Strange Connection work (unsatisfactory and unused)

I wanted to experiment with a few different design companies to create other than Sacred Centigrade. So I came up with Strange Connection Inc. And I drew up and did some first basic designs for the creation of this company. I don't go very far with it because it was taking too much time away from the Sacred Centigrade. The designs I did for this (although there are very little) aren't bad, it's just a matter of it didn't work out. And I also made a business card for this. Well, at least I can say I tried. And I also think the top Typography design would've worked well as a second Sacred Centigrade logo as I think it looks good and is quite well designed and thinking about it I actually put more physical effort into it as it is completely hand drawn whereas the logos for Centigrade are mostly photoshop work.

Letterheads

Once zoomed into the tops of these letter heads you can see the different filters giving each letterhead it's own individual texture and look. As simple and as easy the filters are to make they can actually (if you used well and not over-used) make a design look very professional and can create illusive sort of textures to design.

Business Cards

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.





The business cards were probably the most difficult of all of the design tasks for our companies set for us. We had to come up with backdrops for these designs in exactly the right sizes, we experimented with our logos editing the structures, colours, shadows, and creating different layounts in all sorts of different ways for them. On one business card you could have bright sky blue text going horizontal and on the next you could have it vertical was an eye-sore yellow, not is I'd ever use those colours. We also had to create a bogus address, fax, phone number and all the contact rubbish which I thought was a creative element to the cards and it was enjoyable making your own elaborate contact info and all of the cards generally, it gave us a chance to think and work like professional designers and let out shine on our creative sides. I especially enjoyed creating backdrops for the cards, making my own different looks of texture and detailed colour schemes was enjoyable and was hard to do at times. You could easily make the scheme and look of the card too boring or to over-the-top in some way, shape or form.
Of all of the cards my personal favourite is No.2. I like how it gives of a sort of steel illusion to it, it's subtle and it's almost realistic in the way of the gradient. I also like the way it is layed out. Some of my other business cards look terrible in the colours or how they're layed out. For example I really resent No.1. It is like No.2 in the way of the colour in the way of the text, logo and the metal sort of scheme but as it is layed out it is the opposite. It just (to me) looks poorly designed and completely unprofessional. The fact that the logo is on a slant (Is it meant to be layed back? I don't know!) makes it look kind of amateur. Even the contact info is in an odd place, I don't know whjat I was thinking. But then again, it is easily editable.

Backdrops

I very much like the idea of being in The Observer one day. Well as I doubt very much that will happen I did it myself! It think this idea turned out well. It does look quite genuine. I like this because it's different. I mean if you're practicing in making fake design companies and commiting the work of this 'company' to products then T Shirts, Cars, Hats, Buildings, Tattos ect. Whatever! Although undeniably some will turn out brilliant things like that are obvious choices for products and are more or less used up. I wanted to be different in the way of my creations. The Observer turned out pretty well I think the other two are kinda' poor and could've had more time spent on them editing the perspective and distortion of the logos to fit the space provided. The buildings are just shit and the floor design I created is really badly distorted in the text. Better look next time, eh?

Badges

Although I like one or two of these there is no real consistency involved in the making of these badges. The designs of these have barely any scheme to them and maybe I could've spent time on making badges that look remotely alike and are linked in the way of the colours layout and the way they're produced as opposed to practicing random designs which I think would look good as badges (which I did). Some of these badges are suitable to my company and look good whereas others have a bad choice of colours and layout and just don't look very well made. Of all of them I do like the top and bottom middle ones. The bottom one because I cut out the different text structures from my logo and edited and moved them about in suit of the badge and I think the shine I made suited the badge well wheras the others are just flat colours. It makes it look more 3D. And I like the top one because of how it is layed out I think the flat colours express character in the badge, it stands out from the rest of them. Besides these, the top, far right badge I think does not work well at all. I've not used orange or red or any remotely flamboyant colours in any of my other products or designs; so this very badge stands out in a bad way because it is not commited to everything else because it is not in line with the whole scheme of my designs.

DVD and Cover

Although the DVD disc at the top is pretty plain and mediocre, well amateur I'm quite proud of my DVD cover. The DVD disc I initially thought would look better if it wasn't full of crazy colours and pictures and it would look cooler of it were just simple, shiny, and with basic text. But looking at it now it looks too basic. I'm thinking it may have looked better if the SC logo faded in the background would be better if it were not on the disc and it was just the Sacred Centigrade text itself. It would have been better if I committed more time to this piece. The DVD cover on the other hand I think I produced well. Making it look as genuine as I possibly could and to also make it look interesting and to get anyone reading the blurb or just simply walking past it in a shop hooked and wanting to take a closer look or even throw it on the DVD player. I want it to look fascinating. Maybe not the last part but I think I succeeded in making it look moderately professional and well produced! This idea gave me a chance to come up with imaginative disc features and an interesting blurb. But hey! When you buy my DVd you get your money's worth. You even get a poster, a free booklet and postcards in mine!

Complimentary Slips

The reason I really enjoyed designing these was because the comp slips idea gave me a unique chance to play around with different types of professional colour schemes and clean, crisp, subtle designs and layouts. I think a lot of these are suitable for what I was doing, others are not and are nicer to look at and are more professional than others. For example, my favourite of all of these is the bottom, second to the left end slip. I think the cream, bold text which is neatly laid out goes perfect with the lighter, graphite grey background. It is by far the best of all 10 slips (in my opinion). But as much as I like this design I think the top, second to far left is more suitable to my 'company' and the project and hand and to all of the other things I done previously. This is because in all of the other products I design (such as business cards) the majority of them had darker (usually charcoal grey) backgrounds which turned out to be quite dark, solid colours with lighter, plainer and more solid black and white text. Although I also played around with different filters, colour schemes and textures for my business cards the colour schemes turned out to be considerably different to these comp slips.

Sacred Centigrade Logo Versions 3 & 4

These designs are the same as the previous two but I inverted the colours clearly. The top right design when zoomed in is made out of long thin lines and is stemmed from the idea of the design on the previous design with the CCTV camera concept. I think these two are far better to look at than the more plain previous two. I think with the dark background and the deeper details coming to light in this design I think you can see the shapes and structures of this design a lot more clearly in comparison to the other two more primitive design. And overall I just think these two look better. Especially the bottom one. In the Comp slips I made plain white versions of these with a small shadow, just for illustrator. Check it out. It is not as good as these two by a long shot but it is more suitable for what I was doing at the time. These two didn't go well with a lot of the colour schemes in the comp slips.

Sacred Centigrade Logo Versions 1 & 2

This is the official logo I would eventually use as for the duration and everything in my work. It was originally taken from the elaborate Typography design I did which I named 'Mirror Shine' which consisted of some sort of cleaning product. It turned out pretty well. To make my Sacred Centigrade design I shortly studied the structure of Typefaces and structures. The design itself I think gives of some sort of skeleton look. The top left design is the same as the bottom but I came up with a sort of CCTV camera idea. It is the same in the text below when zoomed in and is more effective than the just plain black design.

Computer timeline from the year 2000 to today

2000 Computers continue to work and the world doesn't come to an end on January 1, 2000 as some feared might happen because of the year 2000 bug.
2000 Microsoft Bill Gates relinquishes his title as CEO to MS President Steve Ballmer on January 13, 2000.
2000 CNR is introduced by Intel February 07, 2000
2000 A young Filipino student releases the I Love You e-mail virus that begins infecting computers and spreading over the Internet.
2000 Microsoft Windows 2000 was released February 17, 2000.
2000 U.S. Judge Thomas Penfield announced today after over 2-years in the court that Microsoft be split into two companies although will remain intact until the appeals process is exhausted.
2000 On March 10, 2000 NASDAQ hits its record high and marks the turning point of the dot-com boom.
2000 The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act becomes effective April 21, 2000.
2000 ATI introduces their Radeon product line on April 24, 2000.
2000 On June 24, 2000 U.S. President Bill Clinton makes the first ever Presidential webcast among the announcements President Bill Clinton announces a new web site that will be able to search all government resources.
2000 Jack Kilby is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
2000 ATA-5 is approved by ANSI.
2000 Microsoft releases Windows ME June 19, 2000.
2000 Microsoft introduces C# to the public in June 2000.
2000 Microsoft release DirectX 8, November 9, 2000.
2001 January 1, 2001 - Microsoft announces Windows 95 is now a legacy item and will no longer be sold or shipped to any more customers.
2001 January 02, 2001 - Intel announced that it will recall its 1.13 GHz Pentium III processors due to a glitch. Users with these processors should contact their vendors for additional information about the recall.
2001 Linus Torvalds releases version 2.4 of the Linux Kernel source code on January 4th.
2001 Bill Gates unveils the Xbox on January 7th 2001.
2001 Napster reaches over 26 million users February 2001.
2001 The man who practically invented the Silicon Valley success story, Hewlett-Packard Co. co-founder William Hewlett, dies at his home, he was 87.
2001 Chip-making giant Intel Corp. has agreed to acquire Xircom Inc., a maker of mobile computing gear, for about $748 million.
2001 Claude Elwood Shannon, the mathematician who laid the foundation of modern information theory while working at Bell Labs in the 1940s, died on February 24, 2001. He was 85.
2001 March 08, AOL membership surpasses 28 Million.
2001 The Code Red worm begins infecting Windows computers in July 2001 with the intention of performing a DDoS attack on the White House government web page. The worm is estimated in causing $2 billion in damages and never succeeded in it's attack.
2001 Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 6.0 in August 27, 2001.
2001 The CDDB is officially renamed to Gracenote.
2001 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.0 code named Cheetah and becomes available March 24, 2001.
2001 March 09, MacAfee releases first handheld virus protection software.
2001 March 31, After 21 years of selling hard drives, Quantum on Friday formally left the business to turn its full attention to higher-level storage products and services.
2001 April 20, Dell computers becomes the largest PC maker.
2001 June 5, 2001, Nevada becomes the first U.S. state to vote to legalize online gambling.
2001 Airlines begin to implement methods of gaining Internet access while flying.
2001 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.1 code named Puma and becomes available on September 25, 2001.
2001 USB 2.0 is introduced.
2001 Microsoft announces April 11, 2001 that it will no longer include Clippy with future releases of Microsoft Office.
2001 July 20, 2001 - PC shipments worst since 1986, as only Dell grows.
2001 Egghead files for Bankruptcy protection on August 18, 2001.
2001 SATA 1.0 is introduced in August 2001.
2001 AST Computers goes out of business and stops selling computers.
2001 Hewlett Packard announces plans to buy Compaq on September sixth.
2001 Apple introduces the iPod.
2001 Microsoft Windows XP home and professional editions are released October 25, 2001.
2001 Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (Version 2002) for Itanium systems is released.
2002 Excite@Home, one of the largest ISP's files for bankruptcy and closes its doors March, 02, 2002.
2002 Approximately 1 billion PCs have been shipped worldwide since the mid-'70s, according to a study released by consulting firm Gartner.
2002 PayPal is acquired by eBay on October 3, 2002.
2002 Napster files for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 3, 2002.
2002 WorldCom the Number 2 long-distance telephone and data service company files for bankruptcy June 21, 2002.
2002 PCI Express is approved as standard.
2002 The first Trackback is used on Movable Type.
2002 Edsger Dijkstra passes away August 6, 2002.
2002 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.2 code named Jaguar and becomes available on August 23, 2002.
2002 Cartoon turtle named "Dewie" introduced to help promote Internet safety and security.
2002 Microsoft releases DirectX 9, December 19, 2002.
2002 Roxio acquires the Napster name and logo in a bankruptcy auction on November 25, 2002.
2003 The Slammer worm is first released in January 2003 and becomes the fastest spreading worm in history after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in less than three hours.
2003 PCMCIA announces the development of a new standard codenamed NEWCARD on February 19, 2003.
2003 Supreme court rules that sex offenders information and pictures can be posted online on March 3, 2003.
2003 Intel Pentium M is introduced in March.
2003 Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (Version 2003) for Itanium 2 systems is released on March 28, 2003.
2003 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is released March 28, 2003.
2003 The first computer is infected with the Spybot worm on April 16, 2003.
2003 The first D Conference is held in May.
2003 The Mozilla Foundation is officially formed on July 15, 2003.
2003 MySpace is founded.
2003 Intel announces the new BTX form factor.
2003 Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) standard is announced on November 18, 2003 as a planned replacement for DVD.
2003 Eugene Kleiner passes away November 20, 2003.
2003 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.3 code named Panther October 25, 2003.
2003 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003 is released on December 18, 2003.
2004 Comcast purchases TechTV March 25, 2004 to form G4TechTV.
2004 Google announces Gmail on April 1, 2004.
2004 Lindows changes it's name to Linspire April 14, 2004.
2004 Kelkea purchases the assets of MAPS.
2004 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.4 code named Tiger at the WWDC on June 28, 2004.
2004 Intel starts the development of the BTX form factor.
2004 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is released on October 12, 2004.
2004 Firefox 1.0 is first introduced on November 9, 2004.
2004 IBM sells its computing division to Lenovo Group for $1.75 billion on December 08, 2004
2005 Lenovo completes the acquisition of IBM's Personal Computing Division.
2005 YouTube is founded and comes online February 15, 2005.
2005 Yahoo announces that it will acquire the popular photo service Flickr on March 21, 2005.
2005 Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is released on April 24, 2005.
2005 Microsoft announces it's next operating system, codenamed "Longhorn" will be named Windows Vista on July 23, 2005.
2005 IBM officially announces on July 14, 2005 that all sales of OS/2 will end on December 23, 2005 and that all support from IBM for OS/2 will end on December 16, 2005.
2005 MySpace is purchased by News Corporation for $580 Million US on July 18, 2005.
2005 On September 12, 2005 eBay acquired Skype for approximately $2.6billion.
2005 Adobe completes its acquisition of Macromedia on December 3, 2005.
2006 The blu-ray is first announced and introduced at the 2006 CES on January 4, 2006.
2006 On January 5, 2006 Intel introduces the Intel Core and Viiv.
2006 Toshiba releases the first HD DVD player in Japan on March 31, 2006.
2006 Toshiba releases the first HD DVD player in a computer computer with the introduction of the Toshiba Qosmio 35 on May 16, 2006.
2006

John Hui, the former owner of eMachines purchases Packard Bell.
2006 On July 27, 2006 Intel introduces the Core 2 Duo processors.
2006 The Intel Core 2 Extreme is first released on July 29, 2006.
2006 On August 6, 2006 MySpace announces its 106 millionth account was created.
2006 Amazon.com opens AWS.
2006 Skype announced that it had over 100 million registered users.
2006 The GIF standard and pictures becomes officially free on October 1, 2006.
2006 Google announces plans to purchase YouTube for 1.65 Billion on October 9, 2006.
2006 On November 14, 2006 Microsoft released its portable Zune media player.
2006 Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista to corporations on November 30, 2006.
2007 Apple announces in January 1, 2007 that it will drop computer from its name as it becomes a company who deals with more than computers.
2007 Apple introduces the iPhone to the public at the January Macworld Conference & Expo.
2007 Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 to the general public January 30, 2007.
2007 Data Robotics introduces the Drobo in June.
2007 Apple releases the Apple iPhone to the public June 29, 2007.
2007 The Apple iPhone Jailbreaking method is introduced to the public on July 10, 2007.
2007 Amazon.com releases the first Kindle in the United States November 19, 2007.
2007 Google releases Android November 2007.
2007 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.5 code named Leopard October 26, 2007.
2008 The HD player war comes to an end when HD DVD calls it quit, making Blu-ray the victor on February 19, 2008.
2008 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.6 code named Snow Leopard and MobileMe at the WWDC on June 9, 2008.
2008 Apple introduces its latest line of Apple iMac computers on August 28, 2008.
2009 Apple removes support for AppleTalk in August of 2009 with its introduction of Mac OS X v10.6.
2009 Google announces places to acquire reCAPATCHA.
2009 Microsoft releases MSE on September 30, 2009.
2009 Microsoft releases Windows 7 October 22, 2009.
2010 Apple introduces the iPad on January 27, 2010.

Transformation of a Werewolf

After the full moon rises:

1. He becomes sweaty, nautious and will feel deep shards of pain throughout the body.

2. The shoulders and spine will feel like they're breaking apart! The shoulders will suddenly bulge out with a crunching sound and crippling pain as the bones and muscles start to expand.

3. The spine will start to grow out and become increasingly visible as the back grows out and becomes larger. The spine will become so large that the person who is experiencing this pain will start to resemble the shape of a dog. The neck will be now longer visible and all that you will be able to see is the spine snd the huge broad shoulders.

4. Thick chunks of hair will start to spout out all over the persons body. Originating from the head, stomach and arm pits and like a virus it was start to spread all over the body. The person is no longer classed as human.

5. The shoulder muscles will continue to swell up with new found muscle and will be so big that they will rest just below the ears. Giving the human a look of a grizzly bear.

6. The biceps and triceps expand and grow enormous. The forearms are also now as thick as tree trunks.

- By now the pain this person will be going through is unimaginable and excruciating beyond all recoginition.

7. The legs expand in length and the feet bones will break into place. The legs are now more curved and are by far longer and also more muscular. The toes now emulate paws and they will look like they beast is walking on tip toes. This will help them run faster for the hunt. The shape and muscle mass of the legs will also help support the heavy weight of the muscular feind.

8. The eyebrow ridges and forehead will bulge out. Then the nose will lose shape and will form the shape of a snout as it extends out of the face. The skull's shape deforms and in crunches into the shape of a wolf.

9. The biceps, back, arms and shoulders take one more implosion and grow out a tiny bit.

10. The teeth and claws extend and extrude from the person to make sharp, deathly daggers glistening in the moonlight.

11. He blinks for a second. When he opens, his eyes are a deep shade of a vainy yellow. with scarlet pupils.

12. What was once a man, is now a beast.

Walk Cycles

What is a Walk Cycle?
- In animation, a walk cycle is a sequence of frames representing a (usually human) walk movement. Walk cycles are important, because when a walking ...

Components of a Walk Cycle:

Arcs of movement – not straight lines
Arms counterbalance legs
Contact – feet at furthest extensions
Recoil - character impacts ground. Lowest position. Arms furthest out. Front foot fully in contact with ground; back foot has just lifted up.
Passing Position - body is higher, leg is straight
High Point – highest position. Character's body stretched to the maximum. Leading foot goes out, back foot heel just starting to leave the ground.
Walk Cycle vs. walk across - keep character static, move background - body does not move forward from center line, only feet slide back.

Variations – Adding Personality To Your Walk

* Double Bounce Walk - traditional Disney Mickey Mouse walk - down on contact and passing, up on inbetweens. Try the opposite too!
* Subtleties – hips, shoulders, head, feet, etc. And Timing!
* Leading with different body parts suggests personality traits - Examples
* Walk variations – Shuffle, Sneak, Strut…


Here's an good site which goes into great detail about the different aspects and things related to walk cycles:
http://www.anticz.com/Walks.htm

Why we need to use 24 frames for a second in animation

In video technology, 24p refers to a video format that operates at 24 frames per second (or typically, 23.976frame/s when using equipment based around NTSC frame rates) frame rate with progressive scanning (not interlaced). Originally, 24p was used in the non-linear editing of film-originated material. Today, 24p formats are being increasingly used for aesthetic reasons in image acquisition, delivering film-like motion characteristics. Some vendors advertise 24p products as a cheaper alternative to film acquisition.
When working entirely within the digital non-linear domain, 24p material is as easily handled as material at any other frame rate. However, 24p material requires care when it is processed using equipment designed for standard video frame rates.
There are two common workflows for processing 24p material using video equipment, one using PAL frame rates, and the other using NTSC frame rates. Of these two, the PAL route is the simpler, but each has its own complications.

Donald and Doofy

It freaks me out how easy to draw they are and how incredibly basic they are but they're some of the best drawings in the world. They're awesome. It just goes to show that sometimes the better things are a lot more simple and require a lot less effort. In turn, they don't go overboard.

Instructions to create a simple storyboard

Basic but helpful video if you're starting from scratch.

How To Draw and Color Character in Storyboard Comics

http://www.howcast.com/videos/172991-How-To-Draw-and-Color-Character-in-Storyboard-Comics

Nice little video showing how to create a storyboard character step-by-step.

Bladerunner Storyboard

A section of Ridley Scott’s storyboard sketches for Bladerunner, demonstrating once again his flair for drawing and his passion for details. These dystopian scenes in particular – Deckards visit to the Tyrell Corp HQ – were inspired by Ridley’s youth and memories of the night-time vista of oil refineries and steel mills, the fabric of 60’s industrial Teeside (North East England).

How a Storyboard is Made

A story-board for an animation movie is much the same for a feature film, excepting that the scenes suggest precisely the length of the movie for the particular scene. Each scene clearly depicts the characters, their placement in relation to the back ground, action, dialogues and camera movements. Such scenes are described as ‘slugged' and the entire story board indicates the total duration of the animation movie.
Placement or Location of Characters:

The camera is the eye of the viewer. Therefore, the characters are located in relation to the background and context of the story and the dialogue from the sound track.
Camera Movement:

The location of camera is indirectly suggestive of how the characters present themselves to the viewer. In order that the narration of the story is made effective, the camera is shifted from top angle to low angle, panned from east to west or north to south or vice versa or trucked in(zoom in) or trucked out(zoom out).
Action:

The narration of the story determines the action of the characters. Their gestures corresponding to the dialogues, their walk, or run or jump etc according to the situation denote the action of the characters.
Dialogues:

Recording of the dialogues or the sound track is the first step in animation. The scenes are divided according to the script of the story. The approximate length of the movie is calculated based on the sound track and this forms the basis for the construction of the story-board.
Example:

Let us assume,
we are animating the most popular nursery rhyme,

"Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky".


The rhyme's duration is about 15 seconds.
A story-board can be prepared for an animation work that lasts 15 seconds.

Here is how the scenes can be slugged.

Scene #1



Scene #2


Scene #2a



Scene #3



Scene #4



Scene #4a