This Year’s Christmas Wish List

This week the family have been asking the question that comes around once a year and that is “what would you like for Christmas?” As an amateur visual artist I can say that most of what I’ve been looking at has either been design or photography related so I’m going to share the three items I want the most this year.

Sorry to any young eyes reading this blog who believe that Santa will be bringing them their gifts this year. He doesn’t visit my house sadly so our parents get us presents instead :{P
 
Anywho here’s my three wants for the year, any of which I’d be ecstatic to receive:

Peleng 8mm Fisheye Lens

I’m a big fan of my Canon 1000D and have enjoyed taking photos with it for the past three years but I’ve recently wanted to do some cool wide angle shots at our local skate park. To get that cool effect that they show on the Extreme Sports channel I’ll need an extra wide lens like the Peleng Canon fit 8mm fisheye lens.



If I later decide to upgrade the camera to something more impressive like the 5D I’ll be able to film cool skate clips using this lens which will be great.

Current Price on Amazon: £198.00.

Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch Graphics Tablet

For some time I’ve been drawing freehand with a good old fashion pen and paper and recently I’ve used a flatbed scanner to digitise my work just for personal enjoyment. I’ve now decided that for Christmas I’d like to receive a graphics tablet made by Wacom so that I can draw straight to PC.



I know many readers will be thinking why didn’t I choose the ones that are similar to an iPad yada yada. Reason 1 being they cost a lot more and reason 2 being I’d like to learn this way first as many professional digital artists have done this for years. After all I have a monitor in front of me to see what I am drawing.

Current Price on Amazon: £69.99.

Gig Posters Book

Last but not least is a book I’d love to get my grubby mitts on that will provide me with some inspiration for my own gig poster projects. The name of the book is Gig Posters: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century v.1.



I love the originality of the American gig posters and how they always seem far more impressive than the boring formulaic ones used for nightclub venues. I love it when a poster can make someone stop in their tracks and read on in awe. That’s what a poster should do!

Current Price on Amazon: £16.19.

I guess its fair to say that I don’t ask for a lot. For my last birthday I was asked what I wanted and I simply asked for the Jungle Book on DVD. Random I know! This may not be the expert graphic designer’s wish list of 2012, however, it is definitely similar to one of an amateur looking to learn.

Anaglyph 3D Photography and Film

It’s been a while since we’ve posted something on Inspiring Print so I thought I’d share a recent purchase of mine with you that brings an old form of visual entertainment into the current day.

Last week I was having a browse through Flickr to learn from other peoples’ impressive photos by studying the EXIF data of those that had it available. I learn to shoot a lot of different styles with my DSLR by studying photos and how they were put together before playing with the settings and adding my own twist.

As I was searching I came across several 3D images that needed a pair of glasses with a red lens and a cyan lens, otherwise known as anaglyph 3D glasses, in order to appreciate the 3D effect. In true spontaneous style I jumped onto eBay and ordered myself a pair of them – 2 pairs for £2.

Since they arrived today I have spent a good portion of the morning looking at the different types of 3D images that are on Flickr and videos that have been uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo using this anaglyph style of 3D image recording.

Overall I am impressed at the wealth of material available to admire online, considering that 3D viewing of this kind went out of fashion for a while until Real D came into cinemas with their polarization systems, which you’ve undoubtedly used within the past 5 years if you have watched a 3D film in the cinema wearing passive glasses.

There is one major problem with the anaglyph glasses though and that is that the colouration of your picture isn’t as true as it would be using a pair of Real D’s polarised glasses because of the different coloured lenses. On the other hand, you do need a 3D source such as a 3D monitor or cinema screen in order to benefit from using the passive polarised lenses, therefore, if you’d like to create a 3D video that is viewable through all devices then anaglyph is the only way to go for now.

5 Cool 3D Photos

If you’re fortunate enough to have a pair of your own anaglyph glasses then have them at the ready as I show you five of the most impressive 3D photos I’ve come across today on Flickr.

1. A telegraph pole that looks real enough you could climb it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parallel_yoshing/4435473954/sizes/z/in/photostream/

2. All aboard the HMS Victory, you can almost smell the sea air:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stereoviews/4671782299/sizes/z/in/photostream/

3. Take a trip to the Thames and see the London Eye from the comfort of your armchair:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stereoviews/4468225752/sizes/z/in/photostream/

4. Feel the warmth of a big bonfire through your red and blue glasses:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stereoviews/4429479321/sizes/z/in/photostream/

5. Be careful not to roll down this wicked spiral staircase as you peer into the concrete tornado:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stereoviews/5050067331/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Anaglyph 3D Videos

After looking at 3D photos I decided to spend a little time on Vimeo to find an impressive 3D video that I could share with you. This one of some robots playing football was the best one I came across:



There are plenty of others to watch, however, you will notice if you browse for yourself with a pair of these glasses that video quality is an important factor in the success of the 3D effect – the sharper the better. Pixelated videos just look like a mess, twice!

DIY 3D Anaglyph Images/ Video

There are a bunch of lenses and cameras on the market that you can buy to achieve this type of 3D image or video (Amazon: http://amzn.to/UUvH8d), however, there are tutorials available to teach you how to make your own 3D anaglyph images using one camera.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sklathill/450378602/sizes/z/in/photostream/

It is preferred that the subject you are taking a photo of is stationary to make the 3D effect work. The process involves taking two photos (one from a left eye perspective, the other from a right eye), which can be offset from one another using a software package like Photoshop and involves further editing. You will of course need to be wearing your red and blue glasses whilst constructing it.

A handy tutorial to learn this from can be found here: http://www.diyphotography.net/create-3d-anaglyph-images. Judging by the author’s 3D image portfolio, this tutorial should be a simple method that provides you with tight and impressive 3D results.

All in all I’ve enjoyed my little trip down memory lane to when I remember being a young one and using the paper version of these glasses at my local cinema. I am pleased that this has improved with the help of Real D though because of the colouration issue.

I will be trying the DIY tutorial in an attempt to create my own 3D photo, which I will post on here if successful. Tweet us your own attempts if you decide to at @inspiringprint.

The Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine: An Honest Overview

I recently witnessed a graphic designer friend of mine purchasing what I personally deemed to be one of the most ridiculously overpriced ways of digitising paper format information. Introducing the Evernote Smart Notebook, created in collaboration between Evernote and Moleskine.

Don’t get me wrong, Evernote is a brilliant note taking platform. I use it on a daily basis to sync notes via the cloud to all of my devices which saves emailing individual pictures and corresponding notes using separate programmes. But as you’ll notice from my tone, I’m not a great believer in the benefits that Moleskine’s Smart Notebook provide.

This new “innovative” notebook is available to buy in both small (A6-A7 size) and medium (A5-A6 size) from $24.95 on Moleskine’s website - the innovation being that you can use a smartphone loaded with Evernote’s application to take a photo of your handwritten notes and illustrations. Sounds like something I was doing 5 years back with my Nokia N95 and a £1 notepad from my local high street. But wait! There’s more.

The pages within the book aren’t your regular ruled lines. They are dotted ruled lines, which according to Evernote accurately skews your work once the app has read the dot pattern so that you eliminate the problematic slanted shot of a page. The other version of the notebook also contains pages with dotted lines but as a grid pattern - more suitable for graphic designers.

Another supposed benefit of this book & app combo is the removal of shadows from the photos you take of the notebook, however, as a photographer myself I’m not convinced by this. First of all Evernote advises that “using your flash ensures that you’ll get the highest quality image” (http://blog.evernote.com/2012/08/24/the-new-evernote-smart-notebook-by-moleskine/) in which case you won’t get a shadow - you can even try this now by taking a snap of a word on a piece of paper with your smartphone. Secondly, the automatic removal of shadow, if true, is an amazing innovation as in my experience this is quite a lengthy Photoshop process, which has lead to me just re-taking photos. Hmm?

Last but not least is my favourite selling point: stickers! Yes that’s right you get stickers which allow quick tagging of your pages. All you have to do is stick one on the appropriate pages and your notes are categorised into the corresponding notebooks that you’ve registered each of the stickers to. But what do you do when your stickers run out is my question? Costly methinks when you could do this manually via the app.

So what are my final thoughts on the Evernote Smart Notebook? Well the upside is that you get 3 months of Evernote’s premium service which gives you a whopping 1GB upload allowance per month as well as a few other service related features. The downside is I don’t understand who this notebook is targeted at. Serious graphic designers and illustrators will have their methods of digitising their creative work using tablets, scanners, and a range of software suites. So who?

Give us your thoughts on Evernote’s Smart Notebook. A new age designer’s essential or a flash in the pan waste of money?