Andrew Gomez

Here is a little bit about myself and what I do. I mainly do traditional illustrative work. Have it be for gig posters, packaging, to merchandise. I also work in mixed media if you are looking for something a little different than that. I started working with bands at a young age, doing art and printing merch for bands and record labels. Then from there built a reputation of a reliable and creative plug for people in need of such services. I have a extensive background in the screen printing world. All merchandising related collateral I make will be print prepped (prepped art files, mock ups, and a tech pack) and ready to delivered to your print shop of choice. If you are in need of printing services I am partnered with a reputable print shop in Chicago that provides free shipping to any one location in the US. We can print flatsock, direct to garment/film and traditional screen print, as well as embroidery. Whatever you need to get your product client facing, I can sort you out.

LINK TO VIDEO PITCH

So me and Ed were a group and we decided to do our panel project on well known local book stores. I chose Elliott Bay Books. Its my favorite book store here as well as my partners. We spend a great deal of time and money there over the years so it only seemed fitting.

So we built our general template in Adobe Illustrator. From there we added the content needed for each of our individual stores we were covering. I found trying to find a ideal size for the panels a bit difficult, otherwise it was pretty straight forward to put this project together. One other thing I found odd was setting the perspective correctly for the viewer line of sight. As you can see in the image above its set to be right in the line of sight. Yet after you upload and publish it. The panels should be sitting way above your head line. So I had to put them almost as if they were sitting on the ground in order for them to show up in the viewer’s line of sight.

So I have been thinking about this a lot before Andrew came and spoke to us. Its something I have been roughly working on here and there but never really put any meaningful time into. But I guess now is as good of time than any.

1. Please describe the project and what you hope to gain from it.
   I want to start a comic/trade book. Maybe not with so much written content. But visually driven to tell the story. Already have written a spec sheet for one concept. And I have another one roughly written out. I think it will help me gain more skill to story tell within single images, which is something i think I am lacking in my compositions.
2. Produce a rough timeline of what you think it would take to do the project.
   I think by the end of the program it would be cool to be done with the project. and shop it around to publishers or release it on my own.
3. What would you need to execute the project (other than time)
   The discipline and will to do so.
4. How much would this project cost to produce
   Roughly nothing but time and effort to start. eventually we are talking production costs when i complete it to have it published.

I can’t you why or how my brain processes things. But when you gave the initial walk through on how to use Aero and I saw the box in the example, my mind went directly to this scene. I believe we talked about it already.

The reference of my AR card is to the movie Se7en with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and in the movie, the late Gwyneth Paltrow. The scene takes place in the last act of the film when the killer (Kevin Spacey) takes the two detectives to a remote part in the high desert area to reveal the last in his seven murders. As they approach the location, a delivery drunk is pummeling towards them. Delivery driver pulls out a box when he stops in front of them, tells them he was pay $500 to deliver this package here at this time by a unknown source.

As Morgan Freeman’s character is approaching the package with hesitancy, Spacey’s character is rambling about wanting to imitate what it was like to live a normal life, but turns out what hes talking about is Brad Pitts wife he was simulating this with. The story ends with him saying she was “unwilling to go along with his simulation and had to well..” It was all a plan to get Pitt to resign to his initial reaction, and kill him. Making him the seventh victim. Needless to say it worked. His wife’s head was in the box, shoring up the reaction spacey wanted from pitt to commit the final act.

The movie is perfect.

Problem I had with this project, as you well know by now. Is that I couldn’t put the sound to it like I had planned. I wanted to put audio from that scene on the card. Maybe starting as soon as it loads or when the viewer comes into proximity to the AR assets. Even after me and you tried to work on the file, and make a new file. The sound would not stick to the file. Maybe cause its still beta. No idea.

I still have tap action on it, as well as some movie to the assets like the box, the severed head and whatnot. I hope that was enough actions to make grade.

Overview

Snapchat is a face filter application for desktop iOS and PC. Its a extension app from the well known social media app SnapChat. Reduced down to the sum of its parts, its a camera extension to apply augmented face filters on yourself while filming on your desktop.

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Mainly how I see it used, and how I myself have used this app is as more or less a conduit for third party platforms like Zoom. You can apply the filters to your zoom meetings, or Skype meetings as long as you have the app open and switch some minor settings to the camera on the app you want it applied.

Usability

Using this application is pretty straight forward. Turn it on, search through the literal thousands of filters the app has stored up, throw one on and get to the shenanigans. I have found learning and using the app in general pretty easy or any varying degree of computer literacy out there among people. Its a pretty fun and straight forward to use if you’re wanting to add a fun AR element to yourself in a meeting or streaming session.

Improvements

I think a lot of the filters are contributed by the community. I have found when searching or even browsing through filters there is a LOT of redundancy in them. A lot of identical filters populate but under different names. Also there is a grip of filters that are pretty half-baked when it comes to design and don’t work all that well.

One other minor thing that I feel could be improved is how the application is mainly used. The biggest reason people use this app is simply for the filters to be applied to OTHER apps like Zoom. Yet in order to use the filters in another application you have to keep the Snap Camera window open. So a lot of memory is used to keep both camera apps like this one, and zoom running at the same time. Would be cool if it acted more like an extension to plug into Zoom and other apps.

So last quarter in our interactive class I was assigned into a group of three to create a concept for a app. The app had to do with travel, but of course we had to put a unique spin on the idea rather than making a run of the mill “travel app” that does the usual thing (best rates on hotels and flights, etc).

Well the concept was mainly done in Figma and in Dreamweaver. I quickly realized that my piers were much more proficient than me in those platforms and any “help” I was giving in those departments, would end up being more of a nuisance than anything.

So not wanting to feel like I was dead weight I pivot to being more of a project manager, making sure we were hitting our deadlines for each week in what Erik (instructor) wanted us to have done. As well as prepare our scripts for our weekly in class presentations on our progress.

It also freed me up to make some extra appendages for our final presentation. I ended up making a 1.5 min intro video where we did some small branding for the app, and I put it into a visual backdrop. Almost like a intro video to give our presentation more of a “wow factor” rather then just standing up there and giving a more or less boring walk through of the app everyone in class has pretty much seen throughout the past weeks. And that with the planned scripts we had. I felt we were one of the leading groups in the projects due to the level of professionalism we displayed in presenting the app.

Its not a role I particularly like, but i was complimented by my peers on the work I did since it kept us on track and delivering all our work on time.

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I made a set of these on different flavors for a friend’s company in Portland. They usually used photos for promotion of their desserts but wanted me to come up with a illustrated version of the flavors. Most of these were unfinished so i took one and finished it for this blog. Its based off a couple photos I can’t seem to find now, but there were just photos similar to this.

Some of the flavors weren’t perfected at the time so I was basing the depictions on concept photos they had of what the dessert sandwich COULD look like.

I mainly used Procreate to design the comps. All illustrated.

So I decided to use Japanese maples for the smaller common area of the level. They have always had my interest when it comes floral design/nature in general. Obviously the theme in this assignment is nature and I didn’t want to bombarded the walls with a bunch of wild life, nor make it hyper realistic. Went with a more illustrative approach. using Gestalt properties to execute the composition. Its the proverbial plant on a desk theory, plants inherently calm humans, especially in work environments. I always see students taking refuge here in this nook since its off the beaten path. I thought putting this windy, bigger trunk like trees on the walls would make it feel more seclusive, more protective from the rest of the level, giving the visitor a sense of security/privacy while they work.

So I am in the design program. And these module classes we are taking on Friday’s so far have been a nice cross-pollinating of sorts for us. Its interesting to see how design means a lot more than you think when it comes to real world industries. So far I have only finished one module course, which was the film narrating class with Vanessa Williams. That course was interesting cause I don’t have a lot of experience with film editing in its most fundamental form. But also seeing how certain camera angles, how certain lighting, how audio being spilled over the next cut or dropped can really push a story forward with little to no dialog.

I come from traditionally a illustrative background. Its what I gravitated to the most when I was a kid, and the same when I ventured into my career. I don’t think I will ever stray completely away from that kind of work. But I always had a fascination on film making, and visual effects in movies and shows. I still don’t think I will ever fully go in that route in terms of work. But then again I entered this program knowing fully that we were going to be learning multiple disciplines in terms of “design” and that I didn’t want to be closed off to other career paths that don’t have to do with illustration. For example I could see myself in going into web design just as much as I can go into doing logo work for some agency. But as far as film making for after effects. If I had to choose which one direction from my two module classes (which we JUST started the second so I have no real bearing on what its about yet) it would prob be film narrating cause there is story boarding involved. And I have done that kind of work for a friends pet project once. And from what I remember, I liked it.

I don’t see myself going into the film industry looking for work. But one of my favorite artists working right now is Barry Jackson. And he went from concept drawing for books and doing movie poster work to working in the film industry doing story boarding and environmental landscapes for animations, as well as character design. So maybe I could land there? I honestly I don’t know where I will land. That’s what making this whole school experience for me exciting. The not knowing is what is keeping me excited about all these courses. I can say as of right now that I already had a healthy respect for people who do film editing, since really thats the make or break of a good film. Not so much the initial shooting and all that (even though thats important as well). Cause whichever way you cut a scene or a movie can dramatically change the mood, story, overall feel of a movie. I came out of that last class with a even bigger sense of respect for people who do that kid work. Especially for people like Vanessa who do trailers, that seems even more difficult. To reduce a whole project in a bit size trailer, not give too much away, but tell enough of the story to entice the viewer to check it out. Very nuanced.