New Student Work

I'll start this off by some new Interactive Media student work; this is an After Effects animation created as an opening for a Documentary (By Clint Galea, Matthew Vella and Therese Briffa) More to come...

This is one more experiment I am conducting in After Effects using Inverted Water Colour and simple 3D layers...

Below is another manipulated water colour semi-abstract jelly fish for deep house record label battibatti

As you might have noticed I am currently in love with water colour. It can offer so much flexibility especially when digitised. On a side note, water colour was actually my least favourite medium to use when I was a student. I guess once you grasp the delicate nature of water colour (as my friend Ruth put it) you can start exploiting it in any way you like.

Principles of Editing

Here's a research project by an Extended Diploma in Creative Media Student, Christ Scicluna. The task was simply to create a vlog which includes Editing principles, purposes and history. Might post others soon, but this one caught my attention mostly because of the creative intro and the general structure of the vlog.

Graffiti Collab

Hey y'all, I know I promised a review (that I am still working on, since I got a lot to choose from specifically), however as you all know well by now *coughmoiracough* I've been having a lot of graffiti trips.

Here is the latest one done however; a collaboration with Iella (Daniela) and myself on a random wall. Done in Skatepark today.

Enjoy! (back to my assignments now...)

Step x step Process

Digital painting a creature portrait - step by step process. My usual process for a digital painting (not the only one tho). Hope you'll find it helpful.




Peace!

MyBlog
My Portfolio

So you want to build a website?

Of course you do, everyone wants to make their own website, and if you already have it - you probably need to update it no? ;) I for one have designed multiple websites for my works but they always halt at the Photoshop stage. Hey one day I will have a website and it will be awesome, but before I do I will have to go over some links I have kept in my bookmark folder for inspiration and assistance; Have a look:

What Beautiful HTML looks like

35 tutorials from Creating Website Layouts in Photoshop

Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch

Make your Website Search Engine Friendly

8 Web Design Cliches of 2006

12 Useful Web Tools for Designers

40 Super Sleek Fonts for Clean Web Design

Movie Website Designs

Layout Gala - A Collection of 40 CSS Layouts

Build a Quick Website using Wix

If you want to see more of these posts, leave a comment with suggestions :) Also feel free to add to the list!

Student Work - Graphic Design

Here are some Graphic Design Student Works from this Semester. Click the name of the student in the captions to view more of their work. More to come!

Adrian Gauci

Adrian Gauci

This work is from last year - Adrian Gauci

Andrea Meli

Andrea Meli

Andrea Meli

Elaine Saliba

Luca Cauchi

Luca Cauchi

Melanie Grech

Melanie Grech

Student Work

So as mentioned in earlier posts I will be putting some Student Works here on Electronic Sketchbook :)
This first one is a 3D test for a 30 second animation by Jeremy Azzopardi (Interactive Media).


Short Stop Motion experiment by Clint Galea (Interactive Media)

More updates

You'll find a new Blogroll on your right navigation; these are blogs by the BA Graphics students who have me as their tutor. I thought I'd share their developments as they are all doing some pretty interesting projects and it would be good to follow their literature reviews and evolution of their projects. In other news, we'll soon be getting a new author this time from the 1st year Interactive Media class :)

Updates!

As I've mentioned in a comment on the latest post by A-T, in the coming weeks I wish to start sharing student works on Electronic Sketchbook. I also wish to share blogs of degree students who are all undertaking projects which you might find interesting :) 

I'm also going to take the time to share with you my current sketchbook work for my MA. I'm working on creating an interactive space formed by traditional and digital media. Right now I'm simply brainstorming by daily sketching and experimentation. The image above is one of my experiments; it is simply diluted watercolour and strands drawn in thin marker, then inverted in Photoshop.

Middle images are the original watercolour drawing

Super LLB

Well hey guys, I had a lot of stuff going on so sorry if I didn't manage to do some stuff yet. However in between flare spurs I had a commission to do as well; it was the logo of the Law Graduates this year, requesting a modified version of the S-Shield.

And this is it:

Enjoy! :)

Coming up next (very soon): Book Review no.3

The Art of Silence

Well I haven't been posting frequently to the blog mostly because I have been so busy with preparation for The Art of Silence an exhibition organised by the Front against Censorship, and which is currently being held at the GWU building in Valletta. I'm afraid you will have to go there yourself to see what's inside :)

Particles In After Effects

I would love to do an After Effects particle tutorial at the college however since most of the time the plugin Trapcode is involved, it would be a bit frustrating for all you students who don't have the plugin. For those who are interested, here's a really good tutorial on how you can create your own particles using Trapcode Particular (it also uses Starglow, another Plugin by Trapcode). View more of Graham's tutorials on TutorialClarity his channel on youtube.

Ten Lies You’ll Hear Before Pursuing Your Dream

I'm currently preparing for my first symposium presentation for my Masters so excuse the lack of posts, but here's something which you might enjoy.

New Paint over by Iella, who's next?

It's turning into something very... Japanese don't you think? :)

I have PSD!

I Have PSD from Hyperakt on Vimeo.

Updates!

Hey guys just some quick updates,

First of all, Daniela Attard (a.k.a Iella) has agreed to do the third paint-over, so that will be interesting to see how it's going to turn up!

Second, I have started my Masters in Digital Arts last week (finally). I'm researching and producing an interactive audiovisual online space. My Masters blog can be viewed here however I will still be posting some collages and experiments that I'm doing for my MA on Electronic Sketchbook!

Finally, on the 16th of November I will be exhibiting with Ruth Ancilleri and a bunch of other talented artists for an exhibition held by the Front Against Censorship. I'm really excited about the collaboration Ms Ancilleri and I are doing, especially since it's going to be something in 3D (actual 3D not digital) rather than just an illustration.

That's it for now, will keep you posted with new stuff and new projects!
Btw have you see the new MacBook Air? What do you think?

The Super 8 and Reel-to-reel

Sometime in May I had posted a tutorial on how to create a Super 8mm film effect in After Effects, today I want to share with you some pictures that I took yesterday of a Super 8mm film and a Reel-to-reel tape. I didn't even know I had them, until my mum said their engagement was filmed on a Super 8 film, and their wedding on the reel-to-reel tape. Now they are both combined on a video tape which is on its way to become a DVD! Hah! Now if only I had someway of watching them :)

The Super 8mm

Reel-to-Reel Tape

Paint Overs Part 2

Well it looks like I'm not going to have time to do more on my paint over so I might as well post it here for someone else to carry on and refine the work.

I must say I found it quite difficult to paint over as I had to adapt to the style - perhaps next time I will try to use my own style, but for now I think it will do. The subject matter is also something I don't usually work with, I usually illustrate street, floral/psychedelic and quirky stuff so again this was a great challenge and something I haven't done for a long time - it was great to practice though and I'm looking forward to see what this will turn into.

So who's next? :)

The top one is the original and the bottom is what I have done so far:

As you can see the boy is still very much unfinished!

Download the layered psd from here

Paint Overs - Part 1

Members, I thought to start something hopefully interesting here. I was thinking of an exercise and some fun stuff for everyone over here. How about we make paint overs.....

I have posted a painting here which is at the very initial stage... Grab it, and feel free to tweak, add, render, and have fun (no wipe outs and starting from beginning though!). I want that all of you members put part of yourselves in it, and when its finished I will do the last changes to it - this way it would make a whole turn.

I recommend that we set up some sort of list with who'll be first, second etc to paint. This way we'll avoid any inconveniences.

Lets see where we'll end up with this one!


ps. since school started and maybe some are busy, I was thinking that every artist would have a whole week to work - this way s/he can take the required time.

Peace.

Luca

Maltese Knight

Hope you Electronic Sketchbook-ers are well, haven't seen any of your artworks lately here, so I decided to send one of my knights for you - he will bring you to my palace in no time and you'll have to give me a good reason why you haven't posted any art!

haha! Hope you like it. :)

No Maltese Cross Version

Peace.

Luca

Artistic Book Review no.2: Art and Fear

This was supposed to be published on August but Life ate up my time!

Art and Fear: Observations on the perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

By David Bayles & Ted Orland

ISBN: 978-0-9614547-3-9

Pages: 122 pages

Dimensions: 20.2cm x 13.9cm x 1.1cm

Price: Around 12 to 13 dollars

Personal Experience: You know being a booknerd such as myself, I have encountered far too many books about art and how to do this and that or books that will give you an in-sight about several aspects about this design and that art-piece. This is not one of them.

Many have praised this book and funnily enough, I never found one negative comment about it. Not even a zlitch, which made me curious for months until I got it lately in my hands. Not a fancy cover at all as if it is a reading book. Well to my surprise it IS a book to read it all from cover to cover. Literally. Let me just describe how much value this book has; this book does not sit on my shelves, this book sits on my bedside table.

Personal suggestion? If you can fetch it personally rather than waiting for the Library to fetch it for you will be much better because it is one of those books that will truly stay for life, no matter what artistic path you pick. An important piece of underground text, rarely heard of since it does not discuss some Mozart or Leonardo Da Vinci.

In a nutshell:

This book knows no age, no fixed occupation and no walks of life: it only knows the artist. As long as you're on the path of art-making this book is for you. The ONLY book you will really ever need to read from cover to cover; it's not long and even if you are inpatient in reading, a safe guarantee this will not be a waste of time. Other books are just trinkets no matter how big or informative they are. This book can be also classified as "philosophical" in a way, give or take. Don't get fooled though; this is no old Socrates philosophy, it's very much contemporary.

This piece of text targets areas such as: the outside world; how normal people see Art, how academic schools tackle Art, how a lecturer of Art can easily lose the time for art-making due to teaching art-making itself and so on. Even if you go beyond those feelings, what's the worth of making art? It also goes onto a personal level, such as the artists' fears, purposes, quality vs. quantity issue and so forth. As the book implies at the back of the cover in a good non-missable bold font: These are questions that matter.

Accompanied with good sarcastic humor, examples and thorough research from a hell lot of people the authors met and discussed the book's topics with, it will either be a huge boost of motivation if you are passionate in what you are doing or it will shoot your fleeting artistic muse down if you are taking your dedication for art too lightly. Do not expect this book to sugar-coat the world of art; on the contrary, this is a book packed with reality.

Bluntly put, this is the portal to the real world of Art & Design.

About the Authors:

David Bayles and Ted Orland are two artists that have written a number of books about art-making, but they are mostly known as being photographers.

Abigail Daker's Illustrations: Nemnem & The Giant

Oh WOW it's been a while!

While I was reading the 11th issue of "Digital Artist", I stumbled onto a very interesting article entitled "Successful Illustration: Leading illustrators share their best secrets with Poz Watson". However whilst reading the interest in previous writing dimished greatly as I laid my eyes on a particular paragraph:

"Abi Daker

Children's illustrator

www.abigaildaker.com

The relationship between children's illustrators and authors is really important. Based in Cyprus, Abi works with authors from all over the world and has to achieve the unity of purpose needed via email. "Some authors have very specific ideas about their characters, others are more interested in seeing what I visualise after reading their test," she says. But al the authors she's worked with have been helpful: "John Betts (who wrote Nemnem And The Giant) provided me with aerial photos of Malta and went to photograph one site so I could get the background right."

Digital Artist Issue 11th, page 36

With that being said, below is one of the three pictures shown on her website regarding such a project. Blogger is being a retard on picture sizing so here's a direct link for the rest: http://abidaker.com/2010/06/07/nemnem-the-giant/

Exclusive glimpse at Film Props

Pretty soon I will be posting some shots of drawings that my friend and colleague, Ruth Ancilleri designed as props for the film Agora when she worked as a junior drafts person. Very excited :)

After Effects Formats, Presets and Codecs

I've wasted a lot of time changing render settings in After Effects; here's hoping you won't! (First presented during Interactive Media Lecture - Animation Techniques)After Effects Formats and presets

View more presentations from Moira Zahra.

Jen Stark

You know how it happens, first you're on Digg looking at some article on the strongest colours in the world, then you're directed to colourlovers.com where you stumble upon an article on someone called "Jen Stark". So then I do a few googles and suddenly I'm in love with her work, check it out:

More 3D

This time from one of my ex-students, Daniel Spagnol.

And check out this water render

3D Food

So I'm not much of a 3D kinda person, in fact I have been fighting 3D for a long time. I used 3D Studio Max at MCAST, then Maya at UKC where I even went as far as to model a whole realistic looking character and painfully  creating a UV map for it! So now I got this Cinema 4D software which has so far been the easiest out of the 3 I have tested.

Have now had intense training thanks to my employers and I can now honestly say I love 3D. The great thing about 3D is that you can create abstract visuals and control lighting, shadows and cameras in such a flexible way. These can then be incorporated with other graphic elements such as posters and illustrations; gotta love mixed media. I might be posting some easy Cinema 4D tutorials here soon.

Here are a couple of my test newbie renders that I did during my training:

The Lonesome teacup with an expensive looking teabag

Terracotta biscuits? Yes please!

Cakes, tables, lathes, splines, architecture materials that look like food

Capsules and Arrays make beautiful Jello

Volumetric lighting, just can't get enough, and some cloth introduced

Global Illumination and Depth of Field.. and now the modelling is starting to look crappy :)

Anyone hungry yet?