» Web/Graphic Design

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So if you are looking for professionally done web site templates, be it written in HTML or Flash, take a look at what EasyTemplates.com has to offer.

Ever since I have started and finished the Digital Building a week ago, I have been itching to design and start building another structure. I’ve been digging through countless number of architectural pictures to get some ideas on this design and I have stumbled upon Zaha Hadid, an extremely talented architect who creates impressive looking structures. I am amazed and inspired by her designs, jaw dropping, literally. Her Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius for its organic design as well as the BMW Central Building in Germany for its sharp and futuristic design.

  

I believe Zaha Hadid’s fan count has just increased by one. I’m sure I will fall in love with other architects’ designs as I study along the way but Zaha’s is my first.

Anyway, back to my own design.

The exterior design isn’t really based on anything in particular this time, it just popped out of my head all of a sudden. I guess this is like a by product of studying all kinds of designs from different architects. At first I couldn’t think of a name for this build but since it looks technical, at least from the outside, I have decided to call it Technical. People without reading this blog will most likely think I’ve built fighting pick-up truck.

  

In this design, I’ve used large one piece drop down windows from second floor all the way to the first floor. The main entrance in the middle separates the two sides with large pillars/columns. They are my attempt to create a more striking, bold and structured feel to the overall design. Sort of like a skeleton supporting the skin. I’ve decided not to wrap the skeleton with glass infront but I might change my mind on this. It shows striking, bold and structured feel clearer without glass but I also like the idea of being “revealing” where you can see it but not clearly.

  

For the interior, I based a little on one of Zaha’s interior designs but nothing close to “copycat” like, just some minor concepts. As usual, there is a lift that will connect both first and second floor. I have trimmed the surface area of the second floor in exchange for the ability to looking down to the first floor. I think having more open area also reduces the feeling of crowdedness and thus making the over all interior more relaxing. The lift platform on the second floor connects to the two suspended glass platforms, one on each side that leads to the rest of the area. In the middle are 5 large metallic columns with each suspended by a wire. I have chosen to use silverish metal texture in combination with the “glow” effect to transform the middle into the center of attention, I’m sure it would still be the center of attention even without the “glow” effect but I wanted the middle to be more dramatic.

 

In my previous projects, 95% of the decorations / ornaments were not scripted, meaning they would not move nor react to user input. For the first time, I’ve scripted these 5 columns to rotate in one direction in a slow but noticable speed. I have set a timer of 5 seconds so that the rotation will alternate between clockwise and counter clockwise. I’m pretty happy with the result.

I hope you guys like this one as well and I will be back to the drawing board pretty soon for my next project.

Good news Hotmail users! NOT! Microsoft is now forcing us Hotmail users to adapt to the redesigned interface. Why break something that’s been working great for so many years? The first time I logged into Hotmail yesterday, I thought my page wasn’t loaded completely. But it was “done” so the only thing that could explain this was they changed the look and feel again.

Some people said Microsoft products are generally hated and bashed by when they first come out, but frankly I disagree because I’ve had no problem with Hotmail (most of the time) until now and I had no problem surfing the net with Internet Explorer until I made the mistake of giving the buggy IE 8 Beta a try but that’s beta so bugs are expected and luckily I got a new computer and now using IE 7 instead. Finally, I have no complains using Windows XP either and no I am NOT a MS fanboy.

Microsoft better get that option of going back to classic mode as soon as possible, I know a lot of people that are getting annoyed by the new design.

Thank you for listening to my daily rant I feel much better now.

I finally had the time to get back to my architecture/interior design hobby recently. I’m actually not too happy with the exterior design of my previous design – Basic Blocks – Contemporary Home. It was just way too plain and I admit I didn’t put too much thoughts into it and spent nearly 100% to interior design.

  

This time I focused on the exterior just as much as the interior and based my idea on the Digital Beijing Building by the talented Studio Pei-Zhu.

I love how the blue lights are “escaping” from the gaps between the columns which really gives the digital as well as the “Matrix” impression to the whole design. In addition to having those blue lights on both sides, they are also visible and extend from the front of the building all the way to the back of the building.

  

The building consists of two floors with each floor measuring approximately 40m long, 20m wide and 10m high. The prim count (the number of objects) is a bit more than usual mainly because of the “digital” design on the two walls on the sides. The two entrances are well hidden so people will not be able to see them and makes the “digital” flow from front to back without the entrances interrupting it. I have also made heavy use of the “glow” effect both inside and out for the extra lighting effect.

Overall I am very pleased with this design (finally) and hopefully my next project will be just as fun and satisfying to design and build as this one. Hope you guys like this one as well!

Comments and feedbacks are always welcome

If you are looking for afforable car spoilers, Stewart Design has spoilers from 27 different car brands ranging anything from Acura to Ford. OEM paint job is also available for a resonable price. Aside from spoilers, Stewart Design also provides eye catching and professionally designed car and truck side graphics as well as rear window graphics.

I apologize if some of you had problem viewing my blog this afternoon because I’ve been playing with this new layout Nano Theme designed by NET-TEC Hosting. I think the orange font color really stands out from the dark grey background. I thought the black/grey/white style is getting a little bit boring so I thought the orange would spice it up a bit. The layout overall is also cleaner and more organized, the old one was a little too crowded.

Hope you guys like this new layout!

I think this one turns out much better than Jessica Simpson. This time I played with more masking and something new – displacement mapping and desaturation using sponge tool on her hair (the blonde hair just didn’t fit her evil looks). I’m not sure if I should make her skin even darker. hmmm….

I am going to start playing with more abstract designs as oppose to just image manipulation. It’s fun but I guess its time for something new.

Again thanks steelfrog for his extremely helpful tips. I hope you guys will like this one. And as usual comments and feedbacks are more than welcome!

This is my first time blogging about my latest design in Second Life. I’m a content creator specialized in homes, stores and even some military buildings like hangars and command centre with nuke. But I prefer designing and building houses instead. I have recently released my latest home design called Basic Blocks.

Why call it Basic Blocks? It actually comes from the design which consists 10 rectangular blocks. It has two floors, therefore 5 blocks per floor with the middle one connecting to the other four on each much like a “plus” sign. The middle also consists of an elevator for accessing both floors. In this design, I tried to apply a bit more interior designs inside instead of just a plain empty shell. The designs are mainly from mixing different ideas in some of the interior design books that I read all the time. You will also notice I”m a big fan of the 3 colors – black, white and grey, I can never stop using them in all my builds.

Hope you guys will like this design and feedbacks are always welcome! Even the negative ones as I strongly believe I need to listen to all in order to further improve my designing skills.

For more pictures please visit my listing @ slexchange.com where content creators like myself sell their products and/or services for Second Life.