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Art Crypto Art Generative GLSL Lua NFT NFT Crypto Art OpenSea Shader Visual Design

Truchet Patterns

Truchet Patterns

A pair of Truchet Patterns are being offered at OpenSea. Each piece has only 1 edition (4096×4096 PNGs). Open full size to view details.

Truchet Pattern #1

 

Truchet Pattern #2

Categories
Art Crypto Art Generative GLSL Lua NFT NFT Crypto Art OpenSea Shader Visual Design

Generative Art – Untitled.01

Created another NFT crypto art for sale at OpenSea: Untitled.01 (8192 × 4096 png)

It may not be apparent that there are fine lines in this piece. To view the details, click here to open the image in a new tab or window and zoom in.

The three parts are also available at Hic et Nunc:

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

These images are generated in my custom app using GLSL and Lua. The backgrounds are created in OpenGL shaders. The lines are generated in Lua. The combined image is assembled in Affinity Photo.

 

Categories
Visual Design

Painting on iPad (with Procreate and Sensu brush)

Tablets are becoming productive tools and not just for media consumption. Back in the days of the Amiga, I had a Wacom tablet; it worked well but the drawing programs were quite primitive. Today, with tablets and many decent drawing and painting apps, artists can be creative wherever they go.

Procreate is an amazing painting app for the iPad, with features found in professional software, and costs only $4.99. This may seem expensive to some, considering many apps are free. However, this is probably the best $4.99 I’ve spent on apps. Today, version 1.7 is released, and it adds at least two new features that I was hoping for: full-screen mode and 4K resolution. Together with the Sensu brush, even my parents feel comfortable painting on the iPad.Procreate

The Sensu brush looks like a traditional artist brush, with special brush hair on one end that works with capacitive touch screens, and a rubber tip on the other as a regular stylus. It feels balanced, comfortable, and at the right length.

Sensu brush

Another similar but simpler app I like is Paper. It’s for drawing or writing notes, and is free. In the free version, there is only a single pen tool and a limited number of colors. With in-app purchases, additional tools and a color mixer can be added for about $9, which is a little high for a simple app like this. But then, it’s the simplicity that’s the beauty of this app. With Paper and the lighter iPad mini, I can see this combination as an everyday notepad for jotting down ideas and sketches.

Last but not least, the Pogo Connect is a much talked-about pressure sensitive Bluetooth stylus. Both Procreate and Paper support it. I have yet to try it as the cost ($80) is higher than the other pens, especially for casual drawing.

Using the iPad as a creative tool for artists is becoming a reality with these apps and styluses (styli). As we’re moving away from the PC era, tablets already fulfill the needs of most people. As a new media software developer, working on a computer with a real keyboard is still the only choice. I can’t wait to see what the next generation of software development tools will be like. And no, I don’t think Siri is the answer. 🙂

 

Categories
Flash Visual Design

What a refreshing site!

bascule.co.jp

I love innovative work like this.

While cleaning up some old posts from 2003, I noticed a translation of an old page I wrote on inheritance (back in Flash 5 days) by the folks at Bascule in Japan. Revisiting their site was a nice surprise.

Although the page took awhile to load, the result is worth the wait.

The long page is all Flash with nice sound effects. As one scrolls down the page, different sections are activated when they come into view. Love how they did the video guides from three different locations to their office (wait for loading to finish next to the map), and the “matrix effect” when the guides meet. There are many little surprises along the way – just scroll and explore.

At the bottom of the page, click on the “genie” to literally wrap up the visit. Amazing work!

Check out the Bascule site. I think it’s time to visit Japan again!

Categories
News Others Visual Design

Yang Rutherford

Congratulations to the launch of the Yang Rutherford website – a branding, design, and media firm based in London and Hong Kong.

This is a new company formed by my brother Jimmy Yang (founder of Y-Associates in London), and Andrew Rutherford (in Hong Kong).

Categories
Visual Design

Useful color tool

Thought I’d share this useful color scheme tool: Color Schemer Studio. Especially useful are the harmony color wheel, the color picker (from any application), and the quick copy of RGB / Hex code.

Programmer art can now be color coordinated too! 😎

Categories
Visual Design

CSS and font size

I just wished that people who are designing HTML/CSS content use relative font sizes instead of fixed pixel font sizes.

For example, Macromedia’s new Help content uses relative font sizes (such as x-small or xx-small), instead of fixed point sizes (such as 8-pt or 6-pt). Why is this good? Because if I find the font size too small, I can bump it up easily by Ctrl-scrolling my mouse wheel (you can try it on this page if you’re using Windows(?) Internet Explorer)! However, if the font sizes are fixed in points, this doesn’t work.

Many sites/blogs I visit use fixed point sizes, some text are so tiny (especially if they’re using the <code> tag), that it makes reading difficult (especially at my 1920×1200 laptop screen). Sites such as Macromedia.com or Microsoft.com use relative font size – makes sense for everyone, including those of us who are not visually-challenged (yet).