UVA vs VA TECH Battle Bowl Animation

Here is another animation that I worked up for our company's Rivalry Week Sale for the Commonwealth Cup. I primarily used Cheetah 3d for modeling and rendering. Final finishing work was mainly done with Photoshop. Another huge learning experience. There were so many curve balls thrown at me, I was not sure it would get done in time. Just had to find solutions and put in tons of work to get it done. Sounds were made primarily from free sound effects with adjustments and enhancements in Audacity. Another learning experience in a quick amount of time. Normally I would have used Final Cut Pro to piece it all together, but I had to do with what I had at the time and make it work. iMovie did the job. Gotta make it work to make the deadline.

Animation was made for Rivalry Week Special 20% off Virginia Tech & UVA Big Sport Party Bowls! You can see a much better quality version of the video at the link below.

http://bigsportgifts.com/pages/20-off...

Check out http://bigsportgifts.com/ for other schools too.

Callaway Gardens Butterflies Illustrations

This was a series of digital illustrations for Callaway Gardens in 2002. They were done as porcelain magnets and ornaments. The main challenge for this project was in achieving the desired through decals. All of the butterflies were approximately 3 inches or smaller. Very fun series to work on. The butterflies for this series were of the Adonis, Blue Morpho, Doris Longwing, Emerald Longwing, Lacewing, Monarch, and Swallowtail.

Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination 2014

This was a digital illustration for the 2014 Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination. It was used across a grouping of objects including a porcelain mug, ornament, and tote bag. This year the main theme was the Capitol Building. I had never been to the Grand Illumination, so I decided to go this year to take pictures. It was quite an experience. Very cold but very fun. I can see why this is a tradition for so many. If you have not been, keep it in mind near the beginning of December.

Texas Jakes Lenticular Postcard

This was an animated lenticular postcard I conceptualized and rendered for Texas Jakes located at the Stockyards Station in Fort Worth Texas. Flashing neon, bucking bronco, dangling spurs, Fort Worth Herd cattle drive, and more cowbell! This was a fun one to work on. If you would like a custom lenticular image you can find out more at Design Masters.

2013 Biltmore Estate Annual Ornament

This was a rendering of an 2013 annual ornament concept for the Biltmore Estate. It initially started out as a pencil sketching on vellum and then I brought it into the computer and completed the rendering in photoshop. This rendering process has evolved over 13 years and continues to be refined. The challenge is always to give the closest impression to the final product, whatever the material may be. If you happen to be visiting or staying on the grounds, this ornament as well as the current years annual ornament can be purchased in their gift shops. They also can be purchased online at shop.biltmore.com.

This was another rough illustration concept for a White House Ornament. It was done with a combination of traditional and digital illustration. Certain liberties were taken for the sake of creating an image that would work within a specific form. Decor was based upon a lot  of historic research. The fake mat framing was purely for presentation purposes. These type of roughs are enjoyable to work on. Even more so if and when they go to final. Even in digital illustration, the process can take quite a time. The ability to go tweak, move and adjust perpetually is one of the biggest advantages of working in the computer. 

Make-A-Wish Foundation Annual Reports

While working at CommuniQué Marketing I was offered the chance to do some pro bono work for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Periodically one of the designers would layout the foundation's annual report. For the years 1999 and 2000 I was fortunate to work with the foundation in designing their annual report. The images above are scans of the actual covers. I remember these projects well, as these were the first multi-page layout design projects that I took from start to finish. While it helped the foundation it also helped me gain a better understanding of laying out multi-page documents as well as seeing it all the way through to final press run.

Digital "Pencil" Portraits

I noticed today that this would be my 100th post for this blog. I have posted here and there since 2006. The first post I made was regarding a computer pencil technique I was working on. 4 years later, I ending up figuring out a method I liked that married the technique that I was doing along with another tutorial I had stumbled across. The first time I enacted this technique was for an anniversary present for my wife. They were of the top 3 portraits of our boys. The images were done and framed as a grouping. Those portraits drew interest from her co-workers and friends and eventually I ended up doing several more. 

The Getty Villa Acanthus Rosette Magnet

Here is another project I worked on at Design Masters. It was a sculpted magnet based on a ceiling rosette. The top image shows the packaging from the concept. It was not fully fleshed out at that point and during final art we moved in a slightly different direction while still keeping a similar feel. The magnets were carded so that they could hang on pegs.

George Washington's Fan Chair Ornament

This is one of the first packaging illustrations and packaging layouts I did for Design Masters. The ornament was a 24kt Gold Finish representation of George Washington's Fan Chair. This started out on vellum. For George and the chair I used ink. Coloring was all done in the computer. This was around the very early 2000s and I remember being amazed at construction of the ornament. At that point I had no knowledge of how to make one of these. Making these type of ornaments present their own set of challenges but really shine when done right.

CWF Emoticon Dog Tag Necklace

At Design Masters, we are constantly reinventing ourselves, coming up with new imagery and products. This dog tag necklace is a part of our Q3 line, a semi-custom product grouping offering High Quality, Low Quantities, and Quick Delivery. Shown on this one is a design I worked up based on text emoticons. 

Gateway Arch Painted Image

This is the LONGEST post I have done yet. This was a picture that I created for the Gateway Arch. This was all digital involving both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The long image shows how the image started and evolved to the final image which is shown below the long image. At first I wanted to do something that looked like a travel poster. During that process I worked up another version that was received better. Soon I was working on versions where the angle of the arch changed, colors changed, positioning of elements changed. It was truly a collaborative process. In the end it was used across several products. 

Purchase of the products can be found at the JNPA giftshop. One of the products using the final image can be purchased here Arch Skyline Ornament. Other products can be found through their online gift shop shop.jnpa.com. Puchases made help provide educational programming, exhibits and site improvements to JNPA partner locations.

Steam Yacht Medea - Maritime Museum of San Diego

This was another part of a huge compilation of illustrations that our company generated. This illustration was of the Steam Yacht Medea along with the Berkeley that was on the previous post. This one was done in the same fashion and utilized some similar features and techniques to maintain the series.

More information on this boat can be found at Steam Yacht Medea. Again if you find yourself in San Diego stop by and check out the museum and giftshop. Maritime Museum of San Diego

Steam Ferry Berkeley - Maritime Museum of San Diego

This was a part of a huge compilation of illustrations that our company generated. This illustration of the Steam Ferry Boat Berkeley along with the Medea were digital illustrations that I created for the program. It started as a straight vector illustration. After the vector scene was done, I pulled it into photoshop to add filters and finishing touches. The inspiration for this was heavy on art deco and slight influences from vintage postcards. This whole series was very fun to work on especially this one and the Medea as they allowed me to do a full illustration from start to finish. The close up shot shows some of the detail and finishing effects that I used. The images were used on several products including as mugs and coasters.

More information on this boat can be found at Steam Ferry Boat Berkeley. **Update** It looks like product is on the website now. If you find yourself in San Diego stop by and check out the museum and giftshop. Maritime Museum of San Diego

White House · Warren Harding and Laddie Boy

This was a rough digital illustration concept for one of the ornament designs we submitted. Partially sketched in pieces, scanned in, and digitally finished. If it had been chosen it would have been worked on to completion. Still at this stage, it had begun to take a on a nice feeling and I was starting to map out how I was going to finalize it.

Cast Iron Key

This is another 3d model I made in a totally different program. A colleague had pointed me in the direction of a program called 123D Design. After digging around in it, I decided to use it for a project we are involved with at work. It was my first time working in this program and some methods were similar to other 3d programs but the overall method of building was very different from what I was used to. I learned a lot just trying to make this not so simple key and in the end I was pretty darn happy with the result.

2014 Texas State Capitol Ornament

The 2014 Texas State Capitol Ornament. This is an ornament that our company worked on. It was chosen out of at least 9 designs proposed. This one in particular was a design that I had worked up during the presentation phase. As with most ornaments we do at Design Masters, once a design is chosen, it is truly a team effort to bring the end product to life. The ornament really is stunning and the packaging just sets it off. At the top of this post is a rendering I did for how the end ornament would look. This is done with my "patented" bling action, additional digital illustration, and doowahs. The next image is a photo of the final lid. The interplay from the multiple foils really looks great. Below the lid is a movie of the ornament based on my very first rough rendering. I was toying with a new 3D program and wanted to see if I could build an ornament inside it. Since I was working on this ornament I used it as a test. It definitely took some time to do with the learning curve, but I was happy with the end result. Building in 3D is something I really would like to delve more into and whenever I can add a new skill, I take the chance. Overall this was a challenging and fun project to work on.  

Stop on by their gift shop and pick on up.    Texas State Capitol 2014 Ornament

Discovering The West • The Expedition Of Lewis And Clark

Thanks to the blog posts, I was contacted about a previous piece being used for an educational book cover. I took the opportunity to update the picture digitally for this purpose. I added a different hat and a better version of the pistol. I have only had a few pieces be repurposed but it is always interesting to see how they are used differently. Additionally, it was fun to get the book delivery months after I had forgotten about it. My sons were the most excited though. 

The books can be picked up at Capstone Publishing and Barnes And Noble.

Hampton Jazz Fest Poster

At one point I was called about doing a poster for the Hampton Jazz Fest. At first I was super excited about doing the piece. I was going to be illustrating several jazz greats on one piece. Then reality set in. Keep in mind this was during the days when you couldn't just punch up Google and find 500 pictures of the coliseum at night. For one, I had never been there and the art director sent me a black and white xerox of the place during the day. I wasn't extremely happy with it, but then a change came in. We had to replace the previous trumpeter with Chet Atkins. I can't really remember the reasoning, but it had to be done. Again, no problem current day, but this was paint on board. I ended up taking the top layer of a Strathmore Illustration board and illustrating Chet Atkins' face. I then cut it out and placed it on the painting. Well enough to fix it for reproduction purposes. Years later after I started working on the computer, I decided to pull it in and rough up how I thought it should have been. Of course, then I was able to find reference online. That made a huge difference. The original piece is on the top and the reworked piece is on the bottom. Even now, I still have mixed feelings about it and have the urge to keep tinkering with it.