Re Learning Photoshop Properly...

I have started to learn how you can use photoshop to render simple line drawings to start to create a believable final image. I Started with th eline drawing of a radio shown below, this was in adobe illustrator and then converted into a photshop document.

Basic 2d line drawing of a radio.

Then when in photoshop the areas to be filled were selected and placed on idividual layers for further/ easier editing and then filled using the bucket tool. Then layer effects including bevel/emboss and various shadows were added to create the illusion of a 3d object.

I also added a custom texture to the face using noise and motion blur tools, creating a brushed metal finish. I had to make sure that all the shadows and highlights were uniform and pionting in the same way

I then added the final touches and placed the radio in a one point perspective background. 

I blurred the image background so that the radio seemed more crisp and in focus, i also added a lot of midtone and shadow darkening under the radio to create depth

Overall time from start to finish approx 5-6 hours

Student

So yeah im a uni student now, highly doubted this day would come but yeah very happy, not too happy about the photo though being a uni and being quite clever and all that they seem to have made my head like an aliens and sqished the photo, explaining the weird angle ;)

The Start of Something

Product Design BA 
Writing this the third week into Uni life things have just got very very busy very quick and have 4 deadlines and projects as such for next week already. Thought i would start as i mean to go on and update this when i get chance to.

Shared Kitchen, the cleanest it has been since we moved in trust me, but apparently we get random visits off halls staff so we decided the large collection of plates, cutlery, food and 6 bin bags had to go just in case they dont appreciate the modern artwork that it clearly was.

This is our our 6th flatmate, Introduced himself to everyone clearly enough think his name was james, but to be completly honest he sucks a bit and doesnty really do a lot :)

The lovely view of the staff car park from my bedroom window

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Kinetic Wind Engineer sculpture

Part time project...

Friend of mine donated to my mini after he found these old triumph tr7 bucket seats while clearing out his garage.They have seen better days and need some TLC applying. Eventually and hopefully future plan of re upholstering them as they are extremly comfy.

Starting to cut out templates from leather to stitch together.

Next step. . . . . .LEARN HOW TO SEW. .. . . .GREAT

Impulse Scrapyard Buy. . .

Driving on the way back from Reddich Couldnt help but spot a old mini 850cc perched on top of a dockyard crate in a local scrapyard. Obviously i had to go and get a closer look, i must say i had never seen a ladder quite so badly damaged, bent and skewed sideways as they gave me to climb up to have a look.(at this point was quite scared)  A serious treasure on top though, as i found an original smiths 60's large size speedometer still wired into the car with loom and bulbs intact. Wanted thirty for it, haggled down to twenty. BARGAIN!!!

Journey is more important than the ending or the start?.....in some cases

Decided to take photos of the journey to pick up a piano for my mum, quite a distance and it was extremely large, awkward and very heavy for me and my dad to actually lift into the van. Note i wasnt driving while taking these pictures.
The title post came from a song playing while driving down there.. . .

Abandoned Section of service station

Piano In the back of the van. . . .JUST

 

A God Wayyyy before his time...

Many know the name of "Da Vinci" through a second rate hollywood film or the book made famous by dan brown but many know the true extent of the genius of the man behind it all.
Born into a time almost 600 years ago he is known as the renaissance man spearheading the change of the times.
Over his life he was commissioned as a artist, the most famous among the mona lisa and the last supper, but his other vast areas of work included inventor, Scientist, Musician, Engineer, Sculptor, Mathematician, Atomonist, Architect, Geologist, Botanist and writer. 
Truly and utterly compelled by his wanting to understand and know, and create things that know-one has done seen or come up with before. In his realatively small lifetime he has crammed in a million peoples lifetimes worth of work all in his relentless quest for knowledge and understanding.

The thing that compells me about his works are his abililty to think almost into the future and this is what you can create, they all arent rough sketches either many are full working diagrams and cross sections. The technology at the time simply wasnt up to date with him and many of his works couldnt be made.


In all his life the one thing that he wanted to succeed at more than ever and conquer was that of flight. He often gazed at the sky and saw birds, quoting them in many of his works and wished how we could return there one day. Spending hours and hours studing the anotomy of the wings of birds, how they use them and numerous sketches and devices it is seemed that this task defeated him and he never got the chance to experience what would have been his greatest ever achievment.

Window Cleaning Device Design Ideas 1

Diagram Showing the inner workings, rotational movements and directional movement. Arrow to the right links to the Window cleaning mechanism. 

Rack and pinion motion diagram

Diagram showing both of the wheels either side and the middle guides. The motor positioning and the central rack and pinion gearing. 

Lunchtime 360 degrees

During my lunchtime created a series of photographs with slight angle differences all overlapping slightly. Then using photomerge in photoshop i loaded all the photos into the program. It then did some clever computer stuff and merged them into one long 360 degree photograph. I then Cropped the edges down and reduced the canvas size.
Here is the final piece

Shower and a bath? ? ?

Piotr Pyrtek has designed this egg like pod that can be used as either a shower or a bath. Its beyond futuristic its also very simple and elegant. I love the shape and form of the design but i think could be a little bit larger as the bath water doesn't look that deep when filled.

Really really would like one though

Shower and a Bathtub

Heath Robinson Machines

A different Approach to designing a machine...? 

Heath Robinson Contraptions

Self Cleaning Window Product- Existing/similar products

Getting my design brief all done i know that i have make a product that would in theory work and help people in daily life through its use.

Existing/Similar Product Research


     Self Cleaning Glass                                     


Self-cleaning glass is a specific type of glass with a surface which keeps itself free of dirt and grime through photo catalytic decomposition.
The glass cleans itself in two stages. The "photo catalytic" stage of the process breaks down the organic dirt on the glass using ultraviolet light and makes the glass hydrophilic (normally glass is hydrophobic). During the following "hydrophilic" stage rain washes away the dirt, leaving almost no streaks, because hydrophilic glass spreads the water evenly over its surface.

*From Wikipedia*

On the other hand It does not work on heavy soiling and is much more expensive than normal glass

     Magnetic Window Wizard                          

This Product is basically magnets attached to two window cleaners that are placed either side of your window. This should allow you to clean the inside and outside at the same time.

A good product for thin windows and ground floor windows but when used at a higher level I think it poses a danger if the magnets are not strong enough and lose magnetism with each other therefore falling. Also you have to open the window and let warm air escape to use the product. Good product in theory but would also create friction when used so not suitable for older generation or less weak users.

Reviews from “Amazon” confirms poor usability and design 

     Rain Racer                                                       

Rain Racer is a product that using chemicals To Create a small polymer film over the glass to stop penetration of dirt and other liquids into the first layer. It is chemically safe to use on showers, sinks fish tanks etc but does need to be reapplied after a certain period of time depending how much the surface is touched and worn away. It is relatively cheap and less expensive than self cleaning glass. It also has been in development for over 16 years so it is tried and tested.  It does not work on heavy soiling

Self Window cleaning Product

Looking for inspiration for a new product to design I created numerous questionanires and completed lot of asking people what really bugs annoys them and annoys them in day to day life. And a constant feedback being given in this current climate is that its too hard to clean windows, too cold and wet outside and too expensive to constantly pay a window cleaner.

I decide to set myself the task of researching a designing a product that would help this common problem being faced.

Arcade Machine Project

After researching for quite a while on the internet i found the following options for which to build a base for my arcade machine to play the original game/s onto.

     Option 1                                                         

Original PCB Board
What better way to Start than to find the original PCB Board in the arcade machine (in my case Space invaders).

It turns out as you can see from above they are extermely rare to find anymore and can be extortionate prices. Looking how to wire them up also isnt't as simple as this wire goes here and here, diagrams need to be ordered and worked out and soldered and crimped just like the orginal else it simply wont work. There is also no guarantee that the board will work due to their age.
Truely think this option is out of the window

     Option 2                                                         

Atari 2600

Made infamous as being one of the first home video enterainment systems the release of space invaders was made onto the atari platform quickly after release.
There are differences between the original and the atari version as you can see below.

                                  Original Arcade Game                    Atari 2600 Version

As you can see there is quite a difference between the two versions and i can notably tell and therfore i think would not have the same experience.

The other task with this option is to rewire the controllers and configure them into other buttons.

Shown above is the standard atari controller. Rewiring this would give me only 1 joystick with 4 way x and y axis control and 3 other usable buttons, not really the number that i would ultimately want.

I will also have to buy the game cartridge as this is required to play the game.

Atari 2600 Game Program

     Option 3                                                         

MAME Computer emulator

This option i think is the best by far as you can play multiple games on the program and use a standard computer running windows xp as the base. This is a cheap start and the program is completely free to use.

Below is a screenshot of the program being used.

It uses emulation to recreate the programming used for the machines to run original roms of the games. It can be configured to use a keyboard and mouse, gamepad or usb interface.
There is whole community websites online dedicated to mame and creations that people produce.

For these reasons that is why this would be my option to use.

Arcade Machine Project Design ideas 1

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Techniques and Processes- Wire Modelling

Using my hand as a template i created a model from  resonable thickness wire that kept its shape well. I firstly created the fingers sepately and then made the main frame and soldered it all together.

Photography- Night time Foggy Snapshots

 

Photography- Cows and Scenery

Techniques and processes- Glass Etching

This technique basically involved me having a sheet or pane of glass and using a rotary tool with different attachment to draw and etch into the glass. There is quite a lot of variables within this technique, the main ones being speed of the tool, size and type of the tool, pressure applied and the angle being used.
It requires you to hold almost like a large pen and quite firmly as it feels like it could slip and run away. This technique would be quite good in a light application and possibly detailed designs.

Testing the technique with rotary tool

Image of space invaders that i created showing that even simple straight lines can be achieved.