Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Artist Exploration
Philip received his formal education at Paier College of Art where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and received advanced training in computer illustration in the period of 1991 – 1995. His work career started in 1994. Philip is currently employed with Warner Brothers Games, in Seattle since 2009 as their Art Director and has worked in multiple other places; among them are Big Fish Games, Unity Entertainment, NcSoft, and Electronic Arts Tiburon. He has held many titles from Studio Art Director to his current title of Art Director. In the process of his employment so far, he has worked on Madden, NCAA, NASCAR 06: Total Team Control (PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360), NFL Street (PS2, Xbox, GC), Tiger Woods ( PS3, Xbox360) NFL Head Coach (PS2, Xbox, PC), Superman Returns: The Videogame (PS2, Xbox360, GC, PC), Guild Wars 2, Tabula Rasa, Lineage (PC), 3 Unannounced Original IP (PC, Wii) for NcSoft, currently he is working on Lord of the Rings: War in the North, 1 Unanounced Title (XBOX 360, PS3, PC). 2008 through Feb. of 2009 Philip took the time to work exclusively on the Utherworlds and Secret Places interactive properties (PC) both game and interactive book. Utherworlds is currently being made into a feature film. The interactive book can be found on line at http://www.utherworlds.com it is amazing.
Philip has done lectures and workshops and classes since 2001 some of the titles have included Environment Concept Art, Creating Concept Art in the Entertainment Industry, Corel Painter Promotional Event, Siggraph "D'artiste, Fundamental Illustration Using Digital Tools; From Student to Successful Illustrator, and The Illustration Process. He has done multiple interviews with various different Web sites and magazines.
Philip Straub is also a traditional artist as well as an Illustrator. He focuses on invoking an emotional response from his images through composition, color, light and subject matter. He has achieved international acclaim among a variety of artistic circles through his use of traditional media with 3D and 2D software to create his illustrations. Philip Straub has entered in at least 47 art competitions and won at least 5 times. Those wins include the “The Society of Illustrators” 37th annual student competition scholarship, Silver Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 44th annual competion, 2006; Bronze Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 47th annual competion, 2009; Award of Excellence from Web Awards for Utherworlds.com, 2010; Grand Prize for Design in the 2010 Indie Book Awards for Utherworlds, 2010. He has also been awarded with eight Kota Awards, two 3D Total Image Awards, and Twelve CG Talk Choice Awards. Straub has acted as Judge in competitions for The Society of Illustrators, CG Networks and Corel Painter 10. As well as serving as Advisory Board Member for Expose 3 years running and as CG Society Advisory Board Founding Member five years running. He has shown his work in at least seventeen different Gallery and Trade Shows including Los Vegas Art Expo 2007 and Art of Digital 2006.
His work has been published in Spectrum for their “Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art 4,5,8,11,12,13,14,15,16, and 17”; also in “ The New Masters of Fantasy” Vol. II and III. Over 30 children’s books contain his art work under the license of Mercer Mayer’s Critters of the Night series, Little Critter Series, Little Monster book and Nickelodeon’s Rugrats license. He and his wife continue with their own line of children’s books in the Imaginaries series. Some of the illustrations from the Imaginaries have been used on children’s back packs. And, of course, Utherworlds book, website and in the future feature film.
Straub has marketed his licensed designs on a wide variety of products: textiles, stationary. Scrapbooking. Wall Murals, lenticular prints, puzzles, games, books, and children’s backpacks. Among his clients are Mattel, Fisher Price, Disney, Universal studios, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Knowledge Adventure. His freelance clients include many big names such as: Nickolodeon, Toyota, National Geographic, Golden books, Random House, TSR, McGraw-Hill, Mercer Mayer, Big Tuna Trading, Softmotion, RJ Reynolds, Fisher Price, Matttel, Universal Studios, Zoo Publishing, Harper Collins, 3D Total, Electronic Arts, Ballistic Media, Corel, Harper Collins, Sci Fi Channel, Sunsout Puzzles, and Scholastic. His lessor known freelance clients include Stylorouge, Popcap Games, The Canadian Group, Gander Mountain, Martin Design, American Traditional, Harper Festival, Magic the Gathering, Simon and Schuster, Utne Reader, John Wiley and Sons, Synthelabo Global, Wizards of the Coast, CR Gibson, David Textiles, Satchi and Satchi, Brewster Wallcoverings, Future Publishing, Draft Worldwide, Bonner and Co., and Cendant. Throughthese clients his work has appeared on broadcast media, book jackets, CD Covers, Magazine covers, trading cards, in feature films and in advertizing.
Philip has done lectures and workshops and classes since 2001 some of the titles have included Environment Concept Art, Creating Concept Art in the Entertainment Industry, Corel Painter Promotional Event, Siggraph "D'artiste, Fundamental Illustration Using Digital Tools; From Student to Successful Illustrator, and The Illustration Process. He has done multiple interviews with various different Web sites and magazines.
Philip Straub is also a traditional artist as well as an Illustrator. He focuses on invoking an emotional response from his images through composition, color, light and subject matter. He has achieved international acclaim among a variety of artistic circles through his use of traditional media with 3D and 2D software to create his illustrations. Philip Straub has entered in at least 47 art competitions and won at least 5 times. Those wins include the “The Society of Illustrators” 37th annual student competition scholarship, Silver Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 44th annual competion, 2006; Bronze Medal in the "Society of Illustrators Los Angeles" 47th annual competion, 2009; Award of Excellence from Web Awards for Utherworlds.com, 2010; Grand Prize for Design in the 2010 Indie Book Awards for Utherworlds, 2010. He has also been awarded with eight Kota Awards, two 3D Total Image Awards, and Twelve CG Talk Choice Awards. Straub has acted as Judge in competitions for The Society of Illustrators, CG Networks and Corel Painter 10. As well as serving as Advisory Board Member for Expose 3 years running and as CG Society Advisory Board Founding Member five years running. He has shown his work in at least seventeen different Gallery and Trade Shows including Los Vegas Art Expo 2007 and Art of Digital 2006.
His work has been published in Spectrum for their “Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art 4,5,8,11,12,13,14,15,16, and 17”; also in “ The New Masters of Fantasy” Vol. II and III. Over 30 children’s books contain his art work under the license of Mercer Mayer’s Critters of the Night series, Little Critter Series, Little Monster book and Nickelodeon’s Rugrats license. He and his wife continue with their own line of children’s books in the Imaginaries series. Some of the illustrations from the Imaginaries have been used on children’s back packs. And, of course, Utherworlds book, website and in the future feature film.
Straub has marketed his licensed designs on a wide variety of products: textiles, stationary. Scrapbooking. Wall Murals, lenticular prints, puzzles, games, books, and children’s backpacks. Among his clients are Mattel, Fisher Price, Disney, Universal studios, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Knowledge Adventure. His freelance clients include many big names such as: Nickolodeon, Toyota, National Geographic, Golden books, Random House, TSR, McGraw-Hill, Mercer Mayer, Big Tuna Trading, Softmotion, RJ Reynolds, Fisher Price, Matttel, Universal Studios, Zoo Publishing, Harper Collins, 3D Total, Electronic Arts, Ballistic Media, Corel, Harper Collins, Sci Fi Channel, Sunsout Puzzles, and Scholastic. His lessor known freelance clients include Stylorouge, Popcap Games, The Canadian Group, Gander Mountain, Martin Design, American Traditional, Harper Festival, Magic the Gathering, Simon and Schuster, Utne Reader, John Wiley and Sons, Synthelabo Global, Wizards of the Coast, CR Gibson, David Textiles, Satchi and Satchi, Brewster Wallcoverings, Future Publishing, Draft Worldwide, Bonner and Co., and Cendant. Throughthese clients his work has appeared on broadcast media, book jackets, CD Covers, Magazine covers, trading cards, in feature films and in advertizing.
2 Design Examples
http://mostawesomestthingever.com/
This site was created by the group named Big Spaceship (list of works here: http://www.bigspaceship.com/portfolio/) and they hold one of my favorite websites: Most Awesome Thing Ever). The idea behind this site is to search for the most awesome thing ever. I love the way they have set up the background, which looks like the site of a gang fight. So when you go on this site, it really sets it up as a battle and makes it more entertaining for the viewer. I also really enjoy how they have made their buttons fun by allowing for the titles "Thing One" and "Thing Two" to have electricity running through them. Big Spaceship also made it more interesting by allowing the viewers to see what things have made it to the top of the awesome list. This website really reminds me of those one-on-one fighter video games where the design is macho and cheesy, but yet highly entertaining and completely unforgettable.
http://www.tokyoplastic.com/tokyoplastic1.html
This site done by TokyoPlastic allows for the user to continuously interact with the website. In order to find any information on TokyoPlastic, you have to work yourself through as series of buttons where each button triggers something different. I don't like that everything within the site is set to be display in an isolation corner of my webpage. However, its design is effective in drawing in the user. When first presented with just a geisha doll, you're encourage to try to find something click on, anything that will give you more info on the site. But there's more that pops up, so you keep clicking and clicking to find out SOMETHING. Visiting here is great for triggering your curiosity, as well as keep you looking at TokyoPlastics' design for a good long while.
This site was created by the group named Big Spaceship (list of works here: http://www.bigspaceship.com/portfolio/) and they hold one of my favorite websites: Most Awesome Thing Ever). The idea behind this site is to search for the most awesome thing ever. I love the way they have set up the background, which looks like the site of a gang fight. So when you go on this site, it really sets it up as a battle and makes it more entertaining for the viewer. I also really enjoy how they have made their buttons fun by allowing for the titles "Thing One" and "Thing Two" to have electricity running through them. Big Spaceship also made it more interesting by allowing the viewers to see what things have made it to the top of the awesome list. This website really reminds me of those one-on-one fighter video games where the design is macho and cheesy, but yet highly entertaining and completely unforgettable.
http://www.tokyoplastic.com/tokyoplastic1.html
This site done by TokyoPlastic allows for the user to continuously interact with the website. In order to find any information on TokyoPlastic, you have to work yourself through as series of buttons where each button triggers something different. I don't like that everything within the site is set to be display in an isolation corner of my webpage. However, its design is effective in drawing in the user. When first presented with just a geisha doll, you're encourage to try to find something click on, anything that will give you more info on the site. But there's more that pops up, so you keep clicking and clicking to find out SOMETHING. Visiting here is great for triggering your curiosity, as well as keep you looking at TokyoPlastics' design for a good long while.
2 Advanced Studios
Happened upon this site many times, but never really paid attention to it until now.
2 Advanced Studios is a design company that specializes in virtually anything relating to technology. Rich media design, internet design, photography--impressive. It shows a lot in the design of the company's website as well.
Each page with a separate category has a different dynamic background that was probably created in Maya and 3DS Max, the animation for the drop down menus is clean and effective. The organization is pretty awesome. The sound effects for each click and drop down menu is also nice, as is the background music that loops.
Monday, March 21, 2011
My journey through web resources online was a very difficult one. I had a hard time finding well laid out sites that didn’t have too many advertisements or irrelevant banners. Luckily, the four I did find seem very useful in my opinion and I may possibly go back to them and use some of them in the future.
The first site I found was actually a magazine I used to buy each month called “Layers”. Not only is it a digital photography magazine, but it also incorporates nearly every Adobe program available, including Flash, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamwaver, and Illustrator. They have nearly everything you need to know about how to build layouts in Dreamweaver to publishing magazines for the iPad on InDesign. Their tutorials are formatted either as text-based pages or in videos.
The next site is specifically designed for the web design enthusiasts. The Smashing Magazine’s webpage contains hundreds of resources that are useful to nearly anyone. The only problem with their site is that it is hard to navigate. Unless you know exactly what you are looking for to type into the search engine, you HAVE to go through each page one by one and look carefully through each entry.
Flash Perfection is nearly a haven for all things Flash related. Every tutorial is laid out neatly in a nice sidebar menu for easy clickability. Each link takes you to more than 100 tutorials for each section! Each tutorial is shown in nice, bold step-by-step instructions with visual aids. The only downside to this site is the annoying ad that keeps popping up on the top of the screen whenever you switch to a new page.
The last page is one of my favorite sites of inspiration: Tarboy! This animated film by James Lee has been a great source of inspiration for possibly developing my final project. I just love how simple the characters are and that they each have their own personalities. The storyline and animation is spectacular and simply amazing. The only problem is that there hasn’t been an update on the new sequel since late 2010. Still, I love this animation and the rest of these resources enough to share them with the rest of the class.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Skydiver Mike
I came across this site about a year ago, i thought it was pretty cool. If your in to the high life adventure like my self I would recommended this site to you but only if you like Skydiving not only that his site is very easy to use and I find it highly interactive
http://www.skydiver-mike.de
http://www.skydiver-mike.de
Monday, March 07, 2011
Web Design: Repo & Waterlife
My dive into the world of web design with Flash brought me back to one of my favorite sites and a second one while on a top 10 Flash site search. The first site I found was “Repo! The Genetic Opera.” When entering the film site, there are two layers to the page: Graverobber’s graveyard where the menu is integrated and the backdrop of GeneCo City where a separate flash window will open up to allow you to navigate through the site. The menu is comprised of three parts: the header menu at the top of the screen, the main headstone, and then the smaller headstones behind it. The Flash window that pops up over the backdrop will expand or shrink depending upon which link in the menu you click. If you click, for example, “The Film” link, the Flash window will appear and you will be able to choose which section you wish to view, characters, world, media, or reviews. Further still, if you select the media and view clips, the window will turn into an embedded Flash media player and automatically play the selected video for you.
The second website I found extremely interesting was called “Waterlife”, an online showcase about a film of the same name. It provides a preview of the cinematography and rich storytelling that appears in the film. I like how the navigation flows very much like the gentle motion of a lake. There is a sidebar menu, one on the bottom the moves when you rollover it, and the main thumbnail section which moves with your cursor and changes whenever you click on it. It was so beautiful and relaxing, I almost forgot I was even on an actual webpage; even the minor details, such as small Flash images of whales swimming, the music, and how the thumbnails change shape upon what image is clicked, add to the overall feel of the website.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Drum Kit
If you're a fan of French electro music like myself, you'll love this site. Created by commercial and music video director Ron Winter, it's called Drum Kit and has a simple interface and premise: one is presented with a virtual keyboard that plays an individual sound whenever a key is pressed. If one holds down one of a few specific keys a different image appears for each key.
The fun of this site is in the quality of the sound samples, ranging from standard kick and snare drums to sampled vocals and laser sounds. It's not the prettiest interface but I spent a while playing with the sounds trying to get a fun beat going. Click the robot head to get a pre-sampled drum beat going and play along to it (you'll have to keep clicking on it when it ends though).
http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html
The fun of this site is in the quality of the sound samples, ranging from standard kick and snare drums to sampled vocals and laser sounds. It's not the prettiest interface but I spent a while playing with the sounds trying to get a fun beat going. Click the robot head to get a pre-sampled drum beat going and play along to it (you'll have to keep clicking on it when it ends though).
http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html
Design Exploration by Alicia Morgan
I decided to do a design exploration of the vitamin water website. It was created by BigSpaceship design firm. This site is a perfect example of effective and compelling multimedia design. The designers at Big Spaceship created “an interactive ecosystem that not only captured the personality of each flavor of Glaceau, it did so by conveying water as both art and science.” Since the Glaceau brand had already been established and well received, the designer’s main goal was to “evolve the brand in the digital landscape.”
The design of the site is interactive as it invites the user to explore and browse through the varying bottles and flavors with ease. The content on the site is presented in a convenient and visually appealing manor, thus enabling the user to explore the site in a seamless fashion.
The design of the Glaceau website creates an effective and engaging experience for the user because it adheres to a variety of web and multimedia design principles. All the content on the site is organized and purposeful. The site features the color-coordinated imagery of each individual flavor and bottle of vitamin water. And in doing so they establish a hierarchy of information. When the user browses from page to page the first thing they are going to notice on every page is the vitamin water product. This is because the most important thing on every page should be the vitamin water, and everything else that’s presented on the page should play a secondary role.
One of the most important design principles that this website adheres to its consistency and its repetition. The same design elements are used throughout the design of the site, which helps maintain a consistent visual style and is comforting for the user. An example of this is the animation of the shift of color scheme for each different flavor of water. Every flavor of water has unique colors associated with its packaging. The design of the website mimics these colors and styles for each individual flavor of water. As the user navigates from one flavor to the next, all the design elements (such as the banner at the top) animate a change in color scheme to match that of the current flavor being displayed.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Flash Eff2- New Media Design
For professionals who have dedicated hours and days and even months at a time on projects, this program FlashEff2 may be frowned upon. However, for the creative yet technically challenged, this program is a blessing!
When working on projects, it may be necessary to use scripting (otherwise writing code). Compared to writing html code, flash code isn't quite as complicated. On the other hand, writing code isn't the most exciting thing for the everyday visionary. In my opinion, there are two types of people; one person is very quick in thought and very creative, yet when it comes to hands-on technicalities, the fun stops. The other person is exceptional when it comes to dealing with small, meticulous details, and in this example: possesses patience and understanding of code writing.
I view myself as more of creative thinking type, and when it comes to hands-on code writing, I'm not as thrilled to be working on the project (even though it is essential for success). What FlashEff2 does is makes working on the "meticulous" aspects with ease, and puts the fun back into the project. I envision this program to welcome more aspiring flash animators and designers by providing a program that simplifies and shortens project completion.
What makes this even better is that you can download it for free!!! Definitely worth checking into, especially if your running a small operation with a large workload, this program could ideally give you the upper hand in the market place with increased production.
Here are some ways the program will help you:
www.flasheff.com
When working on projects, it may be necessary to use scripting (otherwise writing code). Compared to writing html code, flash code isn't quite as complicated. On the other hand, writing code isn't the most exciting thing for the everyday visionary. In my opinion, there are two types of people; one person is very quick in thought and very creative, yet when it comes to hands-on technicalities, the fun stops. The other person is exceptional when it comes to dealing with small, meticulous details, and in this example: possesses patience and understanding of code writing.
I view myself as more of creative thinking type, and when it comes to hands-on code writing, I'm not as thrilled to be working on the project (even though it is essential for success). What FlashEff2 does is makes working on the "meticulous" aspects with ease, and puts the fun back into the project. I envision this program to welcome more aspiring flash animators and designers by providing a program that simplifies and shortens project completion.
What makes this even better is that you can download it for free!!! Definitely worth checking into, especially if your running a small operation with a large workload, this program could ideally give you the upper hand in the market place with increased production.
Here are some ways the program will help you:
www.flasheff.com
FlashEff2 | Features
General features
Artist/Studio Exploration
One of the first flash studios I was exposed to was Joe Cartoon. They used to have their own website, but moved completely to youtube in order to keep their content free. They've been around for a number of years and have their own following among the world of internet memes.
These hilarious and slightly ludicrous individuals are the one responsible for the infamous Frog in a Blender and other such flash toys. Their youtube site doesn't enable the flash buttons, it basically just plays through them, but originally all the buttons were functional on their site. (Although they still have the old cartoons, as well as some new ones. For example, Kanye West in a Blender.
This studio has become more sick humor, oriented, but their older stuff is way funnier and a bit more tasteful. Their animation style is definitely unique, as well.
These hilarious and slightly ludicrous individuals are the one responsible for the infamous Frog in a Blender and other such flash toys. Their youtube site doesn't enable the flash buttons, it basically just plays through them, but originally all the buttons were functional on their site. (Although they still have the old cartoons, as well as some new ones. For example, Kanye West in a Blender.
This studio has become more sick humor, oriented, but their older stuff is way funnier and a bit more tasteful. Their animation style is definitely unique, as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)