01 December 2008

GRASS is starting to grow =]



It's starting to come together. It's a bit glitchy right now. I'll upload the swf later on.

The first image is the splash page, it's not final.

I still need to work on the logo, it reads as gros, I think I'm just going add a leaf to it.

Now there is lake view, where you can see how much water the school has saved. Since it's really difficult to portray water I'm thinking of making the fish represent 1,000 gallons of water or at least have them as milestones.

18 November 2008

It was worth it!

http://www.visualnerd.net/gras/main.swf


It's not optimized, but still worth viewing!
-Ivan

17 November 2008

AS3 Is getting Harder



5 hours of actionscript, and I was able to move something. I'm still not use to scripting in AS3. I got stuck in the technical things so I don't have that much to show.

10 November 2008

What I have so far...



http://visualnerd.net/main.swf
work in progress...

I've got the map to work. I still need to work on the graphs. Luckily I found a few sites that have graphs that I can use. It's great because I can use xml to manage the data.

08 November 2008

Worst site EVER!!!

http://www.poprockscandy.com/

If you have something that can beat this, post it!

07 November 2008

LOL

I few days ago while I was stuck in traffic, I was thinking that it would be really cool if you can combine GPS with an accelerometer or IRF. And then I read this in macrumors:

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/11/07/apple-researching-virtual-reality-headsets/

=]

02 November 2008

ActionScript 3 Trees



http://incomplet.gskinner.com/index2.html#sakura2
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/assets/Elm.html

After searching for how to create trees in AS3, I stumbled upon this. It's really cool, but I don't think i'm going to go this route. Maybe the animation part of it. Still awesome.

Google maps API in Flash!

http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-google-maps-api-for-flash.html
I'm going to incorporate this so people can see GRAS in different cities.

29 October 2008

Connect the dots


This is research for my calendar project. I'm want to create an interactive calendar by getting elements from an image that has patterns and unified diversity. I will then place dots with numbers and figure out some sort of way to emphasize the weekends by color, scale, and shape. The connect the dot image that will form will complement the image and furthering my concept of connecting the image with the dots.

27 October 2008

Circut Bent Vintage Computer Game Console






I took the Intermediate Circuit Bending workshop at Machine projects. And After two days of extensive mapping and rewiring of the chips inside I came up with my bent computer system. By rewiring and hooking them up to switches and nobs, I'm able to create a wide range of visuals. Eventually I want to ciruit ben a super nintendo and have an audio feed do the bending for me by automatically switching according to the pitch of the music.

Well anyways here are some pictures I took with my laptop. Eventually I'm going to post video and high res pictures of it.

Creative Board: GRAS



20 October 2008

Research

So I started to browse and I found some interesting links:
http://www.dontclick.it/
https://www.cicatriz.se/AW08/
http://www.ricedaubney.com.au/#/analysis/media-interface/
http://www.selftitled.ca/

More Sites:
http://styleboost.com/tags/experimental/date/2/


Information Design:
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php
http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000149.php
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3713/is_/ai_n9451819

Wireless Energy Transfer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer

Google Analytics:
http://www.google.com/analytics/

MIT Labs:
http://www.media.mit.edu/

Obama on Technology: Poster

Obama on Technology: Microsite





http://visualnerd.net/obama/

Obama on Technology:Creative Brief

Ivan Cruz
Obama on Technology Microsite
Interactive Design 2
20 October 2008
“Let us be the generation that reshapes our
economy to compete in the digital age…” Barack Obama.
To achieve this, I wanted to represent the “digital age” as a cloud. This cloud metaphor is used in technical illustrations and also in “cloud computing” where a computer goes online wirelessly. I used the democratic blue color to represent the Democratic Party. This site is about information and I wanted it to be smooth and clean. The words and the paragraphs all come from the cloud—the metaphor of the Internet sending and receiving information. I used the eagle and stars to give the cloud more of a presidential/democratic document feel.
The target audience I wanted to reach is the Blogger. These people have high-speed Internet and have the power to spread the word. They are mostly males around the ages of 20 to 35. By adding the “addthis” button on the lower right hand corner, I am able to reach this audience and in turn get free publicity and media attention.

17 October 2008

Rabbantula!


Rabbantula! from ivan cruz on Vimeo.
I'm going to create a website and a book just for the heck of it =]

15 October 2008

Circut Bent Video!

Tomorrow when I get paid, I'm going to register for this class at Machine Projects. It seems really fun and exiting.

06 October 2008

The Silent Disco


I went to LA DETOUR this weekend. And three things stood out. The Submarines rock, Shiny toy guns suck, and the silent disco was cool. People would get these headsets that have some sort of fm transmitter on them, so you can only listen to the DJ. If you were an outsider, you would see a crowd of people dancing like crazy to no music, yet the crowd were all synced to some sort of beat. The great part is that they would all sing and react to the DJ. The people with the headphones were having a blast--listening to daft punk remixes with 80 songs and top hits. I liked this little experiment even though not that many people showed up for it.

Flash Classes are cool!

I don't have to do heavy coding anymore =]

Here is a link for Liquid Layouts in AS3:
http://www.blog.noponies.com/archives/53

Here is a link for a Dynamic Text wrap in AS3:
http://dispatchevent.org/roger/dynamic-text-wrapping-in-actionscript-3/

And Here is a link for Filter tweening:
http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3/

29 September 2008

Oh Bama



I'm still in the process of getting the clouds done in After effects. I'm using some action script tweening. Here is a link if you want to see it.

AS2 Tween Class

23 September 2008

CUBEFREAK.COM


Check it out!
It's a website for a speed cubing documentary.
I launched it yesterday and I already got hits from all over the world!

22 September 2008

Layout #1 Obama and Biden




These are the landing pages for the Obama and Biden website on Technology. I started off with a central O sitting on the "cloud." I was really attached to my first layout, but I started to simplify, and I really like the second one. It's so clean.

In terms of flash, I want everything to be a little floaty - I want some sense of depth. I think i'm going to use some sort of zoom mechanism to achieve this effect. I'm also going to add videos of time lapsed clouds and mathematical equations to represent science and the world wide web.

21 September 2008

Goggle analytics and flash =]

Hey everyone, just wanted to share this with you. It's a way to put google analytics in a flash site. Really useful =]

project4x

19 September 2008

After Effects Experimentation: Week 1

I'm doing these little animations based on what we learned in the class in my motion class. So I'm going to be uploading them =]

For this week's class, I had to do an animation using the simple shapes that after effects offers...

So, I posted this video in several sites, trying to find the best quality. Youtube is just bad. blip.tv let's you upload the real size of the video (re-sized here) and Vimeo is really good, I like the frame rate and good quality.



After Effects Experimentation: Week 1 from ivan cruz on Vimeo.

15 September 2008

Obama on Technology





The project is the expansion of the technology category. This new category will have it’s own icons, and imagery but still keep within the Obama branding. The brand is known for change and hope. This extension will develop that idea further into the space travel, education and research by activating the scientific community through blogs.
The target audience is wide. It is based on the scientific community. This includes students, graduates, professors, and those working in the scientific/engineering field. This includes males and females 18 and over. But I am specifically targeting to college students and young adults who are active bloggers and post and share their videos on YouTube.
The visual identity will be based on the same typographical treatment that the Obama campaign is using with the rendered background of vector algorithms, satellites, and space shuttles. These symbols represent the creative chances that scientist must take in order explore new ideas without restriction. Satellites and space shuttles represent the advancement of space travel, and with it, uniting the planet as these accomplishments are met.
This is going to work by using several technologies—Flash, XML, and PHP. With these technologies, it is easier to update the site with current events. Links to YouTube videos and other external links will enable the audience to blog about these issues. The site will be 1024X678, but will be able to conform to any browser using liquid layouts in flash. The hurdles of this project are making it low broadband and accessible for people in rural areas with dial up connections.

12 September 2008

revenge on junk mail

How to get revenge on junk mail
Officeofstragicinfluence.com

By replying with a brick attached =]

11 September 2008

Saul Bass

While doing research for Type 3 and I came across this link:
notcoming.com/saulbass
Really Interesting

Obama!

http://www.barackobama.com/

For interactive design 2, I have to make a flash version of this site. It's a challenge because it's a great site. Since it was built with social networking in mind, it makes people spread the word. So I'm still brainstorming, what's the next step.
Any Ideas?

Here's some more info:
Campaign stops: Typography

10 September 2008

Itunes 8 Visualizer and other Visualizers



It's just incredible how diverse the visualizer is. The transitions are great. Each song has it's own feeling. It was first programed in Processing. I've used this program before, but I didn't know it was this powerful. Here is a link with more info..
Magnetosphere

I've been on a look out for this transition in a while. The colorful oscilloscope days are over! These are my favorite inspiring flash visualizers that i've seen that are pushing this limit:
Simple2
And this one Flash 3D

06 September 2008

Express Card?


I always wondered what that long rectangular slot was on my macbook pro. I went online to find answers and it turns out to be an express card slot.

A few days ago, I went to the apple store and found an express card that is capable of reading SD memory cards. But at thirty something dollars, it was too expensive. I went on amazon and I found a 21 in 1 card reader for $28! So I bought it. It's a great little piece of hardware. It took me forever to upload pictures from my Lumix Panasonic camera with the USB cable. Now it only takes seconds! It's faster than Firewire 400, and 800.

So what else can the express card slot do?
Multiple screens, Solid State Drive (to use as a scratch disk for Photoshop, After Effects, FinalCut), and USB, eSATA, and Firewire hubs.

Express Card Article

Amazon 21 in 1 Card Reader

04 September 2008

100 Year Forecast

Day two of blogging

Um, I think I'm going to get addicted to this...

Ha! First blog on Blogger!

So, right now I'm working on a couple of projects:

Updating a Nursery's website
Finishing CUBEFREAK
Restructuring Leonard's Website

I also joined Twitter!
I still don't know how, or why I should use it.
I'll post the link to in later...


I was also thinking of creating an interactive 3D timeline for my blog, I could do it, but I would need to find out how to publish an xml file from a form like the one that I'm using for this one. If I can get it to XML, I can do this! Maybe if I can create a PHP script which takes my blogs from here and hmmm.... I just don't know how to do it, and I think it's too much work, well I'll see....