Christmas Time

For Christmas, I tried some self-made postcards for my family and friends. They are still looking very self-made, maybe I should print them to be more professional but then I would not have this nice paper (1) and also not everybody would have their individual Christmas card (2).

An improvement would be to add type or paper card to clue on top, maybe also some Christmas items like plastic snowflakes. Though, I like the cards because they kind of represent my fashion experience with the water color. The gold is acrylic.

3DS Max: How to render

So, one step has been missing still and this is rendering in 3DS Max. This is a step between putting color and doing a movie. I tried to combine the two videos that I did but could not come up with a video in appropriate size... So, it's two that belong together.

This tutorials have been a lot of fun and though I cannot listen to my voice, I think I explained things well. Next time, it would probably be helpful for the audience if I would zoom in in between. Andrew Kramer from Videocopilot.com is my idol, though he is a bit crazy. But I think that he is both entertaining and explains the issue on a top level. Every time someone asks me about AfterEffects, I recommend his videos because they are just so great and full of insights.

3DS Max learning blogs

So, after I found out that videos don't have a voice on my blog, I put them on YouTube. Please select the one that's interesting!

http://www.youtube.com/user/IDexchange?feature=mhee
In this video, I explain basics of how to set a scene, importing an IGES file into a 3DS Max scene and prepare the bodys for further work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPZBhJHGB8E
This video deals with the basic material editor. Really, really basic! But, so far, I made all of my renderings like this and it always looked great. Also, last semester, I rendered a short video with my skills that really made an impression. I guess it's just important what you make out of your skills!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy0f8p0tUZY
In the last video, I make a little movie ;)

3DS Max: How to import IGES files

In this video, I try to explain how to import an IGES files and how to prepare the body the best way for further work. I regret that I cannot show how to export a SolidWorks data because I have a legal student version of SolidWorks that does not let me export in any other format than SolidWorks or eDrawing ;) I love you SWguys!

Fashion Final

For my final, there were some more sketches to do, but also creating a cover page for my two sketch books. The problem was, that the sketchbooks have a pretty solid yellow color page that also has some prints and a sketch on it and as it is a ring binder, I cannot cover this yellow page with my sketch. So I decided to create two cover pages digitally for the sake of having a thick paper, being able to include nice typo and also somehow playing with the yellow.
I ended up with a gradient that is as close to the yellow as it can be. Glued on my sketch books, these paged do pretty well.

My phone

One of the worst products I ever bought is my current phone. That is not very surprising because it cost me $10 and its edges are so sharp you can get hurt. The worst is that it does not always receive calls...
Anyways, there is one thing that I really appreciate about it: The alarm funktion!
As I am a student and I have different times to get up during the week, I used to re-set my German alarm every day. This phones offers 6 different alarms! So I can choose my early week alarm, my late week alarm, my nap, the weekend alarm and a second early week alarm, just in case. Also, and this is the clue: The phone makes me choose the days of the week seperately.

 Maybe it is because I have a very old phone in Germany, but I was really surprised how convenient this function is. If only this phone would work like this on every area!

Fashion in color

This was created to be an Industrial Design blog, but somehow it worked out differently... Maybe 'cause fashion is new and I really like experience a new skill of mine. But I will try to post some ID stuff in the future. And now: Clothes in color!

Fashion MidTerm

Alright, this is not my work! This is Tianyin Wang, a Chinese Fashion Illustrator that I've picked as my inspirational illustrator for my midterm task for fashion descom. He inspires me because his work is full of contrast: color vs. black & white, hard lines in body, soft lines in background, precision vs. coincidence. I also like how the model is playing with the color. Or is the color playing with the model?

This is the final result. I used a combination of real sketching consisting of ink, marker and pencil. I scanned the sketch and build "Vogue" in Illustrator, the brushes and background are Photoshop work. I would have liked to try the watercolor effects in reality but this way I could delete the layers over and over again.

Here is an impression of our presentation within class. The steps everybody has taken within the last two month are impressive. I think that my teacher is really good because he has passion for what he is doing. That also counts for German professors, but usually it is very hard to see that passion. Also, students seem to be more productive if they feel comfortable. Randy helps us by making a joke sometimes.

Put some clothes on

After working on faces, hands and hair, we start sketching our model with a drapee of cloth. The nice thing about it is that students try to drape the model themselves which takes a lot of time on one hand but is fun on the other hand.

Afro Love

To push the process a litte, I sketched this african girl in a kind of traditional dress. Basically, I wanted to use color to induct a certain mood to the sketch. To give more depth, I used ink on strategic lines.

Me, finding a hair style

Now that the body shape is half-way solid and just needs more practice, it is time to define "the cherry", which means the face and hair style. Those should match the body type, in this case that means the curvy type. I like defined waist and hip so that makes me sketch the curvy more grown up woman. If the hair is now too sweet I get Beyoncé :)
I tried several hair types for my models but I will probably first need a fashion style and tailor my hair to each design anyway. But this task really was fun, I saved some time at the end of the two songs model posing for the hair only.

Humidifier

This task was about combining my personal skills in SolidWorks modeling, 3DS Max rendering and Photoshop in most effective way. I decided what do do in which program to be as quick as possible. Building the items took 30 minutes each, arranging the scene was 45 minutes each and oversketching in Photoshop took 2 and 2,5 hours. I found this method pretty satisfying and will probably re-use it for other projects. The only thing that is not convenient are the edges of the shadows. Maybe I can find a solution for that.

Humidifier

The task with the air humidifier has been completed with an Illustrator rendering of the final design. The design itself has not been discussed, only the skillfulness of the rendering and the sketches. The humidifier is ideally a product of Porsche Design.

Fashion DesCom

Today was the first day with clothes. The progress we make in class is very impressive and we have a model for the last two lessons now. Though it is different to have some clothes now and at the same time construct the body properly. These drawings are made quickly, they took between one and two songs while the model did her poses.

Air Humidifier

Though I keep struggle with pronouncing this word, here are some DesCom Sketches for my humidifier. I try to do something more boxy less demanding maybe with an exciting detail like a glass tube to see how much water is inside the humidifier. This tube can also be used to steam the water.

Portfolio online

My portfolio is now watchable! Please follow this Link:

http://www.uc.edu/webapps/propractice/industrialportfolios/winter_leona_13.pdf

Vitamin Water

Today, I would like to talk about my first experience with vitamin water, a flavoured so-called water of which I heard a lot, even before I came to the US. I've heard for example that it is good against hangovers. Well, I try it in a good mood with sunlight around me. The flavour I've choosen is lemonade but that wasn't very obvious because the design of the band is over-typolagized in my eyes. It looks expensive because of fine typography and the shiny golden print. The plastic bottle itself is also very solid but the loose band makes a crunching noise when I grap it. So... I just taste it now.

As most bottles in the US, the bottleneck is pretty wide and I did not yet find out how Americans drink from that. The taste is first no taste at all, then becomes bitter and then is super sweet. It somehow taste like lemon but not really, it is a taste that I cannot match with anything I know.

I would say that this product really has a good marketing that made me buy it but because of its taste I will surely not buy it again. Or maybe get used to American flavours.

Fashion DesCom

This is one of my sketches from today's Fashion class with Prof. Wilson. He wants us to draw quick and intuitiv using this fill-out technique who's name I sadly forgot. My first sketches were too realistic and, in a fashion designer's eyes, too thick. The technique helps me to make my girls skinnier but I can't help adding some shadows. I am pretty excited how sketching will develop based on this class.

Study Abroad

This is my first post on my blog and I am very excited about that because it makes me more connected to the online world. As hardly noone in my German class used to write a blog I will just try to post here some things about me, my study abroad and my current and old Industrial Design work and hope to find some visitors.

Leona Winter