Published on January 3, 2008
in 3D.
I’m not sure how I didn’t know this project existed until yesterday, but here it is.
The Sphere Project is a website dedicated to the evolution of technical and creative 3D sphere design. The purpose is simple; to create the most captivating and visually appealing sphere from our provided scene using your 3D program and renderer of choice.
I wanted to give our 3D students some inspiration, so the examples above were created using 3dsmax and Photoshop; the first two are very highly rated, and the third is from the middle of the pack. Each of these are possible with the skills you’re learning! A lot of the realistic CG images you see look so realistic because of the lighting, so make sure to practice, practice, practice!
CGSphere –> [via notcot.org]
Oh happy day! The fabulous Photoshop work at worth1000.com has always seemed overshadowed by poor site design and far too many advertisements and content areas. Somebody, I’m not sure who, has created a sleek, usable new interface that lets the artwork shine. Special touches include the gold/silver/bronze awards framing their photos and being mimicked in the new logo itself.
Kudos to the Worth1000 Team!
Worth1000 ReDesign –>
Published on December 17, 2007
in Tutorial.
From SwissMiss:
Photographer and designer Trevor Morris has updated his terrific Photoshop keyboard shortcut cheatsheets for Adobe Photoshop CS3. Download this handy PDF cheatsheet, print it out, and keep it near your computer.
Photoshop CS3 Keyboard Shortcuts –>
Published on December 14, 2007
in Tutorial.
Even as an instructor, I sometimes struggle to remember everything I ever read, especially some of the complex mathematical graphic design problems that can arise; so straightforward articles such as the one on Using Points and Picas by Creative Curio, are really appreciated.
Here’s to passing on the knowledge to the students! Enjoy, guys!
Using Points and Picas –> [via ilovetypography.com]
Published on October 31, 2007
in Design.
Beautiful art, design, typography, illustration and photo manipulation by Nik Ainley. There are far more pieces than I could possibly show you here, so make sure to click the link and ogle!
Shiny Binary –>
Marta Dahlig is the artist responsible for the cover art of the beautiful Exotique 3 masterpiece I showed you yesterday, called Umbrella Sky. She obligingly takes us through some of the steps she followed to create this work of art over at CGSociety.
Umbrella Sky –>
Ballistic is hitting another one out of the park with the third installment of their Exotique collection of digital art books. We have several of this publisher’s books in the office, and they’re total eye candy; this edition is no different. With a full preview of the entire book in Flash directly on the book’s website, you know just what you’re getting - except web-sized images simply can’t give you the experience of actually holding one of these masterpieces in your hand.
It’s full of pretty pretty ladies, of course, but there’s also page after page of creatures and other dark characters that give the book a lot of depth and contrast. It’s not available until November, but my guess is, it will be well worth the price for the softcover or the hardcover.
Ballistic’s Exotique 3 –>
Last week’s match didn’t really do it for me, but I enjoyed this final volley by Mathew Star Thomas on October 5th, and the progression on the Harrington vs. Anderson match was quite entertaining.
Again, Layer Tennis –> [by Coudal Partners]
Published on October 1, 2007
in Design.
I can’t believe I have never seen this before. Extremely entertaining, Layer Tennis is a live battle by designers commentary by a writer on each “volley.” You know what? I can’t really explain it.
From the site: “Two artists (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post that to the site. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens.”
Brought to you by the geniuses at Coudal Partners, this is well worth the look. I’d love to catch it live, but reviewing the volleys and commentary afterward was an exhilarating experience when you keep in mind that each designer had only 15 minutes to create their volley. Astounding.
Layer Tennis –>
Published on August 2, 2007
in Design.
LiveSurface is a resource for ad/packaging/product designers. Each high-quality photo comes with pre-built layer masks, vanishing-point planes, shadows, highlights… all organized layer-by-layer. They are expensive singly but if you did a lot of product design you would do well to buy some of their packages.
LiveSurface Packages–> [via swissmiss]