I’ll let you in on a little secret: beautiful websites aren’t made, they’re found. Smart designers know where to find that perfect photo, subtle pattern or that unique icon.Here’s where the best designers go to find photos, graphics, icons, and more.
Some nice links here for free images and the like. Good resource.
Just thought I would post some CGI projects I have been tinkering with. The Lebron shoe was for Nike and was never published so I just added that to the front page. I tweaked on it to add the "Lava" texture the other week which I thought made it more interesting. Shoe is from a photo shot by Ryan Unruh.
The text piece is a interior study where I am working on getting the floors and lights working right. Having a issue where I can't get the light working right in the bottom left. The abstract is just a study in making abstract art in CGI that I banged out yesterday. Both of these are entirely CGI.
Genius! Not my work BTW.
Credits Agency: Victors&Spoils Music: Trans-Siberian Orchestra Original Content: globaldemocracy.com
It’s all a lie. This is the thing about creativity that is rarely acknowledged: Most people don’t actually like it. Studies confirm what many creative people have suspected all along: People are biased against creative thinking, despite all of their insistence otherwise.
“We think of creative people in a heroic manner, and we celebrate them, but the thing we celebrate is the after-effect,” says Barry Staw, a researcher at the University of California–Berkeley business school who specializes in creativity.
Staw says most people are risk-averse. He refers to them as satisfiers. “As much as we celebrate independence in Western cultures, there is an awful lot of pressure to conform,” he says. Satisfiers avoid stirring things up, even if it means forsaking the truth or rejecting a good idea.
For 35 years, I’ve been a fine art and commercial studio photographer and for 24 of those years, I’ve used Light Painting (I like to refer to it as “Sculpting with Light”) as my method of lighting subjects. Many years ago, I discovered that light painting was not only a great tool for solving problems (which was initially the reason I started experimented with it), but it also was a way to enhance, reveal and celebrate certain aspects of subjects that weren’t visible to me under normal lighting conditions! There is a transformational quality to the light, and ordinary objects can become extraordinary when seen in this “new” light.
David Hockney and others have speculated—controversially—that a camera obscura could have helped the Dutch painter Vermeer achieve his photo-realistic effects in the 1600s. But no one understood exactly how such a device might actually have been used to paint masterpieces. An inventor in Texas—the subject of a new documentary by the magicians Penn & Teller—may have solved the riddle.
"Many furniture manufactures are using this medium to put together their catalogues and such," said Richard Benson, creative director at digital imagery studio Pikcells. "The technology can now make these wonderfully realistic images as good as photography, and in some cases better."
Benson said the rapid advances in digital image-making were leading to the mass closure of photography studios that specialised in interior and product shoots for brands. "It's quite a big deal as lots of photography studios have been uprooted," he said. "Over the past five years, there's been a few studios that have really come to the end of their time doing room sets and have seen CGI coming through and packed up shop and called it a day really."
Other photography studios have embraced CGI and turned themselves into digital studios. He added: "We've been brought in to produce what the photographer was doing anyway. The end if the same but the means is different."
My bartenders project, "Tip Well You Bastards" was posted in Photography Served today. Kinda made my morning to see some of my personal work get out there in the world.
New Project for Nike was recently released, "Megatron Rises." Nike Football and Hasbro honor Calvin Johnson, Jr. with special edition CJ81 Trainer and TRANSFORMERS action figure. Darien Birks from Nike Football reached out and asked if I would like to work up some illustrations for this limited launch. Megatron toys? How could I possibly say no?! Had just about a week to work these up from sketches to the final illustrations for wall murals and store front displays. Used Modo for most of it and post in Photoshop. Thanks Darien!
New project went live in 11 cities just recently for Champs. The goal was to show the tie in between the Jerseys in NBA 2014 and the real ones you can buy in the store. Matt Davis from NonBox came up with the concept and reached out to me to help piece it all together. Had to also shoot and swap all the uniforms for each team on the original Athlete photo shot by Aaron Hewitt. Added in some techy illustrations on the athlete as well. Jersey Photo by Ryan Unruh that is used in the POP stands in the stores. Background shot Rendered by 2k.
New Project for Nike Basketball just was released, Lebron 11 Forging Iron: Heat Tested. Ryan Unruh shot the shoe and we went back and forth on a few ideas and this is where it ended up. Glowing floor was a bleary eyed late night idea that brought a great vibe. Super fun project and really happy with the end result. Have one more file from this project just as CGI intensive that hopefully is released soon. Used Modo, Blender and Photoshop for the post work. I'll make a portfolio and Behance posting after a few months showing how it was all put together.
Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders.
Still have not upgraded to CC and this makes me happier that I have not.
Another project was picked up on Adweek over the weekend. This time it was a project with Photographer Mike Powell for Purina done for Leo Burnett. It is a project that was more about subtle, rich tonalities then "WHIZ BANG!" special effects so it is nice to see it get some recognition. Purina on Adweek.
You too can loose 9 pounds in 2 days by living as a pile of biomorphic goo on the bathroom floor why being lovingly held in the warm embrace of food poisoning. Just ask me how!
A bit behind here folks due to the afore mentioned lovely G.I. distress, bare with me while I play catch up on some projects. Seriously, the worst case I have ever had. On the bright side, this toast is freaking AMAHZING this morning.
The recent unveiling of the Mac Pro has divided a lot of professional users who hoped Apple wouldn't fix what wasn't broken. Phil Schiller's words from the announcement—"can't innovate anymore, my ass"—made it clear that Apple used the venerable workstation as a Guinea pig to prove that it can still get its machined-aluminum groove on. Sure, the design and engineering of the Darth Pro are brilliant, but as I pointed out in my critical look, the Mac Pro needed shrinking as urgently as I need a Hermès man-purse. Whether it will pay off remains to be seen, but some people who want more flexible hardware options aren't convinced. I know one video editor who's already abandoned OS X for Windows because their work depends more on GPU power with apps like DaVinci Resolve. A big box with multiple PCI Express slots is more important to them than added desk space.
So this is pretty much exactly where I am at with my work flow as well. Great write up.
Matt Davis and Kyle Wiley from NonBox asked if I could lend a hand on some trade show exhibits for Primus. I thought the concept was awesome and hopped on board. Mulitple composites involved to make the backgrounds. Photography by Jelani Memory who did a great job on the lighting. You can see more in the portfolio or on Behance
The Nike Tech Pack website is live with all our post work. It all came together really well and they use the imagery in a great way. Very happy to have been involved in this one.
Andre Simmons from Nike asked us to help out with the Fall Tech Fleece product line and it went live not too long ago. We had over 300 images with crazy tight timelines but it came out super slick. Really had to do some interesting tricks do deal with that heather fabric.
Client: Nike NSW // Product Photos: Ryan Unruh // Athlete photos: Unknown.
The Jordan project we did with Ryan Unruh was just picked up on AdWeek. Always a good thing!
