Website

I've been learning html and basic CSS as of late! I've been pretty busy figuring out how to fix the little errors I've been making and I've come a long way, so here's a little preview.



I think I'm going to change up my blog or update it, mainly because my current one is out of date and it's getting a tad wonky on me. I can't even have a regular compose/html post box...so yes, that is a sign for me to revamp! It will work out well since I'm already working on a new layout for my website. I'll go into 2012 with a bang!

I quite like the texture I used for my website because it's actually white tissue paper. I found a nice flat piece in the house and used my scanner to scan it. I adjusted the colour and added some effects on it and the result is wonderful.

The thumbnails for my works have a nice border around it. It's the same texture used for the background. The main white section is slightly faded and I used my grunge brushes to remove some sections from the sides. It has a nicer effect. At least to me it seems more interesting than plain shapes.

Most of the icons are set up now in css and html. I have some of the copy done for the about section and I believe I will be keeping what I originally had in my contact section from my previous layout.

Currently being designed in: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Additional pieces designed in: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Currently being built in: Adobe Dream Weaver CS3

Playing with InDesign

I picked up the Tales of Xillia Famitsu DX Pack early September and took some pictures for a post at my Poke the Merch blog. I took a photo of the Tipo plush and made a small page out of it. I really just wanted to get used to playing with text over images.

Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Developed in: Adobe InDesign CS3

Banner for Poke the Merch

Here's the main banner I made for the blog my friend and I are both running.



The photographs were taken by the both of us. The design was done by me.

After taking a photograph of my hand (more than once because it was a difficult task to do on my own), I vectored it and used it for our logo, which you can see at the top right.

Developed in Adobe Photoshop CS3

Just felt like playing around

I just felt like playing with blue (and trying out some fonts I rarely use).

I buried a bit of the text in the water and the added splash bits on top. It was fun!

Developed in Adobe Illustrator CS3

Edited in Adobe Photoshop CS3

Article spread - Tales of Vesperia

I've been wanting to post this for a while, but the blog my friend and I are running together didn't go live until yesterday. Since she and I are doing reviews on imported merchandise, I decided to make spreads out of mine. I take lots of photos using my sister's Nikon camera anyway, so the quality of each picture is great! I think it'll be great practice for me.

So here is the first one! Very simple and very clean! My article wasn't very long so I couldn't add as many pictures as I'd hoped, but practice will make perfect! Enjoy.

Check out our blog at http://pokethemerch.blogspot.com/

Developed in: Adobe InDesign CS3

One more drink for the summer?

I vectored a tropical drink this time! I know I don't like summer as much as others, but I do like cool fruity drinks (preferably non-alcoholic). Anyway, here's one for the summer!

Out of all the drinks I found on Google, I really liked this one the most because it was very colourful. I'm really happy with the gradient used for the liquid because it has that "passionate taste" look to it. I'm really pleased with the fruit hanging from the rim as well. The gradient effect worked wonderfully with the pear and cherry.

If you look closely there's a hint of ice inside the drink. Just two little blocks. Most of the light sections on the glass are ever so slightly blurred. Finally, I lowered the opacity on the white shapes. I'm very happy with this result!



Developed in: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Care for a glass?

Here's a little vector piece I did of a glass of wine and a bottle. I'm quite pleased with how the wine glass came out.

It's surprisingly difficult to do a semi-transparent object. I had more difficulty with the bottle than I did with the wineglass, but I managed to make both objects look decent. By dropping the opacity and adding a slight blur onto some of the darker and lighter shapes, I get a nice smooth look. If the vector objects/shapes are too sharp, the wineglass and bottle look very cartoon-y. The blur is supposed to help with the lighting and the shade.

Developed in: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Green letter template

I did this before going on vacation, but I didn't get a chance to post it. I wanted to do a cute little letter design. I've also always liked the use of circles and swirls in a lot of vector designs I found over the internet. Also, I really like this tint of green!

This is definitely the start of something fun for me!

I have a feeling I'm going to try doing seasonal themes (so up to 4 designs). Eventually I want to try playing with gear themes, but for now, this is what I've got!



Developed in: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Thank you card for Medium

Here is a thank you card I designed for Passions for Dessert. They printed one of Medium Magazine's covers onto hundreds of delicious cookies (which you can see in the picture below). These cookies were shared during the launch event.

For the card, I wanted to use pink because of the MEDIUM logo, and white was appropriate for the background. For the top I made the pink slightly darker.

Developed in: Adobe Illustrator CS3

Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Couldn't resist

I altered the ice cream picture just a little. My friend mentioned that it would suit the summer theme if I added glasses. So I did, and it turned out to be pretty awesome.



In addition to that, I made one with silly faces. At least they're happy being eaten, right? Hopefully it warms up soon (and my cold disappears). I can't wait to devour the mint chocolate chip and cookies n' cream ice cream in my freezer!



Altered in: Adobe Illustrator CS3

First event in a while

The Medium Magazine launch party was yesterday (June 13, 2011). Even though it drizzled here and there, the party was an absolute success. It was a pleasure just being there, seeing everyone interact with one another with lively music playing int he back. The members of Oddly studios were hard at work! I was able to say hi to them every so often as they kept moving back and forth between the rooms!

Unfortunately, I was only able to capture a few shots with my digital camera. There was dim lighting and I had my hands full for most of the night. I managed to take a few pictures of the team members, but you'll have to catch pictures of the event on the Medium site.

I'll consider taking a better camera with me next time, of course. But I have to be able to look fancy and still carry a giant SLR around.




I also got all dressed up for the event as well. It's rare for me to wear dresses, but this one was comfy and pretty. Plus it was an awesome fashion event!

The picture was taken by Jesse using my Canon Camera. (Thanks, Jesse!)

It's summer time!

I felt like ice cream because it's summer and it's gotten bloody hot this year (so far). Then I figured I'd vector a cute little ice cream banner/theme/logo (or whatever you would like to call it). It was actually very fun. I had to experiment with a few colours first before I was satisfied.

Vectored in: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Edited in: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Second Fairy Vector

I did this one two months ago but didn't upload it until now. I like it the way it is but I'll add an extra spray of white in the background next time. Originally the sketch was really messy, but I was able to adjust the body shape with the anchor and vector points. The flower I made is the orange version of a second lotus vector I did a long time ago. It came out much better than I expected because I used gradients again.




Developed in Adobe Illustrator

Here are the original (super rough) sketches:

More sculpting!

Yesterday I finished glossing the Audino figure I made for my friend as a birthday gift. This is my first time using paint-on-gloss, and I have to admit it isn't as nice as the spray on gloss my friend uses. I guess maybe it's because I'm not painting on enough layers. The texture's a bit funny too, but that might be normal.

While she was in the oven, her feet got burnt. Pretty badly too. It's amazing how super sculpey will burn this badly in seven minutes. Thankfully paint can cover the damages.

Here is the coloured version of Audino. I'm very happy with the way the colours came out. It looks really sweet up close.

As you can see, paint really does save the day. Well, most of it anyway. Audino can't stand on its own due to its shape, so it needs to lean against something. I probably should have made a base for it...

Here is a picture of Audino

Disclaimer: I do not own Audino, nor did I design it. It is a creation made by Nintendo and Ken Sugimori.

Little bunny!

I finally managed to export the HD version of the 3Ds Max project I did in school in semester 3, which was about three months ago. I spent one week working on this project for my final assignment and boy did I have a blast. At first I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do, but eventually I decided I wanted to do something simple but cute. Since I learned about textures, I was able to apply them to all the background objects. So the bricks, the wood, and the cement all look a little more realistic. Also, the skylight really helped.

I think the hardest part was putting the bunny together. I had to put many shapes inside his body so I can attach all the limbs together and they would all move in fluid motion (whenever I needed, anyway). I am pleased to say I am very happy with the final result. It is short, but cute, and I enjoyed working on it very much.

Man, I love 3D!!

Vectored myself

I wanted to vector myself for the "about" page of my website, which is currently in the process of being scripted/coded/developed. This is my first time vectoring a person and I'm quite pleased with the outcome. The colours came out better than I expected. I personally thought it was going to be somewhat difficult because of the way the sun was shining on me the original photo. I definitely had fun with it, even though vectoring the image took a few days. All of this was done in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool.

Here is the vectored piece

Here is the original image

Theta

Here are some designs from semester 2's typography class. The assignment was about hierarchy so I did three pieces that emphasized on the word theta, the symbol, and its definition. I'm only uploading two because these are the ones I really liked out of the three.

The first one emphasizes on the word "theta" rather than the symbol.

The symbol for theta is emphasized in the second one.

Design Practice WIP

I wanted to practice designing website layouts (home pages, product pages, etc...) The first one that came to mind was flowers. The layout is meant to be quite basic since I didn't have too much time to work on it. The sidebar lacks more information but that requires some more research before it reaches completion. I'd probably extend it vertically and insert some more options and ads...but only if it looks nice.

Please make note that none of the floral images belong to me and they have only been used for practice. They are not used for sale and belong to their respective owners.

Shoe ad

Here is a shoe ad I did for photography class in semester 2. I had to take several pictures my shoes, so I could choose the best one to use for a fake poster/ad. I chose Aerosoles because I owned a pair of their shoes, which were still new (in my original box) and were very nice. The logo was hard to do at first, but I vectored half of the letters afterwards to match one I found on Google. I had to place in shadows of my own with a brush tool because I couldn't keep the shadows from the original photo.

Typography and lyrics

In semester 2, one of the assignments in typography required me to choose some lyrics from a song (in this case, Bring Me to Life by Evanescence) and emphasize significant words in a design of my choice. I always liked the middle part of the song so I chose it and placed it in my second design. The black and gray give it a darker feel, which I used to match the tone of the song.

Flint the Venus Djinn!

I seem to really like playing with super sculpey lately. I recently finished Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and loved the game. I particularly love the new designs they give each djinn because it makes them much more unique.

I decided to create Flint, the very first Venus djinn you get in the game. Actually, he's also the very first djinn you get in the original Golden Sun. I've only sculpted him so far and I definitely plan on painting him soon!

The right toe snapped off when I was taking it out of the oven, but I immediately, and carefully, glued it back on. Now it looks like it never even came off! Sadly, its tail sagged and bit and I forgot to fix it. And the bottom of it sort of got burnt, but I'll be painting over that.

Here's the original Flint

Please note that the original picture was borrowed from Creative Uncut and was not drawn by me.

Layout WIP

So this idea came into my mind while I was doodling in class. I thought of a sweets shop layout and decided I wanted to vector a bit of it out. It's good practice...and I got to look at a lot of goodies while deciding which ones I wanted to use as a reference.

Vector practice

I am currently using vectors on old images I drew. I also learned how to do swirls and nice, but simple designs in Adobe Illustrator. Here is my current work in progress. I used the fair image I drew a long while ago and vectored it for this wallpaper. I'll be editing it later, but for now I'll post my work in progress.

View the original fairy sketch

Matt Wallpaper

I did a snowy background for the figure I vectored a few days ago. Nothing special or complicated about it. I contemplated on adding a few more things to it, but I'll leave it as is for now. Maybe some trees and a pattern in the back, or a snow bear and a snow Matt will do in the future. Click image to enlarge (1280 x 800 pixels)

Flash backgrounds

For my Flash toysite assignment, I created a few backgrounds to match the Socorian I designed a while back. I designed an abandoned factory (from the outside) at night. It gives a dark feel to the toy. It's appropriate considering the fact that this toy was the predator of the project I did with Gabby. I created a school setting as well because I couldn't think of another theme at the time and school was frustrating me. I figured it'd be fun to destroy some imaginary pencils and paper.

Here's a link to the original sculpted Socorian

Matt of Hetalia

I vectored a figure from the insanely popular anime series Hetalia Axis Powers. My friends adore Matt from Canada, so I decided to vector him and make a wallpaper with it. For now, I've finished the vector, which came out much better than I expected. I adjusted the tones a little because of lighting, but I'm very pleased with it.

Vectored in Adobe Illustrator CS3

The original image

The original photo was not taken by me and this character does not belong to me

The original flower

I wanted to use a blossomed flower as a logo for myself, but I had some difficulties deciding on the design. This was one of them. I kept another which will be shown some day. I used an image of a lotus flower I quite liked over the internet and began playing with some gradients. This one actually looks really nice from afar. I was tempted to keep it but decided my final design should be simple. Here's what it looks like anyway. It's still something I'm proud of.

Vector background

I vectored this spooky background for a video assignment (Semester 3). It's part Tim Burton, part spooky owls. It was fun making it. I added texture to the ground so it wouldn't look so flat. I'm happy with the outcome, and it looked very nice in the film.

Fairy Sketch

I drew this picture in high school and I've actually wanted to colour it in. The problem is that it is currently incomplete, and I don't really want to add anything else because I don't want to ruin it. I've begun painting it in Photoshop, but there's a long way to go. Still...I currently like it as it is.

Digital Painting

Here's a digital painting I did of my sister a year ago. We were in France and she posed for the camera. I thought it was a fun picture so I used Photoshop to dot out the picture. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Photo

Digital Piece

Flare

This was a sketch I did a few years ago. I always wanted to colour it in, but I didn't do it until the winter holiday of 2010. I'm not that great with tablets, but tablet PCs (where you can draw touching the screen itself) made it possible. I had fun colouring this in. Using multiply modes, I was able to make a darker and lighter version.

Darker version