TekFrenzy PS Tutorial

So my friend started a website, a tech site called tekFrenzy. As it gets on its feet, I'll be doing the occasional tutorial. Here is the first one...

tekFrenzy Tutorial #1: Text On Texture

Digital Painting - 1st Attempt

So I keep coming across these fancy images on the internet of digital paintings, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at it. I'm not much of an artist with a pencil or paintbrush; a mouse is more my style. So I messed around with a kinda old picture of myself and this is what I came out with. I was pleasantly surprised. Gotta few requests from friends on Facebook who saw it first and wanted me to do an image of them in the same style. Sounds like practice to me!

Playing with Templates/Tutorials for After Effects

I love Video Copilot. They have seriously the sweetest stuff to play with in After Effects, and I simply cannot wait until I have a decent video camera so I can start shooting stuff and really playing with it. Here I was playing with a template from one of their packs of content, and tweaked it a little and made some changes, and made it my own. Sorta. I'm gonna try to rebuild something similar from complete scratch soon. But for now, this is the basic idea of the kinda stuff I'll be making soon.

Waddya think?

3D Splash Page - Vers. 1

This project ended up being what I turned in for my weekly assignment for Advanced Photoshop, because I was fairly proud of it and it met all of the requirements. But it was beneficial for me in multiple ways, beyond just practice. As I may end up using this as the splash page for my official site, once it goes live. Someday. This just version 1, I have some ideas for how to alter this and make it even flashier, or maybe less flashy... we'll see what the final product looks like soon I think. For now, here it is...

Dan Solo Film's - Concept Image

So I definitely need a name for my "production company", should it ever became something more than just a hobby only a select few ever see. Here is an experimentation, inspired by my current Advanced Photoshop homework assignment, for an idea of a logo/splash page for what could be my future film branch of my "design company". Big ambitions huh? I don't even have a video camera yet. Oh well. And i'm not sold on "Dan Solo Films" but it works for now. I also don't know if I'll want a cliche film reel as part of my logo or theme, but also, it works for now. I kinda like this. I could see my using this as my first splash page for the section of my future website, that caters to my video creations.

Now, to just get that damn video camera... I would have it right now if I hadn't have had to plunk 90% of my school grant on repairs to my car. I'm sure I over paid by taking it directly to the Mazda dealership, but no one else could figure out, so I did what I had to do. Oh well. I'm hoping this summer I can afford a $150 -$200 digital HD camera to play with. But until then, it's all iPhone.

My girlfriend in the style of Roy Lichtenstein

My assignment in my advanced illustrator class was to do a portrait of someone in the style of a famous artist of our choice. Naturally I chose a famous pulp comic artist; Roy Lichtenstein. If your first thought was "who the hell is that?", you've probably seen his work before and don't even realize it.
Here is an example of his work...

And here is an image of my girlfriend, Patrice; recreated from scratch by me in that same pulp, vibrant style...

The biggest challenge was translating a style that's almost always used to convey white woman with blonde hair, to a darker skinned woman with black hair. I tried simply changing her hair to blonde, and skin to a pink color, so as to adapt her very image to the style, but then I changed my mind. I decided that instead of changing her to fit the art, I'd change the art to fit her. Thus presenting me with the challenge of conveying shadows in the hair. Because obviously black lines to represent shadow wouldn't show up on black hair. So I opted for a bluish/gray, which reminded me a lot of old Batman comics for some reason.

While challenging for me, mainly because I am not as adept with Illustrator as I am with Photoshop, it was still fun to make, and the end result was extremely gratifying. Which means I'll definitely try this again. Maybe with a picture of me next time, or family member.

First Post.... flier? Yup.

The only real "gig" i have to utilize my designs is making fliers and concept work for my friends up and coming rock band. So I've decided to show you first the most recent flier I made for them. This is the final version they went with, but the original had a few minor differences. The biggest one being that their band name, "Self Centered" was originally made to look like it was painted on to the wood. The letters were semi-transparent, and I used some effects to make the text appear as though it were really embedded into the woods texture. But ultimately it was too artsy for a black and white flier like this, and they wanted their name to pop more. So, here you have it. I'll post more of my school work and just-for-fun stuff soon.