I gotta admit most of these are pretty fun to look at in a “wait for it” kinda way. And I haven’t given animated gifs much thought since oh, like 2002 or so, but hey maybe they’ll make a comeback. WebDesignShock is calling the worthy ones “cinemagraphs” , and many of these do deserve the title. Check out these two…
Long time no post. I’ve been…er, obsessing just a wee bit over this pinball game I’ve been working on. I’ve been simultaneously designing and programming this game, which can be a really good thing for forcing yourself to learn new code to facilitate your design, but it can also make the design phase go on endlessly. Knowing what’s possible now it would be much easier to spend a few solid days on the design and then code exclusively. But thats for my next game. Here’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve been programming this using Xcode, Cocos2D and Box2d (a physics engine) So the physics in it aren’t hacked together by me, its the real deal. And it plays 60fps smooth on the iPad 2 and about 54fps smooth on the iPad 1. Which is probably only noticeable to me.
So last minute design suggestions anyone? I’ve got to take a couple days off to actually make some new sales pages for CartoonSmart, so my mind is clear of this for at least 24 hours…(click to embiggen)
Here’s a very groovy, very shadowy version of the Wizard of Oz. Cool song too…
This is a gorgeous bumper piece (only 42 seconds, so take the time to press play)….
It feels like the designs could be used in a game somehow. Like a glassy Q-Bert board.
And then for comparison something conceptually similar but very stylistically different (only 20 seconds…)
Yep you read that title right! This is CartoonSmart’s first 24 Hour Course. But fear not, this is 111 awesomely separated videos, exploring about a bazillion things in Adobe Illustrator (and yes you read that right too, 111 as in one hundred and eleven!) A list of each course is on the sales page here: Exploring Adobe Illustrator.
Last week I posted a couple free previews and to further entice you I’ll add a couple more below. Brian Zaikowski is an amazing instructor and I really want you all to check out his courses. They are incredibly detailed but he’s also very enjoyable and relaxed on the mic.
And to get this course well under $1 per hour, I’m releasing another $5 discount code to further get the already-discounted price down some. So this $25 course, will come out to $20 for those of you reading this article. “…thats like a dollar an hour!” - Napolean Dynamite
So that discount code is… ARJ2WHD9 … which also can be applied to anything else on CartoonSmart over the next week. Wanna test it out? Go ahead and apply to this course in the shopping cart by clicking here.
And here’s more freebies from this series. The first on the cool 3D Revolve tool in Illustrator…
And one more (so you know how to pronounce “Calligraphic”)…
Just got word that Justin Cook’s first e-book is now available. I just got done flipping through it and it looks fantastic! Best of all its only $4.99, so for the price of a Grande Latte or whatever at Starbucks, you’ll get this amazing guide. The pic below jumps straight over to Justin’s site to find out more…
I’m currently prepping this fantastic new Adobe Illustrator CS5 course for sale, and since there’s, oh, like 84 videos in this HUGE tutorial series, I think we can give plenty away for free. And I’ll add a few more in the next couple days. Here’s a 14 minute tutorial on the Tool Panel
And a little longer one on the Rotate and Reflect Tool.
The idea behind this series was to make it like reference library. You can jump around from video to video in any order you like. And they are shorter videos, on very specific topics (mostly to do with the tool options / main menus). And these are all taught by Brian Z, who’s template work you’ve probably seen here before, but check it out his portfolio and toons at DementedDenizens.com
Enjoy!
Come one, come all!
Justin Cook just told me today he’s now selling high quality caricatures over at his site, SeenCreative.co.uk . So you can be the first in line to have your stylistically-similar self drawn up. All he needs is a few photos to work with and you can have a groovy version of you for email signatures, avatars, or just to stare back at ya from your computer screen. Enjoy!
As a thanks to all the cool buyers of Neil Phyfer’s latest CartoonSmart tutorial, he’s done a quick coloring lesson for our free collection…
Hd-ify at will. And Thanks Neil!
Jimeny Crickets! I knew I forgot to do something yesterday! We released a new Photoshop tutorial on Digital Painting and you can still get it for $5 less using the coupon code 1603NK71 (which also works all over the place on CartoonSmart.com). Click the awesome pic below to check out our latest tutorial, taught by the great Neil Phyfer. And you can see a ton of Neil’s work at Playmation.co.za .
Also now I remember why I was so absent minded yesterday, I had dreamy thought bubbles of a new 27 inch iMac, and around 3pm I sped off to the Apple Store to buy one. No luck on getting exactly what I wanted, so I’m working from my laptop today (again, sigh). I finally gave up on bringing back my G5 tower from the dead. After a zillion crashes at startup and a lot of new parts, I resolved to say goodbye to her over the weekend. There is something sad about sitting indian style on the floor, below your desk, and looking at a big metallic box thinking “You kinda suck now, but thank you for your years of service”… And on that note, if anyone has a copy of every tutorial I’ve made since 2004, please get in touch…. Just kidding, I do have everything backed up and cloned like crazy. CartoonSmart will have a new cylon body soon enough.
