Trying out New Things

Recently, I switched computers at work. The one that I'm using now is like...eleventy times better than the one I used to work on, mainly because it has CS5 on it. Now I know, I'm not usually swayed by fancy new features and stuff. I still use CS3 at home because it works fine, and my pc can handle it.

Anyway, today I did a little experiment with the mixer brushes, which is a brand spanking new feature. (Along with many many other things)Don't get excited, this is the base layer. I picked it because it's got a whole bunch of different colors and I wanted to see how they would mix together (and whether Adobe would impress me)
Here's what it looked like after going at it with the mixer brush. Bear in mind that I left my wacom tablet at home, so this was done with the mouse.


And then I kinda lost the plot and made some swirly lines. I really like how the colors blended though (the purple and gray as well as the orange and yellow). Now I just need to find an excuse to use the mixer brush more.

All the Toys and the Tools in the Barn couldn't get you off

Yes, I know that it is a Time Travelling comic. I am tired =_=

Todays comic inspired by this clip here. Seriously, the shit they're putting into CS5 both amazes and scares me at the same time.

On one hand, it looks amazingly well done (Although as Wilson pointed out to me today, they seem awfully proud of their "algorithms" whereas as designers we're more interested in art. I like to think of it as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hey, you got jelly in my sandwich. No, you got peanut butter in my jelly. Together though, they are awesome. This bracketed thought is getting too long) on the other hand, it would make my job about twelve times easier.

And if it becomes super easy to do all the hard shit...nah, that's just me wanting to be special I guess.

For work, I'm still using CS3 both at home and at the office. And to be completely honest with you, I still use InDesign CS at home. I haven't seen any reason to get any other version to be honest. It's like, oh look, InDesign CS3, you use it to lay out pages. Still.

In conclusion, I would like to direct your browser to these clips here. They are indeed lol-worthy.

Block! Block! Block!

Crash the Party

Don't go into the long grass.

Not photoshopped at all

I mean, why would i photoshop something like that? 

Wish you were here

photoshop and world of warcraft, my two favorite games.

Convulsion Enter! Special Style!

yarrr mateys, this post be long and has many a picture in it. if you have difficulty in reading pictures, consider yerself warned.

so, a couple of days ago i was wandering about the MHCC with some friends when i came across this box. what actually caught my eye, was what i thought was a dwarf from WoW ( you have to keep an aye on the kneebiters y'know). i was shocked, flabbergasted even, when i saw that the dwarf was wearing an eyepatch and a pirate hat.

what was this wonderful product? i wondered. has Blizzard made some new action figures with pirate dwarves? where was the horde set? i want my blood elf buccaneers! i quickly grabbed the box from the shelf and read the label.


that's right, Convulsions Enter, Special Style indeed. it might have been at that point when i realized that this maybe, just maybe, wasn't a licensed Warcraft product. in fact, this had nothing to do with warcraft at all, and someone had just photoshopped a pirate hat and eyepatch onna picture of a dwarf. i was saddened.

and then i read the back of the box.

the text is a bit blurry, but basically reads:
Convulsion enter, funny special style good luck. Completely new to come in to the market, collect of all kinds of pirates and vehicles to enjoy a wonderful pirates garden.

i don't know what a pirates garden would look like, but i bet it would be awesome.

the box also had an image of a lich from Warcraft 3 on it, and the Pirates of the Caribbean skull. Liches, to the extent of my knowledge of necromancy, are not nautical, and do not convulse in a special style.

i can't say i was tempted to buy it, but i do feel sorry for kids who get this stuff bought for them. you know, like when you get that spiderman action figure, where the designs and stuff are painted on funny, and fall apart after five minutes of play.

after scouring the internet (a grueling task) i managed to find the original image of the alledged pirate dwarf, and using my photoshop skills, arrange a comparison.
i don't know about you, but thats some photoshop skill right there. you know, pasting a pirate hat and eyepatch onto something isnt as easy as it may sound. to prove this, i decided to make a picture of a pirate kitten. it took me several hours of painstaking sketching, inking, re-inking, scanning and digital painting, to create this:

i can only imagine what the graphic artists at Pirates Legends went through.

Thanks to John for the use of his camera!