Artist Exploration: Dave Warner

Dave Warner is a great flash artist as well as a an artist doing other types of works as well. His website okdave.com is a flash site that shows his different artistic projects. It has great videos about each of his projects. It has interactive features where you can see the process it took him to create each projects, as well as links to his online web projects.

Below are some of the projects that I thought were interesting.

The first one is the "Cadence of Seasons" project.

He is currently working on creating an interactive story using flash. He describes it in a video and has screen shots that you can click on. Also has pictures that show you his storyboard or process and you can scroll over the pictures and little blurbs pop up explaining them. Can't wait to see this when it comes out!

The second flash project he did was the website for the Brinker International Annual Report.

It is an interactive website for potential and official shareholders. It opens with a recipe box holding each restaurant as a recipe card. There is video which is the letter to the shareholders. The sounds when you click/scroll over things is a glass clinking which makes it fun to click things.

3rdly he created was a presentation site for Wachovia bank.

This site is basically like a power point presentation that is interactive for the person viewing it. The point of the presentation is to show Wachovia how they could use a new website.

He also is the CEO of the video game design company Minor Studios, which is currently creating a video game called Atmosphir.

It is a game that you can create your own game within the game. Check the website out!

Artist Exploration: Jonathan Harris

Jonathan Harris combines data mining and information visualizations to create unique projects that blend anthropology, computer science, and the arts.

Some of his cool projects include:

We Feel Fine

The Whale Hunt

Artist Exploration: Chris Georgenes

Chris Georgenes, whose professional website is called "Mudbubble.com," is a freelance artist, animator, designer and Flash guru. His clients include Adobe, Yahoo! and AOL. He also writes books about Flash and teaches Flash courses at Sessions.edu.

I recently bought his book, "How to Cheat in Flash CS3," to add to my resources while taking MAT 150. I haven't read far in it yet (I don't know enough Flash yet to use it effectively) but it looks to be helpful with its many quick-study lessons.

At Mudbubble.com you can check out his portfolio page and find 29 interesting Flash projects -- websites, Flash games and animations. Try the "Samurai Kittens" link -- it's hilarious.

Chris also has a blog, Keyframer.com, which is loaded with a lot of good Flash tips, comments, tutorials, Q&As and links. If that isn't enough, Chris talks about being a Flash artist in an interview on the Sessions.edu website. Here is an excerpt from the interview: (Chris): "I approach Flash as if it is a ball of clay, pushing and pulling it into what I want. Many animators get too hung up on the mechanics of the software program and rely too much on only what the interface offers. Flash is just a tool, like any other animation or graphics program is, and it should be used as such. Never should the artist allow the tool's limitations to dictate what can and can't be accomplished. There's more you can do with a hammer than just driving nails."

What I especially like about Chris' approach to Flash projects is his playful and engaging cartooning style. I dabble in cartooning myself so I can appreciate the difficulty of drawing simple line cartoons that are able to convey subtle expressions and personality traits. Chris' vector-based cartoons pack a lot of personality, and because they are relatively simple they make for easy Flash animation. The little girl below, for example (her name is Andrea -- after his daughter), stars in several of Chris' animations. (She's adorable!) Chris animates her playing with the curl of hair on her forehead while she recites "Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . ." That simple gesture, just by itself, ads a lot to revealing her personality.