What I'm into right now?

I always like to explore on my creativity and want to expand it. I wanted to create my very own animation & movies. I love to conceptualize stories in different genres. Problem is I could tell a lot of stories spontaneously to my wife, niece and brother-in-laws in one seating, but I always got stuck up when I try to write it. I usually get lost and bored thinking of all the details and the words I need to clearly describe each scenes in the story.

My wife always tells me to write it first on my own local language then translate it later into English. Well she's right but I think my problem is I usually quit doing it or putting it aside for too long until I remember doing it again & that is when adrenalin and momentum kicks in because I was re-inspired to continue writing or rewriting it.

Anyway for now, what I'm going to share with you are the tools I've been learning to use for the different things that I love doing or going to do.

Let's begin with

• Cartooning or Animation

Tools: Toon Boom Studio 4.5, Gimp

This tool is a 2D animation software ideal for students and hobbyists looking for an easy-to-use, multi-technique animation program.

Discover all these techniques: stop-motion animation, traditional digital animation, traditional paper animation, cut-out animation and rotoscoping

Draw digitally, scan-in hand-drawn animation, capture live images or import existing artwork… then enhance images using the various paint and camera tools

Add audio tracks and lip-sync your animation

Publish your animation projects for print, TV, HDTV, the Web, Facebook, YouTube and iPod

The story I was conceptualizing that ignited me to research, download and try this software was entitled "Karnabal". A story about a group of carnival characters that had used they unique abilities to saved creatures that were like them but were denied of respect, love and dignity of humankind.

This tool is really great for beginners that would like to create a professional looking animation, cartoons or movies. Love watching Anime Characters, Walt-Disney Movies and Cartoon Network Television Shows? Ever wanted to share and express your own ideas through 2D Cartooning? This tool is for you! You are your own limitations. So let your creativity out and explore the world of Toon Boom Studio.

• Graphic Designs

Tool: Gimp

GIMP is a multi-platform photo manipulation tool. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The GIMP is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.

GIMP has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

One of The GIMP's strengths is its free availability from many sources for many operating systems. Most GNU/Linux distributions include The GIMP as a standard application. The GIMP is also available for other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows™ or Apple's Mac OS X™ (Darwin). The GIMP is a Free Software application covered by the General Public License [GPL]. The GPL provides users with the freedom to access and alter the source code that makes up computer programs.

I've been using this program for few graphic tweaks and for now I've been searching for written and video tutorials to explore its powerful features. Few of my works I've posted at the end of this page. Check it out

I'm using Gimp to create my graphics, buttons, backgrounds and all other things on a website I'm developing. Hopefully I could pull myself through to finish it. This site will also feature the animation and movies I'm going to create and stories I'd like to share.

• Web Development & Design

If you think and design visually, Expression Studio is a perfect tool to enable you to create compelling, impactful and expressive designs for the desktop and the web. The visually rich technologies in Silverlight and .NET offer amazing possibilities to bring your creative ideas to life using a range of design tools purposely built for the task.

I'm studying this Microsoft Tool to easily build robust & flexible Designs and Websites. Along with SYN.

Syn is a (Open Source) text and code editor with syntax highlight for over 30 languages including HTML, Java, Javascript, Perl, PHP and many others. The program offers a clean, uncluttered interface with custom toolbar and user tools launch options, debugging features, customizable syntax colors and much more. In addition, Syn supports projects, several import/export features as well as FTP upload and download.

I'm also learning Web development using FLEX. It is a challenging and mind-bugling experience. And I am reading a lot of learning materials. Practicing my codes and concocting my very own designs.

Flex Overview:

Flex is the way to make rich Internet applications (RIAs) quickly and easily. At its basic level, it’s a framework for creating RIAs based on Flash Player. Along with being a framework, Flex is also a new language. At its heart is MXML, a markup language based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) that makes it really easy and efficient to create applications. Unlike developing for some desktop platforms requiring a proprietary binary file format, MXML is just text, so it’s easy to read and modify using just a text editor. Therefore, sharing code is as easy as sharing a simple text file.

Flex Is a Modern, Hybrid Language
This XML-based system of creating applications will be familiar to traditional web programmers, because it uses a markup language and a JavaScript-like scripting language. For web developers and designers who are used to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript, Flex will feel pretty natural. While quite different architecturally, the similarities at the surface makes it easy to get started. It was created using the best parts of desktop programming languages combined with the modern standards and practices of the web.

3D House Designer/Modeler: Sweet Home 3D

is a free interior design application
that helps you place your furniture on a house 2D plan,with a 3D preview.

Here are 2 of my amateur renovation design proposal for my mother's home in Tabucan, Mandurriao Iloilo City.

Juele Family House 1st Floor

Juele Family House 2nd Floor

I've uploaded it in youtube so that my mom could see it at home. I'm living with my wife in Roxas City, a 3 hour away drive.

Also here's Floor Plans & 3D views posted on my facebook account.

Facebook House Renovation Photos links

Sweet Home 3D is a great tool for House Design Beginners such as my self. It's straight-forward, user-friendly and customizable. you can create your own objects or furnitures with a little patience and creativity. Try it fun or work. Have a great day to all!