This blog now has a new domain, http://mygraphics.gumerliston.info/

I hope this will get it back to life. It will be Christmas break so I will have time to do some graphics again and post them here. I hope so :)



It's been a while since the last time I fooled around with a Flash authoring software. Early this evening I found my self launching one of my favorite software, KoolMoves. This software, and Adobe Flash, are my main choice when it comes to creating anything that is Flash. I like this software because even if it is quiet small it is powerful enough, you can make little applications and games with it if you are really good with actionscript.

The screen shot above shows an imaginary Flash website. I did not really plan it, I just sort of go directly to the lay-outing and then I look at some available images and then just slapped them all together in the layout. The image of a laughing child in the header is of my son, taken just this afternoon. It took about a couple of hours to finish the small website. It is all flash but it loads quiet fast because I made it light. Some of the buttons do not function yet, but the important one function. Click on the screen shot above to go to the actual Flash website or click here.





The electric guitar is a simple musical instrument but when placed in the hands of an accomplished musician it could reach out to you as if it has a magical hand that could go deep into the center of the labyrinth of your heart and touch your soul. At least that's the way I see it. Some people don't see it that way. I remember one very late night many years ago, I laid in bed listening to the strains of the sound of a distant neighbor's radio. I could barely hear the voice of the singer and the sound of other instruments but I could distinctly hear the sound of the guitar, a clean tone floating in the air, wafted into my open window and into my ears by a gentle breeze. The song was Dire Strait's Sultans of Swing. The guitar playing of Mark Knopfler was as powerful as the lyrics. It was only then that I understood fully the meaning of that song.

The above image is the result of a couple of hours of fiddling with Adobe Photoshop. Yes, it took me long two hours to finish it. This image comes from two photos I got from the net shown below.




I was quiet a sucker for surrealism when I was younger (that was ten or so years ago). In 1997 I painted a surrealist desert sunset complete with a violin-playing cactus under a violently swirling clouds. It took me a month to finish that painting.

Now, it only took me about 30 minutes to finish the image above with Adobe Photoshop. It is just random. I just downloaded some free stock images and just let my mood flow. After 30 or so minutes I came up with this one. The original images I used are shown below :


No special effects were used there, just the ever reliable Lasso tool, Move tool, and a simple Render effect to get the right lighting for the windows.



I discovered Anim8or in 2003. This little free 3D authoring software is small but it can do big things. Only 900 KB but it can do modeling, animating, and rendering. I created the image below the day I stumbled upon Anim8or, that was five years ago. If you are an experienced 3D artist you will see that it only takes a very basic knowledge of 3D modeling to create an image like this. All I used to model the lamp were lathing and this is the easiest method of creating objects. I also rendered this image with Anim8or. I am very thankful to Anim8or because it opened the door to 3D modeling to me. Had it been another 3D authoring software that I discovered I would have been intimidated with the difficulty of creating 3D models and would have dismissed 3D modeling.




I like fooling around with graphics software. Among my favorites are Adobe Photoshop, KoolMoves, Anim8or, 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign. I need a space where I could put my little digital creations so I started this blog. I am also encouraging my wife to fiddle away with graphics so you will also see some of her works here every now and then.

I am also into digital music creation so sometimes I may feel like putting some of my music here. I chose the name Violet Moon because it sounds good to me and suggests a journey to another time or another world. For me digital art creation is a journey to a different time and world, a world that can only live in the mind of the artist. I want to share this world with others.


 

K2 Modify 2007 | Use it. But don't abuse it.