Isometric Progress day 2

Actually the progress is pretty fast however I am doing a bit too much detailing while I don't have too, but its mostly my style how to make things so I don't have to go back and edit and am sure I got it correct in one go. I actually think I can get this finish within just few days, however need to add the back and other side blueprint. Just a simple outline and not as detailed with all the screens and icons just to give me enough informations the make the eyepiece and the grip.

Progress of Isometric Illustration

A while ago I said I would start on a isometric illustration on the Canon EOS 500D, so here is the progress. I took a break from everything to do my own stuff for a change and started on this. The blueprint took allot of time but what is inside I took an afternoon to make. However I had bit of struggle with the top part of the camera where the build in flash is. However it looks like an easy shape but I have a crazy amount of guide shapes to be able to build that part. However there are more hard to make shapes in this camera. Not sure if I would give the rubber it leather texture cause that would use quite some hours to make. However when I finish this illustration will explain how to make this. Really have to give respect to people who does this for their work especially its much harder to make when it has to be perfect in scale and follow a blueprint then if you have to draw it by hand and use your eyes for measure. However I don't own the 500D anymore but am proud owner of the 550D which actually can see allot of difference in the body and build. But hope to finish this within a week time especially making this to see how much time I would need to make such an illustration.

Tech News / Canon 60D

Newest DSLR to the CANON EOS line the 60D, from rumors from begin of the year we knew it was coming with a swivel screen. However it sits new between the Professional 7D and the semi Pro 550D. The new EOS 60d which is the replacement of the old EOS 50D will cost in Europe around 1149 Euro. View sample pictures and videos of this new camera here.

Features

• 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• Advanced creative features
• Vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 ratio LCD
• Full HD movies
• DIGIC 4
• ISO 100-6400, H:12800
• 5.3fps shooting for up to 58 JPEGs
• 9-point cross type AF System
• iFCL metering with 63-zone Dual-layer Sensor

However have to say the features are less than the 7D which have 8fps and 19 points cross type AF. It seem to be a more of an upgrade 550D than 50D, cause the old 50D had 6.3 fps however its seem to be a trend to make the xxD series slower cause the 40D had 6.5fps. Also have to say that this camera have gone from pro to a more semipro/ amateur range but yet it cost more.

Special features they added are filter which are not picture styles but special filters to get the old 35mm film grain and fake tiltshift which they call toy look. And instead of Compact Flash its will use SD/SDHC/SDXC, with SDXC you can able to have much larger storage and faster speeds than with CF which also is a feature in 550D.

However owning a 550D the new features does not make me want to upgrade to the 60D yet. The thing is that its just a mix of 7D ad 550D features and specs with added swivel screen. Yet the screen is not enough to say I want to change to this camera. I think people would pay few hundreds extra and buy the 7d with a much faster spec for Photography, while cinematographers might buy the 60D for it swivel screen meaning not having to add an extra monitor to the camera. Yet most beginning film makers who don't need it would use 550d. However a tip is around the horizon are still few new camera's coming from Canon and especially need to see what the 2000D brings us.

Inspired / Kodachrome

As we know Kodachrome has been stopped in production and the last roll that was tracked by National Geographic and shot. However Kodachrome with it long history of great looks and used for film in both still and motion, but technology always have to go forward and Digital Photography and now also motion pictures have replaced old film. Here above you can see the ABC news about the end of Kodachrome and you can find allot of information about Kodachrome on Wikipidea. However Kodak released test videos of Kodachrome made in 1922, which is 13 years before they places Kodachrome on the market.

However if you want to achieve a the style or feelings of Kodachrome if you own a CANON EOS camera, you now download the Kodachrome picturestyle here. You can simulate the Kodachrome style with this picturestyle and use it as a picturestyle to shoot pictures or film movies with it.

Credits to Kodak for uploading the test movie, ABC news report about Kodachrome and Cinema5D for the picture style.

Inspired / DSLR Abuse

Here is a video by DigitalRev showing how rugged the Basic DSLR are. I though when Kai was walking on them they would died right away. But actually the Canon screen was still working and in the end the Canon was not really that much destroyed compared to the Nikon.

However still advice not to do this with your DSLR. However they are pretty rugged as seen in the vid, but still its better to be safe than sorry. Especially with the lenses.

Credits to DigitalRev for the vid wath more of their vids on their youtube page.

Robot callers!!! Be Warned!!!

I have encountered this few time they sound actually like someone calling you but also not. How they talk and question is in a really smart manner while are kind more intimidating to say something and would just answer their questions. However mainly to the end when they are asking too much info than you would know its a fake especially if they do not answer a question and re-ask a question. Especially they want your address and more.

Just a minute ago I got such a call, however smart as they did they added environment sound to it. However the environment sound only last when the person talks and when they stop you can hear that it is suddenly silenced. Be careful not to give detail over the phone someone now they have placed computers with voice recognitions to call random numbers and what you say they would recognize and in a smart way reply and ask questions. Especially most of them are schemes to get your bank info and address like most SPAM mails.

When the calls sound very computer like and an organizations that calls want just bit too much information, just hang up. Pretty awful tech cause now your phone that is personal is also hard to hear if the person you are talking to is real or not. You can only trust that when you call someone its real and not when someone calls you.

Tech news/ Translucent mirror DSLR

Sony announced their new DSLR line with new tech which is a Translucent Mirror making it possible to have faster burst cause the mirror of the camera does not move. However I know few things about translucent mirrors which mirrors on one side where there is light while on the darker side you could see what is on the lighter side. As there is no light it will not reflect anything and therefore it is transparent. However the materials for it is not that new as seen at most police officer in the interrogation room where people can't the people behind the big mirror. However a problem with this is that the lost of light and actually the new Sony does lack shutter speed and need to compromise using higher iso to get the same result as other camera's. The technology is cool but wish further development of these mirrors could improve future DSLRs. As the DSLR tech race is still on a crazy speed development race.

Credit to pocketlint for the video of Sony Alpha A33 and A55 promo video.

Inspired / Cinema Caravan tips

Here are few vids from Cinema Caravan with few tips about lenses, hope you find them useful. Especially great to know which lenses to get or which ones to use for which purposes.

get to know your lenses // the canon cinema caravan from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Tips about filming wedding which lenses to use for which situation.

stillmotion's guide to lenses for weddings and events // a cinema caravan tutorial from stillmotion on Vimeo.
check out our blog for the road trip here:
http://canoncaravan.stillmotionblog.com/

Video about using Tiltshift lenses and how to use them.

the tilt/shift lenses demystified. brought to you by canon live learning from stillmotion on Vimeo.

And a video with tips about recording audio with Canon DSLR's.

introduction to audio with DSLRs from stillmotion on Vimeo.

check out www.cusa.canon.com/cinemacaravan for more info or http://canoncaravan.stillmotionblog.com/ for a detailed course outline and updates all along our trip.

Bottom of my espresso cup!

After drinking my double shot espresso today and left is for a while, I wondered if anything special would show on the bottom, when I looked I was pretty surprised. Its quite a humanlike figure with a head, 2 eyes, body and one arm holding something up(kinda looks like its holding a starbucks cup).

However I know there is such a thing as Coffee reading which predicts the future, but what would this figure mean? Death by coffee cup? However its a pretty interesting thing to see and next time I finish a cup of coffee I'll see if any of interesting shapes might pop up.

The Loft at Laguna Beach / Available

This is an entry for a contest for the Lofts at Laguna beach. However I have to say I did a much different approach to the logo than the rest of the entries, who mainly aimed a bit too much on the sunny beach of Laguna Beach instead of showing a The Lofts which is actually a high class kind of hotel. The most other entries I saw were a bit more like sunny vacation logo instead of showing class, so I made a fancy high class logo.

The logo consist of a T and L close to each other while also being an Ambigram which you can turn 180 degrees and still see the same shape. However the other thing is that the TL also look like a Z and did this cause mostly people sleeps at the Lofts and ZZZ.

This design in available and if there is any interest in this logo please contact us.

Protecs

Protecs logo is based on a shell of a sea creature called the Nautilus which is a kind of octopus with a shell. Protecs is a house renovation company and they wanted an abstract logo, so I made this cause a shell is a house of a see creature and protecs which is a short for pro techs, however in my mind sounded more like protects. Which the shell is both the home of the creature but also protects it. However also the shape of the shell is shaped in kind of P shape which is the initial of Protecs. However this logo pitch still has not chosen a winner yet so it not available.

Aero Coating / Available

Aero Coating is a logo for specifically an airplane painting company. The illustration shows several layers of a plane showing different layers of coatings or a kind of explode view of a plane.
This design in available and if there is any interest in this logo please contact us.

Hope by Design / Available

This is an entry for HOPE by DESIGN a company whole renovates homes for people who had a tough time to make them happy again. My logo concept shows a Heart and a house however you can also see the heart as a cloud next to the house. Its a simple clean logo about a lovely or loving home.

However I did not won the contest, so this design in available and if there is any interest in this logo please contact us.

Valentino Rossi to Ducati!

I am a big fan of Valentino Rossi as I also made allot of Game textures for different games like GP500 mods and Milestone Capcoms Motogp. Here above is a concept I put together really fast how the Valentino Rossi bike might look like, as Fiat would follow the steps of Rossi and also allot of the Crew will be coming from Yamaha to Ducati as he has officially signed a 2 years contract with Ducati. Rossi would be riding a full Italian package with Italian rider, bike and sponsors. His new team mate will be his ex team mate from the Repsol Honda years Nicky Hayden.

However Rossi wont be Champion this year cause of missing allot of races due to the breaking his leg. However he is back and racing but still is recovering and probably see Jorge Lorenzo becoming the new Motogp champion this year.

However Rossi going to Ducati is very exiting as Ducati is well known for High speeds which the Yamaha lacks, while Rossi had to develop the Yamaha into a great racing machine with superb handling. Hope Rossi can develop the Ducati into a superb racing machine which has high top speed plus superb handling!

Timelapse Sunset on Friday 13th August 2010

Yesterday on August friday 13th took pictures make a time lapse of the sunset however a the end I also saw the moon setting. I also tried out different ways to do the time lapse first I did not use the times and directly shot the view with few seconds between if but you could see its very shaky and also had the setting on aperture priority and could see some images were darker than the next one cause it measured the lights. However the shakiness plus light dark made it looks kind of like and old film.

In the middle you would see the shake becoming less, that is where I used timer of 2 second after I press the button however it is still shaky. And last used 10 second timer and you can also see there is more speed in the movements cause of more time between the shots also used full manual setting so you would able see the sky becoming darker and darker.

The camera that was used was Canon EOS 550D with Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kitlens and Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 for the zoom in shots.

Flipdisk Packaging concept

Here I am proudly to present a new CD packaging by Chung Dha the Flipdisk. The new CD packaging special feature is that the CD flips toward the side or bottom while opening the packaging, so it easier to remove the CD from the packaging. It also leaves an open space for an artistic use or information that can be added in the packaging.

During my research I found that many cardboard CD packagings have certain faults which I tried to use as my advantage for new ideas for a new packaging. Problem solving is of course the best way to find new designs and to improve the existing ones. Standard cardboard CD sleeves are quite hard to get the CD out mainly cause while opening it you also make the opening smaller, giving you a hard time to get it out. The pochup a rare packaging, which actually does not stay flat or pop up on it own which is it biggest weak point ( it actually uses an elastic band to pop up). Pop beak which is an interesting design have a flaw that when you open it vertically the CD would easily fall out. I also have another research about the users of cardboard packagings. Which came as a surprise that allot of Musicians and especially starting band still use cardboard packagings. The other users were magazines, B2B campaigns and students. However for movies and games there are not that much used unless it comes with crazy pop up to make the packaging more interesting.

Here above are the sketches and the simple research of packaging designs, as you can see I came to a fast concept and conclusion of a packaging which did all the things in the ideas. The sketches of how it folds and how it moves might looks quite difficult but if you look at the template it is quite a simple small template. If you want to see the prototype and how it moves watch the video below.

The packaging used in this video and the photos actually did not made any use of glue, which make them very eco friendly but a bit hard to produce cause it might need either a handy machine or hands to put it together. For a more effective production there is also a version which does use glue in the design. However I wont be giving this template away for free, if there are any interest for this packaging please contact me on the contact page.

More pictures for you to enjoy:

Inspired Design story the Decanter

Landor is one of the biggest international packaging design company in the world having offices everywhere around the globe. If I had stayed longer at school I might had chosen it as an option for my internship. However I found this intersting video of the Landor Associates which shows the whole process of a packaging design of a wine bottle from begin till the end.

Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.

Its quite interesting to see all the aspects and different skills needed to do a packaging design of a bottle. Skills in drawing, 3d modelling or prototyping and testing. We could see the old way of how people draw using special curved rulers and for me the most interesting part is seeing the process of prototyping. Hope to be able to see more inspiring videos from them on their vimeo channel in the future. Visit their Vimeo channel here.

Credits to: Landor Associates