Andre Bruni Bloghttp://www.andrebruni.comWed, 23 May 2012 22:42:02 GMTMon, 07 Mar 2011 15:20:08 GMTNew Horizonshttp://www.andrebruni.com/new-horizonsMon, 07 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMTAndre BruniJust finished a job doing real estate websites using Wordpress's Agentpress and IDX Broker. Had great success with SEO and managing the MLS data. Learned a lot about how to use IDX and create a finished product. Here are a few of the sites I have designed using this new method.

     

I got a chance to develop some terrific videos for Real Estate agents Here are a couple of samples of the videos I have been doing using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects.




]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/new-horizonsNew Flyershttp://www.andrebruni.com/new-flyersFri, 02 Jul 2010 00:42:03 GMTAndre BruniHere are a few new flyers I've done for my personal projects lately.


This one was for Imagicon in Brirmingham Alabama and...


This is for DragonCon 2010. I've also recently updated my con-tourage.com site using wordpress. That was a fun project. I have new dynamic sites coming for Grypon and Pangeae at Seminole Hard Rock, so stay tuned!

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/new-flyersMy New Home at JobSite123http://www.andrebruni.com/my-new-home-at-jobsite123Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:53:41 GMTAndre BruniI have been working at a new full-time position for the past 6 months. The name of the company is JobSite123.com. The website is like a Facebook for the Commercial Construction Industry. It is certaily the most comprehensive application I have ever worked on. Since I have arrived, I have re-designed the company logo as well as the entire website. Also I have created several instructional videos using after effects, to go along with the new roll-out. Feel free to check it out.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/my-new-home-at-jobsite123New Flyer For Con Nooga 2010http://www.andrebruni.com/new-flyer-for-con-nooga-2010Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:27:37 GMTAndre Bruni
Just finished this ultra-cool flyer for a party at Con-nooga Science-Fiction Convention in February. I will be hosting this party as well so it should be a lot of fun. My inspiration was, of course, the awesome Heavy Metal Magazine covers that I have always been a big fan of. I am quite pleased with the result.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/new-flyer-for-con-nooga-2010New Bannershttp://www.andrebruni.com/new-bannersMon, 05 Oct 2009 02:44:58 GMTAndre Bruni



Here are a couple of Banner Ads from a recent series I did for Atlantis in the Bahamas. I was having some fun with the wonderful glow filters that were introduced in CS2. I remember how difficult it used to be to achieve the effect pre-CS2. All of this and under 50k. Be Inspired!

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/new-bannersFlash Presentationhttp://www.andrebruni.com/flash-presentationSat, 15 Aug 2009 02:05:49 GMTAndre Bruni

I was recently asked to provide a sample of my flash presentation work. So without further ado, here is a link to a flash presentation I designed for a Breast Cancer Event at JM Family.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/flash-presentationGearing Up for DragonCon 2009http://www.andrebruni.com/gearing-up-for-dragoncon-2009Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:54:37 GMTAndre Bruni

ROCK GODS SUITE PARTY - FRIDAY NIGHT


This is it, the party you've all been waiting for. We have been planning this party for the past 2 years and it is going to ROCK. We have the infamous DJ NEMESIS as our official party DJ rocking the house with a mix of old-school rock and new wave party mixes. ALSO we are CON*cockting a special FREE DRINK for the party that will ROCK YOUR WORLD. FREE DRINKS while thay last.


 

INTER-GALACTIC BEACH PARTY - SATURDAY NIGHT


WOW! This party is gonna be out of this freakin world. Imagine a beach party on mars. That's what we are going for with this awesome party. FREE CON*TOURAGE CON*COCKTIONS while they last. We are having an ALIEN BIKINI CONTEST, so any hotties who show up in a bikini will win a prize, and the GRAND PRIZE will go to the Babe who gets the most applause during the contest. BRING IT and win a prize!




Additionally, I created an awesome hand drawn flyer for this years Pirate Party. A gathering of Pirate enthusiasts from around the globe for one night of Rum, dancing and debauchery. I wanted to do something different with a real fantasy art look. I did this flyer entirely with my wacom tablet. Here is the flyer....




More updates coming soon. I am now working on several projects and teaching classes at ICreatives, so I have been busy, busy, busy. I will update on all of my newest projects within the next few days. ENJOY!

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/gearing-up-for-dragoncon-2009Awesome new gamehttp://www.andrebruni.com/awesome-new-gameTue, 20 Jan 2009 18:13:19 GMTAndre Bruni

This post is about an great new game I found and have been playing all weekend. It's called Crayon Physics Deluxe and its a simple game that allows you to draw with crayons. The really neat thing about it is that your drawings take on physical properties like weight as soon as you draw them. It's kind of hard to explain how the game works, that's why they show the game off on video using a pen-touch screen. I watched it once and I was sold. Check it out!


Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo ]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/awesome-new-gameMore fun with Wacomhttp://www.andrebruni.com/more-fun-with-wacomSun, 28 Dec 2008 17:00:28 GMTAndre BruniI've been doing a lot more sketching and painting with the wacom lately and I wanted to post some of my fast sketches.

Bot
This is a sketch i did that was inspired by a small massager that sits on my shelf at home. I like the round idea and I had fun turning it into a robot. I wanted to experiment with the reflections off the steel links. It was fun, done in about an hour.

Bug
This one was done in about 1 hour while I was waiting for my turn on Spore, the new game in the house. My 2nd computer is getting fixed so my brother and I have been taking turns. This is my take on one of my brother's spore creations. I wanted to play with three level lighting so i added the purple highlights last.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/more-fun-with-wacomThe influence of Science Fiction on Arthttp://www.andrebruni.com/the-influence-of-science-fiction-on-artSun, 28 Dec 2008 14:52:18 GMTAndre BruniThis is just a short post on how Science fiction in movies, books and popular culture have influenced my career choice. I watch a lot of sci-fi, it's my favorite genre. Science fiction has altered my perception and may indeed be one of the biggest factors in how I've evolved as an artist and an even more-so in how I got my start. I can't remember any film that came before Star Wars in 1977 which I saw in a battered old movie theatre in Hollywood Florida. I was seven years old. Yeah I had seen many films before, but I wouldn't have called myself a film buff before then, I was too busy playing basketball and ramp-riding with my bike.

Star Wars opened up a new desire in me. Not to visit space, or have a lightsaber of my own (which was just about every other kids dream), no, after I left the theatre that night, I wanted to make my own Star Wars movie. This was partly pacified by the invent of Star Wars Action Figures, Playsets and Vehicles. My brother and I constructed complex battle scenes in our room using anything and everthing to build our dioramas. You could expect to see such strange building components as irons, scrap wiring, tubing, empty soda cans, paper towel rolls, packing peanuts, vice grips and uneaten spinach smuggled from the kitchen table (to recreate the trash compactor scene, of course). Nothing was quite off limits.

This was when I learned two of the most useful skills as an artist, how to be resourceful and how to apply those resources to my work. It was how I learned that using all the resources at my disposal could turn a project into a success - where people (my parents at the time) would go, "WOW, I can't believe you guys made this, where do you learn all of this stuff?" It made me proud, and that was the payoff.

It wasn't until later that I realized that Science Fiction was what drove me to be creative. After I finished watching Empire Strikes Back, or Blade Runner, or even older sci-fi like "THEM" and The Day The Earth Stood Still, I always felt a charge of creative energy. It was like the worlds that these artists had put together gave me some sort of power and I could then apply that power to my creative work. It was transparent to me then, but it's all too clear where my inspirations and drive to become a succesful artist came from.

Thanks George.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/the-influence-of-science-fiction-on-artPhotoshop CS4 Reviewed by PCworld.comhttp://www.andrebruni.com/photoshop-cs4-revied-by-pcworldTue, 11 Nov 2008 22:20:37 GMTAndre Bruni

Photoshop users may take a while to move to the new 64-bit version of Photoshop CS4, but it's an important development; meanwhile, CS4 offers plenty of other significant upgrades to keep 32-bit users happy.

Photoshop CS4Adobe's new Photoshop CS4 packs a ton of fresh features and an updated interface, which alone make it a worthy upgrade for existing users.

But the big news is that Photoshop now comes in both 32- and 64-bit Windows Vista versions. The 64-bit edition will allow PCs with lots of RAM to work on very large images with less hard-disk swapping (ideally, no swapping at all), thus speeding up operations. With the shrinking amount of RAM available to modern PCs (due to a 4GB limit on 32-bit Windows versions and those operating systems' increasing hunger for RAM), that's a significant update.

I tested betas of both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Photoshop CS4 by installing them on a workstation with dual Intel Xeon CPUs, running Windows Vista 64-bit and 8GB of RAM. Photoshop requires that you manually allocate a specific amount of RAM to it, rather than its acquiring the RAM on the fly. I was able to set the 64-bit version to take up 6879MB of RAM, and to set the 32-bit version to consume 3185MB of RAM. The amounts will vary depending on your system, especially your graphics card.

In the 64-bit version, I was able to create and work with an image of 45,000 pixels by 45,000 pixels, for a total of a little over 2000 megapixels and a 5.6GB file size. Obviously, most people don't need that sort of capability, but many professional photographers shoot with large- or medium-format cameras with digital backs that can capture nearly 40 megapixels or even higher, and they often create much larger compositions. Adobe says that Photoshop keeps its editing history in RAM for as long as possible, too, so even if you're working with smaller images but making lots of edits to them, allocating more RAM will help you in that situation as well. For people who do work on very large images, it's probably more cost-effective to buy more RAM for your PC than to buy large RAID systems, and Photoshop will probably perform better.

Running the 64-bit version will provide little performance benefit other than the ability to address more RAM. And even a system with lots of RAM won't be able to avoid reading and writing data to your hard disk--a process that still proves time-consuming. I got to watch a dialog box for a coffee-break-length period when I asked Photoshop to apply a simple monochrome gradient to my 5.6GB file.

Fun-House Mirror, Fixed

Of course, the added under-the-hood elements aren't the only updates in Photoshop CS4. The most gee-whiz update is the new context-sensitive scaling, which allows you to resize pictures while retaining foreground objects' scale. Usually when you rescale an image, all elements in the image resize proportionally--and in the process, some elements warp or squash when they shouldn't. In the example I've provided (see the images in the gallery above), resizing with the traditional method would have made the people in the foreground unrealistically skinny; with context-aware scaling, the vinyl character in the back shrank, but the people remained the same size. The feature doesn't always work perfectly--I found that expanding the canvas size caused tiling of the background elements--but it's still an awesome tool to have.

A new adjustments palette (see the image in the gallery above) contains many often-used photo enhancements that you'd usually have to dig into a menu for. But its role is far more important than just offering convenience: Effects initiated through this palette apply as adjustment layers, so any edits you make are nondestructive to the original image. If you adjust levels, for example, a levels layer appears in your layers palette; instead of toggling a preview of your work in the levels dialog box, you can turn the layer on and off. If you decide you don't like the effect, you can simply trash it, and your base image is unaffected.

A new depth-of-field tool lets you combine multiples of the same image but in varying focus depths; the software attempts to make everything in the shot in focus. It works very well, but you do have to set up your shots this way, most likely by using a tripod and a timed release.

And what would a refreshed Adobe app be without some sort of new online component? Photoshop provides access to Kuler, a component that other Creative Suite applications can draw on, too. Kuler (see the gallery above) appears as a palette with many choices of "color themes"--that is, color sets that are supposed to go together. They're hosted online, and you can create your own themes and upload them to Adobe's online repository. Users can rate them (on the Web only, not from within Photoshop), and you can sort the themes in the palette based on their popularity, newness, or randomness. It doesn't seem like much at this point--just an indication of things to come--and I keep wondering whether it will cause designs to all look alike, once everyone joins the herd and uses the same themes.

Owners of systems using OpenGL graphics cards will enjoy additional performance enhancements. After enabling a preference setting, you can zoom with infinite smoothness (rather than in steps) by holding down a key: If you hold down the H key while zooming, it zips to 100 percent so you can locate where in an image you want to work--at which point the view zips back in to the previous magnification. Furthermore, you can hold down a key to resize brushes on the fly, and adjust their hardness. I found that latter function particularly time-saving when performing such operations as cloning and healing. OpenGL rendering also eliminates jagginess in the display of images at odd magnification percentages. For example, if you look at an electrical line at 27 percent on a system without OpenGL rendering, the line will appear jagged; view it at 25 percent or 50 percent, and the line will look straight. With Photoshop CS4, the line will look straight no matter what the magnification is, as long as your system has an OpenGL-compatible graphics card.

Photoshop CS4 Extended--a $999 version found in the Design Premium, Web Premium, Production Premium, and Master Collection versions of Creative Suite--has, among other things, enhanced 3D editing capabilities. You can apply 2D images (for example, a logo) to a 3D object, with excellent results. It won't make Photoshop an artist's primary 3D application, but it will be useful for some people to have on hand.

More Bits, More Better

I expect that most Photoshop CS4 owners will continue to run it in its 32-bit form, but over time more people will transition to the 64-bit version, especially as RAM limitations become more imposing. I wish that Adobe would offer 64-bit versions of its other applications--for example, Premiere Pro--but I give it credit for starting with Photoshop. Even without the new operating system compatibility, the latest version has many new features that make it a substantial, worthy upgrade.

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/photoshop-cs4-revied-by-pcworldFun with Wacom!http://www.andrebruni.com/fun-with-wacomFri, 21 Nov 2008 23:56:39 GMTAndre Bruni

 

I had some spare time this week so I decided to give my Wacom tablet a workout. I have been meaning to download some traditional artist brushes from deviantart for a while, but I have been too busy. Finally I got my chance and let me tell you, there is a wealth of free stuff available. I would suggest that you stop what your doing and get over there. These resources are a joy to use and come in so many flavors. I want to stick to the traditional stuff for this post but hey, if you're not making use of these FREE resources, you are selling yourself short.

Traditional artist brushes simulate real-life drawing instruments, like graphite pencils, charcoal, ink and acrylic/oil paint. Here I used a combination of a bunch of brushes that I found. I started out with a pencil brush, doing a quick sketch. Then I started laying on color with a mix of graphite, charcoal and acrylic, having a lot of fun experimenting with tone, shade and blending techniques. As far as blending goes, some artists feel the smudge tool works for blending color, and other are strong for the brush opacity setting method. I used the brush opacity setting method, by setting the brush opacity to like 23% and lightly brushing on color until a blend was achieved. It worked really well, and after some more practice, I am sure it will pay off with a more traditional artist look to my day-to-day photoshop work.

Granted, I did not spend a lot of time on this piece, simply let it flow and tried a lot of different techniques that I don't normally use. I was inspired by DaniDraws website. There are some fantastic videos and sketches to get inspiration from on her website. Check it out!

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/fun-with-wacomWhat's This??!!http://www.andrebruni.com/juicedSat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:03 GMTAndre Bruni

 

Nightmare Revisited Review
by Andre Todd Bruni

I was searching for something new to jam into my ipod and I discovered a creepy-cool new album. It's called Nightmare Revisited. A bunch of bands have covered every single song on the much beloved "The Nightmare Before Christmas" Soundtrack by Danny Elfman, including the instrumental overtures! It's a Burton-Fanboy's dream come true. Ne newly re-animated versions are performed by such adept and obviously fitting artists as Marilyn Manson, Amy Lee, and Korn and are a blast to listen to, especially if you are a fan. Delicious, dark, and brooding cuts, literally dripping with gothic, gory love. The effect is a twisting of the familiar songs into something new and actually frightening.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a huge TNBC fan. I know every word to every song as I often listen to the soundtrack in my car. But this, THIS is my newest all-time favorite! I enjoyed it so much that I feel the need to write a review, song by scintillating song. So without further delay, I write...

 1. Overture performed by by DeVotchka
This opens "The Show" powerfully with a chorus of accordions, cellos and other odd instruments.  Underneath are strange humming and chattering, lending the overture a warped and wonderfully tweaked feel, not unlike the swirly patterns in a dead tree as imagined by Burton himself. This has the fun and color of the original, but simplified. It reminded me very much of the new version of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Revival that had so lately been on tour. Simply wonderful.

2. Opening performed by Danny Elfman
Danny replaces the excellent Patrick Stewart on this version and, since Danny did the voice of Jack, it kind of sounds as if Jack himself has commandeered the part of Narrator. Good fun!

3. This Is Halloween performed by Marilyn Manson
Having heard Mansons other stuff, you could expect only what he is able to give, in his own signature style. It works so perfectly here with "This is Halloween". Manson really takes this one into his realm with dark, chunky synth beats and his mostly straight-forward interpretation of this classic song. While I listen, I imagine strobes and wicked, gore-streaked horrible faces flashing in a well-done haunted house kind of grit - and it really sets the perfect tone for the rest of the album. I think this is my favorite

4. Jack's Lament performed by All American Rejects
This song is my favorite from the original album, so I admit I'm kind of biased to the way I'm used to hearing it. All American Rejects is a band I haven't heard before. With that said, I really like whats been done with this one. The singer's voice reminds me of, I dunno, Greenday maybe, but he also sounds enough like the Elfman at times (tip of the hat) that you don't lose the sense of the original, which is really important with this song. I think it helps the continuity of the album that "Jack's Lament", along with "This Is Halloween", are arranged very straight-forward and similar to their original counterparts. 

5. Doctor Finkelstein / In The Forest performed by Amilina
This instrumental on "Dr. Finkelstein / In The Forest" is chilling at times and quite fascinating at others. The entire arrangement is done, once again straightforward, but with odd instruments. Asian instruments, ukeleles, water glasses and a fishing reel are some of the sounds I can pull out of this wonderful, dream like sequence. Deep mood music.

6. What's This? performed by Flyleaf
This is where things start getting weird. Thats good and such a good point to start getting weird. As Jack answered so cheerily when told "Curiosity killed the cat you know", "I KNOW!" <huge smile>. This arrangement starts to stray away from the old lines. Its sung by a girl and it is appropriately quirky. Styrofoam pours down in an empty warehouse, and jack's skull pops out, skewered with lipstick -  "joker" style. Where did that come from? I dunno.

7. Town Meeting Song performed by Polyphonic Spree
This is the the one true complete departure from the original. Completely skewered and convoluted, its "The Town Meeting Song" on a strong acid trip. It's like David Bowie showed up and grabbed the reigns of Jack's sled for a fun ride to see Major Tom. Its a welcome change and opens a whole new world of wonder for the listener. This is the real meat here folks, this is what we've been waiting to spring up out of the darkness and really freak us out. Its like a rock-opera at times, which leads me to my next question. When are we going to see a re-imagining of this show on Broadway? I want to see it.

8. Jack & Sally Montage performed by The Vitamin String Quartet
This instrumental opens yanking us back to the original, or so it seems. Quickly we discover that this ride is as full of reeling turns and sickening drops as the last. Sticking to the more familiar sound of stringed instruments, The Vitamin String Quartet skip-dance around the original arrangement with eerie loops and swoops. A perfect transition to the second half.

9. Jack's Obsession performed by Sparklehorse
This version is also weirdly disassembled and re-assembled, rather playfully - Zombie-style. It reminds me of what would happen if Adam Sandler got a hold of this tune with his falsetto voice. Not my fave on the album, but a very creative interpretation that I can appreciate, even if I like the original better.

10. Kidnap The Sandy Claws performed by Korn
Now we're talking. Hard and grungy, Korn lends this tune a hard-edge that wasn't there before. Buzzing synth backdrops and  half-crazed vocals that get deep, squishy and downright scary at times. This is my second-favorite. 

11. Making Christmas Performed by Rise Against
Driving guitar riffs and screaming vocals drive "Making Christmas". This rendition is part 80's Garage Punk and part 90's Teen Grunge, and again the song fits the style perfectly. I don't know the band but their play on this song is a whole lotta fun. Its all there too, guitar solos taking up where most of the orchestra used to be.

12. Nabbed performed by Yoshida Brothers
The Yoshida Brothers plinks out this interlude with a conglomeration of odd instruments and sound bytes. The asian influence is unmistakable and you could totally imagine Jack with slanty eyes in the Japanese version of Nightmare.

13. Oogie Boogie's Song performed by Rodrigo y Gabriella
Wow. Stripped of it's vocals (mostly) this is what sounds like a mariachi band, skeletal perhaps, but is in fact only 2 guitars. It's a refreshing change and the song is given a hispanic twist. An odd choice, but heck every track on this album is odd. You've gotten used to the weirdness, and you're loving it.

14. Sally's Song performed by Amy Lee
An excellent and haunting rendition of this solo by the lovely Amy Lee from Evanescence. Given great weight and feeling, the song is hit-single quality stuff, no kidding. The finest crafted piece on the whole album.

Okay, so I know I said I was going to review every song but hey, this is getting wordy! The rest of the album can be summed up as absolutely amazing. I am so glad I stumbled across this, so fitting for the season. You should pick it up and play it loud at your Halloween gatherings this year and into the future!

 

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/juicedMy Favorite Time Of The Yearhttp://www.andrebruni.com/my-favorite-time-of-the-yearTue, 28 Oct 2008 21:16:08 GMTAndre Bruni Jack Skellington  The holidays are fast approaching, the weather is cooling off, and Halloweentime is almost here. We have decorated the office with lovely orange flicker lights, jack-o-lanterns and tons of cobwebs. I have a huge spider hanging over my desk and she looks down on my work with glee. Eight eyes are better than two, I always say. he he he. This kind of stuff juices me up.

We do a lot of seasonal work, and since EVERYONE knows I love Halloween, most of the Spooky themed design work comes my way. So i guess this post is about good sources and inspiration for good Halloween design. First off, take a trip to the video store and pick up some traditional Halloween flicks. I think The Nightmare Before Christmas has tons of inspiration for decor all by itself, but I'm a Tim Burton fan so perhaps I'm a bit partial to his style. Sometimes its best to go to the true sources.  Dracula, Frankenstien, heck even Abbott & Costello meet the Mummy is a treasure trove of ideas. You get the idea, film gets the juices flowing, or the blood, as may be the case.

Good textures from deviantart are a must for realistic photoshop work. Some really excellent fog brushes and tombstones can really come in handy when doing quick and dirty flyer designs. Spider webs are also really cool if used properly. Pay attention to the small details, and leave something up to the imagination (which as we all know can be much more scary).

Most of all, have fun and try something different. Heck if I didnt get any Halloween design jobs this year , I'd still do some just for the fun of it. Take it easy now, and DON'T FALL ASLEEP!

]]>http://www.andrebruni.com/my-favorite-time-of-the-yearOnline Content Management Systemshttp://www.andrebruni.com/dawn-of-a-new-ageThu, 23 Oct 2008 03:15:15 GMTAndre BruniDawn of a New Age

As we all know, web development as a single freelancer (a one-person operation) has it's particular challenges, especially when dealing with content rich websites that need to be updated constantly. Everyone wants an "update-able something" on thier pages these days, whether it be a photo gallery, blog, calendar or textual content. In the past, such options required programming a custom content management system for each site. Today, updatable content is becoming the standard.

A new age has begun in the world of web development, and that my friends is Online Content Management Systems (OCMS). Joomla, Mambo and Wordpress have been around for a while as well as many other third-party content management solutions. The problem is, most have steep learning curves and were too time-intensive to be of any use to the single freelancer.

The real beauty of OCMS is that it's easy to use and even easier to sell to clients. Utilizing the power of CSS and OCMS, I am able to offer my clients something that I have never been able to before and in a fraction of the time. More income for the designer, and more control for the client. What does that equal? Easy money and a happy client. Sold! Check back for more articles on OCMS and how I am utilizing this new technology in my daily client interactions.

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