Another Miniaturization

Another try - this one is pretty good, I think.

Des

Mini Sao Paulo

I found a tutorial on how to use Photoshop to make scenes look miniature . . . Thomas the Tank Engine like I guess. Here's my first try using an image of Sao Paulo. The supposed mini edition is on the top.

I don't know.

Maybe.

Des

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo (Live)

I saw these guys tonight on Letterman and had to post this video. This ISN'T from Letterman, but is the same piece. It's absolutely incredible.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela.

Des

4 Down, 8 to go

With Digitial Image Manipulation G133 under my belt, I've got 4 of my 12 courses for my Web Design Certificate complete. That's very cool. My next course, Computer Animation for the Web (i.e. Flash) begins in January - so I've got a nice little break before I'm back at it.

Grace,

Des

Photoshop CS3 (Beta) Launches Today

I knew this was coming today. Earlier this week, Adobe announced that it would be releasing the long-awaited first update to Photoshop in Universal Binary - which if you're an Intel Mac and Photoshop CS2 user (like myself) you understand all too well. So, I've been waiting all day to get my hands on this. By the time I left for Waynesville this afternoon, the update hadn't been posted yet, so it was closer to 11:00pm before I finally got my hands on it.

CS2 was a great program, but it was dog slow on the Intel Mac (if you care, it's because it hadn't been optimized for the new Intel Chips). CS3 that was released today FLIES. I haven't had a lot of time to really play with the thing, but even opening the program . . . I can't even explain it. What takes closer to 30 seconds with CS2 takes 5 with CS3. I'm very impressed, and all the more excited, now, about creating stuff.

My first project will be an ad for Waynesville that will appear in an upcoming Smoky Mountain News. I'll post it here once it's done.

If you run Photoshop CS2 (either windows or Mac) and have a valid Serial Number, you can download a Beta of CS3 from http://labs.adobe.com.

Grace,

Des

The Final Version

So, my fictional ad creation is over - and here's what I've come up with.

No Creative

Anybody recognize that little throw-back to summer 2004 (I think)?

If you are at all creative and have the need to often match colors, or come up with cool color schemes, I wrote about a really cool new tool from Adobe over on my Web and Flow Blog (http://blog.webandflowdesign.com). The tool is called Kuler - and, it's nothing NEW, per se, but it really makes the process of picking great color combinations a neat and interactive process.

That's it.

Des

O Holy Night

Poking about the internet as I so often do, I found this gem today. It's a musical tribute to New Orleans from the NBC Show, Studio 60. You can download the file from this link:

http://www.nbc.com/Studio_60_on_the_Sunset_Strip/music/studio_60_o_holy_night.mp3

(PC: Right Click -> Save as . . . ; MAC: Option Click - or both, click on it, and it may play in your browser, depending on what you're using . . . . you should be using Firefox, btw).

Anywho, its a great, FREE, mp3. You can also read a little more about it here:

http://www.nbc.com/Studio_60_on_the_Sunset_Strip/music/

NBC Legal Stuff:

O HOLY NIGHT, a musical Christmas tribute to the city of New Orleans.
Arranged by WG Snuffy Walden, Patrick Rose and Randy Kerber. © Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

That's it. Enjoy.

Des

Something for School

Something I've been working on.

Des

The New Star

Some friends of ours recently gave us a gift . . . a Krups Espresso Machine. It has quickly become the star of our apartment. We are officially Baristas.

Grace,

Des

Treadmill Dance

I saw this a long time ago and WANTED to post it - but kept forgetting. It's kind of dated now, BUT, if you haven't seen this thing, it is incredible. One take. Eight Treadmills.

Amazing.

Des

Around the World in 1 Daze

Has anyone else realized how little they know about what's going on in the world?

I have realized recently that I know heresy about what is going on in a few countries. I've heard that the Sudan has some horrible ongoing atrocities and that Rwanda is still going through some civil war. But I am inside a box that has very little input about what is going on outside that box.

My realization started from a tech netcast where some video guys were discussing the new launch of Al Jazeera English and about, even though it won't take off in the U.S. for obvious reasons, the international coverage and scope is absolutely incredible. They also started talking about the BBC and their world coverage.

There is so much out there that I don't know.

For example:

• South Africa's Most Wanted Criminal Caught
• First South Africa Gay Wedding Celebrated
• Rwanda has Doubts over French genocide claim
• Norway puts off Tamil Tiger talks
• Turkey and Iran discuss Iraq
• Fiji troops disarm police
• Annan: Iraq worse than under Saddam

Oh, and did anyone know that there was about 1,000 dead in the Phillipines after a typhoon passed through?

This really bothered me . . . the fact that there's so much that I wasn't aware of. Not because I thought I should know . . . but because I thought I SHOULD be concerned enough to know. My concern should be global. Being global-centric is the complete an total opposite of self-centric . . . is it not?

Hmmmmm.

Grace,

Des

A Little Photoshopping

A friend of mine sent me some photos from her wedding - but there was a problem . . . so she asked if I could fix it. What do you think? A good 30 mins of Photoshop and this is what we have. I've loving Photoshop by the way. There's SO much that you can do . . . once you know how. Problem is, there's so much to learn.

Grace,

Des