In the previous blog post, Jonas, [who had not supplied a reply email,] asked whether or not some of my 2009 artworks were influenced by Mirror’s Edge, and if so, I should list that they are influenced by it.

While I’m glad he’s concerned about this sort of thing [and I'm glad you think my stuff is cool :D], I want to take the time to explain a few things, especially if sometimes some people don’t stop to think about chains of influence and origin.

In some of my work, it has notable influence from Mirror’s Edge, and I don’t deny their origins [quite evidently since I do actually list Mirror's Edge as one of the influences for each of the inspired artworks.] For the following statements, I’m leaving [Being Alone] out, and I explain why in its description. For the other two artworks, [Now Arriving] and [Searching For] however, are original works — not Mirror’s Edge fan arts. They do contain influence from Mirror’s Edge in the form of minor color choices, but both images actually contain nothing from Mirror’s Edge itself. For some who aren’t aware, Mirror’s Edge does not actually contain a unique visual style, even its developers know this, as they’ve talked about where its visual style comes from in several interviews. Mirror’s Edge gets its main visual distinction by following basic color theory — the same color theory that you would be taught in your first year at any art college. Within the primary colors, blue recedes while red comes forward. That is, in essence, Mirror’s Edge’s entire design concept. [And believe me, N.C. Wyeth discovered the power of primary colors far before they did.]

Mirror’s Edge borrows influence from two other major sources: Swedish graphic design and Asian Architecture, [namely Tokyo and Hong Kong.] Mirror’s Edge is one HUGE reference to Tokyo, and if you weren’t aware I’d suggest to go look up some photos. Like… [this one], [this one], [this one], and [this one.] I’ve always been in love with Japanese urban development and mass transit, which is a big reason why it shows up in my work even before Mirror’s Edge’s release. One of the biggest influences Mirror’s Edge uses is the Sewers level, which is based nearly 100% on the Japanese G-CANS project. [See the G-CANS here,] and compare it to the Mirror’s Edge level seen [here], [here], and [here.] I first knew about the G-CANS before their appearance in Mirror’s Edge, so I was stoked that I’d get the chance to run around inside of them when it was released. The point is, if I were to do a picture involving the G-CANS, I’d reference the fact they’re influenced by the actual location in Tokyo rather than the level in Mirror’s Edge.

Swedish graphic design plays another huge role, as even my latest work colleague Kacper Antonius [editor in chief of Level magazine, Stockholm Sweden,] mentions by saying, “Compare the look of Mirror’s Edge to things like IKEA.” Such as [this] and [this.] “Swedish graphic design consists of solid high saturated colors with bold, white or colored solid text. Mirror’s Edge is a tour-de-force of Swedish Graphic Design.”

While I found Mirror’s Edge to be a fun and inspiring game, the truth behind the matter is that I’m not being influenced by Mirror’s Edge: the game itself. Mirror’s Edge did not invent these influences, it instead acted as a transporter to allow me to discover its own influences in greater detail.

A good example: the current design for Plastic Shards is entirely influenced off of Swedish graphic design. I can thank Mirror’s Edge for showing me how wonderful Swedish Design can be, but I’m not crediting Mirror’s Edge itself for infleuncing this design.

For people who say that my work is reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge, that’s fine, and you are accurate to say so :) However, if you say that my work IS Mirror’s Edge and I should credit Mirror’s Edge, then you’re vastly mistaken. Besides, my very most recent work barely even feels reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge anymore, hahaha. :) I think I’ve fallen in love with the color magenta lately.

I’m thrilled that Plastic Shards and my work has recently become popular among blogs and design/illustration sites, I’m grateful for the exposure!

However, with all of this new exposure comes a bit of the “telephone effect.” Basically, as some blogs pick up my work and publish it in a post, some facts can get skewed here and there. Most notably is some confusion about what I do, and the focus of my work.

I’d like to take the time to clarify that I do photography as a hobby. In the case of some blogs, they write that I “often use photography” in my work, when in fact I’ve only used it in two pictures within my gallery. [The "Series I" images.] All of my work is actually created from a more classic approach — that is, I start with a quick thumbnail of the scene, I bring the thumbnail to a rough sketch, the rouch sketch to a cleaned up sketch, then the cleaned up sketch to a final polished drawing. I have some supporting imagery to show the processes in a couple of my images.

[Click the image below to see a larger version.]

I also have a video recording of one of my one-hour speed paintings, start to finish, compressed into about 10 minutes. You can see how I work directly!

So I like to use photography as a method to improve my visual memory, composition, and value, however photography is actually RARELY present within my work :) This would make me a Matte Painter if I did use photography — but the truth is that I’m not a matte painter. I like to be a conceptual designer and illustrator. I like to sketch and draw things from my head, quickly, and then embellish the sketches after the initial speed sketch. [Much like the video above.] Of course if anyone has any questions, feel free to drop me a comment here!

Just wanted to clear that up, and hope you found those examples interesting!

Thanks again!

Courtesy of my job at the school, I got a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 4. I’d call CS4 one of the most quieter releases in Adobe history. Not too many people know much about it, or why it’s worth upgrading to if they already have CS2/CS3. We all know CS2 and CS3. It was big stuff. CS3 is synonymous with Intel Macs because it was the first native intel written version. But CS4, released just a little over a year from its predecessor, makes you think… “What else could they have really improved from CS3?”

Well, I’m going to mention a few KEY things I’ve noticed right off the bat after a couple days of tinkering with Photoshop CS4, probably the most important program of the suite.

1) Your artwork is crisp and clear at any zoom level.
That’s right. After 10 other versions of Photoshop, they finally implemented full anti-aliasing for non-standard zoom levels. Youve seen it in previous Photoshop releases. You could ONLY view your work smoothly at 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 100% zoom levels. Any other intermediate zoom level like 33.33% and god-forbid 66.66% will tear up your artwork and give it a nasty jagged appearance from the droppage of odd pixels.
But no more! You can zoom leisurely to 37.94% zoom and your artwork will appear as clean and smooth as 50% or 100%. This is major. Really major. This means that you can finally zoom in to a level that best suits the area you’re working on and get the full detail, without worrying “what I missing behind that jagged edge….??”

2) You can virtually rotate your canvases.
Painter could do this for ages. With the hand/pan tool in Painter, you could rotate the canvas virtually like you would a piece of paper. This allowed you to rotate the area you were working on to get a better / more natural approach to it with your tablet. Why rotate your tablet and make strokes at frustrating angles when you can just rotate the canvas? Unlike “Free Transform” rotation, canvas rotation never actually altered the pixels. The software just displayed it at a temporary rotation until you set it back to 0˚.
Finally, Photoshop can do this too. What’s better, Photoshop trumps Painter at doing this. Since CS4 implements advanced anti-aliasing to odd zoom levels, it does the same to canvas rotation. So as you rotate, your artwork remains clear and smooth with no jaggies. You can also simultaneously rotate every open document at once, so you can keep a consistent angle in your work flow as you jump from different projects. have to hand it to them, the first implementation is a real treat.

3) The eyedropper tool can sample colors from the CURRENT ACTIVE LAYER ONLY.
This is other big news. Instead of sampling colors as-it-sees-them, the eyedropper can now sample the true color of the layer currently selected, ignoring all other influence from other layers. This is insanely useful for me, meaning I can now sample base colors under my shading layers WITHOUT having to turn the shading layers off. Thank you, Adobe.

4) You can flick your canvas to pan it.
This is an unexpected new feature, and one I’ve become accustomed to from my iPhone. With my wacom pen, I can flick the canvas in a direction to roll over to a new area. The effect is quick and useful, scrolling smoothly to a stop based on how hard you flick. This saves me from a lot of back and forth wrist gestures to pan across a broad image with my pen.

5) Tabbed open documents.
This is catching on. Just like Firefox with open tabbed pages, Photoshop now has tabbed documents. Jumping between different pictures is now as easy as well, the tabs in your web browser! Not only does this remind me that I may have unintended files open, but I can finally stop wasting so much time by selecting an open document from the “Window” menu. Smart move, Adobe.

6) Layer masks have their own palette window now.
This pushes using masks to a very new level. Before, you could make a selection, do what edits you needed to the area, and deselect it, and move on. That was good and all, but it was destructive to the image. If you used Adjustment layers and Layer Masks, they allowed you to edit your image without destroying the picture [since deleting the layer mask would restore the image as it was before changed,] but layer masks were hard to control and confusing.
Photoshop CS4 makes non-destructive editing to your images a whole lot more straight-forward. Now, you can make a mask around the selection you want, then hit the “Add Pixel Mask” button in the palette. The mask is then applied as a layer mask to the layer selected. This actually saves the mask for use at any time. By clicking on the layer mask thumbnail on the layer it’s applied to, you can change all kinds of parameters of the mask in the Mask palette. For instance, you can use the Feather slider to automatically soften the edges of the mask without having to do guess work in the old “Feather” command. Plus, you can always return the feather slider back to 0 giving the mask back its hard edges. You can adjust overall opacity of the mask, invert the mask on-the-fly, have the mask ONLY display specific color ranges of the selected region, you can even save the mask to use again in another document. [You could do this in CS3 as well, but this makes it MUCH easier.] Hell, you can even adjust the masks edges so you can bleed into areas you may have missed. It really changes the way you interact with masks. I know it’s going to certainly make an impact on how I work.

7) Intelligent grid system.
You can now have the grid automatically turn on in certain zoom ranges. By default, the grid will turn on at zooms beyond 500%, highlighting the physical spaces each pixel occupy. This is great for doing incremental work in areas that may have solid colors, making the apparent pixels invisible. When you zoom in, the grid appears, highlighting the pixel boundaries. When you zoom out to see how its looking, it disappears so it doesn’t get in the way. [The grid is also much nicer looking, with lines that only illuminate the boundaries a little, so it doesn't throw off the perceived color of the pixel you're looking at. The grid is anti-aliased as well to match odd zoom levels.]

8) They removed the Photoshop logo from the top of the tools bar.
Seriously, it’s about time they did that. It was just wasting space, and since it served as a button to link to Adobe’s product page, it usually pissed me off when I missed clicking the arrow tool and hit the logo instead.

9) You can paint textures onto 3D objects.
This is a bit new to me, and I haven’t tried it yet, but seeing the options in the menus is tantalizing. I can make 3D objects. But texturing them is another story. With Photoshop, apparently I can actually paint *on* the objects surfaces. This is an interesting feature that I’ll experiment with later.

10) Faster, Streamlined.
Installs faster, Opens faster, Runs faster. Whatevery cleanup they did under the hood, it seems to have worked. Compared to CS3, CS4 feels featherweight on my system. The new interface is darker and the tabs for palettes more obvious. The entire CS4 suite has a total uniformed design and experience. What you see in Photoshop is what you’ll also see in Illustrator, Sound Booth, Premiere, Flash, etc… CS4 finally feels like a complete suite of applications that mix and match with each other, instead of a big group of accumulated products over the years that still retained their old roots before standardization took place.

And these are only some of the things I’ve noticed in Photoshop! I have like 10 other CS4 apps to explore next.