Boxless Thoughts

Inspiration -08/06/07

It has been a little while since I last updated. My head has been a mess for the last few weeks. Too many things on my mind I suppose. Here is a very brief summary of what has been going on...
Michael and I found a great apartment in Denver. We will have plenty of space if anyone wants to come and visit! My mom just got married on Saturday. It was a great wedding and I got to catch up with some old family friends. I only have two weeks of work left, which is surreal.

So with all that going on you can imagine how hard it is too keep on track with some of my creative goals. Actually, I've been in a bit of a creative slump. I was trying to get back into sketching on a regular basis and I have neglected it horribly. It has been harder than I thought it would be. I am so out of practice that it has become a really frustrating exercise. The ideas don't come to me like they used to and I find it hard to focus. I used to be able to shut my brain off and just let the craziest ideas come out. I'm hoping it will come back to me if I just keep at it.

I have found some new inspiration recently. I was approached about a freelance project so that has the old wheels turning again. I've gone back to the sketchbook and have been doing some good brain storming. I have been really inspired by some BBC programs I've been watching online. The Mighty Boosh is probably one of the most innovative things I have ever seen on tv. The bizarre free flow of ideas and the artwork have really given me a creative boost.
This clip is a good example of the insanity of this show. It is actually one of the less weird moments.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mWIfLg5ldfs
The character of Vince Noir even inspired me to go clothes shopping. I should add at the risk of having my membership to the female gender revoked that I hate clothes shopping. It actually took an androgynous mod/goth comedian on tv to convince me that I should at least try to not look like a complete shlub. I'd also recommend Blackpool, a 6 part crime drama with a weird musical twist.

/inspiration rant

Doctor, are you in there? -07/15/07

I have a little something for all my fellow Dr. Who fans out there. I made this desktop wallpaper for my computer and thought I would share with the other fans.
Honestly, what could make you feel better then knowing the Doctor is in your PC ready to fight off the viruses, cybermen, or any alien threats that may come our way?

Click on your desired size to download.
800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1440x900 | 1600x1200

Welcome to the social -07/09/07

Wow. It's actually up. I've been working really hard for the last couple of weeks to get this up and running. It's a little sparse now, but I have a few things in the works that you can expect to see soon. I am planning on doing an Illustrator tutorial on the new CS3 Color Groups and Kuler integration. Writing tutorials is much harder then I expected. My first attempt probably isn't the best, but I think the information is good and I promise I'll get better at it! Please email me if you have any questions, corrections, or requests for my tutorials.
I have made a desktop wallpaper for my fellow Dr. Who fans that will be available for download soon.
The whole site is really a work in progress. I have been considering changes/additions to my navigation. I'll most defiantly be changing my block quote style. It is a seriously ugly style, but I really wanted to get the site up and wasn't quite sure what I want to do with them yet. I'm also trying to feel out which articles should link to their own pages and which should just stay as short entries on the main pages.
I'm sure these things will start to work themselves out with a little experimentation. If anyone has any thoughts just contact me!

Tutorial: Photoshop Clipping Masks -07/09/07

Clipping masks are one of my favorite Photoshop features. Learn to apply textures or images to an area quickly and easily. Go to Tutorial

Building a PC -07/09/07

I've been planning on building a new computer and I wanted to blog about the experience. I want a machine that I can use for 3D rendering and video editing and I don't think my laptop is up for the challenge. I've never built a machine before so my brother and the kindly people at his company have been offering me some really great advice. I thought I would share it here.

Show/Hide article

First of all, thanks to Perry at RealNets for all your help! He recommended I check out Arstechnica's article on building gaming machines at different cost levels. I saw this article when it came up on digg a while ago and it is a great reference.

These are Perry's recommendations.

Video Cards:
ATI's FireGL
Nvidia's Quadro

Features to look for:

Memory - the more the better >=256MB.
Pixel Pipelines - the more the better >=12
RAMDAC - the more Mhz the better

Connectors:

Dual monitors, either DVI (digital) or Analog. There's almost zero difference (visibly) between the two. Most cards come with adapters to do both DVI-to-analog or vis versa.
S-Video, if you plan on connecting a "standard definition" (non-HD) TV or Projector, S-Video is a good connector to have.
HDMI - pretty much all HD capable TVs, Projectors, etc are using this connector now.

Another key factor to look for is that the video card "interface" is "PCI Express" aka "PCIe". That's the new standard. The old standard was "AGP" which you should avoid.

Other suggestions.

Avoid Budget processors - Intel Celeron or AMD Sempron processors are cheap, but for a reason.
Avoid Extreme processors - This is a marketing gimmick. Way too expensive for the 2% speed increase it gives you over normal processors.
Get at least 2GB of system RAM. Make sure your motherboard can support that much. Some have limitations.
BUS Speeds - If you've shopped for Motherboards, CPUs, or RAM you'll notice "bus speed" being mentioned. The higher the better. Note that Intel based systems have completely different bus speeds than AMD solutions, so you can't really compare them apples to apples.
Hard Drives - Make sure you get current technology. "SATA2", "SATA II", "3Gbps" are all names for the same thing. Talk about confusing! Also, you'll see hard drives have RPM ratings (rotations per minute), essentially the faster the drive spins, the faster data moves. You should get 7200 RPM.