Think creative, be creative!

Hey everyone. Royale Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur will be having a design conference organized by MSC Malaysia from 7th untill 9th December 2009. Those interested joining the conference, log on to http://www.mscmalaysia.my/topic/Kre8tif to secure your seat. See you there. =)

2,500 USD for grab, anyone?

Hi everyone. Here i am again. Its time for photography competition! KL Photoawards comeptition is calling for entries with 2,500 USD as 1st prize. Closing date is on 31st March 2010. The theme - portraits. Interested? For more info log on to :

http://www.klphotoawards.com/index2.html

Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers

Hey guys. I got this from infested_ysy, a lowyat forumer and i thought it might be usefull to share this with all of you. Happy reading. =)





Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers
- by Mark W. Lewis

1 "Do this one cheap (or free) and we'll make it up on the next one."
No reputable business person would first give away their work and time or merchandise on the hope of making it up later. Can you imagine what a plumber would say if you said "come in, provide and install the sink for free and next time we'll make it up when we need a sink." You would be laughed at! Also the likelyhood is that if something important came along, they wouldn't use you.

2 "We never pay a cent until we see the final product."
This is a croc, unless the person is leaving the door open to cheat you out of your pay. Virtually every profession requres a deposit or incremental payment during anything but the smallest project. Once you have a working relationship, you may work out another arrangement with a client. But a new client should not ask you to go beyond an initial meeting and, perhaps some preliminary sketches without pay on the job!

3 "Do this for us and you'll get great exposure! The jobs will just pour in!"
Baloney. Tell a plumber "Install this sink and my friend will see and you'll get lots of business!" Our plumber friend would say "You mean even if I do a good job I have to give my work away to get noticed? Then it isn't worth the notice." Also the guy would likely brag to everyone he knows about how this would normally cost (X) dollars, but brilliant businessman that he is he got if for free! If anyone calls, they'll expect the same or better deal.

4 On looking at sketches or concepts: "Well, we aren't sure if we want to use you yet, but leave your material here so I can talk to my partner/investor/wife/clergy."You can be sure that 15 minutes after you leave he will be on the phone to other designers, now with concepts in hand, asking for price quotes. When you call back you will be informed that your prices were too high and Joe Blow Design/Illustration will be doing the job. Why shouldn't they be cheaper? You just gave them hours of free consulting work! Until you have a deal, LEAVE NOTHING CREATIVE at the clients office.

5 "Well, the job isn't CANCELLED, just delayed. Keep the account open and we'll continue in a month or two."
Ummm, probably not. If something is hot, then not, it could be dead. It would be a mistake to *not* bill for work performed at this point and then let the chips fall where they may! Call in two months and someone else may be in that job. And guess what? They don't know you at all.....

6 "Contract? We don't need no stinking contact! Aren't we friends?"Yes, we are, until something goes wrong or is misunderstood, then you are the jerk in the suit and I am that idiot designer, then the contract is essential. That is, unless one doesn't care about being paid. Any reputable business uses paperwork to define relationships and you should too.

7 "Send me a bill after the work goes to press."
Why wait for an irrelevant deadline to send an invoice? You stand behind your work, right? You are honest, right? Why would you feel bound to this deadline? Once you deliver the work and it is accepted, BILL IT. This point may just be a delaying tactic so the job goes through the printer prior to any question of your being paid. If the guy waits for the job to be printed, and you do changes as necessary, then he can stiff you and not take a chance that he'll have to pay someone else for changes.

8 "The last guy did it for XXX dollars."
That is irrelevant. If the last guy was so good they wouldn't be talking to you, now would they? And what that guy charged means nothing to you, really. People who charge too little for their time go out of business (or self-destruct financially, or change occupations) and then someone else has to step in. Set a fair price and stick to it.

9 "Our budget is XXX dollars, firm."
Amazing, isn't it? This guy goes out to buy a car, and what, knows exactly what he is going to spend before even looking or researching? Not likely. A certain amount of work costs a certain amount of money. If they have less money (and you *can*) do less work and still take the job. But make sure they understand that you are doing less work if you take less money that you originally estimated. Give fewer comps, simplify, let them go elsewhere for services (like films) etc.

10 "We are having financial problems. Give us the work, we'll make some money and we'll pay you. Simple."
Yeah, except when the money comes, you can expect that you will be pretty low on the list to be paid. If someone reaches the point where they admit that the company is in trouble, then they are probably much worse off than they are admitting to. Even then, are you a bank? Are you qualified to check out their financials? If the company is strapped to the point where credit is a problem through credit agencies, banks etc. what business would you have extending credit to them. You have exactly ZERO pull once they have the work. Noble intentions or not, this is probably a losing bet. But if you are going to roll the dice, AT LEAST you should be getting additional money for waiting. The bank gets interest and so should you. That is probably why the person is approaching you; to get six months worth of free interest instead of paying bank rates for credit and then paying you with that money. Don't give away money.


Now, this list wasn't meant to make anyone crazy or paranoid, but is designed to inject some reality into the fantasy.

You are GOING to be dealing with people who are unlike yourself. Their motivations are their own and their attitudes are probably different than yours. There are going to be demands, problems, issues and all the hassles that go with practically ANY work/job/money situation. Too many times I see the sad example of someone walking in to a situation with noble intentions and then getting royally screwed, because what they see as an opportunity and a labor of love, the other party sees as something else entirely, not at all romantic or idealized, but raw and simple.

How can you deal with this stuff and still do good creative work? Good question. THIS is why an education is important. You learn, out of the line of fire, how to deal with the art at it's own level and also how to deal with the crap that surrounds it. You may have tough teachers and think that it can't be worse, but wait until a business person has a hundred grand riding on your art! Then you will know what "demanding" means. You will then thank all those tough teachers for building up the calluses that enable you to enjoy the job rather than just feeling like it is all a big waste of time!

In the end, working commercially, being a terrific artist is about 25% of the task. If that is the only part of the task that you are interested in, do yourself a favor. Don't turn "pro."

Used camera gears, anyone interested?

Sorry la bout the chatbox, i'm not sure myself how to do it. Thats why we have our own webmaster, which is Andy, & Samantha to help him out ( the way it suppost to be ). Maybe i'll try look around on how to do it later.

Anyways, we already in new semester. Hooray!! Have everyone checked your results? Wish you guys all the best. Since this new semester is all about photography, having your own gear is quite essential. Well normally, photographers dont like to share their stuff with others. Also, when you have your own gear, you can easily adjust your settings without having trouble look around in the menu for the thing you wanted to change. Nobody wants to miss a shot during a football game right? As minimum as entry level body & kit lens will do wonders for you once you know how to tackle it. Yeap, things doesnt come cheap in photography field but doesnt mean you always have to buy new sets of equipments. A used ones in good condition is another option you can look for.

I'm sure everyone knows about e-bay & lelong.com online site, where buying made easy through online deals. Plus, online deals normally, can say almost all the time, is cheaper than shops. There are a lot conman out there, and i'm aware of that. Thats why i prefer to use cash on delivery (COD) method for online purchase. Reason why? At least i get the chance to examine the stuff first before pay with my hard earn cash. It can be a new or used items. Those items warranty is based on original buyer's date of purchase. Just make sure they give their receipt together with you. If the items warranty period is over for the item you wanted to purchase, normally the seller will give certain amount of period as seller's personal warranty. If anything goes wrong, you can always return to seller & get your cash back. Just make sure the seller have a good rating before you purchase from them!

Here some links for you guys to check out the stuff you need,

- Lowyat
- Shutterasia
- Shashinki
- Yamiya


Happy shopping!

Everyone Connects ! !

Hoho.. New layout i see. Nice. But i couldnt find the chatbox anywhere. Did you deleted it by accident?

Back to title, i'm sure everyone knows about it right? Remember the advertisement where the paper guy try to cross to another building from window & stuck in the middle of the string between 2 building? And everyone use every method they could came out with to blow him to the other side of the building? Personally, i think the advertisement is very interesting & creative plus, their theme song is nice too. The big event was held on 21 November at Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL. Over 5,000 people gathered at the event, which also streamed live from their website and viewed by almost 780,000 web users across the nation!

Sadly, things didnt go out as planned for me. I intended to visit the exhibition at Jalan Duta, the one Sri mention in her post on 21st morning, then go to the everyone connects event after lunch time or maybe in the evening. And as usual, something came up & responsibility calls for duty. Oh well... maybe luck is just not on my side - for the time being.



Anyways, the link to the website,

Everyone Connects !!



Also to those who have not watch the ads, watch it. I'm sure you guys will learn something from it.

ENJOY !



I know. Thx! xD

Photography 101 - HDR

Another babbling about photography (yeah i know). This time is about HDR. HDR is a technique requires editing the image using multiple exposure & combine them into one to create a painting-like image (or sometimes is used to solve hard lighting situation - example shooting in a tunnel towards the tunnel exit without overexposed outside of the tunnel & at same time preserve sufficient details of inside the tunnel). I'll save the rest of the explanation to this great website thanks to my best pal who gave me this link.

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

Enjoy =)


p/s : Mr Charles, this is for you.

Photo Manipulation

Well, here i am again. This time its about photo manipulation. As you may already know, digital photography is no longer is from what you see. Now days, its normal for photos to be edited, normally to enhance the image, recover bad photos or to give more impact. Depends on individual creativity, people bring it to another level of editing photos by manipulate those images to create new type of photography. To an extend, fine art & design principle were added in to bring originality for their portfolio. As a result, a blend of multiple art line is mixed into one. Where the sky is the only limit, here some links i can share.

http://www.freshbump.com/category/photo-manipulation/
http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/milk-photography/

For the sake of art learning, WARNING!! 18 & ABOVE ONLY!! - Andy, Sok Pen, Dhista stay away ok? =P

Buying a DSLR

I know i gave my suggestion which camera to buy but i never explain anything about the difference between each brand. Each brand has its pros & cons. As all of u may already know, Nikon & Canon is the leading brand for SLR's currently.

Nikon is well known for portrait as it gives natural skin tone. But Nikon's entry level camera body dont support all type of lens. Also, to reduce shake during photoshoot, Vibration Reduction function (VR) is used. To use the function, u have to buy the expensive VR lens.

Canon in the other hand, excel in sports, or in other words capturing moving objects. Another good thing about Canon is, all canon DSLR using CMOS sensor, producing nice photo image. The downside is on its shake reduction system. Same as Nikon, Canon's system of shake reduction is with its lens. The Image Stabiliser (IS) lens price range is just about the same as Nikon's VR lens.

Beside those 2, there are other brands which you can consider to buy. For example, Olympus is good in landscaping while Sony is more to portraiture as well. Both brand has camera body built in shake reduction, which will save you a lot from buying shake reduction lens. In other words, even the normal lens without shake reduction also can become shake reduction lens. The difference between these 2 brand is in its system. Olympus uses the four-third system while Sony use the same system as Nikon & Canon.

I've been using Sony DSLR for almost 2 years now & looking forward upgrading my gear before next semester starts. Sony offer low price & good function compare to others in entry & intermediate level. Its true Sony is new in DSLR field, but the technology they have in DSLR now is improvement of Konica-Minolta, which they bought over the company years ago. Despite the great specifications they have, such as fast autofocus (AF) in live view mode (LV) & tilt lcd screen, they lack built quality in their kit lens. Slow focusing & chromatic aberration is the thing you might get in the older kit lens (like mine).

Conclusion is, there is no such thing as the perfect brand. Its you who make the difference, not the camera. Go to camera shop & try it all before choosing the one that suit you best. Get the feel & choose the ones with best specs with great value for money. Happy camera hunting =)

For those who trying to figure out the price, here some links as your guide.


http://yamiya.com.my/store/
http://shashinki.com/shop/


If you dont mind buying used stuff, you can check out this link,


http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=41

Revenge Of The Broken Heart

My animation. Enjoy =)




- Muhammad Norzaidi -
- 0907Z6767 -

Feeling thirsty? Free water for u guys...

Found this image from one website which i forgot its url. Was searching for Elly Tran Ha's pictures but this images came out instead. =.=!

Photography 101 - Tilt-shift photography

Is this real or its fake? Here is another version of it...



Haha.. i'm sure most of u wondering if its real or not. It is real and taken from Alamanda Putrajaya. This type of photography is called tilt-shift photography, which require editing in photoshop or other software to enhance the image and add blur effect on top & below of the image. Here some links for other samples and how to do these stuff.

www.tiltshiftphotography.net/
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/tiltshift1/

Enjoy. =)

Photography 101 - Choosing the right camera

Hey guys. Its been a loooooooooooooooonngggg time since i post anything. Semester break is just around the corner. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to it, even though it will only last for a week.

As all of u have known, we will have photography class in semester 3, and it will be 3 weeks course before our next holiday. Those who already own a DSLR camera, try spend more time with it and get familiar with its function. Go out, snap anything that interest you. A good knowledge of your camera will help you a lot in shooting a good picture.

Those who still looking & trying to decide which one to buy, i'm sure most of you thought everything looks the same. Its just the price that makes the difference. People normally thought buying a cheap ones will do the job just fine. Its true in the end, its you who makes the difference in capturing a good picture. But by investing in proper gear will surely worth every ringgit you spend as long term investment, if you are thinking of being serious in photography of course. Entry level DSLR indeed is cheap, normally use CCD type sensor with standard 9 focus point & burst mode of 3 frames per seconds with limited functions. Intermediate & pros used the CMOS sensor DSLR which is more expensive but works better under low light conditions.

Modern SLR's, or simply put it as DSLR comes with different types of sensor. There are 2 types of sensor. It can be a CCD or a CMOS sensor. CCD sensor indeed is sharp under sufficient light conditions and works best in daylight but it produce a lot of noise when a higher ISO is used. In low light conditions, its better to bump up your ISO than slowing your shutter speed simply because slower shutter speed will cause your moving images blurred, even when using a tripod. A CMOS sensor in other hand, produce lower noise when using higher ISO, allowing you to snap a picture with lesser noise under low light conditions.

So choose wisely when you want to buy a DSLR camera. If you think you want to go further with it, i suggest you invest on intermediate level instead of entry level since you might, or should i say u will get frustrated with entry level camera's in no time as your skill developed. For those who have the thought having one for the sake of taking pictures, entry level will be good enough for you. I think i had enough for today. I'll save up the rest of the basics to this website - http://lensa.co.uk/.


For those who interested investing on camera's, my suggestion is as listed below :

Nikon - D5000, D90, D300 ( if you serious about photography )
Canon - 500D, 50D
Sony - A500 , A550, A700

As for entry level recommendations, i suggest ;

Nikon - D3000, D60
Canon - 1000D
Sony - A230, A330, A380

Its not necessary to buy a new set of camera's. A second hand ones in good condition will save your pocket from having a large hole. Its rare to find DSLR camera's & gears in crappy condition though so you dont have to worry much in buying a used camera. All you need to make sure is the camera body has low shutter count, and the lens is in good condition, ( snappy, no oily blades & no fungus in it).


Well then. Off i go now. Still have cube work to be done.

Favorite Artwork From National Art Gallery

From the first moment i saw this painting, i fell in love with it. This painting was titled as 'Sarang tebuan jangan dijolok' and the artist of this painting is Zulkifli Yusof.

This painting was divided into 3 section with 2 different colors. The painting suits the title well as the artist emphasize a big bee in the middle with white background creating contrast, and a repetition of a bee around it in shape of movement on the left & right side in red background color. On the top part ( left & right ) of the painting, the bee still has its shape but as it goes lower, it only has a buzzing black lines but still have some shape of a bee, to show a sense of movement. You can feel like the bee is moving around the whole frame.

Here some info about the artist,

Zulkifli Yusof
___________

- born in kedah
- 1985 ~ 1989 : studied at MARA Institute of Technology ( I.T.M ) School of Art and Design, Malaysia
- 1989 ~ 1991 : studied at Manchester Polytecnic Faculty of Art and Design, U.K.

His public collection was located in
1 - Bank Negara Malaysia
2 - School of Art and Design I.T.M Malaysia.
3 - Singapore Muzeum and Gallery.
4 - Kedah State Gallery.
5 - Fukuoka Muzeum of Art Japan.
6 - Hiroshima Art Muzeum.

For more info about the artist background, log on to http://www.nngallery.com.my/cof/37/.




For my second favorite artwork, its called "Mulakan dengan bismillah" from Suhaimi Fadzir ( sorry for the side view picture. was hiding from the security guard when the picture was taken =P ).

This artwork consist of multiple medium in it. The first time i saw the image, i thought of Palestin's war state & suffering of the civilians. The painter tried to show state of war in the name of god. It emphasis on Muslim's god name Allah, with a splash of colors from gray to black as its background to give contrast to the god's name. The splash background reflected as the blood spilled on the ground, while the brown circle on the left side act as a bullet hole. On the right side you can see a grass or rattan root shows as blood coming out from wounds. The 2 steel rod at the bottom with chain most probably the painter trying to say that both Palestin & Israel is tied to each other & the war will always go on. There is one more thing in the artwork which complete the whole painting but due to the poor image quality, you might not see it. Around the whole frame, there is a lot of short wood stick resembles bullet shells.

I could not find the artist biography but here some info i manage to find about him.

Suhaimi Fadzir
_____________

- Worked as an architect for 15 years before became full-time artist

- His residence-turned-art studio called Keli Sanctuary located at 23, Jalan Kelab Ukay 4, Taman Kelab Ukay, Bukit Antarabangsa, Kuala Lumpur.

- Also has a studio in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

- Called his artwork "archipainting" - a fusion of art and architecture.







Wished could snap a proper picture of these artworks. sigh....

When bored meets dead end..

Simply hate it when i'm stuck with nothing to do ( actually, still have tons of workload at my back! ). Came down to this fantastic group of photographers website. There are few seconds loading time due to flash interface but it is simply worthwhile. Those DSLR 'kaki' ( Sam, Sri & few others ), try check it out for fresh new ideas. =)

http://candidsyndrome.com/

The Fox's Cut & Paste

Hey guys! Just uploading our cut & paste designs. I'm sure some of you already watched my work during class. Yeah i do prefer things nice & tidy ( but not the type who iron my boxer & underwear ok!! ). My theme for the cut & paste this time is robotic-machine like design, slightly influenced by Transformers. Here are the designs i have done so far begins with the design using our name initial letter.

I'm totally blank at first, until i saw a one of my wallpaper collection in my laptop which leads to this idea. It was a man with a robotic-like suit, quite similar to the suit used in laboratory when handling hazardous chemicals but kind of robotic. Then i saw my another wallpaper, which is a girl with a headphone on her head. I decided to combine both idea but without sacrificing the shape of the letter. Its true we can cut it into pieces and design it more flexible that way, but i wanted to test out how far i could go within the restricted rule.

This is the second design i created for the "nice & tidy" design. Wanted to keep it simple & thought lining up 3 squares horizontally at the bottom part will do but then i just cant see those empty space left blank in white. Maybe i am used to photography, i cant leave the frame empty without a subject. So i played around several time and end up to this. Yeah i know it looks plain & dull, but it is something that kind of reflecting myself from the past with me in the center bringing balance to my desire, the pressure, family's wish, ambition & passion. Suddenly sounds complicated eh? hahaha....

As for the last design which represent "dynamic", i choose extend my "clean & tidy" design into something i look forward to be currently, TO BURST!! haha... It may sounded a bit weird, but i really do looking forward to be more dynamic in the way of thinking, and adding more colors in my life. I'm sure you have known i used to be an passive-boring-type engineering student. Everything must be done precisely & without slight error. Failure is not an option. Being wrong is a taboo. Screw it all!! I am who i am & i want to be who i am. I have done what i must, and now its time for me to be in my own world. It was the part of the deal with my parent though. I'm glad now being in Taylor's with all of you & really enjoying every second of it. Life is carnival. Live your life to the fullest!


- Muhammad Norzaidi -
- 0907Z67677 -

Photography

Wow... i'm totally amazed by our new blog layout. thx to andy for ur hardwork. gokuro sama desu! welcome to our happy-go-round-super playfull ( especially girls, u know who i referring to! ) class of July intake. as i mention before, lets make this blog our own design hub. post anything u feel like sharing with others. designs, expressions, experiences, u name it ( but no adult stuff ok andy! i know u looking forward to it >.< ).

Anyways, i'm no gud in drawing stuff to begin with. a total zero. but i do photography & luv it so much, even though didnt go out often these days. the old Sony A200 DSLR is what i carry around most of the time. composition is crucial in taking pictures. without a good composition, the picture will look flat. one of the most important element was the Rule Of Thirds. Rule Of Thirds is the rule on how u arrange the subject in the photo frame to make it looks lively with the eyes has the nice capture of the subject. i believe we will be apply the same rule in our drawings in future. photography is very costly when it comes to buy the gears u need. sumtimes it can go up all the way until RM30k ++ ( yes, RM 30,000 ) juz for a single lens. its best to polish up ur skills before buying any new gears & find out what type of gear suits ur photography style. here some of the shots in my collection so far ( all unedited ).

I still got loads of pictures in my collection & all were unedited. a bit frustrated wasnt able to go to any GT race for the past 2 years. sigh... my GT queens...........

The GrayFox

GrayFox

In gaming society, its common for us to use nicknames instead of real names. I used a lot of nickname before and its when i came to this, people start to recognize me & call by this name. Of course, only friends from gaming society i'm in call me by this nickname. Its been 9 years since the first day i use this name. The very first person ever call me by that name was my secondary school form 5 senior. Originally, it was a character's name in a very popular console game called 'Metal Gear Solid'. Because of the characters personality, i decided to use it on my own for gaming purpose somewhere in the middle of the year 2000 ( i'm definitely sure its before my PMR trial though! ). I'm still using it until now & people still recognize, not to mention call me by this name everytime we meet up in game or even when we hangout during outdoor gatherings.

- zaidi -

Hugs & Kisses

Welcome to the July intake school of design blog, the place where we going to stuck with until convocation day do us apart ( or perhaps till Charles break us to pieces! ). Credits to Samantha for this blog. Thank you! Hugs & kisses! ( don't get the wrong idea ok! ). Maybe we can decorate more later on to make it more lively.

As Charles mentioned earlier during the class, this will be the place to fill up with our design as an e-sketchbook. So feel free to spill out new ideas & throw all your images here as bad as you wanted to throw it to Charles face ( no offense sir, just trying to make it sound cool >.< ). Do link up this blog with other cool sites which you think will give us fresh ideas for our design in future. Lets make it more than a mere assignment page into our own graphic & design hub. Think creative, enjoy life, and meet deadline before Charles hunts our heads down. Ho ho ...

- zaidi -