The Iona team and myself as the Lead Designer recently completed an interactive design for Richland Community College’s Center for Sustainability and Innovation Building (CSI Building). The interactive was to convey key concepts related to the green CSI Building and its use of SMART building technology. The Iona team of Jeanne Foster, Mark Tovey, and Jeff Idleman brought their expertise to the project. Having such a great team allowed Iona to achieve a successful solution to the client’s needs on the Define and Design phase of the project. The “big idea” of the project was to create a sustainable, innovative community-regionally through interactive media.

The two key points and objectives of the project were to demonstrate how the CSI Building meets the LEED criteria. In addition, it was to demonstrate some of the career skills and people who worked together to make the CSI Building. The client was very adamant in having a “wow” factor. We created the following milestones to meet the client’s objectives:

•Strategic Plan – Define the purposes of the interactive, identify key messages to be developed, identify the communication goals to be achieved, identify the audience, define how the new programs will support Richland’s long term goals, identify the results expected from the interactive and how they will be measured.

•High-Level Design – Determine conceptual design. Identify narrative story lines that will be developed. Identify the “look and feel” that should be used. This will include: fonts, color and other graphic standard issues; music, narration, screen composition, navigation, user interface styles, etc.

•Content Outline – Define project content and assets and how they will be formatted for these presentations.

•Navigation Outline – Organize the content and outline a navigational structure.

Iona suggested that Richland Community College would use higher media production values and enhanced interactivity to increase the dramatic impact of the display. This approach will add video commentaries by virtual guides to increase the human aspect of the interpretation. In addition, this would be complemented by allowing visitors to manipulate high-resolution images of certain key features by dragging the images with their fingers and zooming in for greater detail. The project will be created in Flash and will use CMS plug-ins for the image manipulation interaction. In addition, the project will use Flash video to provide testimonials and key green features of the building.

Overall, the project was well received and gave Iona the chance to really use our 4D Process to its greatest achievement. Below are some of the Graphical User Interface Designs from the project.

I think it is good for a designer to go back to her roots. I recently have spent much of my time designing interactives, editing video and creating motion graphics. I think when anyone breaks the pattern from the current media they are working on, it can help foster creativity. Recently, The Iona Group has begun redesigning some of their collateral materials. Being the Lead Designer at Iona, I accepted the challenge. I created a new design that corresponds to the current branding. The Iona Group has always had a simplified, geometric look and feel to their design. The classic simple-to-complex design philosophy is portrayed in Iona’s identity. The design shown here mimics how simple shapes can create complex forms. In geometry, a dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces, which results in a simple shape that creates a complex form. I took this concept and created Iona’s 2010 success factors as a three-dimensional infographic. The infographic describes the success factors of the year based upon Iona’s 4Cs (clients, company, coworkers, community). I wanted to create a design that was fun yet cohesive in order to represent how all of the 2010 success factors are equal and rely upon one another. I also have included below some additional collateral that I have created for a proposal cover. I wanted to create depth to our new collateral by not only creating a three-dimensional object but also through subtle gradients. Look forward for more to come.

Robot Beach Review over at Tall Tale Features

The Gang over at Tall Tale Features have just finished completely re-working their website and have started a feature where they review one webcomic every week, and I am flattered that they have chosen to start things off with a nice, in-depth review of my little strip!

David Reddick, Norm Feuti, and Scott Metzger all contributed to the review. These three are extremely talented and established cartoonists in their own right, and it is a huge honor to get an honest critique from them. They had a lot of good things to say, and some very fair criticism as well. I will be sure to keep it their words in mind as I work to improve my strip. Be sure to head on over to the new Tall Tale Features site and check out the review! And leave a comment letting them know how much their thoughts are appreciated.

In other news, I did a little test this weekend to see how I liked drawing my strip live on Ustream. Turns out it works pretty well, and so I have decided to make a regular event of it. I will be drawing live every Saturday starting at 10:00 pm eastern. Feel free to swing on by my Ustream channel and say hi!

Machinarium

If your like me, (and I know you are) then you love robots. You also probably really love very finely crafted experiences that center around robots. If this is the case, then you are sure to love Machinarium. It is one of the most beautiful and meticulously created games I have played in a long while.

CGSociety has a very nice interview with Jakub Dvorský who was a chief designer for the game. He says:

“We felt we needed something warm with visible human touch in it to create a contrast to that robotic world that the character goes into, so we came up with an idea of hand-drawn backgrounds which are scanned and finished in Photoshop. Also the animations are mostly hand-animated frame by frame, the sounds effects live recorded and the music full of live instruments.”

The amount of time necessary to create a game in that manner is rather insane. It could be so easy (and must be terribly tempting) to use more “cost effective” methods for creating the art and animation, yet it is this carefully hand-crafted approach that gives the game it’s character and sets it apart from most everything else. It is really a marvel to consider the time and energy that went into the creation of this game.

Check out the interview, and please be sure to check out Machinarium as well.

Help the Hodges

The cartooning and animation communities recently banned together to help the family of Tim Hodge, a former Disney animator and a writer and director on the very popular Veggie Tales series. I don’t know Tim personally, but being a big fan of animation, and a HUGE Veggie Tales fan, his work has influenced me greatly over the years. I got to meet him when he came to speak at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and I was blown away by his enthusiasm and excitement in sharing his passion for art and animation with others.

Now we have an opportunity to help him and his family during a serious time of need. The following is from helpthehodges.com

On August 22, 2009 Matthew Hodge, the 17-year-old son of former Disney story artist and Big Idea productions director Tim Hodge, was in a serious auto accident. A train struck his car at 50mph as he was crossing the tracks. While Matt suffered neither broken bones nor any internal organ damage, he did receive severe head trauma causing him to remain in a state of coma today. Matt is a high school senior, a straight A student, and a drummer in his state championship marching band.

Being self-employed, the Hodge family has short term medical insurance that will not fully cover all of their bills. Additionally, with the care they are giving Matt, full-time work is not possible for Tim right now. This loving family is relying on their faith and the love of family and friends for their survival. This is a tragic accident that will forever affect their lives as the road to recovery for Matt may be a long one.

The National Cartoonist Society Foundation has set up an ebay auction in support of this cause. The list of contributing artists is too many to list here but many of the items for auction are simply amazing! (Original Charlie Brown art drawn by Charles Schulz anyone?) I highly encourage everyone to head over to helpthehodges.com for more information on how you can help today.

2010: The Year We Make Comics

Well, 2010 is going to be an amazing time for Robot Beach and I wanted to share my plans for the coming year with all of you.

In addition to the comic, I will be creating a series of animated shorts for Robot Beach! Now, many of you probably already know this, but Robot Beach started its life as an idea for an animated series I had planned on creating over a number of years. I eventually came to my senses and decided that the story was just to big and the amount of work that would be involved was just to great for an animated series to work. So why the change now?

Well, It all comes down to concentrating my attention in the proper areas. The comic allows me to tell great jokes and a great story in a manner that works very well with the medium. However, with animation, I can deliver physical gags and humor that would be harder to convey on “paper”. To be clear, Robot Beach is first and foremost a comic. Always will be. The animation will never take the place of the comic. They are meant to be a nice little addition to the “Robot Beach” world that I am creating here.

The animated shorts I have planned will be 15 to 30 seconds a piece and done in a style that matches the comic very closely. The animation software I plan on using mostly is After Effects, (Although I would like to get my hands on a copy of Toon Boom and give that a try.) Depending on how much efficiency I can build into the process, I am hoping to get an animation released at least once every two months if not more often. Before I can start on any of this though, I have another personal project that I am going to need to get out of the way first.

All in all, it looks to be an exciting year for Robot Beach in 2010! I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I am sure I will!

This year I taught Introduction to Interactive Media at Bradley University. As each year progresses, I always have some driven students who exceed expectations on all of the projects. I have a few examples from some of my exemplary students below:

One of the project’s criteria was to create a composition using Adobe Photoshop to design a CD cover (just the front cover). The cover could be for an existing recording, or make one up. The design had to include text effects created in Adobe Photoshop, scanned objects and artwork.

Another project’s criteria was to create a self-portrait using Adobe Illustrator. Starting with a photograph, the students had to use vector-based graphic and text elements to recreate the image, giving the viewer a little more insight into the person they are and who they portray themselves to be.

The final project of the semester was for students to create their own personal website. Many of the students used a combination of web techniques. The students had to use Dreamweaver and CSS. Here are some examples of the websites that the student’s created:

http://justinrestaino.com/
http://www.silvernewedge.com/

In addition, Bradley University recently launched a new Curriculum program. The program specializes in three different program areas. These three areas will be available as different concentration for Interactive Media majors.

Animation and Visual Effects – the production of digital character animation and visual effects for film, television, animation and game cinematics.

Game Design – the design and media elements of console, computer and mobile games and the production of games.

Web and Application Design – the creation of rich Internet rich Internet and mobile applications, experience design and web development.

http://slane.bradley.edu/interactive-media

I look forward to the next semester, knowing that the students will continue to exceed my expectations.

The last weekend was quite a rush of activity as we worked to complete our installation of Audimeter-001 in the show. Brock, Katy and I worked to complete a piece that addressed the themes of surveillance and a fictional piece of Nielsen company technology. The following is the text from a didactic panel that accompanied our work.

“Interactive Media 413 class is a project-oriented course that allows students to participate in the creation of interactive performances and exhibits. The class has worked on four distinct projects over the course of the semester. This exhibit titled, Paged, Staged, Engaged was curated by class members Brock Norman and Katy Otto in conjunction with Professors Jim Ferolo (Interactive Media Program) and Kevin Stein (English Department), the students also created a piece, Audimeter-001 with Jim Ferolo for the exhibition The concept for this project grew from Jim talking with Kevin, who is the Poet Laureate for the State of Illinois. They became very interested in exploring the intersection of poetry and new media and came up with the idea of producing an exhibition. They decided to center on the production of a series of new media and traditional media works that explore a single poem. The piece they decided to use is titled “On Being a Nielsen Family.” The two students involved in this project, Brock Norman and Katy Otto, were given the task of not only creating the media and physical aspects needed for this piece with Professor Ferolo, but also were in charge of coordinating the show with the other artists involved as well as Liz Kaufmann, the gallery director. Focusing on the concept of surveillance, the idea started out simple enough, but quickly changed and grew as equipment changed and ideas for media evolved. Brock took on the task of building the physical aspects of the project, while Katy worked to organize the gallery so that all of the artists could set up their pieces. The students worked together with Jim to shoot the video content on a green screen along with support from the Iona Group and technical consulting by Dave Lennie. The Audimeter Model-001 installation is the result of this semester’s hard work. Thank you to everyone who supported this installation effort: Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, George Brown, Dean Jeff Huberman, Elizabeth Kauffman, Paul Krainik, Carrie Kroenke, Dave Lennie, Mark Lohman, Cory Rabe, Trudy Ruch, and Joan Wilhelm.



I recently designed and created the graphics for a music video that was shot for the local musical talent Bob Krouse. He is a cowboy balladeer music star that is trying to break it big into the music business. The talented Jim Conover of Sand Prairie Productions from Peoria, Illinois directed the video. The video was filmed and edited here in the local Peoria area by Reality’s End Films. The video was shot on a set that was built by Sand Prairie Productions. I used Motion to create the title sequence graphics. The visual effects within the video used stop motion techniques along with ghostly fading edits.

On the left is a picture of the set along with some of the stunt men, actors and Bob singing in the background. In addition, there is a sample of the DVD case cover design that I created for Sand Prairie Productions.

To hear some of Bob’s music you can go to http://alonetone.com/bobkrouse10/tracks.

Recently, the music video was created on a DVD that was delivered by hand to Brad Paisley so we’ll see what happens. Pretty cool to think he saw some of my work:)

(photo and graphics © Sand Prairie Productions and Bob Krouse)

The opener was essentially a testimonial piece that showcased Pioneer employees delivering key messages about how they have empowered themselves to be agents of change in their business. I really enjoyed developing the work and we created a mobile kit to capture interviews with over twenty field representatives across the midwest. We ended up shooting the piece with a Panasonic HVX200 and Red Rock micro adapter. We really wanted to get some decent depth of field and allow the viewer to focus on the talent. The adapter we had was a first generation and we needed to contend with varying light conditions. The adapter isn’t very fast and knocks the image down a couple of stops. We ended up getting an HMI and generator along with a decent 12×12 silk to keep the sun off the talent. The interviews were set up and shot in less than hour. They did a great job delivering the lines with sincerity. Many props to the other folks who worked on this. BJ Aberle’s original music track and performance. Tim Martin is our main cinematographer and is an absolute machine with amazing patience and attention to detail. Rob Cody edited the piece and brought his years of experience and timing in the creation of the final edit.

While traveling around for the opener, I became enamored with the textures on the old barns that I was seeing at different field locations. We were hoping to capture that with a dynamic build of geometry and text influenced rural images. The closer was built on a soundtrack that BJ Aberle augmented from an existing track. The idea was to use the sounds in the field to build energy around key corporate messages. Matt Forcum brought his considerable compositing skill to this piece and we brought it in on time and on budget.

Thanks to all the folks at Pioneer and at Iona who supported this effort.