How To Make Your Very Own Lightsaber

This video is a personal favorite which is why I have decided to share it with you. This video will explain how to create a lightsaber prop for personal use. However after you make your lightsaber you can use gimp, Photoshop or illustrator to create and image of yourself that actually looks like an actual JEDI!
After you have created the prop you can then take a picture of your self holding it, in a Jedi position. Then in order to make it look like and actual Jedi photograph you must follow a series of steps. To do this in gimp follow this tutorial.
I wanted to show you you how to do this because I believe that everyone should become Jedi's however because that is impossible you will have to settle for this. I personally really enjoyed the entire creative process from making the actual prop to the digital image.
This is just a fun thing to occupy yourself with for several hours and I HOPE YOU ENJOY.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.

Perfect Food Sign

The other day I noticed that pizza pizza has an extremely well design food sign. It immediately attracted my attention for a couple reasons. The first reason why I was immediately attracted was because of their choice of font. The bold and smooth font reminds me of the product that they are selling "pizza" and the yellow edgy font on top only draws my eye in more.

The second reason why I was immediately drawn to this sign was because of the color. Orange was used in this sign which is the best possible marketing idea to draw in consumers for your food business. This is because the color orange stimulates the part of your brain that tells your body that you are hungry. Therefore by making your sign orange it is more likely that people will be drawn towards your establishment.

Overall I believe that the design of this pizza pizza sign is not only attractive but a smart business decision as well.

Which Pepsi Do You Prefer?

The other day I walked into a store to buy a Pepsi. To my surprise I realized that there were several selections of Pepsi cans with various Pepsi designs. One in particular caught my attention. It was simplistic eye catching and overall appealing.
This got me thinking about the other Pepsi designs and why they didn't stand out as much. I think that it is because the other designs had too much going on. Not to say that they are bad designs but I think that the designs of the other cans are too busy and just draw my eyes all over the can instead of focusing it on a major point. Essentially I think that the other cans are too much work for the eyes which makes it less appealing to the consumer.
The Pepsi design that caught my immediate attention was the one in the top right hand corner. The way they use strong, clean contrasting colors with bold and crisp line automatically draws my eyes to that can. Even though there are other designs that are esthetically pleasing I don't believe any are as well designed as that one.
The second design that caught my attention was the one in the bottom row in the center. This design caught my attention simply because of its simplicity. It has an elegant and clean feel to it and the lighter shade of blue just makes it stand out from the other Pepsi cans. Overall these two are my favorite Pepsi designs and I feel as though that the Pepsi company really knows how to draw the attention of their consumer.

Your First Website

Have you ever had the desire to create your very own web page? This short tutorial will show you how to get started on your very own website.
To create a website there are a variety of programs that can be used, for this tutorial I will be showing you how to get started with Adobe Dreamweaver. To create a website with the Dreamweaver program you start by creating a new file, this will then open a window where you can preview your website and edit your html code. The first step to starting off your website is adding a title, this can be done by adding text in a title tag. To add content to your site you can use a variety of codes. Html codes can be used to add things such as tables, drop down lists, lists, text, links and much more. Within these tags you can then add content such as text or pictures. To add text to your website create a paragraph tag within the body tag. Then type, This is my first website. After saving you can then preview you website in a browser and " This is my first website" will appear and a blank page. If you have done this correctly then, congratulations on starting your very first website.
To find out more interesting codes or just a list of html codes you can use to better your site go to W3schools, it is a site that is extremely useful for beginner web designers.

Getting Started With Flash

Ever wanted to create a motion tween animation with flash? This brief tutorial will show you exactly how to get started with flash. To get started you need to know what a motion tween is. A motion tween is simply the tweening of a symbol that starts in one location and ends in another. In flash all that is required for a motion tween is the beginning and end position of your symbol.
The first step to creating a motion tween is creating an object (eg: a circle) on the stage. You then have to convert that object into a symbol. This can be done by right clicking the object or selecting convert to symbol in the options menu. The next step is, to create a timeline, this will determine how long your motion tween will be. To create a timeline you need to insert 2 key frames (F6) in different places on the timeline (eg: at 0 seconds and at .6 seconds). The next step is, select your first key frame and place your symbol into it, then in your second key frame you can copy and paste your symbol into that frame and move it into a different position. Finally by right clicking your timeline you will be able to select "create motion tween" this will highlight that section blue. This then converts that segment of you timeline into a motion tween. What you should see is your object moving from one area of the screen to another.
For a more advanced a detailed tutorial of motion tweens with flash, check this out.

I have recently discovered a pair of young talented artists who are also husband and wife. Aj and Melelina LaGasse are both self taught artists who, only in 2000, started showing their art work to the world. Many of their paintings range in style and medium however each individual artist manages to put their own twist on every piece they do.

Melelina's art style has been called "outsider art" as well as " raw art" and "folk art". She is known for her abstract paintings which are filled with lively and bright colors as well as a variety of brush techniques. All of her paintings cover the canvas completely, leaving no negative space. To this day Melelina continues to "broaden her pallet" by exploring other art styles such as art deco, cubism, abstract and contemporary.

Aj is also an extremely powerful artist who's works range from impressionism to realism and surrealism. Aj always tries to portray the joy and happiness of life through his artwork. He believes that by surrounding yourself with positive energy and colorful environments, you artwork will portray the positive part of you in your art. He is known for his variety of colorful and expressive sunset paintings.

Both of the artist only paint landscapes and outdoor scenes. this is so because they feel as though nature heps them portray their mood onto the canvas. Both of them make a living of selling their paintings online. Over 1300 of their paintings can be found on 5 different continents. Even though they sell the majority of their work, a lot of their work has been donated to a variety of charities and galleries.

Here are some of their pieces........enjoy.

Good Vs Bad Websites

A good website is shown by its use of the 10 effective principals of web design. An example of a good website is lockerz.com. Lockerz.com is a good site because it is simplistic, easy to navigate and grabs the users attention. The navigation bar on lockerz is effective because it only has 5 main section headings that are also in a variety of bright and bold colors. This is effective because it is not only simple but due to the colors and how they contrast with the background the site, they capture the users attention near the top left side of the page, which is one of the first places that the user looks at when first entering the site. Another factor that proves that this is a good site is the fact that when first entering the site the layout is aesthetically pleasing and it doesn't have a lot of text to read. Instead it captures the users attention with the use of pictures and videos. This makes the user more interested in the site and more likely to stay and see what the site is about. Another reason why this site is so effective is the layout. All of the important information is in the top hand corner and near he left side and center of the page. The layout format follows an "F" pattern an because of this, the user is can quickly scan over the site and see all of their information that they want you to see. Overall, what makes lockerz a good site is it's simplistic and effective layout, contrasting colors and simple background and its' use of clear text which essentially draws the user into the site, because it doesn't require the user to think upon entering.

A bad website can be characterized by its overall ability to keep the user on the site. An example of a bad website is wow.com. This is a bad website because it doesn't have a navigation bar so it makes it extremely hard to find other things on the website. Another reason why this site is not a good one is the fact that it is too simple. There is not enough information on the actual site to draw a users attention to it. This site also has a poor layout. The colors used are all dark and non-welcoming, also when first entering the site there is no way to tell what the site is about. Another factor that makes this site a bad site is that there is to much small text. This shows that it is a bad site because a lot of text is not going to draw a user into the site. Overall, the fact that this site to simplistic and lacks details which would be helpful to the user, makes it a bad site.

Henri Matisse

Born 1869 was one of the leaders of Les Fauves movement.

In 1890, He studied under Bouguereau at the Academic Julian.

Henri Matisse's work is of the fauves style for two major reasons. the main reason is because he was one of the founders and leaders of the fauvist style. He also is known for his powerful brush strokes and exaggerated use of color.
I think that he is the best artist that illustrates the Fauves style because he is the most well rounded. He is able to use powerful strong brush strokes and dramtic colors with out the painting being overpowering. He has the perfect balance between color, brush strokes and overall technique.



Andre Derain

Andre Derain, as well as Matisse was also one of the founders and leaders of the fauvist style.

He is one of the more significant artist who practiced this style because his paintings had everything. He was known for his drastic brush strokes and dramatic colors however he was known more for his landscapes in this style.

Fauvism

Les Fauves (French for the wild beast) refers to how wild and strong the brush strokes were in these paintings in the early 19th century.

This style's main focus was on strong powerful brush strokes and powerful color. This style began around the 1900's however this style only lasted only lasted a couple of years, and it only had three major exhibitions.

Fauvism to artist meant using extremely intense colors in a unnatural way.

The fauvist movement was a group of artist who painted landscapes or people in wild colours and distorted brush strokes. For the purpose of expressing an object in a new non realistic way. It was a new form of expressionism.

This style was only popular for a short period of time because many artist thought that it was too dramatic for that time period.

This style started in the early 19th and was over by 1910.

There were many significant artist in this time period. Henri Matisse and Andre Derain were two of the really significant artist of this time period. Maurice De Vlaminck was also one of the really significant artist of this time period.

History Of Typography

Before type people would print either by chiseling, brushing or writing via pen or pencil. The history and development of typography started with early printers (people who could write), who essentially were typographers.
The first independent typographer was Claude Garamond, Claude was the first to make a variety of type available to printers. Garamond's type was based on Griffo, a roman font. The development of typography was a long process, and there were many times when the progression of typography was almost non-existent. One of the weakest periods for type development was between the 16th and 17th century. At this time many newsprints, fliers, and advertisments contained muxes of size fonts and styles on a single page.
Moveable type was invented in Europe around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. Although the invention of moveable typography was an undertaking, no one knows exactly how long it took. Moveable typography was done with the casting of each individual letter, symbol and punctuation. This meant that they all had to be individually cut into steel by hand. After each letter symbol and punctuation was cut they could then be assembled and re-assmbled to create various words.