The Art of Tech

Andy Walker dot com

2005-11-18T12:34:00.000+11:00

First in a number of projects I've been designing for Andy Walker went live yesterday. Produced to coincide with the release of his new book, the site is intended to showcase Andy's many and varied talents as an author and tv host.

I've been getting plenty of feedback already, all of it positive, so I'm really pleased it's been received well.

Many more projects still to come, including a new version of Cyberwalker (get a sneak peek here), and a new Lab Rats site, where you can already see the new title graphics I produced for the vidcast.

Plenty mo' still to do, better get back to it.

The Big 3-0

2005-11-04T17:27:00.000+11:00

Celebrated my final night as a twenty-something last night with close friends and family. Great food and ale was enjoyed by all, a little too much perhaps, as I really paid for it this morning.

It's a milestone that really makes you look back and assess where you're at in life, and where you're heading. Now it's time to start thinking about where I'm going to be in another thirty years, and that's maybe a little scary.

In an effort to alleviate said fears, I found a funny list of 10 things you can expect after you turn 30. All I can say is, number one is undeniable, oh boy I'm grimacing at number five, and laughing my ass off at number eight.

Ok. So that laugh trailed off to a nervous chuckle in the end. ;)

iTunes Tuesday?

2005-10-23T17:42:00.000+10:00

I first read about the imminent arrival of iTunes on our shores, oooh about 6 months ago, mainly on Whirlpool which came and disappointingly went. A few months later, same thing... big rumors, zero result.

I'm hoping it's third time lucky, as the coverage about this latest rumor is fairly widespread, and the discussion on Slashdot has some juicy info that seem to indicate this time around it's the real deal.

One thing I *really* hope is possible using the store will be the ability to purchase TV shows, American shows I mean. No more waiting 6-12 months before it's on my screen.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but it would cap off one helluva month for Apple in my book.

New Sensation

2005-08-25T21:40:00.000+10:00

Not usually one for reality programming, I can proudly say I've never watched a single minute of Survivor, Big Brother, or any other tripe served up in the genre.

With one exception. Rock Star INXS has me hooked.

Why? Big INXS fan since waaaay back in the day, short answer. At first when I saw the promo's for the show I thought, "Ungh, sellouts." And I'll admit that it still is a little cheesy holding a competition to front one of Australia's most successful rock bands, but once I actually gave the show half a look, it got me in.

So after eight weeks, its down to the final six. The remaining performers I picked at the start to still be there at this stage, as they clearly are the most talented, Suzie, Ty, Mig, Marty, Jordis and JD. Of these six, the two I'd really like to see make it are Mig and Marty.

I gotsta support Mig, being the sole Aussie on the show, and I'd really like to see him win. Nice guy. Now, thats the patriot in me, let's hear from the pragmatist.

Marty should win, no argument. I think as far as the "total package" of a rockstar, attitude, application, and ability, he's got it all.

Last nights performance of "Dont Change" sinched it for me, check it out.

Google Maps Australia

2005-06-21T17:00:00.000+10:00

Looks like Google is now mapping Australia, or perhaps more correctly imaging Australia, at the moment only the satellite images are available.

Quality and coverage are pretty good, I was able to drag around the entire coastline with the slider at mid range. Fortunately my area was available at max zoom, can't say the same for the Sydney CBD. Most of the outer suburbs, with the exception of the North Shore, are crystal clear.

For more interesting stuff you can find on Google Maps, check out Google Sightseeing

Theres a Bad Moon on the Rise... maybe

2005-06-07T07:38:00.000+10:00

Did anyone else feel the collective shudder of Mac users around the world this morning?

Steve's announcement at the WWDC wasn't exactly unexpected, for days now we've all been expecting the news that Apple was to join forces with Intel.

When the cards were finally laid on the table, turns out Jobs wasn't bluffing. I just don't know how pleased I was to see the hand.

No, I'm not exactly thrilled at the announcement, but I don't think it's quite the end of the Mac as I've heard from a number of speculators.

What will this do for Apple sales for the next year? Hmm... Die hard Mac fans definitely wont be buying anytime soon, myself being one of them.

For the mean time, I'll continue to enjoy my virus and spyware free operating system. We'll all just have to wait and see over the coming weeks and months how smooth this transition will be.

*crosses fingers*

Review of the Sith

2005-05-26T12:30:00.000+10:00

No doubt you've already seen it, read some other review, or at least heard that its good, well better than the first two prequels.

Well I'm glad to say my expectations built up by the hype were almost completely satisfied. The first twenty minutes had me worried at first, lots of style but very little substance. However, once the story kicks in to the main arc, that of Anakin's transformation into Vader, it had me hooked.

Acting wise, it left a little to be desired, the occassional cheesy line didn't help, but this is only a minor quibble.

Highlights of the film for me was the battle scenes between Darth Sidius and Yoda, and Obi Wan and Grievous. (I was really interested in seeing this character after watching Clone Wars on Cartoon Network). Also, the deep frying of two droids by R2, drew a giggle out of me.

It also dove tails everything fairly nicely into Episode IV, the birth of the twins and their respective upbringings, how the Empire comes into being, and of course how Vader becomes half man, half robot. (Was it just me or did Vader look wimpy and small?)

Anyway, if you haven't been to see it yet, get to a cinema now and watch it, I can pretty much guarantee that if you're a true fan you wont be disappointed.

Skywalker's Last Supper

2005-05-23T10:57:00.000+10:00

Any Star Wars fan will love this.

Facelift

2005-05-21T17:30:00.000+10:00

New look for the blog, using Zeldman's Mr Moto template, with a few tweaks.

If you're wondering why this is my only post in almost two months, here's my excuse. The first few weeks my ISP was having all kinds of DNS problems, and my time online was dramatically reduced as basically the web was pretty much unusable.

Following that, it's been design review season for a t-shirt manufacturer I freelance for, and that has basically taken up 99.9% of my life, as it's a major earner that only happens once a year.

So there's a recap of what I've been up to... but what of the big bad world of technology?

Two major pieces of software hit the market during my down time, the new Creative Suite 2 from Adobe, and of course, the mighty Tiger has been unleashed by Apple. Trouble is, I've yet to upgrade to either of these. All good things...

More posts to come in the following weeks. Promise. :D

Visiting Springfield - Part III

2005-04-03T06:42:00.000+10:00

A little while back now, I churned out quite a few Simpsons illustrations for the crew at Call for Help, and now that Mikey has been doing regular segments on the show I thought it was time to immortalise him in the same way.

I should animate this one, if we can't see the real Mikey doing the Buttercup dance, maybe his illustrated version can! :)

TV is a fickle mistress

2005-03-29T10:17:00.000+10:00

I'll admit that I'm a television junkie, fanatic even.

You can understand then, my annoyance at having missed my favourite show last night, Dead Like Me due to an extended dinner engagement. Even missed the timeshifted replay. But I digress...

As I loathe spoilers, I've avoided fansites and the like for the show until now, so I Googled up a few pages to get a review of the episode.

Shock horror.

To my dismay, it appears as though Dead Like Me, is dead in the water, with MGM cancelling the series after just two seasons.

I'd sign the petition to save the show if I knew it would do any good, but I know it's pointless so I'm venting my anger here. Again, futile, but it makes me feel a little better. At least I have the rest of the first season and another one to come to ease the pain.

Who knows? Maybe the show really did go downhill and deserved to be canned, but from the first few eps I've seen its been peerless in its writing and acting, imho anyway.

The wait is over...

2005-03-08T08:21:00.000+11:00

Heres a quick little illustration I whipped up to commemorate the long awaited return of Call for Help to Australian audiences.

Coincidentally, its just over one year ago that we got our first taste of quality tech programming, only to lose it a few months later.

Well, that wrong was finally corrected yesterday at 2:30pm EDST, with the premiere episode of CFH on the How-To Channel.

With such a loyal fanbase on both sides of The Pond, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the show gets picked up in the States. Hang in there guys. :)

Fontastic!

2005-03-06T11:05:00.000+11:00

If you've read any of my previous entries, you know how much I like finding sites that give stuff away, or at least point you in the right direction.

Well I came across Fontleech this morning, a blog that takes the hard work out of finding quality fonts, best of all, they're free. So if you need some fresh fonts to add to your collection, as I do, get clicking, there's some awesome links to be found.

In fact, it's replaced DaFont as my fav font site, with a little commentary about each entry helps me to decide whether its worth the time to visit.

Now to go organise all these new goodies and see how well they play between Flash and Illustrator, some work in one and not the other. Annoying.

Colorstrology

2005-02-16T09:11:00.000+11:00

Came across this site while doing a little browsing this morning. "Colorstrology" is like a colour zodiac, your birthdate is related to a certain colour in the Pantone range (heh, so its just a blatant gimmick, but its still fun.)

"American Beauty" is my birth colour, and the personality description the site provides is uncannilly accurate.

Just something I had 30 seconds of fun with, thought it was blogworthy.

Life is Random?

2005-02-11T10:13:00.000+11:00

Pretty lame slogan from Apple if you asked me.

Didn't prevent me buying an iPod Shuffle tho. My only gripe is the cap for the USB connector, a sliding cap ala many other USB keys would have been the go. Oh well, its still $219 well spent, I dont have a huge music collection, so the Shuffle doubles as a spare mini-drive.

Wishfully thinking (very), but I'd hoped that my frivilous purchase might've been paid for with proceeds from a winning entry I submitted to threadless (see below). Alas, they were both overlooked. S'ok, Im not suprised really, the standard of entries there is so high, and my entries werent exactly my best work (never give your A-material away ;) ). It was a good exercise to guage how the whole process works. I'll do a few more entries when I get the motivation.

My personal site is about another two weeks to a month from a proper launch, just depends how busy other people are keeping me atm.

No rest for the wicked.

Cool threads

2005-02-01T08:31:00.000+11:00

These two designs are my inital submissions to threadless. It's an ongoing t-shirt design comp, entries are voted on by you, the general public, and after seven days a winner is chosen from the submissions received.

If you feel so inclined, click either image to cast a vote for my designs, or leave a comment about them. All feedback is gladly welcomed.
Even if you dont vote, take a quick browse around the site, there's some truly unique tees available there, cheap too. :)

Burn for You

2005-01-31T13:35:00.000+11:00

Seeing as XML feeds are becoming more and more popular, I've decided to start using Feedburner to see how many readers I have. Suprising it was, to me, just how many people read this self promotional rantfest.

If you look at the bottom of the sidebar, you'll see a little orange XML button, copy this link and paste it in your favourite newsreader to subscribe to my feed.

Work continues on Dreamstate, albeit slowly. Hopefully, once I clear the backlog of work I have from taking time off, I can focus entirely on developing it more.

There just doesnt seem to be enough hours in a day anymore. *sigh*

Dreamweaving

2005-01-25T10:50:00.000+11:00

Well, I didnt touch Dreamweaver to build it, but I kinda thought the title was appropriate.

Dreamstate is my new personal site, freshly baked yesterday. For now its a simple contact and bio page, with a few extras I kept and updated from my old site. Like the blog, it'll be a work that evolves and changes as I get the time.

Forgot to mention also, that Im so glad that someone in Australia had sense enough to pick up Call for Help. Starts March 7.

And how nuts is everyone going over Mac Mini? It wont meet my needs, so I wont be purchasing one, but it sure will be one hot item for Apple, I'm positive.

Can you say, halo effect?

Reality Bites

2005-01-23T22:42:00.000+11:00

Well as you can see, Im back home, and yes I do have a killer tan. Hope that isnt literal. I dont want to ramble on too much, so I'll try and keep the outline of our trip succinct.

First five days were spent on Waikiki, the vast majority of daylight hours spent at the Aston Waikiki poolbar, at night usually a few drinks at Dukes then quiet dinner, my favourite place (still) being Tanaka of Tokyo, where I first discovered sashimi many years ago.

Visited a few of the touristy places, but it just didnt interest me the second, or third time around in some cases. We did do a Diamond Head climb on day three which was a new thing for me, but honestly... I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel once we finished the climb.

Another first was a visit to the Apple Store in the Ala Moana Shopping Centre, I say a first because of the fact there isnt a real Apple Store in Australia yet. I would have loved to attend on Macworld Keynote day, our itinerary didnt allow it though.

After spending five days in Waikiki, we relocated to the North Shore, to the Turtle Bay Resort. Most days here began with a quick eighteen holes, then a swim and more relaxing with beer in hand. Night time was a little quiet, but we managed to find ways to keep ourselves amused.

In a nutshell, or should that be a coconut shell, thats the trip. So yeah, we didnt exactly cover the full gamut of activities at our disposal, but that to me is what makes a holiday, unplugging and doing only what you really want to do.

Gone Fishin'

2005-01-03T11:40:00.000+11:00

Now that the business end of the year is out of the way, its time to put down the stylus, shutdown the computer, and take a well deserved break.

Ill be spending the next ten days in beautiful Hawaii, soaking up the sun, shopping, and basically letting the hair down like I haven't done in a long time.

Full report on my return, for now I say "mahalo" and see you in just over a week, (with a much better tan).

Three Wishes

2004-12-01T11:02:00.000+11:00

Meet the Web Genie, here today to grant you three wishes.

That is, if theyre good enough.

You see, you don't just give away wishes at the drop of a turban.

Your wishes have to be clever, witty and above all self-indulgent. If they arent, go find Aladdin or that blonde from that crap 70's TV show, maybe they can help you.

So go ahead, submit them in a comment below and before you can say "open sesame" your wishes might just be granted.

(Author's note: This is a gimmicky thing I thought up for my old personal site way back in the day, thought it was an easy way to apply the idea via comments, rather than the fidly cgi scripts I had to deal with.)

Let Freedom Reign

2004-11-27T20:16:00.000+11:00

Dont know about you, but I pay for nothing, I mean ::nothing:: online. Freedom of information and all that.

Sure, I shop online, though not regularly (only if its a real bargain I'll snap it up online), however the moment I see a "Subscribe now for $x"... Im gone.

The point Im getting to here, is how hard it's becoming lately to find free applications online. Being a Mac user, I regularly check both macupdate.com and versiontracker.com and six months ago, the vast majority of software appearing on those lists daily, was freeware.

Lately though, theres an abundance of shareware apps, of which, a vast majority are front ends to things that are built right into OS X. Dont get me wrong, I well realise the efforts of software writers needs renumeration, I'm objecting to the slew of writers nowadays who are bending the rules, writing "phone home" lines into their code, and generally being right pricks by abusing open source code, and incorporating it into their own shareware apps.

So maybe Im being to "shiny" and "happy" and wanting to live in a perfect, free world. Granted.

Just knock off the stealing of free code, and promoting (and profiteering from) it as your own work.

Love My Way

2004-11-23T10:47:00.000+11:00

Took time out from a major project Im working on at the moment to kick back and watch a little TV last night.

Wasnt much on the movie channels, so I flicked over to Fox8 and caught their new production, "Love My Way". Usually, I wouldnt dedicate a blog entry to a TV show... this one deserves it though.

Its a tale that basically revolves around two young Australian "couples"... well, couples not really being the correct term, as only two of the characters are actually together... its complicated.

Anyway... I wont rabble on about what actually happened in the show, just wanted to relate how effectively I thought the production captured the thoughts and emotions of people my age, twenty-thirtysomethings and how their lives are at a kind of crossroads... getting married, starting a family etc.

Its about the most "honest" Australian drama Ive ever watched. That's saying something, as Im not really a big TV person.

Well... not since they canned Angel and Buffy, but thats another rant, for another day.

Unwired

2004-11-08T23:17:00.000+11:00

Gotta love wireless internet. Using the Dual G4 thats upstairs, Im streaming my iTunes library, watching a web cam, and of course, blogging, all with no messy ethernet cables in the way. I could get used to this.

Wait, I am already.

Condusive to time wasting tho, with the couch being more comfy than the office chair Im chained to usually, and all that.

Meh, like time is relevant anyway.

Going Walkabout

2004-11-08T14:43:00.000+11:00

I need a holiday, bigtime.

Last holiday I took was back in 2001, unlike the average Joe nine-to-fiver, I cant just up and take annual leave. Being your own boss has its drawbacks too.

So I am going to bite the bullet, and splurge a little. Ive earned it, I reckon.

Pencilled in for early January... destination? Well I wont say. I'll blog it when the time comes. ;)

Easy

2004-11-07T12:49:00.000+11:00

...like Sunday morning. Well ok, afternoon.

So after all the fun and games of last week, with the Cup on Tuesday and the birthday celebrations Thursday night, I'm taking it easy (theres that word again) this weekend, curled up on the lounge with the iBook and the Austar remote.

btw, if anyone from Austar is reading this... wheres my freaking new remote!? 8 weeks my arse.

Sheesh.

Ok, I'm calm now.

I hear Sony's releasing a new internet powered tv sometime next year, it'll be interesting to see what the content on offer is, though Im assuming it will be a subscription service. If it stacks up, Ill drop Austar in a heartbeat, their slack customer service record thoroughly intact.

Anyways, back to TV Land I go.

Burning the Candle

2004-11-05T14:11:00.000+11:00

Celebrated my 29th birthday last night.

Still recovering at 2pm.

So you'll forgive this briefness of this entry.

Visiting Springfield Part II

2004-10-30T14:04:00.000+10:00

Well Part III really, if you consider that this is the third CFH crew member to be Simpsonised.

Shirt colour gave me all kinds of grief, the colour combo was difficult to line up, while remaining semi-faithful to the set design. I also have another version with a dark red number that looks neat too.

Now to combine all three figures in the one image.

Later, though. Going to be flat out next week with my own thing.

Visiting Springfield

2004-10-27T13:23:00.000+10:00

Second in a series of three works, I present, Andy Walker-Simpson, in his nook on CFH.

Just the one point of note in this image, the character on the plasma display, Simpsons fans will no doubt recognise as Comic Book Store Guy. Fans of the series, may also recall the episode where CBSG, calls Homer with an enquiry about his "token-ring LAN configuration"

This is displayed on the CFH graphics at the bottom of the plasma, tho, of course you cannot read it at this resolution.

Only one crew member left to visit Springfield.

Family Ties

2004-10-23T09:21:00.000+10:00

With access to some better than average digital imaging equipment, I'm often asked by friends and family to scan, or digitally shoot [insert name of subject here].

Of course, I don't mind helping out in the slightest, a recent job for a family member was photographing and digitally correcting a folio of hand painted and drawn works. Interesting work, as I enjoy taking "analogue" works and presenting them in their best light, digitally.

After half a days work, a small section of the folio was compiled, and ready in pdf form. *sighs* :)

And it goes without saying... for love, not money.

Red Tape

2004-10-19T19:39:00.000+10:00

Gah. Paperwork.

Bane of my existance. Crusher of the soul. Seems I'm doing an awful lot of it lately.

At least as I sit down this evening to type this, Im pretty much up to date with it all. Time to get back to more constructive projects, of which I am juggling many at the moment.

Working on a new icon bundle, watch for it soon.

Mirror Images

2004-10-18T11:54:00.000+10:00

Throughout many years of using Illustrator, and producing character after character, cartoon after cartoon, I have never taken the time to try a self portrait.

Many artistic liberties have been taken in this image, tho not with the characature, of yours truly. These include, the iMac G5 in the background, no I do not own one of these, rather a Dual G4 MDD should be in its place, I was lazy and used the iMac from a previous image. Plus the Wacom, I dont own one of these either, only have one on permanent loan from a friend.

FYI: No Wacom's were used in the production of this artwork.

Slipstream

2004-10-16T13:54:00.000+10:00

Dont let the date deceive you, its actually Saturday afternoon here as I type this.

What a day its been too, great breakfast with friends, stroll into town to do a little shopping, and back home to... more work.

Great.

Well at least its a good day to be working, being in a positive frame of mind helps immensely when you are trying to be creative. Coffee, in copious amounts helps too.

I best head back to the grindstone, first stage of my project is complete, the easy bit out of the way. Now comes the more demanding aspects of animation and interface design.

Oh joy.

Breakthrough

2004-10-15T07:00:00.001+10:00

*BLAM* *pump* *BLAM*

Sorry, just pumping a couple into that monkey thats been on my back the last day or so. One cartridge for the iBook, the other for the folio. Making a start is always the hardest step for moi.

So now I have a full weekend, with no interruptions with which to dive headfirst into this new project of mine. Well no foreseeable interruptions anyway. No doubt I will be hassled mercilessly throughout those two days.

No rest for the wicked.

Murphy's Law

2004-10-14T13:46:00.000+10:00

What can go wrong, will.

If you have an iBookG4, as I do, I dont recommend upgrading to the new version of the Airport software. At least in my experience, it kills your internet connectivity.

Thanks to this little slip up, Im now spending the better half of the day going right back to scratch and re-installing Panther from scratch. Overkill? Maybe. Ill have a fresh fast, system in the end, is all Ill say in my defence.

This means all other projects are on hold at the moment, a tradesman needs his tools in tip top shape to produce quality work. Ok... so its another excuse to avoid that Sword hanging over my head, but its a legitimate excuse nonetheless.

Sword of Damocles

2004-10-13T07:19:00.000+10:00

Ever get that feeling, that you know you should be doing something, and you know what that something is.

You just dont... really... want... to do it.

My geas, at the moment, is compiling a new folio. This, usually, is a simple task for me, as in the past Ive been fairly regimented in keeping it up to date.

Laxness, as always it seems with yours truly, has crept in, and I now find myself faced with collating nearly eighteen months worth of works. This is no easy task, and one, at the moment, Im loathe to undertake.

It must be done however, and typing at this blog isn't achieving that end.

Time to knuckle down, sport.

Genesis

2004-10-12T14:21:00.000+10:00

And he saw that it was good.

All things have an origin, and these words you are now reading, mark the beginning of a new endeavour, for me.

I've decided to use this blog, to communicate the thoughts behind my artwork, sharing the frustrations and successes I achieve in each work.

I'll kick this off, with the latest piece Ive turned out, "Le Trio Nouveau" for the crew at Call for Help.

This was actually a fairly easy work to put together, because of the fact I had both Leo and Andy already completed, from the previous work. These two characters simply needed a change of wardrobe.

Amber, presented more of a challenge. The base model of Monica was used, but it has changed so dramatically, it may have been just as quick to start from scratch.

My favourite things in the piece...

The eye-shadow, above Ambers eyes, new trick I will be applying to all my future illustrations. And the Powerbook, that little apple dingbat came in really handy there.

The only thing I dont like about the piece, and can't really be helped, is the stools. They make the piece seem a little "busy" and detract from the main focus, which is the three characters, of course.

All in all tho, I am very much pleased at the results, moreso than the original Trio image.