a design journal

Tis’ been a while but I’ve actually decided to update this site for once. I’ve put up a new graphic design/web design portfolio. It’s not fully complete, but I’m some what pleased with it. I hope to put up more of my work soon, but that all depends on time. We shall see…

I have a dilemma. I’m working on a project that will require having a 360 degree view of an object or at least a 360 degree view on one plane. I’m not quite sure how this can be accomplished in a smooth way. The only way that I can think of is to position the object in a central location and take pictures of it with a camera from, at least, 16 different degrees on a single plane.

An example can be illustrated here (ignore the word “chip”):

Why 16? I heard it is the minimal amount of shots needed to ensure a relatively smooth animated rotation. Still, I can already imagine this to be relatively difficult to accomplish in a non-studio based environment.

Some concerns:

• I need to light the object well enough all around so as to not have any odd shadows when rotating.
• I need to some how make sure that the distance of the object from the lens is the same at every degree of angle.
• I need to some how patch it together using some software to make it look like it’s rotating in space.

Naturally, all of that is probably easier than I make it out to be because I like to make things seem more complicated in my head than they actually are in reality.

Also, I am aware that I can just keep the camera stationary and rotate the object, but that seems far more difficult to do since I won’t have a simple way to measure the angles of rotation.

Either way, it should be a fun experiment to see if I can actually accomplish it though.

I’d like to consider myself fairly intelligent but trying to alter this wordpress default theme has been quite an undertaking. The CSS appears to be valid but it’s written in such a cluttered way that I have to navigate through countless trial and errors just to figure out what modifies what. In some instances, I still don’t know how to fix it. I just simply worked around it, or covered it up. Clutter.

Despite it all though, I have reached a point where I can deem it, shift66: version 1. Just for archiving purposes, a screenshot is below:

Just wanted to showcase the newest additions to my design portfolio. Mainly, 2 print-based designs that I did for an upcoming set of trade shows for C&S Technologies, Inc.

The first is a trade show banner:

The final print out is 3′x7′ and is mounted as a portable self-standing banner. It came out decently, but the main picture (the man) did not have a high enough of resolution (which should be about 500dpi at 1/4 the print size), so it ended up coming out “pixellated.” Everything else came out sharp and wonderful. I may have to go back to it to photoshop or airbrush the guy for a sharper image and do a reprint at a later date.

The other piece is a tri-fold brochure:

The first panel is the front and the second is the back (inside). It follows the same design as the trade show to maintain a continuity in company image. There weren’t any problems in the print out on this one. Small prints (letter size) generally don’t have problems. Everything came out nicely, sharp and crisp, subtle and to the point.

This website, shift66, began life as a portfolio site for me but now I want to expand upon that which I have wrought. So born is shift66: design journal. The goal of this new site is to allow me to discuss design oriented things and the like and post new designs that I come up with as part of my job or just on a whim.

The current design for this site is the default design that comes with wordpress (the content management system I am using to run this site now). I plan on redesigning it, so stay tuned.

In case you were wondering, the portfolio will still exist, of course, but it will be moved and can be found in the following parenthesis (shift66: jack wong’s graphic design portfolio). It’s been redone in a way to take into account for easy integration with this new design journal. It’s not to my full liking yet, but I’m still learning the ropes of how to customize it. It’s serviceable now, though. So enjoy.

Anyway, here’s to future posts about grandiose things of design and whatever else of beauty.