From Paper Cranes to Paper…Shoes

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

In this age of super slick 3D animated films of every talking animal imaginable (you know who i’m talking about), the traditional way of animating by hand seems all but forgotten. While the intricate nature of digitally rendered fur/feathers/water still dazzles at times, it is refreshing and inspiring to find work that utilizes a combination of the old with the new.  MABONA ORIGAMI  designed the origami models and consulted stop motion and computer animation for this beautiful, award-winning promo that tells the story of the Japanese sports brand ASICS.

Photoshop Disasters

You ever drive by an accident on the freeway and found yourself unable to keep from staring? It’s a phenomenon we LA natives are quite familiar with. The traffic reporters call it “spectator traffic,” others call it “rubber-necking” while all call it “incredibly annoying.”

Why do I bring that up? Because the woman pictured above seems to be experiencing a case of rubber-arming, and just like a multi-car pile up, I can’t stop looking. Take a moment to reexamine the photo.

Either this woman has a very unusual arm condition or this is a photoshop disaster.  With all the attention that this bending of time and space commands, you can’t help but wonder, “What were they thinking?”

Everytime you need a healthy dose of “WTF?” please visit Photoshop Disasters, a blog dedicated to the abuse of Photoshop. One thing for sure I’ll be double checking my compositing to make sure they obey the laws of physics.

Here are a few tips to keep you safe from photoshop disasters.

1. Never abuse the clone stamp tool. Cloning in a body part should only be attempted by seasoned photoshop veterans who understand things like how light behaves and basic anatomy.
2. Be mindful of your lightsource, nothing is more distracting than shadows pointing in every direction. On a similar note, make sure your shadows don’t give your composite a floating effect.
3. Learn the value of the burn and dodge tools.
4. Use a reference point when skewing and warping 3D objects
5. And for goodness sake! Clean up that clipping mask!

This has been a ViscomLA public service announcement

Who Needs Powerpoint?

Want to impress your clients? The next time you have a presentation, go analog! Nobody gets excited for Powerpoint anymore!  Pull out the large pad and watch the hilarity ensue. Nobody’s had this much fun with paper and a sharpie since Win, Lose or Draw went off the air.

It Doesn’t Matter If You’re #000000 or #FFFFFF

I think they must have named oranges before they named carrots.

“What should we call these things?”
“They’re orange, we’ll call ‘em oranges.”
“What about those?”
“Aww sh*t… long pointies?”

–Demetri Martin

Every sixth grader in biology class knows that carotene is the chemical that gives carrots they’re oompa loompa glow and melanin gives skin its pigment. But how do things outside mother nature’s domain obtain their color?

What makes Coca-Cola red? What makes Starbuck’s green? Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine a ice-cold can of Coke in orange. Or try to imagine your local Target store in blue?

Weird huh?

Color has a huge impact on how we see the world. It is emotional and elemental. It is both primitive and endlessly complex. This is why a healthy knowledge of color communication is beneficial to all designers in every field. 

For help with your hues and clues for your chroma visit adobe’s kuler website. Kuler offers new color combinations for every occasion. If you need even more inspiration stop by colourlovers.com.

Power-up the Tivo

It’s a new year and there are a bunch of new shows on the lineup. Although the pundits have long proclaimed the fall of realityTV, unscripted programming shows no sign of letting up. Being a big TV watcher, I’ve witnessed the good, bad and ugly pseudo-celebs that have inevitably spawned from “reality”. Some of these flamboyant, self-obsessed and utterly clueless characters are like car crashes on the side of the road…

So when I saw the promo for VH1′s new show, “Tool Academy”, I was like a deer in the headlights, anxiously waiting for impact. [Could this show have been imagined after visiting this website?]

Tool Academy’s title sets up little in the way of expectations… but as with most of these shows, it is expected that you not consume the saccharin content, or its characters, too seriously.

The Family Man

It may not be one of director Brett Ratner’s top grossing films, but The Family Man is a true holiday classic in my book. In the spirit of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Jack Cambell (Nick Cage) transports to a life of “what if” on Christmas Eve – reluctantly trading his Wall Street high life for a glimpse at suburban family life, had he married his college sweatheart.

If you’re looking to spill over some holiday spirit into the new year, it’s not too late to check out this film. Now playing (for free) on Hulu.com. (my new favorite site)

Hulu – the Future of Online TV & Film

Launched earlier this year, Hulu streams popular tv shows and full-length feature films from studios like FOX, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. and more.

A joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp, Hulu is quickly stepping on the heels of YouTube and cable TV’s “OnDemand”. Film content is still limited and browsing through their title catalog is not as simple as it should be, but just this weekend I’ve seen The Karate Kid and two episodes of The Office (in full-screen mode) and the quality, buffering and limited commercial interruption (one 15 or 30 second ad cut in throughout where you would normally expect five minutes of commercials) mirrors the traditional tv experience surprisingly well.

I imagine the legal hurdles Hulu has had to jump through haven’t been easy. Even still, the site is currently only available to U.S.-based users (ironically, though, you can find video tutorials on YouTube on how to hack a work-around).

Type-lovers Unite!

Until the digital age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users. Granted, this universal accessability to type options has led to irresponsible usage of the whimsical Comic Sans or the eye-numbing Times Roman. But in a free society, we must embrace typography - just as we do art – as a form of self expression capable of provoking human emotion.

Either consciously or unconsciously, typography has been known to inject friendliness, fear, trust and urgency to just about any visual communication – from office memos to outdoor billboards.  

While most type art goes unnoticed or unappreciated by the masses, those of us who are type-lovers can now show it to the world – or at least sport it on your iPhone or desktop - with these free, user-generated TypeNuts wallpapers.