Geonosis

So I have been quite absent with releasing new wallpapers and print pieces in 2010. In all honesty, after designing Afterburner: Commence in August of 2009, I kind of felt like I had to re-invent myself yet again to pursue a new degree and generation of digital illustration work that I display on my site. To quickly go over a history of the “reinvention” that I have done, back in 2006 I went through a designers block where I felt like my wallpaper and print design pieces have not evolved in the past 4 to 5 years. That disturbed me a lot and bothered me to a point where I significantly forced myself to acquire new Photoshop skills and the production of digital art pieces as a whole. After this initial reinvention, it resulted in quite successful pieces such as Trans Minimum: Kasha, Stridence, Eternus Somnium, Leviathan, and so on…

Of course I have had quite a success in the end of 2009 and 2010 with personal clients so that has been taking up a lot of my time. I also put together and released the film portion of Execution 4 //: The Mind Games Initiative, as well as my 3rd e-book: Hana. I have been far from dead in terms of producing work for Dream Infinity Studios, just have been slow with the result and releasing it out onto this website.

So, in the Winter of 2009, almost immediately after the release of “Nocturne Phoenix”, I went through yet another personal reinvention again to prepare myself to do a whole new direction and work flow of my digital illustration art work. After several months of hiatus in the wallpaper department, the day where you get to see my first piece of the result of new techniques and work flow comes live. I present to you Geonosis.

I also had a pleasure working with a photo piece from photographer, Jessica Truscott, who shot a quite awesome model shot included in Geonosis. You can visit her site here.

Get Geonosis wallpaper here: Geonosis Wallpaper
Super high resolution detail of Geonosis is here: Geonosis High Resolution

Note: Support for the following smart phones have been discontinued: Google G1, Instinct, Blackberry Curve/Tour, Storm.

Support for the following smart phones have been introduced and will continue to be supported: Droid, Droid X, Droid 2, iphone 3GS-, iphone 4, Sprint Evo 4G.

Edit: Geonosis Source .PSD file is now available.

Advanced make up effects. Before and after shot.

A new tutorial has been posted in the Photoshop tutorial section of this site. This mega tutorial covers a load of things from eye shadow application, eye shadow glitter application, lipstick application, lip gloss, eye liner, hair dye, blush, adjustment layer control, and various filter uses. It is a good idea to have solid knowledge of how layers work, how blending modes work and how to implement adjustment layers. Created for CS5 interface but any previous version users should not have too much of a problem following the tutorial.

Click here for the read.

P.S Something titled “Geonosis” is coming soon.

It’s been a long time since I posted here, but I felt this was the right type of post to do a comeback with: A mixtape.

This mixtape is a blend between post-rock and electronica. If you fall asleep easily, don’t put this on right away. If you have a hard time falling asleep, put this on right now. In my mind this mixtape is good for three things: Just sitting down reading something nice, sending you off to dreamland or having it going in the background when you’re working that creative juice.

The name aspires from all of those three. Because if you’re reading, dreaming or being creative you often are in a place (in your head anyhow) that is far away. It was inspired by a concert experience of a lifetime and a certain laidback person with a positive outlook on life. It was released on polarbearsinthestreet.com. Oh, and the cover photography is an earlier series I did this spring.

Now I don’t wanna be a nagging “parent” here, but; If you like these artists please support them. Go to their show, buy their cd, get their merch or all at once. Because they do deserve it. Times infinity.

Tracklist:
Explosions in the Sky – First Breath After Coma
Four Tet – Circling
The xx – Night Time
Ulrich Schnauss – Monday Paracetamol
The Sight Below – Through the Gaps in the Land
Benn Jordan – II
Akira Kosemura – Little Dipper
Memoryhouse – To the Lighthouse
Tycho – Dictaphone’s Lament
Phillip Dickau – Whyte Avenue

- DOWNLOAD -

Anyways, there is an film that is coming out from Darren that I have known about since 2 months ago and it made a debut online yesterday. The film titled “Black Swan” is scheduled to hit theaters on December 1st. I definitely need to check this out with some stunning performances by Mila Kunis from “That 70’s Show”. I don’t need to say much about Natalie Portman since she’s always done some amazing performances.

Apple Trailers: Black Swan

I am not much of a rap / r&b fan but Eminem has been someone that inspired me for quite sometime (ever since his Eminem show record). I tend to lean towards musicians that have inspirational lyrics and are not afraid to show emotions. His new song “Love the Way You Lie” with Rihanna just blew me away recently. This new video gave me the chills. Please check it out below:

Love Drawn Dagger however is in kind of a “beta” phase. The phase titled “First Motion” is the raw live footage of the film without much special effects. The 2nd and final phase “Final Motion” is scheduled to be available sometime in 2011. The website for execution 4 will also change according to time. The project as a whole will feature the film, web presentation, and couple print designs including wallpapers and more. The whole package will explain the story line of a girl who steps beyond the boundary of betrayal and hate from unconditional love and devotion. The package as a whole is something I call “multi-medium design project”, where many different uses of media is used to convey a story.

The execution is fully titled “The Mind Games Initiative” and the title itself should start making sense as the Execution 4 grows and morphs into a big project. Much much thanks to the fans who have continuously waited for the project to surface, and I definitely am excited to release this portion of the project. This is also a pretty historic day for dreaminfinity.com, as it is the 1st execution to be released in nearly 7 years. If you are curious about what “execution series” is for this website, please check out the page and click on the “about the film” link. Thank you very much!

Click here to view the website / film!
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Site note: The Illustrator tutorial “Using Artboards” has been updated for version CS4 and CS5.

I know I have been really slow on website updates lately. Unfortunately I don’t have much of an excuse except for the fact that I am swarmed with freelance projects at the moment. I have some pretty high end clients on my list right now and that takes up a lot of my free time to do anything for this site. As much as I wanted to release many things in the first quarter to second quarter of 2010, I don’t really see that happening as of right now. However it is important to note that is not forgotten. Outside of wallpapers and tutorial updates, I have some notable things in plan for release within this year and the next.

I know that I have been talking and advertising my next electronic book for a while now. As a matter of fact, the first advertisement for “Hana” went up in Winter of 2008 and unfortunately it still hasn’t seen the light of day yet. “Hana” is very well into production, however, the art direction of it changed many times and now it is a matter of finding time to get it put together. Although it is quite finished in terms of the written portion of the project, I am being a bit picky with the design of it. I am hoping to release “Hana” by the end of this summer.

The highlighted point of this post is my next execution, which has changed several times during the past 5 years. Although there has been many announcements on which execution will be next under Dream Infinity Studios, I am quite certain that my romance short motion graphics film “Love Drawn Dagger” will be indeed the next execution. (NOTE: The film has gone a name change over the years and has gone from “Destroy All Love Kind” to “Love Drawn Dagger”) It has become to a point where my faithful readers and fans of this website has forgotten about the project since it has not surfaced in matter of years, but I have not forgotten about the project. One thing I have noticed is that how outdated the video format is, how outdated the technology shown in the film is, and it really needs to come out before it becomes too outdated for me to even release it. Unfortunately it was not shot in HD format. The original plan was for me to release the film, a web presentation, and a print design piece that ties in the story altogether. However from the scope and magnitude of the project, it is going to take a very long time for everything to come together. Now the plan has shifted in terms of release and I have decided that I will release it bit by bit, even if it means that I have to release just the original film cut of it (without any special effects or motion graphics). Another reason I have to do this is because the actor and actresses that starred in my film has expressed concern or notes that they may never see the project that was done with them in it. So to ease their concern a bit, I at least want to present the final edit of the film in its entirely very soon. I am not sure how I am going to deliver the project yet but it will be done nevertheless.

As some of you may know, my biggest inspiration of all time has been Nine Inch Nails. I cannot really mention how much this band has influenced my creativity, thought process, the zen and relaxation that I need from design once a while, and how it has broken some of the toughest designers block that I have suffered from.

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Nine Inch Nails the fragile was like the moment in my life where a lot of things has changed for me creatively. The raw energy and creative sound of this album thoroughly has broken my creative barrier once I started to listen to the album over and over. It was a great day for me in 1999 where not only the music was powerful, but the creative design and typography that followed the whole era made an amazing synergy that turned music into an art form. Although I don’t agree with everything David Carson (the designer behind the album packaging), his contribution to Trent Reznor’s musical masterpiece was absolutely fantastic in every way. Every image, typography, and layout signified and reflected what Nine Inch Nails is about.

Of course from the Fragile, music video’s followed, and although some of the video’s from The Fragile era I wasn’t to keen on, there were some interesting ones that came out of it. One of them was the music video for We’re In This Together.

And to follow up with some more creative video’s that have inspired me greatly, here is “The Perfect Drug” and “Closer” for your enjoyment. If you’ve never seen these video’s before, you have been living in a cave for a while. Worth a watch. (WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT FOR “CLOSER” VIDEO. PLEASE DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE UNDER 18)

Now of course I have liked several other categories in music. I am not going to start spamming bunch of Nine Inch Nails video’s because there have been other music styles that I have appreciated and inspired greatly. In terms of music videos, I have always liked music videos that others will say negative things about. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but either way I cannot deny that I have liked it. One of them has to be a rock pop duo from Australia called “The Veronica’s”. When I saw their hit video called “4ever”, I really didn’t care much for the music. As a matter of fact, I disliked how poppy they were cause I was a bit anti-pop in those days. (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, etc. killed it for me). But I did enjoy the video due to its cheery cinematography and beautiful night shots. I am a bit surprised at how big they are in the states now, never imagined that to happen honestly. The video shoot is beautiful, plenty of eye candy.

Then of course we have some of the most classic rock music of all time. Music videos are not what they used to be, and it’s quite sad to see that part of creativity disappear from television. Some good video’s I have loved in the past:

Speaking of Nine Inch Nails, mastermind Trent Reznor has started up a new band with his wife Mariqueen Mandig, who is known as the lead singer of an indie balled called “West Indian Girl”. She has officially left the band to start up the band “How To Destroy Angels” with Reznor. Their new video breaks the dull and boring music video’s that we see all over today. You can check it out below, it is worth a watch. The special effects are awesome.

I’ve been MIA for so long while finishing up my second year in law school, which sure took a lot of toll out of me. Been enjoying a week and a half off from school after my last final and have added more collections to my camera work. Other than that, there hasn’t been much change in my life. Facebook is basically taken over my life, since I find myself logging into that thing every 10 minutes. It’s become such a bad habit that I find it uncontrollable…. I’ll try to find more interesting things to discuss on this blog since my mind isn’t functioning right at this very moment…

If you’re like me you’re reading tons of blogs and news sites and sometimes you just have a heard time keeping track of it all. Now this might not be new to many, but there are different services letting you keep track of blogs and so on. For me Netvibes is the one. I was looking for that one service that made me able to keep track of all the blogs I read and without much hassle. As an example subscribing to an RSS feed or a newsletter ain’t doing it, it’s too much hassle.

With Netvibes I’ve got different sections; one for my art&design blogs, one for my social media and webdev blogs, one for music news and one for the news from different papers that I find interesting. And as time goes I’ll add new blogs and probably new sections too. As you can see above on the picture (click it), Netvibes also has the genius mosaic view. This one is a winner for art&design blogs. I’ll now get to see the first image in each post on the different blogs I read. So it’s easy to sort out, if for an example a blog writes about an artist with a style I don’t particular like I can easily skip it and read the next.

You can also read the posts in it’s entirety at netvibes, which sometimes is madly time-saving when just skipping through. I still mostly open up the post in a new tab tho, since there’s just something about reading a blogpost with the blogs design wrapped around it. If you aren’t already, you should go sign up! It’s perfect for the busy bee’s daily online life.

(Mirrored from Polarbearsinthestreet)