Warren Shea - World of Warren

Archive for the ‘Design & Art’ Category

TO DO: Secret Project KB

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 at 10:45 am

(or kotobishoujo.com)

I purchased the domain for this site on Oct 18, 2011. I had the idea/passion to make this site about 9 months ago…but could only do it when warrenshea.com was finished, a project that took…..much longer than it should have.

I think around the end of May, I finished warrenshea.com…so I’ve had a month and a half of having this project as my focus. To be honest, it’s coming a lot slower than I expected. Here’s my checklist of things I’ve done

~~buying the domain~~
~~designing the basic layout~~
~~developing the basic functionality~~
~~pouring in content~~
fix the search and make it look nicer
create a logo
pour more content into the blog
go to various sites and look up prices for each statue (time consuming and tedious)
~~buy a camera~~
- learn how to use the camera to take professional shots (time consuming)
- take pictures of all the statues (super time consuming)
- create a gallery for each figure

Overall, it’s a bit overwhelming how much work is involved, not to mention the maintenance of it all. I need to be on top of kotobukiya bishoujo information! It’s harder than I thought it would be.

Anyways, there’s still a long way to go. I’m working on tons of things all the time, like learning about photography…for the site.

ETA on completion: who knows :/

Anyways, I just wanted to write about this project as it’s now the focus of my free time. This is to help me stay organized :) I feel better when I’m organized!

Posted in Photography, Secret Project KB | No Comments »

DSLR Example – Wonder Woman

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 at 12:33 am

I’m in the process of doing 16 angle shots of each of my bishoujo characters for my kotobishoujo.com site.

This was taken by me O_O. It looks so professional…though not as professional as it could :/

Here’s an example. Click for a larger image (Warning, the larger image is 4.89 MB).

Hmmm, as I compare this image with some professional images, I notice the color is off on my character. Not sure why. I’ll have to investigate.

Update

This one is truer to the real colors..it still doesn’t look right though!

Update 2

with gray card

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Design sense…shinka!

Saturday, March 10th, 2012 at 4:36 am

I’ve been doing a lot of design for my freelance and I realized something: My design sense has gotten considerably better despite the fact that I don’t actively improve it very often.

From worldofwarren.com to warrenshea.com to this freelance project. While I still struggle with different design sense (I’m not that versatile), I’m getting stronger in my conceptual and overall design. And I think that it all comes the fundamental principle that less is more. Subtle is better.

I used to design with lots of heavy drop shadows, bevel and embosses, noticeable outer glows and inner shadows (man, do I love those Blending Options in Photoshop). I still like those things…well, drop shadows and strokes, but I think the key is that I use them subtly now. Between noticeable and barely visible. And I think therein lies the key to my design.

I very much like the stuff I’ve been designing lately, for my freelance job.

Anyways…I’ve spent like, 40 hours on Photoshop in the last 7 days doing design and I’ve really been proud of the work I’ve been doing. Maybe I gave up on a design career too soon….although on the other hand, I do still love development so much more. I can’t wait to start developing the designs I’ve been doing :D Can’t wait!

Posted in All Posts, Design & Art, Work | No Comments »

One of many Addictions: Video Game Guide Books

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 at 3:16 am

I won’t lie. I have a weak willpower. It’s the thing that makes me think “I’ll just have a little Bacon on that Double Cheeseburger” instead of “Salad is the way to go”.
I’m not weak willed but I’ve definitely got a highly addictive personality.

I’ve collected Books (Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes), Comics (16 large boxes, having collected comics for over 10 years), Manga (DBZ, Naruto, Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion), Magazines (PSN, Wizard), Artbooks (maybe I’ll do another post on these), Toys (RAH DX Gundam Seed toys, Adam Hughes DC Statues, Jim Lee’s DC Universe Online Statues, and most recently Marvel and DC’s Kotobukiya line) and finally: Video Game Guides.

Now, that’s not to say I buy them all. No, far from it. But when I see a guide to a game that I know I might play, as opposed to one I do or have played, I have to have it. Even more so, if there’s a collector’s edition: I have to have it. And I have to have it new. Yes, I’m weak like that.

Today, I had some time to kill so I went to Indigo. A hundred and something dollars later, I have these 3 books:

My reasoning for each book:
Batman Arkham City Collector’s Edition Guide because: I have the Batman: Arkham Asylum Guide and EVENTUALLY, I plan to play this game.
Zelda: Skyward Sword Collector’s Edition Guide because: Given the buzz around the game, maybe eventually I’ll play it. Also, I have another guide like it….(see below)
And finally a Super Mario 3D Land Guide because: I don’t know, I’ve finished the game and gotten all the gold medals…there’s very little this guide can tell me.
(in fact, after reading the guide, I realize I’m not done the game..I have 4/5 stars. The last star involves reaching the top of EVERY flagpole AND beating every level with Luigi…currently, after 1 day, I’m on World 3…again >_<). Anyways, I'm stupid in the way of buying guidebooks and games. Even worse, Collector's Editions always really screw me over. I have a Collector's Edition DC Universe Online [PC], BlazBlue [PS3], Gran Turismo 5 [PS3], Catherine [PS3], Marvel VS Capcom 3 [PS3], Street Fighter 4 [PS3]....AND a Final Fantasy XIII [PS3] and Metal Gear Solid 4 [PS3]....and those last two both remain sealed still -_-; Another example of my addiction:

Well, I have 2 regular Zelda Guides because Z and I both got one before we moved in together. We have two Twilight Princesses [Wii] and two Wii’s too :) But one of the guides is still shrink wrapped.
And then I have the Collector’s Edition Guide because….well, I wanted that one over the regular one. I just HAD to have it, despite 98% of the content being the same probably. Also, the Collector’s Edition Guide is still shrink wrapped too! (Well, why use that when I have a regular guide to “destroy”).

Click the image above for a larger one
I have tons of Video game Guidebooks, many for games that don’t need one or of which I’ve never/rarely used:
Street Fighter IV, Smash Bros Brawl? Why would I need fighting game guides?

Games I’ve never played, but have guides for: Kingdom Hearts II, Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Games I’ve only played for a moment, but got distracted: Super Paper Mario, Metal Gear Solid 3, Zelda: Major’s Mask, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Batman: Arkham Asylum

I will admit that I love guidebooks, even if I don’t use them really. I love looking through them, looking at the art (same reason I buy artbooks), looking at the strategies, even if I may never use them.

I don’t regret buying these guides, but it does seem a bit unnecessary some times. Still, who’s to say what games I could be playing in the future. I played 5 year old New Super Mario Bros. [DS] just last month, I played 10 year old Zelda: Ocarina of Time [N64/3DS] last/this year.

I would much rather buy the guide new, when it’s out than buy an old, damaged guide for a high price. Seriously, a New/Like New Majora’s Mask guide is IMPOSSIBLE to find. Even old beat up guides range from like, $60 to $200. Ridiculous. I was able to get 1 off ebay in horrid condition for $30ish and another one from my local vintage gamestore for a bit more than cover price (that was like finding gold, seriously).

I just wanted to write about game guides, since I bought 3 of them today….and since I haven’t blogged in a while. ANY TYPE OF INSPIRATION WILL DO.

Posted in All Posts, Art, Design & Art, Games, My Life, Shopping, Things I Own | 1 Comment »

Tutorials: Photography – Fine Tuning the photo manipulation process

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 12:11 am

Sorry for the looong post! I know I said I was going to work on warrenshea.com but instead, I spent tonight learning about photo manipulation. To be honest, I thought my Adobe Photoshop skillz were good. Not great, but pretty good. But no, there’s so much to learn and do with this program, it’s pretty ridiculous. Anyways, I spent some time Googling photo manipulation.
“How to get the background white”
“How to remove darkened corners”
“How to sharpen an image”

They all led me to some Photoshop skills. You can see the difference in each shot as the quality of the photo is increased. The order of changes for WHY I did them:

1. Adjusting the tone/color. I find that sometimes the tone can be off….doing either of these will make it a nicer one. A blue instead of a yellow, stuff like that.
2. Adjusting the levels to increase the lightness around a figure.
3. Lens Correction to increase the lightness around the corners of the shot.
4. Vibrance to increase some color contrast
5. High Pass filter, to increase sharpness. I LOVE this step, it looks fantastic after.

Click the image for a larger image

Anyways, I learned that the 8 hours of photography last weekend were wasted. The lightsources I chose to lighten some things caused a dark shadow behind my figure. No amount of Lens Correction can fix it….sigh. The shots I took when I first got my light box are better to manipulate. Really though, I need more light for one. And two, a better camera. Doubt I’ll be able to get the latter any time soon. Maybe I can do something about the former…need to hit up a Henry’s.

Posted in All Posts, Photography, Tutorials | 1 Comment »