I’ve closed msn and all those chat things that could bother me and put up the Kanye West album Graduation. The song Flashing lights helped me get ideas and creativity so it’s in the video to hear. I fasten the video about 10x so you wouldn’t be looking at it for an hour but just as long as the music plays.

Although i noticed i could have left the last frame up for couple of seconds. So below are also the images of the final product and a 100% zoom to view the details.

Hope you like it.

Here is the video:

Flashing lights my way, graphic design from darjanpanic on Vimeo.

And here are the images:

So after another day of hard work on my graphic design projects, i took some time for myself and did something i sketched a day before. I call it “Almost winter” and is a practice of the composition and i really like how it came out.

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

As you see it is easier and a lot faster to create models this way, but the problem is, that you need drawing skills for this and if you don’t have them, your models would become a bit odd. Now the people who know how to draw should have it easy to create models. But will the others that don’t be left with no work? Illustrators draw characters on paper, 3D modelers make the models, so 2 people do this things and if we teach one of them the other skill or technique, one of them may get fired and the other one would do work for 2 but would get payed for only 1 person. That’s the problem with technology. But overall it is a amazing software.

Today Sony made a new ad for promotion of the Bravia LCD’s with their known slogan “Colors like no other”. This time they used domino to make it look really good. I didn’t check out if this was made with real domino parts but i think it’s Coputer Generated (CG).

Anyway again, they have made a impressive ad that gets a lot of buzz over the internet. I love all these colors and how each domino block has it’s own color.

Bravia Domino City from cinnabar on Vimeo.

I know you’ll say that skateboarding doesn’t have anything to do with design, oh but it does. First check out his video.

Pretty neat ha? There are some scenes that would make you stop the video, but if you didn’t do it we can continue now. Each time i see something like this, i try to enjoy it a lot, then i watch it again and try to find things that i can learn. Now from Gou Miyagi as a person, you can learn a lot.

How many times did he fall down? How many of them looked really painful? Yeah the answer is a lot, but at the end, he finished the trick he had imagined. That’s really important for a designer too, each time you get knocked down, you need to learn how to get up and do it again. I know this isn’t written in the video, but it’s there!

He used a variety of elements to use when skateboarding, the pipes to grind, the board itself and him on it. He used those things in a really creative and unique way. He thought outside the box, he went for something others didn’t do or think of and won. And example would be grinding the chain. He fell really hard there, got up, did it again and again until he made it perfect. So the next thing i learned was also to do something other wouldn’t, don’t copy but start with a idea even if it’s “stupid” at the beginning.

The third thing would be fun! Easy thing as being helped from a friend to grind that long rail was a great thing. Try to work in groups, more people that love to work something usually make great things and it’s more fun!

Those are just some things i’ve learned from watching this video. Try to find more and tell me, what else did you see/find?

You can learn a lot just by looking at each of his photos and analyzing them. The backgrounds are hand painted in my opinion. The flower seems to be positioned either next to the window if he uses natural light or he uses a window between the flower and his studio lights to make those nice shadows. The straight lines of those shadows that make diagonals work really good on our eyes. A really nice feeling not having a seamless background.

Robert Mapplethorpe also uses a really nice format that fits the flowers well, it’s almost a square(1 by 1), but that almost makes a really big difference. He also puts all those elements in a way that he creates balance. Every element works really well with other elements of the whole flower art photography.

The thing i liked was, that i used something from the class, put it on paper at home i inked it and now it’s here. MY little inked Bézier curve monster I learned 2 things from today, that i know how the Bézier curve works(again) and a little tip on how to get your concentration back for a while Anyway here’s the inked doodle:

Nothing much or special but i liked the idea of using something from the class and it was a nice practice.

I’m one of those Flickr too people and here is a list of my favorite Flickr Groups i enjoy reading everyday.

Strobist - http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/
One of the most popular blogger that sleeps with his strobes and gives tips and tricks on using them on his blog at www.strobist.com His group has lots of good photographers that really like to help people.

LightSource - http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightsource/
Light source is a really popular podcast site that interviews the world’s most known photographers and not only that since even they listen to their podcasts.

One Stobe Pony - http://www.flickr.com/groups/one_strobe_pony/
A nice small group that like doing pictures with only 1 strobe. Amazing work here.

Seamless and cyc - http://www.flickr.com/groups/seamlessandcyc/
A group made by Zack Arias for the lovers of the seamless background photography.

OneLight workshop - http://www.flickr.com/groups/onelightworkshop/
A group that is dedicated to the famous OneLight workshop from Zack Arias. If you haven’t seen his work, do it now!

Through the viewfinder - http://www.flickr.com/groups/throughtheviewfinder/
I really unique style of taking pictures, you can’t fake these with Photoshop that easily. really enjoyable photographs.

Iluminacion - http://www.flickr.com/groups/iluminacion/
This group is dedicated to teach people about lighting which is extremely important. If you control light, you can make photos that can blow your mind.

As a Nikon user, i have also some Nikon Groups, Canon users can find similar ones for them too!

Nikon D80 Group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/d80/
Since i own a Nikon D80 i need to know a lot about it, how it works, what works best and how to get most out of it. Search the flickr to find your own little group of fans of your camera. I bet there is one or two.

Nikon CLS group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikoncls/
A group dedicated to the Nikon creative lighting system. A good guide to know more about our equipment.

Nikkor/Nikon lenses - http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikkor/
We usually don’t know which lens is good/bad and which one to buy. We just know we all want sharp images and the lenses are a big part of it.

So these are my favorite groups and i learned a lot from them. Getting better takes time so you should start right away.

Usually when i scroll through channels i catch those and if i like it. I stay on that channel and see what will it air. You can also see if the whole network has good or bad shows and content. Catching more people to look a show more equals more $$$ since they can sell those seconds or airtime at higher prices. PRO 7 is one of my favorite German tv channels and they got some nice station IDs, that are made in a funny way with the people you see on their Comedy shows etc. Concept and the idea are easy but they give much quality to the brand and name of the whole network company.

Here is a really good and funny Station ID that made me laugh and would keep me on that channel for longer. I love human beat-boxes, especially if they look like people you see from your daily life on a street enjoying music.

Cosmopolitan Cyborg from Gabriel Shalom on Vimeo.