A.C. Flory's Blog, page 104

Corel Draw X8 – Miira cover final

I thought that X8 would be X6 with a slightly different interface, but it does actually have some nice features that I wasn’t expecting – like links to some very sophisticated fountain fills and a much improved transparency feature. Those features may have influenced the rather radical changes I’ve made to the cover of the first book:

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Unfortunately, the image doesn’t quite show the depth of colour in the cover as the CMYK black has come through as a rather washed out charcoal in RGB [for web display]. Once the cover is printed it will be much sharper and the silvers will ‘pop’ more…I hope. Anyway, I’ll probably fiddle with the balance a bit longer, especially if you guys point out things I’m too blind to see, but this is basically the front and back cover spread that will go to Createspace for the print version.

One of the hardest things to figure out was what to put on the spine. Once I’d worked out the total number of pages for Miira, including copyright, Afterword, etc., I plugged the number into Createspace’s calculator, and it spat out the exact size the spine must be. Unfortunately, as the first book is quite ‘slim’ there’s not that much real-estate to work with.

I experimented with a number of fonts, but none gave me the crisp look I was after. And then, as I looked at the circuit board, I suddenly realised that I had all the components from which to make my own ‘font’, one that would mimic the wiring of the circuit board. Thank goodness, the end result didn’t turn out to be too kitsch. The new look circuit board also gave me the pattern for the back cover blurb. Making the text fit, however, was another exercise in patience.

And finally, a word about the new background photo. I was all set to use the bush sunset photo I’ve shown you before when I found a pic I’d taken ages ago of my own backyard:

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I was trying to capture the amazing play of light through the trees and fluked it. The shot is nowhere near perfect, and I haven’t touched it up in any way – I don’t know how – but I instantly knew it would give me the feel I’d been searching for. Pretty happy with the result but annoyed at myself for wasting time and money on the bush sunset pic. Ah well…

I promise to do a how-to post about the Createspace calculator as soon as my eyes uncross.

Flow #batteries for electric cars are coming!

[image error]In a previous post I talked about possible innovations that might make electric cars more convenient in the future. Well here’s another one, and it could be the most effective of the lot:

https://futurism.com/new-instantly-rechargeable-battery-deals-a-fatal-blow-to-fossil-fuels/

In a nutshell, these batteries can be instantly recharged by replacing the fluid electrolytes. Thus, instead of topping ‘er up, you’d drain out the old and replace it with new. The ‘stale’ fluid electrolytes could then be taken away and recharged using one of the renewable energy sources. Or maybe recharged at the service station itself.

Flow batteries aren’t new, but until now, they haven’t been efficient enough for commercial use. The Ifbattery avoids most of the problems of the old technology while being cheap to make and safe to use. And just think of all the new jobs that will mushroom from this renewable technology!

cheers

Meeks

Filed under: technology Tagged: battery, car, charge, electric, Flow, instant, Purdue, renewable, technology

Circuit board vectoring, version xxxx….

I’ve deliberately turned comments off this time as the graphic isn’t done…I just wanted to share what I’ve done so far:

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505 separate objects, no background as yet so the silver effect isn’t that obvious, and the edges have to be trimmed blah blah, but I think the circuit board will look good in print and reasonable in thumbnail. That’s what I’ll be testing out next but for now I feel as if my eyes will never uncross!

I hope you’ve all had/are having a great weekend,

cheers

Meeks

Filed under: Innerscape Tagged: book-cover, circuit-board, Corel, fountain-fill, graphic, silver-wire, vector, X8

What I learned from House of Cards and a young ventriloquist [Updated]

And another update – WordPress reset my default settings, that’s why comments have been ‘off’. If you’re getting ‘Likes’ but no comments, you might want to check the settings for your blog posts.

Architecture – underground [update!]

Apologies – for some reason, comments were turned off on this post. Slip of the finger perhaps.

Architecture – underground

Ever since the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, I’ve daydreamed about building an underground house that would be naturally protected from the ravages of fire. This stunning house in Greece would need some additional work to make it fire proof but the design is so beautiful I couldn’t resist featuring it:

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The interiors are designed so that natural ventilation and clever use of shade mean there is no need for air-conditioning, even in the height of summer:

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This I like. I’m less enamoured of the stark white interior design. There is nothing cosy about it, and as so often happens with many modern designs, it only looks good when everything is just so, ticketty boo. Perfect to look at but not to live in.

You can find the complete article and all the pictures at:

http://newatlas.com/lassa-villa-ypsilon/49801/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=d6b90786de-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-d6b90786de-92416841

Off to lunch with my sister-in-law.

#Corel X8 vector graphics vs photos

In my last post about the new Innerscape cover, I vented about the trouble I was having getting the silver effect I wanted. Your suggestions were brilliant so I thought I’d do a quick update of my progress. The pic below is a test graphic to illustrate the difference between the two methods and how they might look in the finished product:

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The silver ‘wire’ was created using Corel X8’s fountain fill. It is clearly silver, even when I reduce the size down, i.e. it scales well. Unfortunately it is absolutely uniform, something a real ‘wire’ would never be.

By contrast, the gold ‘wire’ is a photo taken of a thin needle shape covered in foil. The foil was silver, but the lighting created this decidedly golden effect [evening, overhead light and table lamp, both with bulbs of ‘warm white’]. I only know this with the wisdom of hindsight.

#Facebook selling children’s pain

[image error]Just read an article on the Passive Guy about ‘…a leaked confidential document prepared by Facebook that revealed the company had offered advertisers the opportunity to target 6.4 million younger users, some only 14 years old, during moments of psychological vulnerability, such as when they felt “worthless,” “insecure,” “stressed,” “defeated,” “anxious,” and like a “failure.”

I was shocked. I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I don’t like Facebook. I’ve even compared Facebook to Big Brother, but this? This goes beyond anything that I would call ‘normal’ business practices. Is this truly the shape of the new world? Are we truly prepared to accept this behaviour as normal?

But wait, there’s more. One of the comments to the article was this:

‘ If you are that entwined with Facebook then you pretty much deserve what you get.’

Really? I replied with this:

‘I’m Australian and I don’t automatically blame the victim. I loathe Facebook and the more I learn about it the more I hate what it’s doing. If this article is accurate, then it’s Facebook that deserves condemnation, not the young and vulnerable who are only doing what millions? billions? of other vulnerable people are doing worldwide…’

Facebook is a monster that we created because we are the only product that Mark Zuckerberg sells. Think about it.

Meeks

Filed under: My soap box Tagged: advertising, children, data-mining, ethics, exploitation, Facebook, Mark-Zuckerberg, targeted, vulnerable

DIY silver foil photos [update]

My scrunched aluminium photos didn’t work terrible well, but Dawn sent me some pics of real silver:

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Going to have a play with them tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

DIY silver foil photos

I was searching online for photos of silver foil to use as a texture in the Innerscape cover when I had a light bulb moment – why pay for someone else’s graphic when I have metres of aluminium foil in the draw?

This is a screenshot of the five photos I took in the kitchen:

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I lightly crushed the foil before positioning it in various places to achieve different light effects and angles. I’m still a lousy photographer, but I hope these pics allow me to create a true metallic effect for the ‘wires’ on the circuit board. And the best part is, if it turns out to be an absymal failure, it won’t have cost me anything but time.