Sunday, May 11, 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Curious - 3D ART



Bet you didn't know I have a 5 year old daughter! Well, it just happens to be so that I do and she is the center of inspiration for me. Her bright eyes and curios nature always keeps me creative and mentally busy. I'm always trying news ways to stimulate her mind as well.

My daughter is very aware of what I do for hobbies, she's always sitting on my lap and watching me move my 3D models around in Daz Studio and in fact she has several models that she herself picked out for use. (her "Dollies" as she calls them)

Kids, they will surprise you if you give them a chance. Even at 5 years of age my daughter has figured out how to use features of a computer that prove to be complicated for adults. But there's something else you probably didn't know either. Kids, are adults in training, respect their future adulthood and don't force things on them that they wouldn't choose.

Fuzzy Balls - FREE graphics

Another neat collection of displacement renders done in Daz Studio. I have had a great deal of fun playing around with these. During the holidays I made Fuzzy ball bunny stickers for the kids. Just load them up in your favorite graphics editor an manipulate them into any shape you would like. The ending product closely resembles children's pom pom art ;) As always, free for use with no restrictions so download and enjoy!

Simple Stock - FREE graphics

Just some very simple stock for you to use however you see fit. It's digitally created by me in Gimp so there's no copyright issues to worry about. Click on the image to download and enjoy!

Running Into Circles - FREE graphics

Do you ever get the feeling that as soon as you get away from one cycle in life you just end up in yet another repeating loop? Well, here's a set of graphics just for you. The link below contains a zip file packed full of 3D displacement renders very much like the above circle. Even if you can't put them to good use, download them anyways, some of these circles are quite beautiful. And, don't worry, making a change may bring a break in the cycles, so be creative and try something new today! ;)

Royalty free, no credit needed, commercial or non-commercial use!
Enjoy!
( ps..It would be cool to know how you used them though :P )

http://www.mediafire.com/?i2jymz9wz2y



Monday, April 28, 2008

Rant About the Ready Made Frame

Rant about the Ready Made Frame....
Just about everything in this world is ready made now a days. Products are packaged up nice and neat, presented in a sanitised manner and overly priced for it's poor quality. Yes, the ready made frame is beautiful, and it works for the moment, but was the purchase really worth it? Will the thing last over the years? We are all 'victimised' by the ready made frame....

At this point you're probably wondering what I'm talking about. No, this isn't really about physical picture frames, but more about intellectual frames of mind. Here's the question that brought this blog on...

If we all travel the same paths in the the same ways, won't we all make the same mistakes and come up with the same ideals? Wile working together to achieve a goals is necessary part of life, blatantly forcing conformity is not productive to creativity in any manner. Where there's no creativity, there's no discovery and where there's no discovery, there's no learning. We don't need to all think the same way, or look the same, or even act the same way to work together to achieve goals. What we DO need to do is respect others differences no matter how bazaar or different those difference may be. At the very same time, we need to be able to respect our own differences.

So what are you? A ready made frame, cold and factory made, or a human being with individual thoughts and desires?
Now that I'm done lecturing ;) go ahead and download yourself a ready made frame by clicking on the above image....

Free Graphics Resources - Textures

Now, I'm not sure about all of you, but I've had some serious problems with finding textures in the past. Wile there are plenty of free texture sites out there most of the textures come off the sites looking like old worn out photos. If you REALLY need textures you know these low resolution photos just simply will not do the job. Hunting around, jumping from site to site to find the right texture can be a nightmare. AND, even after that hassle, there's still the usage restrictions to worry about.

Imagine having found the perfect texture just to find out there is copyright restrictions. Yes, this can be quite fustrating, but people have the right to decide how they want their work used. These conditions can range from just a simple 'must link back' to non-commertial use only to even pay per use. Always keep one thing in mind, even if it says the photo is free for use, make sure you read the copyright restrictions/terms of use contracts very carefully, I can't stress this enough. Gods forbid if you use something and then have to destroy your hard work due to copyright infringement.

The link that I'm going to provide is a mega compilation of sites that provide free textures, written by squareroot on Scibd, it takes a minute to load but trust me it's well worth it.
Very long link for a great resource!

Next on my to do list is to provide some of my own digitial photography for use, so keep an eye on this blog for updates.