A New Twist for New Earphones

From early July 2010 and until late October 2010, I had a project going on with a former MacLab student and other students/alumni. Well it was more of a job than a project. Steven Moyer, the former student, was the one who contacted the other students and I asking us if we want to be part of a job that he had gotten. The other students/alumni were, Christian Lim, Danny Owens, Kyle Wheaton and Christopher Canel. We all agreed to be part of that job/project. The job consisted of creating advertisement pictures for a new product by DGA. We had to take pictures of the product with a white background and also pictures of the product in the real world. The pictures were going to be used for advertisement, website and reviews.

We started on July 9th. That was the first day of the shooting. We finished shooting all the product pictures with the white background that day. Then, of course, we had to work on each picture that was picked by the company. We photoshoped every single picture and here is an example of the pictures that we took. Click.

July 11th, the models shooting day. That day was the hardest but more fun. We had to move from place to place taking pictures of models with the product. All I have to say, it was a success. Again, we photoshoped all the approved pictures and here’s an example. Click.

July 14th, another models and product (different background) shooting day. We end up not using some of the models pictures but we did use the product ones. (1, 2) < Examples.

August 6th, models shooting day. Different models and different locations. Click for an example.

Then, the company asked Steven for a commercial. And the work started. We had to meet several times to go over the storyboarding, locations, time, actors, etc. We also had to try out the gear and we had to make our own gear.

September 24th, the company asked for more product pictures with the white background. We took the pictures and here’s an example. Click.

September 25th, the filming of the video was canceled because of an actress’ sickness.

October 9th, we successfully finished filming the video and it was edited by Steven. Click to view it.

October 19th, last photo-shoot. Another person was added to our team that day. Evan R. Click for an example.

That was all we have done from early July 2010 and until late October 2010 for DGA. The job was fun. I forgot to mention that before all the shooting dates and the filming date, we had to go location scouting beforehand to make sure we had enough lighting and a good-looking place. After all, congrats to the whole team. We all did a great job. Oh and guess what? The product came out last night at 11PM!! Here’s the website. Click. All the featured pictures in that websites are ours. Also here are the reviews. Gizmodo, Gadget Review.

For alternative blogs that are publishing their posts today regarding the job. Visit the MacLab blog and each member of the team’s blog (You can find these to the right hand column under blogroll). >>>

Note: This was just a brief post regarding the job. I will create a separate page that includes everything that we’ve done from preparing for every photo-shoot to the final touches on Photoshop.  Every detail (As long as I remember everything ) and some more examples of the pictures. Also if you have any questions regarding the equipment the we used, how we set-up our workspace, etc. You’re welcome to drop a comment anywhere on my blog and I’ll give it my best answer. Also don’t forget to check my friends blogs, whom were involved in this job. They can answer your questions too.

And what a great new twist for earphones.

It’s Time to Collaborate

So I had one of these Ah-Ha moments one time and it was about helping other talented students at school. I’m pretty sure that there are some really talented artists that are waiting to be noticed by someone. So here’s my idea. I’m offering to teach only serious students the ways of creating posters, logos, tickets, etc. I’m going to pass all the things that Mr. Skocko taught me and still teaching me to the students who want to learn. I’m currently a junior in high school and lately I’ve noticed that the MacLab need’s students who will take over my place and the places of others who are graduating this and next year. I will teach the students so they can pass what they’ll learn to the others in the years to come. For any student who’s reading this post right now, if you want to become part of this, then come and talk to me. I’m available at the MacLab from 630AM till 2nd period, sometimes during nutrition brake, lunch, and during 7th period.

Let the collaboration begin!

110910: For the students who want to learn, I need to meet you tomorrow (111010 (Wednesday)) at lunch in the MacLab. If you can’t make it, then that’s fine because I’ll probably make another meeting next week.

Is it Actually Educational?

“There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important I think math is very important, but so is dance.” -Sir Ken Robinson

Sometimes in life, people favor one thing over another. The reason? Well there are variety of reasons. Some favor one thing based on what others tell them. Other people just think that thing is better and maybe more useful than other things. And that’s what our education system is based on. All schools around the world favor math and English (or any other language) over art. Why? As I said before. They just think that these two subjects are more important than art. Well if they think of that, then here’s what I think first as a student and second as an artist. I think that our education system does not give some students the right to express themselves in their way. How do I know that? Well I’m currently a high school student and I’m facing this now. For example, in my English and History classes we’re assigned a speech and along with the speech we have to create a PSA. The PSA needs to be printable and it can’t be in any digital format. We can’t create a video. Now here’s my problem with that. I’m an artist and I personally favor videos over a piece of paper that has some graphics and some text printed on it. I tried to talk with the teacher and there’s no use. I’ll go back and say this again. Our education system favor’s some things over others. Now I’m not trying to say that the whole education system is wrong, but what I’m trying to say is that some students have a different way of learning but the education system doesn’t allow them to learn the way they want. So is our education actually educational? I’ll leave that question for others to answer.

Note: Here are both videos of Sir Ken Robinson. (1, 2)

Let’s Take a Look at the Future

“Knock the “t” off the “can’t.” -Samuel Johnson

What a perfect way to start the post. The quote above should give you a good idea of why you should always be optimistic in life and never let other things stop you from reaching your goals. I don’t want to talk more about the quote, I want you to figure it out by yourself.

What I want to talk about now is my future after high school and what I’m actually consider doing.

When I first started taking the MacLab at school, I wasn’t actually thinking of even going to an art college. The year passed by and I got more interested in art and specially all the great stuff that we do at the MacLab. First I thought graphic design is my thing and I can be good at it. Over the summer I started working with Steven Moyer on his project that requires using Photoshop and requires working with photos in general. Then, I though maybe graphic design is good for me but also working with photos is another option. The summer went by and school started again. Now let me go back a little bit before school. Okay so when the photos job with Steven was done, we had another job and that was making a video. Alright, well making a video I thought it would be just something I would enjoy but won’t consider it as an option for after high school college. I was wrong. So when school started and I started working at the MacLab, I directly went for making videos and neither graphic design nor photoshopping came to my mind. Why? Well after working with Steven on his project and after searching around a little bit I found out that video is actually another option for me.

So after all the talking, here’s what I consider doing after I graduate. I have three interests, graphic design, photography and film making. I’m more interested in film making than the other two so I’m thinking of going to a film college. But that doesn’t mean I won’t study the other two subjects. No. Hopefully, after finishing my film college, I will take graphic design then photography. I mean all this is just some thoughts that I have right now that I’m a junior in high school. Maybe they’ll change. Maybe not.

As far as which college to attend, I’m still looking for a good college. The only two that I have on my mind are San Diego State University and Ringling College of Art and Design. Both have film making classes and both seem really good. Ringling College also have both graphic design and photography but the only issue that I have with that college is that it’s really far away from where I’m living right now. But I won’t let that stop me. Remember the quote above?

Like I said before, all these things might change before my senior year in high school. I have a year to make sure I know which subject is good for me. By next year, I’m even have different thoughts. No one knows.

Oh and as for the featured illustration, the story behind it is here (First paragraph). I just thought I’d put in this post because it blows my mind when I look at it.

Until next time.

101110: You have to watch this.

Here’s what I think: “I wish if all the teachers around the world just watch Sir Ken Robinson. I mean when I was watching the video, I was like ‘This is so true and I wish if everyone just watch it and get inspired.’
It’s not easy to teach people, but when a teacher provides the right tools and the right environment, the people will learn by themselves. Students want to do what they like, they don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. As for the teachers, they need to make students life easier so the students keep learning not running away like what’s happening these days.
If I had only one wish in life, it would be making the people watch Sir Ken Robinson to get inspired by his words.
I’m telling you, if you don’t watch him, you’re losing!

Update: Here’s what Sir Ken Robinson say in another video: “There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important I think math is very important, but so is dance.”

So if we just change the word “dance” with something else that students like, we can produce a society that’s full of different talents everywhere around the world.

Note: I’ll probably make a separate post regarding the idea of education that Sir Ken Robinson talks about. Keep checking the blog.

It’s Time to Wake Up

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I just thought I’d put the quote above in this post because I like it and I actually believe in it. I can’t even think of a reason that people will use to say that the quote isn’t true and that they don’t believe in it. Oh well, after all it’s up to the person to decide whether its true or not.

Enough talking about the quote and let’s get to business. After a long “nap,” I had to wake up and catch up with the time. I’ll make this post short and sweet so you don’t get bored.

Alright so during summer, I was working with Steven Moyer on his project (I can’t talk about it, yet). I also worked on the iParent (WIP) and the Palm Cafe (WIP). Both were declined by the district. When school started, I had to make a new strategy so I can manage to work on MacLab projects along with school homework. Well, let’s just say that it’s working fine now and I don’t have a problem. I have more MacLab projects than last year. I also have more ideas for better projects for later on in the year.

That was just a brief update of where I am right now.

Update: I forgot to mention this. The blog will be updated once I have some free time.

From the Past to the Future

“Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Well, sometimes I keep looking into the past to find out what mistakes I’ve made so I can fix them. But like what the quote above say, I must care more about the future. Future is more important than the past but in some cases the past is important too. For example, we have the dance video that Christian L. and I were making a long time ago. I have to admit that the video was a hard project for a first year learner like me. Well, the good news are I’ve completed that video before the school year finished. Also, the video will remain in my past and I will always go back and take a look at it and see what mistakes I’ve made so I can fix them in the next videos. Bottom line is, past is an important thing to remember but you don’t have to tie yourself to it all the time.

Alright enough said about the past and future, I’ll start talking about my projects that I’ve completed from the past and the projects that I might encounter in the future. I’ll try to make this post short and sweet so you don’t get bored.

First stop is the dance video. Well, as you all read above, I have completed the video. It was a pain to fix all the stuff that I had but I did it and of course with the help of my friends at the MacLab. Click here to view the final version of the video. I hope you enjoy it.

Second we have the robot. After going through too many changes, I have finally gotten a version that works. This version is the last one and it was made for the 5 Weeks Of 5 competition but I couldn’t submit it because I was late and I missed the deadline.

Third we have the light painting pictures that I showed you in this post. I’ve gone back and fixed all the things that I thought were looking wrong. I’ve actually started everything all over again and I got the versions that I like more than these. here are all the new versions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. You can also view them in the Light Painting gallery.

Speaking of gallerias, I’ve updated all the galleries with new pictures. (There might be some of the galleries that aren’t updated and that is because I didn’t have anything new to put in them)

Okay, now I’m going to talk about stuff that I’ve not showed you before. In the last day of school (Graduation day) I had a new project to finish that same day. The project was making a poster for a science teacher at school. Well, the only thing that I have to say is I finished it. This is the last version that I got. But when the teacher saw the poster, she requested a change of colors to match the colors of two schools that were involved in the poster. At that point I couldn’t change the colors because I didn’t have the equipments that I needed. So my friend,Chris C., helped me with it and he changed the colors and fixed some other stuff. He did a good job and the teacher liked the poster.

Here’s another thing that I’ve never showed you before but I’ve mentioned it in the past. Remember when I talked about making an iParent poster in this post? Well, I did it. I’m just going to show you all the steps that I’ve gone through to get the last version. I’ve made 7 different versions and the last one was the good one. I’ve also made a note card. Both the poster and the note card were made for the district. And here’s every version with some info about it. First I started with something similar to this poster that I saw here. It was a great inspiration. Well, what can I say, this didn’t work quite well. So I made a brand new design from scratch. I got three different versions at the same time by playing with the colors and some other effects in Camera Raw and Photoshop. Here are the versions that I got: 1, 2, 3. These too had there own problems. But I didn’t change the design this time, I fixed the design. I changed the colors, I fixed typography and I tried to align everything evenly. After all that I got this. That worked but also I had to fix more things on it. Lastly, I got a version that worked. This. Again I had one more thing to fix and that was the logo at the bottom right corner. I just made it white so its legible and I got this. Then I just used the same techniques to make the note card that looks like this. Lastly, the poster and the note card are subject to change as the district view them.

I have to say that the iParent poster made think more about why an artist should take his/her work the last 10% to make it look beautiful.

Now I’ve talked about the past and here’s the future. For me the future is about learning and achieving all my goals. All I have to say about the future for now is that I want to become a better artist.

Lastly, I just want to say that the featured picture is my favorite light painting picture from the eleven pictures above.

Alright, that’s it. Until next time.

(I guess this post wasn’t that short. Sorry )

Preparing the Menu

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams

People keep learning over time. One of the things that I’ve learned is that making mistakes is something good. The reason for that is because the mistakes will make me learn to not go back to them. So its creativity when creating a new piece of art. I start with a small line and I end up with something big. Also sometimes the line might not become something big. It might fail but it will always remain as an example for later time.

I’ve talked about the old stuff in this post and now it’s time to talk about the present and the future.

I currently have two main projects that I’m working on and both are from the jobs page. The first one is related to the featured picture and to the title too. I’m working on designing a restaurant menu for the district. I’ve started working on the menu about two weeks ago. The first time that I started working on it I had an idea that looked just like this. Two different fonts and without a logo. Then Skocko recommended a logo. So I created a logo that looks good and that is related to the theme of the menu. The logo version looks like this. I’ve changed the fonts so they look good with the logo. As you can see, my background is not that good. It is a picture that I’ve taken a long time ago. So currently I’m having a problem with the background. While working on the menu I wanted to try a different logo just so I can see how it looks like. So I created a new one and it looks just like this. It didn’t work because it looks like a sad face. So I went back to the old logo and I tried my luck with a different background that looks like this. It’s not that great so I will try to find a different one.

The other project is making evacuation routes for the school. Kyle W. and I are working on the maps of the school and the job is actually easy because it doesn’t have any colors. It’s basically not an art project.

I’m working on the new light painting pictures that are mentioned in here.

I’m also helping my friends on the 840 poster. (story here)

As for the future projects. I’m going to work on some jobs from the jobs page. One of them will probably be the iParent job. Also, Steven Moyer and Christian L. have brought a new idea for a light painting project. They are planning  on creating a stop motion video. So I told them that I’ll help them with that. I’ll probably post the updates for that when we start it. I think these are all the stuff that I’m planning on working on in the future. There might be more!

I’m preparing the menu for the future.

The Old Robot is Back

“An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.” - Paul Valéry

Speaking of abandoning work, I would like to go back to some old stuff that I’ve left behind me. I also want to talk about stuff related to the title and the quote of this post. It’s going to be a short post.

Okay first thing I would like to talk about the featured picture. You guys remember the robot in the picture, right? Well, that’s the newest version of it with some new parts like the shadow and I believe that I’ve never showed you the same background. Okay so basically what I did was, on one day I decided to go back to the old robot and try some different stuff on it. Also, Skocko noticed that it didn’t actually have a shadow so I tried to add a shadow to it. After all, the robot will remain as a work in progress and I will try to make it look better each time I go back to it. BTW the reason for not working on it is because I’ve encountered some more important projects that had deadlines and the only time that I work on it is when I have free time.

I also want to talk about another old project, in which is the got plans? poster. About two weeks ago, I was informed by Skocko that my design didn’t win in the competition. Another student from Valhalla was the winner. Well, congrats to the student and still I’m happy because our school won the competition.

Another old project I want to talk about is the dance crew video. I’ve been busy lately working on other projects but when I have enough time I try to go back and work on the video and try to correct some stuff on it. I’m currently having some problems with the colors. I’m going to try to solve the problems and maybe get it “done” before the end of the school year.

Also since the topic of this post is about the old projects, I would like to talk about the AME brochure too. Well, congrats to Christian L. for winning the competition. After all my design didn’t win.

I would like to talk about another thing that I’ve never mentioned in the blog before and its an old thing too. The thing is a job that Steven Moyer had, in which was going to China Wokery and take pictures of some dishes for a website that they are building. So Him, Christian L. and another person went to the restaurant and took the pictures and he wanted people to work on the pictures. So I volunteered myself to work. I only had to remove dust, crumbs, reflections on the plates, etc. off the dishes. I worked on two pictures this and this. (Read the story here)

Oh and also the light painting book is published and is available on sale. You can buy it from here and if you want here’s a preview.

I believe these are all the old projects. If I remember something else I’ll come back here and post it.

Where are the Lights Coming From?

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

Very true!

Every picture that anyone produces is a whole world by itself. You keep looking on a piece of art and you keep thinking of what does it mean. You can define a word with another one, but you can’t define a picture with just a single word. Everything has its own meaning in life. Through my experience in pictures, I’ve always tried to get the most out of a single picture and every time I look on the picture it keeps giving me more and more inspiration.

Last Friday, Chris C., Kyle W., Zack T., Christian L. and I decided to go light painting somewhere around downtown San Diego. We went to this park to light painting. We took everything needed for light painting and we were so excited to get there and light painting.

Now let me go, a little bit, back in time. Last week, Skocko informed the MacLab students about the art show that the district is making. He informed us before about four days of the deadline for the submissions. Christian L. and I submitted this picture. About 8 pieces were entered in the competition from my digital arts class. On Thursday, Skocko told us that this picture won the third place! I was actually very happy because it was the first time that I’ve won something. So on Friday, before going light painting, we went to Parkway to see the art show and to claim our prize!

Now going back to light painting.

When we got to the park, I was very excited to start working because the place looked really cool.

I started with some long exposures. The first thing that I got looked just like this. Also, there was a ship passing by so I wanted to see how it looks like in a light painting picture. So I took another long exposure picture of the ship and it looked just like this.

Okay then I tried one of the tricks that I used in this picture. What I did was I pressed the button and after about 25 to 30 second I zoomed in and out in a normal speed. The picture looked just like this.

Again I went back and used another trick. The same one that I used in this picture. And what I did was I pressed the button and then I waited for like 20 seconds then I tried to hide the camera lens and I changed the angle of the camera facing another place. I waited for about 10 to 15 seconds and I repeated the same step twice and facing different locations. After all that I got this picture.

Then I wanted to try different places in the park so I went to the children area where all kinds of toys are there. I started with simple stuff. I took the flash light and I simply moved it up and down through some openings and with a decent exposure. The first thing that I got looked just like this. Then I tried a different angle and I did the same thing and it looked just like this. After that, Chris C. joined me and we started trying another stuff. We’ve had a big light with us that was pretty good and pretty useful. We used the same place that I took this picture at but from an opposite angle. We shined the big light on one side and I used the small light and did the same thing that I did to the previous pictures. With a long exposure I got this picture. Then I moved to a different place and tried another thing. I tried to make an “electric picture” (that’s what I called it) and it looked just like this.

After that we moved to a different place and on the way there I stopped to take some other pictures of downtown. I took this picture with a normal exposure. Then I tried my hiding the lens trick again and I got these two pictures (1, 2).

It was a very fun day and a very successful day.

The reason for choosing this picture for this post is because I like the picture and also because it works just fine with the title of this post. So where are the lights coming from in this picture?

Lastly I want to point out that the pictures above are all work in progress and will never be finished.

You’re Never Finished

“You’re never finished in the Mac Lab!” – Mike Skocko/The Calm Before the Storm

These words keep repeating everyday in my life since I started working in the MacLab. The first time that I’ve heard of them they didn’t make that much sense to me. I was like, why would you not be done? What if there’s nothing else to add? What if you can’t think of something else? What if…What if…What if… Well, I kept thinking of that and after a while I knew what Skocko was trying to say. Art is never finished. Many stuff in life that we think are finished, they’re not. Many great examples are available all over the place. The best example that I’ve encountered in the past month is creating the 840 poster for the school.

When Skocko posted the job for the 840 poster on the jobs page, I was very excited to work on the poster. Chris C., Kyle W., Zack T. and I decided to work on an idea that Skocko brought up and that was approved by the admin. The idea was to create a poster based on this movie. The idea was perfect and we just had to start working.

After thinking about the idea, every one of us had a job to do. Chris C. and Kyle W. were to go and take a panorama picture of the school, field, and some other stuff needed for the poster like books. Zack T. was to work on building a full 3D downtown. I personally didn’t have anything to do and after a while I didn’t even know what the guys were doing and even how much was left of the poster.

Before about four days of the deadline I asked the guys about the poster and how they are doing and if they need any help. The good news were that Chris C. and Kyle W. had all the pictures needed for the poster. Zack T. was putting the “finish” touches on the buildings. At the same day the bad news came when the admin contacted Skocko and told him that the deadline was due after four days (Correct me if I’m wrong). After that I started working with the guys again and we actually got more stuff done when I joined them.

We started with the school. Chris C. and Kyle W. added some grunge texture to the school using Camera Raw and it looked good. I took the buildings from Zack T. and I rendered them and started working on their texture. I used the books picture that the guys took in the same picture with the buildings. I added a texture to the buildings and the books and they were ready to go on the first draft of the poster. (That was all done in about 12 hours)

After adding all the textures, we started putting the parts together. The first rough draft that we had was a good started that still don’t have an end. After putting the parts together we encountered a problem with the sky. Our sky was a “happy sky” said Skocko. We darkened the sky and the first print looked just like this. The admin liked the poster but we didn’t like the sky and we still had some glitches on the poster. We tried to add clouds to our poster and they actually looked good. We tried both kinds of clouds in Photoshop, normal clouds and difference clouds. We decided that the normal clouds looked much better than the difference clouds. We fixed the glitches that we had on the poster and it was ready to get printed and posted in every class in the school. We met the deadline but we still didn’t finish with the poster.

After adding the clouds and printing the poster, I left the job of looking for another background to Chris C.. I was looking on his progress and he actually did a good job with the poster. Kyle W. helped  him too. They both tried a different background. Chris C. had a picture of stars so he tried to put it on the poster. Well, the idea didn’t actually work and the poster looked just like this after adding the stars.

Until these days, the guys are still working on the poster and keep changing some stuff on it. After adding the stars, Chris C. and Kyle W. tried another background that is much better than the stars. They tried another picture that Chris took. The last version that we have now is the featured one. We are still working on some more stuff on the poster. We are trying to make it look as good as possible for next year!

We will always remember the weekend before the deadline and how we worked on the poster  just so we can achieve something that we would be proud of and more important, we want Skocko to be proud of our work on the poster.

Lastly I just want to say that no one is ever finished. We are never finished and will never be. The poster will always remain as a work in progress.

“You’re Never Finished.”