drafted at 180 inches wide and 120 inches high, it combines for a total of 2,650 shapes and took around 200 hours to build.

You can see a high resolution version of this concept vector spaceship right over here!

Check out my concept ships blog.

Keywords: concept ship spaceship art vector illustration done made in corel draw coreldraw 200 hours to complete 2,500 two thousand five hundred shapes layers inter active transparency tool

Using a flat screen LCD television monitor as a blue screen device

2007-09-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty good way to key out any type of item or product that you might want to animate with a graphic background without doing any rotoscoping (cutting out the item from each sequential frame of video footage). The only drawback is that it requires a high definition television monitor at least a little bigger than the product that will be shot and a dv cam. (Digital video camera/camcorder:) I have a 16:9 45" Panasonic 1080i monitor/tv and a Sony VX-2000 digital camcorder that I used in this example.

Here is a toy of Kaneda on his motorcycle from Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.
The toy is manufactured by McFarlane toys.

Step 1: The first thing I had to figure out is how to get the monitor to show nothing but blue. I made a blue rectangle in CorelDRAW and used full screen preview to fill up every pixel line to show nothing but blue. You might have to get crafty if you don't own Corel Draw.

Step 2: While the digicam sits on a tripod, I positioned the toy about three feet from the HD monitor then zoomed in and focused the cam on the toy itself. The trick here is to soften up the blue using zoom and f-stop settings to "punch" out our subject a little more.

Here is the toy infront of the monitor.

I still use Adobe Premiere 6.0 to do blue screen keying... Believe it or not. It has a super easy panel with a realtime update to show the edges while tweaking threshold and other settings to control spill. You can use whatever keying software you're comfortable with though... Of course. I filmed a street in downtown Denver while driving (shhhhhhh) and composited the footage behind my subject. I ran a flashlight over the toy bike to create the illusion of movement and moved Kaneda's head with a pencil for added realism:}
Here is the final example.

I've got a more serious tutorial on how to do this with a clothing product coming in the near future... Look for it. Later!

My four Discus fish

2007-09-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've had these four Discus fish for almost five years now. They are housed in a 140 gallon tall Oceanic aquarium and share the tank with two pretty large Clown loaches. These fish are a constant source of inspiration in the artwork that I produce. The Discus were purchased from Sunrise tropicals.

There are more pictures in a higher resolution RIGHT HERE.

I shot these with a Pentax istD using a Ricoh macro lens and heavy flash.

Flying cosmonaut animated loop

2007-09-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is a scene I made for CG Society's Challenge based on Greg Bear's EON novel. It depicts one of the book's characters (MIrsky) flying up a meteor wall passing fellow cosmonauts along the way. I purchased an astronaut/cosmonaut model here and then modeled out the rocket pack using corelDRAW 12 and Lightwave. I drafted the jet pack in corel draw and extruded and beveled the data in Lightwave. It originally had a crane on the wing but I decided to delete it in the final render. Here is the corelDRAW illustration.

I imported the Corel data into Lightwave and modeled the wing along with the pack. Here is the Lightwave render.

I then took the head off of a Poser model and placed it into the cosmonaut helmet. Lens flares along with volumetric lights were made in Lightwave and the whole scene was composited in Aftereffects. The little thrust emitting from the jet pack is a Lightwave volumetric light render with an Aftereffects position.wiggle expression applied to it. Note the heavy depth of field applied and rendered directly out of Lightwave using the highest anti aliasing settings possible. A small subtle area light could have filled in the very darkest spots in the middle of the cosmonaut there... Ah well.... Next time.

The final is 1280 by 500 at 24 frames per second. Here is a compressed 720 by 281 24 fps version.

I had to remodel parts of the hands and middle section of the cosmonaut to make it work for my scene. The background (hard to see in this compressed sample) was a displacement map with motion and blur applied to it. The final animation is in .swf format.
Software used: corelDRAW, Lightwave, Aftereffects, Photoshop, Poser and Flash.
You can see a high definition version of this animated loop right over here. Thanks!

Matrix style SONY VX-2000 360 degree spin

2007-09-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

This was made in 2002. I took sixteen pictures of my SONY VX-2000 with my Pentax ZX-5 35 mm SLR camera using AGFA 50 speed film. I rotated the SONY camera on a tripod 1/16 of a 360 degree turn and snapped a picture from my SLR on another tripod until the VX-2000 made the whole 360... Sort of ghetto matrix style. I then rotoscoped around it using CorelDRAW. I made sure to leave part of the VX-2000 tripod in all of the pictures so I had a stationary object to register my frames to. The remains of the tripod were later erased in Photoshop. The camere here is shown with a SONY wide angle lens but I wish I would have done it with the .3x fish eye lens from Century optics since we have one of those too.
Software used: CorelDRAW, Photoshop, Aftereffects and Flash

The VX 1000 and 2000 were revered as the skateboarder's camera. They (SONY) have seemed to stop focusing on competing with Panasonic for the top spot in the HD 24P digital consumer camcorder department.

Stevie Williams motion graphic

2007-09-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

Hello there,
I made this motion graphic a while ago... 2002-2003. I've been airbrushing skateboard griptape since 1989 and thought it might make an interesting multi-media graphic to combine all of the elements together into a Flash loop.

Tony from the denver shop gave me a blank shop deck which I sprayed yellow using some good old Krylon paint. I then vectored out the griptape letters for the bottom of the board using CorelDRAW and cut them out with my Roland vinyl cutter. I stuck 'em on the skateboard, applied a fresh sheet of griptape on top and airbrushed the word airbrushed on it using a Paasche VL airbrush.

I took some pictures of a train yard and composited a pic of professional skateboarder Stevie Williams into the scene using Adobe Aftereffects. I filmed the skateboard with my Sony VX-2000 digi cam while spinning it holding it with one finger on the nose with the tail on the ground. I had to roto around the skate which did not turn out as good as I would have liked because I did not film the skate against a contrasty background but eh... This is pretty old and I'm a little wiser now.

Kind of a crazy combination of black and white, sepia and color. Here are some airbrushed griptape samples...

Nathan Fantasia

Steve Irons

Tony Hawk

You can see more examples of my airbrushed griptape right over here. Happy Labor Day!

2 stage animated mouse over web button in CorelDRAW

2007-08-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

This is a basic tutorial on making a simple animated mouse over button in CorelDRAW.

The most important part of making animated buttons is having a designated border area for registration. Simply put, an outer edge that will remain stagnant while the content within will be "animated".

Here is a basic rectangle drawn in Corel DRAW X3. I sized it to 500 pixels wide and 230 pixels high, made it yellow and centered it by hitting the P key. Make it any dimension and color you wish. Easy.

Next... I vectored out an image of a cartoon boy and girl.

Then I adjusted only the inner shapes of the cartoons to slightly more enthusiastic expressions. Make sure not to move the rectangle or any part of the cartoon that should not have any motion as that will affect the registration and the illusion of slight animation. The second stage looks like this.

Notice that I filled in the text and enlarged the eyes and the mouthes a little to give the animation a little personality.

Here is the final animated button. (It will be cut to be two separate buttons).

You can publish this button in many ways from here. I just cut this one in half and saved it as a jpeg and coded it in HTML as a button with link.

This can be a lot simpler with maybe just a square turning into a circle or even more elaborate with two photographs changing.

You can see a sample of this button here... It does not link to anywhere yet.

I have built my whole site this way. Here are a few more examples of this method. Thanks!

airbrushing samples

embroidery samples

artists

Keywords: how to make a simple 2 two stage functional animated button for interactive web design using vector graphics and raster methods corel draw coreldraw adobe illustrator photoshop

New high definition flash loop blog

2007-07-09T13:57:00.000-07:00

I have started an HD animated loops blog here at Blogger. You can see my first post right over here.

I've also got some exciting new tutorials coming... Some of my best yet. Stay tuned... Later!

Keywords: animated sequences examples loop embeded within html blogger posts as flash documents high definition animated loops blog

Anime rain using vector art and a position.wiggle expression in Aftereffects

2007-07-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

First, create a road using a vector app. of choice, I use CorelDraw.

Next, vector out some numbers... Export the file as an .EPS or raster it at the size that will work for your project. Bring into AE, add the numbers on top of your road, keyframe motion and check the motion blur box.

I used a more realistic road photo on top of those two layers, keyframed motion along with checking motion blur and used a blend mode. I think I used either multiply or overlay... Experiment to see what looks good.

Now for the rain! Vector out some circles, export as .EPS or raster with transparent background and lay on top of the road layers. Apply a position.wiggle expression to the position value of this layer with semi-eradic values like (33,24,40). Do not check the motion blur for this layer. The expression should read position.wiggle(33,24,40)

You should have something that looks like this...

In Aftereffects, rotate the road in Z space 90 degrees, lay whatever you like on it, light it up and it could look something like this.

There is no need to motion blur the vector circles (but it would probably look nice if they did have blur). The trick is to create an illusion (as easily as possible) that the drops are hitting the road and not moving as one solid graphic. Later!

Keywords: making anime style rain in aftereffects using vector shapes and position.wiggle expression

Vector logo using the slice and bend modeling technique in a 3D application

2007-07-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

I made this over the weekend using the technique described HERE.

There is a little discussion about it here.

Keywords: igorstshirts.com igor's t-shirts logo drafted in corel draw coreldraw imported into newtek's lightwave application sliced up into small segments extruded surfaced and bent into shape

Slice and bend modeling technique?

2007-06-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

This is something I came up with a few years ago and I've not seen it documented anywhere else so I thought I'd share it with you. I use CorelDRAW and Lightwave from Newtek in this tutorial but any vector illustration and 3D application should work just as good.

Okay so,
First I drew a shape in CorelDRAW... Nothing fancy, about two hours worth of work.

Next,
I exported the CorelDraw file as an illustrator version 6... That format seems to work the best in Lightwave working this way. I then imported the AI version 6 file into Lightwave via the EPSF import. Lightwave used to have a limitation as to how many points a polygon could be made up of so I used the FINE setting. Now, in version 9 of Lightwave, that limitation is gone and it can be imported as SUPER FINE.

So,
Now that the shape is imported correctly into Lightwave, I extruded all of the shapes, beveled them and applied various surface properties to the individual shapes (Glass, metal/plastic, etc). It is important to note that booleans are used to cut out the holes in the shape. I also drafted the booleans within my shape in CorelDRAW so that I could accurately punch the shapes out that I needed to.
It looks something like this...

This is where it gets interesting though. Using the knife tool, I then uniformly and very tightly sliced up the shape on all three axis. I used about three or four cuts on the thin Z side of the shape. It looked like this.

Now this is the fun part,
Now that the object is cut on all three axis... just bend it (using the bend tool) on the width and length sides. VOILA! A pretty complex shape made in one day. Crazy?

Instead of making a complex spline cage and patching all of the nooks and crannies to make a mesh, I extruded and beveled my object as a flat piece and then sliced it up to be an editable mesh. Here is a 360 30 fps Flash view.

Some things to note:
Note the roundness of the two top lights on both axis. Try modeling that quick with bevels.
Note the beveled twist on the open window render.

The pros of this technique:
Only one... Super complex shape made real fast.
The cons of this technique:
Not perfectly accurate
The heavier the mesh polygon count the smoother the shape. It can be HEAVY before it looks good.

This technique would work well for abstract Flash web graphics or perhaps a filler object to be filmed with a little bit of depth of field blur applied to hide some of the imperfections. I use this technique a lot. WORKS GREAT!
I hope you have enjoyed my slice and bend tutorial. If anyone knows of a similar tutorial on the web, please send a link my way.

Here is a link to an HD 1280 by 720 Flash loop of this shape.
Later!

Keywords: slice and bend modeling technique using corel draw and lightwave quick hard surface shape animated flash example of spaceship cabin cab rotating lit rendered embeded within html blog post allowed on blogger google

Embroidered canvas with an acrylic dog portrait

2007-06-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

60 inches by 40 inches, acrylic on canvas with embroidery. This was an airbrush painting of my friend's dog UHMA as a birthday present around 2001. The letters were individually digitized in Corel Drawings and measure about ten inches in height each. My mom and I have been airbrushing/embroidering on canvas since 1997.
This piece is more about concept than execution, some of the colors are straight out of the bottle.

Keywords: embroidered canvas using acrylic airbrush paints dog portrait uhma umah chocolate lab labrador retriever art madeira custom rayon thread digitized logo sewn on to framed piece of canvas

6.1 surround sound Discus fish tank

2007-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

I drafted this concept surround sound speaker display in CorelDraw10 but no longer have the artwork. The fish tank is a 140 gallon tall Oceanic show with stand and the fish pictured are often referred to as Red melons, a strand of Discus. The speakers are the B&W brand and are the tail end of my 6.1 surround sound entertainment system in my basement. Would have liked for the speakers to be farther apart for better sound separation but this was the space I had to work with. I am a fan of just straight white textured walls lit in a bright and colorful manner. The front of this room is almost done now and I will post it when finished.

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Me on the moon Flash loop

2007-06-06T15:34:00.002-07:00

I'm happy that Blogger allows raw HTML within posts... Thanks Blogger! This being my first post here, I thought it'd be appropriate to post a small multi-media graphic composite I made back in 2003 of me at my airbrush shop on the moon... It came about because there were only twelve of us (tenants) in a three hundred unit shopping mall.
The mall closed recently and is slated for renovation sometime this summer. R.I.P. Buckingham square... 11 years of doing business in there make for some insane memories. Thanks.

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