XenoBlog

No Updates? Gasp!

2006-10-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

I'm not in school right now. I don't even know if I want to continue studying to be a designer. I'm trying to sort things out.

I have been doing some art stuff, but not much. I recreated an image my friend made to give it some more life.

That's all for the updates. Look forward for more sometime before... well, before the internet is replaced with... something...

Points VS Picas

2006-07-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, time for me to vent. I only feel the need to vent in one class; surely that's not healthy. Something is drasticly wrong with this environment.

So in class right now we're working on this travel brochure. It's another project to make an exact clone of something that's already been made. The first step is to setup the page, which is no big deal. Then it says to have the top and bottom margins set to 18pt and the left and right margins to be at 1p6. Um... they're the same thing? Okay, sure, whatever, let's continue. Next step? Go into the the prefrences and change the vertical ruler to points and the horizontal ruler to picas. What?! Why? They're the same measure system. You wouldn't have the rulers set to decimal inches and fraction inches, would you? No! Why do it with points and picas?

We have a sub. while our normal teacher is out of town. She's not actually a teacher, but she's from the industry, so she actually knows her stuff. I actually enjoy hearing her talk about different events that happened in the industry and problems that she's had to try and figure out due to software issues and having to deal with other people's workflows.

On another negative note a new student took the computer I used all last quarter and claimed it has her own. Now there's no reason it should be mine and mine alone since all our files are erased, but the computer that I'm using now doesn't recognize the keypad and once in a while decides that clicking on things with the mouse should produce no effect. So it's a little fustrating. It's probably a problem that's fixed in one of the patches for OS 10.4, but my teachers don't download the patches (there's 149MB of patches for the OS alone, and more for other iLife programs).

No Updates

2006-06-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

I go to a technical college, and thus the rules for summer break are not the same as a 4-year college or university. I only get one week off, and I shall enjoy my break as much as possible. I don't plan on doing any designing, I don't plan on drawing, or anything relating to art. So I won't have any updates until at least Monday.

See you 4th quarter.

Realism

2006-06-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've drawn anything that looked not awful, and today's drawing was inspired by pure boredom. There are some other drawings of my left hand that I did throughout the day, including one pushing a red button; It's my personal favorite, which I'll upload later. The thumbnail links to a 6MB TIFF, so if you're on dial-up you might want to get a snack or something. I used a pencil for the drawing part and a light-gray brush-pen to do the shading.

The Death of XenoBlog?

2006-06-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Maybe. Even then, only in name. The name XenoBlog doesn't really describe anything, it doesn't decribe me, and it doesn't exactly flow off the tongue. Even worse, the domain name XenoBlog.com is already taken. So I think it's time for a name change, as well as a purpose change. So here's what I'm planning on doing. I'm going to change the blog into a portfolio slash blog, so I can put my art on part of it, and rants and news about design on the other. Or together, who knows. I'm rather limited with what I can do with Blogger, and until I get my own server again I can't use Movable Type or similar software.

So what's the name?
I was considering Zubutoi Designs. The Japanese thing may be a little cliche, but I don't care. I've actually taken the time to study the language and the culture, so I'll actually know what I'm doing. The kanji for "Zubutoi" conveys exactly what it means: "Bold".

So I'm going to work on more sketches and stuff. Once I get the new site up and running I'll probably post concept sketches, too.

Paper Zone Is Going Out of Business

2006-06-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

So I stopped by Paper Zone for some vellum and I saw a sign in the window. It read "Closing sale. 40% off everything." Well jeez, you can't argue with nearly half-off. I ended up spending about $60 on $100 worth of paper and supplies, though not all of it was for me. I got some awesome vellum in white, blue, and orange, as well as a sheet of UV paper, though I don't know what it is. It's cool looking, though, and that's what matters. I also got some large sheets of patterned paper, which I'm currently using as wallpaper behind my computer. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with most of it, but I'm planning on printing on some for a portfolio, which should give it a really awesome look that should stand out some.
I've started sketching out some ideas for new layouts and graphics. I've got some good ideas, but I'm not going to publish anything until I can get something I wouldn't mind seeing XenoBlog in.
I've also been looking into getting a domain name. XenoBlog.com is already taken (and active), so I'll have to think of something else.

XenoBlog Redesign

2006-06-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have a problem. I love the way XenoBlog looks, and I love the colours, layout, everything. What's the problem? Leaving it alone and simply being satisfied with my past work prevents me from progressing in my ability as a designer. I've been looking at styles of design from the '30s and '40s and I really would like to emulate their style, while making it somewhat modern. I feel pretty awful about this, actually, because even though I don't study the artistic side of design where I'm going to school I did take that in high school from my favorite teacher for a year. And now I've forgotten most of what I had learned. Even worse, the school had issues with how much storage they had on their servers and deleted all of my class' work. When I went there they saved them for a little over a year, then they saved it to a CD for archive incase the students wanted/needed their data, but I'm ranting now. The point is that I need to re-learn the graphic side of graphic design. This is both good and bad, because I have to learn it all over again, but it should vastly improve my design skills, too.

I was browsing for some new graphic design blogs to read I stumbled across gusmayo.com, which doesn't have any content on it, but it has a nice display of, what I assume to be, CSS layouts. There's nothing old about the design of it, and I love the way it looks. So now I'm torn between an old design style and a modern one. Maybe I should combine the two, but oh man, that'd be quite an undertaking.

While I was browsing through my computer to see if I still had a specific layout I used when I had my own server and ran Movable Type 3, and I came across an splash image that was just abstract metalic-ish blue and gold on a black background. I don't know that it has any ties to specific art styles or eras, but there's something about it that captures my attention. I don't know if I should use its style for a layout because it's so bold, but I feel that leaving it on my hard drive to 'collect dust' is a waste of powerful (to me) art.

I would like to make a comment reguarding my previous post about Times New Roman not being in the Office 2007 beta. I was wrong. It is included, but the is no longer the default faunt. I feel like an idiot, now.

Anyway, that concludes this post. I was going to do a post about the film and colour keys I had made in class, but I need light tables and the like before I can get pictures that do them justice. So I'll leave you (as though I have any readers), with this. It's the wall behind my computer where I put my collection of rave flyers and other graphics I've collected from things I enjoy.

"I thought that CD cover looked familiar..."

2006-05-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was browsing for news on digg I came across a story about Times New Roman not being included in the beta for Microsoft Office 2007. I had never seen fadtastic, the site the article was on. While browsing the site I found another article talking about the cover of Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much Better.

But this way of doing it, the whole birth of industrial design education, graphic design, advertising, photomontage and photography as we know it, was done by experiment and put to the test by some great people of the early 20th century, the pioneers of graphic design. Marinetti (The futurists, Italy), Alexander Rodchenko, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Their influences are still remarkably visible in todays graphic and webdesign despite the digital age bringing new production techniques.

The cover of You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand (2005) in the style of Russian avant garde was influenced by this 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko.

http://fadtastic.net/2006/04/22/the-heroic-years-of-graphic-design/

It occurred to me moments later that it wasn't Rodchenko's portrait that looked so familiar, but the opening for Attack of The Show. It's a style I've always wanted to use, but I don't have any real education in art, so trying to employ and styles other than ones I'm already familiar with is rather difficult and the results are somewhat unsatisfactory. From what I've seen on the WikiPedia entry for Attack of The Show they've changed their logo, and possibly their opening video. I don't actually watch the show more than once every few months, since I still hold a grudge against G4 for eating TechTV.

So this industrial style is something I want to peruse, but I need to get some actual art training (or just read lots of WikiPedia entries) before I can start making good use of it.

Oblivion Panoramic

2006-05-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

So I decided to make a panoramic picture of Bethesda Softwork's Oblivion. Now, the world in Oblivion is 16 square miles, so I'm not going to be getting any epic shots of the entire map, but I did find a place that seemed a really nice place to take pictures. I forgot where exactly I took the pictures, but I'll made an edit to this post later when I jump back in the game.

To get the shots looking good I had to bump the graphics settings to a level that my computer had a strong disapproval for (1600x1200, HDR, maximum draw distance on everything, but only medium texture size). The actual image, all said and done, was 23.6" long and about 3.3" tall at 300dpi. With standard printing and the lack of extremely fine detail that you'd find in a real photograph, this can be printed at 150dpi at 47.2" by 6.6", which is truly an epic picture. $25 to have it printed at Kinko's on their large format printers, which is really quite tempting to have done, and possibly framed.

Now I figured this would be a great thing to have done because I could take orders for panoramics in various places of Tamriel (which is where you spend the most time), or Oblivion itself. There's one minor (see: gigantic and fear-inducing) issue with that. I don't actually own any of the copyrights to the pictures I took; Bethesda Softworks does. That also brings up that issue that, if I'm not selling prints that I make, but hanging them on my wall, does that still violate copyright laws?

Anyway, a PDF of the panoramic can be downloaded here as a 150dpi version*. I would have uploaded the full 300dpi version, but I'd like to keep a low-resolution copy floating around for distrobution and the high-resolution (as well as the PSDs) for proving that I'm the one who made it. I would have put some kind of credit on it, but again I don't actually own the image, so I'd rather not bate myself for Bethesda's attack lawyers**.

Also, I'll be doing a write-up on how I made the panoramic step-by-step later on, and tomorrow I should be sending my faux megazine cover to the RIP station. I'll try and get pictures of the process, but that's not a promise.

*3.2 megabyes, PDF, high JPEG compression, ~24"x3.5", printing enabled.
**I don't believe Bethesda actually does have attack lawyers, but people need to protect their work, and I don't want to stare down any threat to my wallet or not-imprisionment.

Nerdcore Monthly: Final Digital Version

2006-05-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

So here is my Nerdcore Monthly cover. It's pretty cool, I think. This version is 150dpi, so you can print it if you want, but it won't look amazing. I'll be sending this to the RIP station tomorrow, hopefully, then getting it put on composite film after that. It's going to kick royal amounts of [unprofessional word for butt]. Pictures of said process to come later.

Nordcore Monthly

2006-04-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's a work in progress for now, and I'll actually end up with three variations of the magazine.

For this project we're making a high-resolution document, making three variations of it, pick one, and have it printed onto film as a seperation that can be layered to create a composite. I'm pretty excited about it, as this is the only design project I've had in a while that I have complete creative control over (aside from meeting some guidelines). More to come.

I'll also be uploading a higher resolution (though not a full-size copy because of file size issues) when I'm finished. For now the PDF is only 72dpi because it's only a rough.

Brief Summary of Fonts

2006-04-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

I wrote this two-page paper on fonts for my Prepress 2 class a little while ago. It is about fonts, a quick history of them, how to get them, everything you need for a basic understanding of fonts. Feel free to print it out, use it for graphic design classes, whatever.

Once I'm done with my paper on PostScript I'll upload that one, too.

Photo Restoration

2006-04-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Still haven't done any real designing, just projects with a fixed end result. Once I have creative freedom I'll post something amusing for all 0 of my readers.

For now, I have a class project that kind of has a fixed result, but is going to be different for everyone. The actual file we started with was the one to the left, but torn into five peices, all at various angles.

This was basicly just a few hours with the clone tool. I'm not happy with the chair because it's rather obvious that I used the clone tool on it.

I did realize last night that I have a problem remembering that not everyone has the Adobe Creative Suite (CS2), or that they might not have moderate to high-power computers to run them on. I realized this when a classmate came to my house so I could help her study and get ready for a presentation for class. When she said "I don't know if I want to make a handout, I'm not good at layout-stuff."
"Oh, I can do that! It's my major, after all." Oh, wait, she doesn't have InDesign. Oh, wait, I don't use MS Word (I use OpenOffice). So that attempt at a good layout was scrapped. Ah well, I tried.

Nobody Needs Updates

2006-03-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

I would appologize for a lack of updates, but I haven't been designing my own stuff much lately; my classes call for a lot of reproduction of images and layouts already on paper. I have made some fun items, which I'll upload later, including book covers for Homestar Runner (just class projects though, there is no Homestar Runner book).

What we're learning in class today, I realized, has more to do with books and newsletters, but single-page print like flyers. One of the things I've wanted to do since I was a Junior in HS was to learn to make rave flyers because I liked their style. Now that I'm actually collecting and studying them I'm starting to figure out common themes, colors, designs, layout (which is generally crapy), images (which are often times just pictures from anime they put on it. I'm hoping that one day I can start creating flyers that are much better than the current ones, which would in turn improve the overall quality by raising demand for better flyers.

That's the theory, anyway.

MooDance.com Header Design

2006-01-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've been going to MooDance at Pacific Lutheran University's student media department for a few months. Normally I'll just hang out with the DJs but lately I've been on the air, too, doing skits or trying to fill the air when there's technical difficulties.

MooDance's audio quality is good (128kbps), but the visual side is lacking. I mean the website is lacking. So I decided to start a new layout. I'm still trying to make conceptual headers, but these two are the front-runners.

Template 3

Template 4

Advanced Blending Modes

2006-01-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

Behold, my latest discovery in Photoshop: advanced blending modes!

In case you're currious the images (1) the rainforest and (2) an erupting volcano. The volcano layer was set to 'multiply' hue to get the colors of the other layer; the volcano was grey/blue.

Obligitory New Year's Post

2006-01-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

So it's the 2-0-0-6. Not sure how design is going to change this year (mostly because I don't know how it changed last year), but I'm looking forward to the new (see: recycled) designs.

I haven't been posting regularly for two reasons: finals and break.
Finals ate my time and creativity. Thus, I had no urge to update with any of my old stuff or create anything new to post. Break... was my time to recover from finals and school.

School starts up day; I'm in my first class now. We haven't done anything and I suspect we won't be for a while. My schedule is as follows:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Designing with Illustrator*	Introduction to InDesign*	Photoshop II*	Prepress I*	Lab Day*

* Indicates classes I'm excited about.

I'm looking forward to making some awesome stuff in Illustrator, and I'm glad I'm finally working on InDesign and not PageMaker. It's like working with a graphing calculater (InDesign) and working with an old-fashion adding machine (PageMaker).

No Updates!

2005-12-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

So I haven't updated lately. I blame school and Naruto. I finished the comic (which I uploaded to LJ) and I'll post a link later. I ended up changing every part of the comic so it has nothing to do with the first version (which sucked). I have some stuff I should probably upload here and share with everyone but that'll have to wait until later. The Macs don't like FTPing to my server.

I also did an English portfolio with all my essays for the class, so maybe I should upload that, too.

Thursday I'm going to be on a panel at my former high school so Seniors can ask questions about college. I'm looking forward to it. I miss my classmates and teachers so it'll be nice hanging out for at least a few hours. It makes me feel importaint.

Comic Book Class

2005-11-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Pre-post rant: I would like to say that Safari is not a good browser. I've had it do things ranging from not saving my Blogger posts to closing windows with all my open tabs. This time I had a lengthy post reguarding my Art, Design, & Visual Thinking (MDP 110) class and when I hit "Save as Draft" it submitted all the information I had filled out except for the actual body of the post. Good job, Safari. Thumbs up for you.

Now that I look at it, however, these workstations are running Safari 1.0 (v85) from 2003. Um...yeah, I have nothing to say to that. "Please patch this nearly 3-yearold program"?

As a test, I decided to stop writing after my last paragraph and hit 'Save as Draft' again after copying what I had written to the clipboard (or whatever it's called in OS X). Safari deleted my entry before submitting it. Further proof I need to put Firefox on my iPod so I can use it on all the Macs here.

Knowing Safari was having issues with submitting this form, I decided to conduct the same test with the 'Publish Post' button. I mean, it's one thing to have a bug with the 'Save as Draft' button, but the button to actually post something has to work, right?... Right? Uh, no. Exact same issue. Now I'm using Internet Explorer 5.2 to update this before I get Firefox. Ugh, what an experience.

Actual post
I got an assignment in MDP 110 to make a comic. Not that big of a deal normally, I've done stuff like that before. This time, however, we're limited to using six frames. I'm not sure if I really feel like re-describing the hardships of doing this because of the Safari issues, so I'll just make some points about it.

It's hard to develop a story (especially for our first assignment) with only six frames.

We're supposed to have 3 versions: (1) rough sketch/layout, (2) more detailed version, & (3) high-detail penciled version. We are not an art class*. Don't push quality of art on us.

We wern't given much information on how to make a comic, just on their elements. Nothing on how to use the elements together, just that they exist.

I'm not too excited about the project at this point, but it's a grade and I need as many points as I can get. So I'm sketching out ideas, looking at web comics, and I'm looking through some Penny Arcade for inspiration, then I remember the most over-used D&D joke ever: fumbling a move silently check. I made a rouch sketch out of that and it occupied six frames. I win. I'll put up a higher quality version once I make one and get it scanned. Until then, here's a script of it.

[Frame 1]
(The heros, Kuro and Brekke, are standing near the arch to the room in which a cloaked man stands in front of a glowing orb.)

Narrator: As our heros near the end of their quest they notice The Wizard they're after concentrating on the Viewing Globe.

Kuro: I still have 10 minutes left on by buffs so I'll sneak attack him and tank while you heal, okay?

Brekke: Alright.

[Frame 2]
Move silently!
(A d20 rolls and bounces.)

[Frame 3]
(The d20 continues to roll.)

[Frame 4]
(Close-up of Kuro's face, centering n his eyes.)

Kuro: Let's roll!

[Frame 5]
(Kuro falls over, his fullplate making ear piercing crashing and banging sounds. Both The Wizard and Brekke are cought off guard, The Wizard shouting in suprise.)

The Wizard: Gaah!

[Frame 6]
(Brekke and Kuro stand over the body of The Wizard who has a moist stain around his crotch.)

Brekke: I think he had a heart attack.

Kuro: I think he peed himself.

Hastle: The Dorkening

2005-10-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

(2.763" x 3.6" CYMK, 3.69MB, TIFF)

I got bored during lab day, so I made this monstrosity. It didn't dawn on me until I was getting ready to go home that it doesn't have power/toughness, so I'll just dull it down to an enchantment next time I'm in class.

Seagull Project

2005-10-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

(8" x 4.5" CYMK, 1.13MB, PNG compression)

My first 'required project' for my Photoshop class. If we stuck to the book (which would land us a "C" grade) it would have been a blue background with some seagulls. If we elaborate and use the skills from the project in a visually different way (changing background, color, foreground, etc.) we get an "A". I'm really hoping for said "A", but ya never know.

New System

2005-10-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Before I (re)start this post, I'd like to point out something that makes Firefox better than Safari. First, Firefox alerts you if you're closing a window with multiple tabs. Second, Safari doesn't render NewEgg. I am quite bitter at this point. Also, control+tab doesn't cycle through tabs. As far as I can tell, there is no keyboard command for switching through tabs. It doesn't help that OS X doesn't like to tab through open windows.

Okay. So. I got the rest of my computer parts in yesterday, and now my upgrades are complete. My computer has been transformed from a machine that struggled to play games more than a year old, but now blazes through the newest games like a Dwarf through a field of Orcs. Here's what my computer, Ghost, now has:
Motherboard: MSI KM4M-V @ 333MHz
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Which, because of the FSB speed, thinks it's a 2500+)
RAM: 1x 512MB DDR333
Optical: Toshiba SD-R5372V 16x DVD+RW
Video: XFX PV-T43A-N 6600GT
Storage: Maxtor 300GB SATA150
Monitor: 21" hp p1130 (PDF)

Those are in addition to older parts (case, extra drives, etc) that didn't need replacement. I gave all my old parts (including my 15" monitor, complete with stickers) to build a new computer. Karma +1, I hope.

I'm not exactly sure how this directly effects my design work, except for the added resolution, but it makes me happy. And more moral means better work.

XenoBlog Ver. 1.01

2005-10-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

I made a lot of minor changes to the layout of XenoBlog. Chances are that I'm the only one that will notice -- with the exception of Auri (who's server space I'm currently occupying). It all has to do with alignment and, to an extent, proximity. I lined up the headlines with the rest of the entry, fixed the padding with the images (all but the align-right images, which there arn't any right now), and added a rule between the end of each post and the author and date. It's all personal stuff that really only effects the way it looks to me, though anyone else that stumbles onto this may notice something subconciously. Auri also suggested that I change the text margin to 1.3em.

This is a test to see how compatible Japanese is with my blog, how it registers on PCs, other browsers, etc. Don't worry if you can't read it, it's uninspiring.　ＸＥＮＯＢＬＯＧはとってもいいです。新しいなまえは回数です。

Robin Williams (and then some)

2005-10-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

For my design classes, I was told I need to purchase The Non-Designer's Design Book Second Edition by Robin Williams*. I blasted through chapters 1 through 6, which was both review from what I was taught in High School, as well as refinement on issues that wern't very clear. Today I'm going to start chapter 7, which is the beginning of the typography, colors, shapes, etc.

Also I got the bundle of Adobe Photoshop 7: Introduction to Digital Images and Advanced Digital Imaging. Chapter 1 discussed DPI (dots per inch), PPI (points per inch), LPI (lines per inch), scanners, and how high resolution to scan at. I started chapter 2, but we don't even need to have chapter 1 finished for another 2 weeks, so I'll spend my reading time else where.

I picked up The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick. I've only read through the first chapter and a few pages into the second, but it seems like an amazing book so far. It's a collection of hacking stories, but not stories of kids in IRC who think they're "31337" because they "hacked the Gibson". It's mind boggling to think what people do to get into computers, and what people don't do to prevent it.

In addition to books on hacking and graphic design, my English 101 class required me to invest in Ideas & Details: A Guide to College Writing by M. Garrett Bauman. I have 3 chapters or so done, and I need to have 5 by Monday. It's a shame that it's the only book I have for college right now that isn't interesting to me.

*I would link to her 'personal site', but it looks so awful I refuse to believe it's her's.

CMYK Vs. RGB

2005-09-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm reading about color modes in my Photoshop book for class, and it made me realize something odd: CMYK files have an extra channel, so they're 33% larger. However, CMYK can not produce as many colors as RGB can. Also, Windows XP runs at 32 bit color, but RGB is only 24 bit. CMYK is 32 bit due to the extra channel, but why have 32 bit if a monitor can not display CMYK?