I’m Jacob Thomas

This post may be directed towards a community with high intellectual values but poor socialization or maybe to a person with the same problems transcended in enormous proportions! A man is basically a whole junk of whopping crap if he can’t understand what it feels like to work with teammates. Yeah!Thats right I’m talking about a the problem of undefined protocols and a group that’s struggling to make an identity.

Let me rewind to months back when the whole concept of Opdyne was given birth too..

jac_acme: Daey i am gonna start a site
jac_acme: u in?
intelinsidepranthanoutside: yep
intelinsidepranthanoutside: name?
intelinsidepranthanoutside: wats it abt?
jac_acme: dunno
jac_acme: i am just seeing it as a learning experience

That was it . The real genesis.. behind the screen.. behind this wonderful minimalistic blog and all the young weird of the world ideas. The brainchild, Opdyne was a concept that could have led its way into oblivion. But some really good spirit pumped it all the way to a success. Not that its a smashing or dandy in appearance,but it was our concept come true. I really love it. After years of studying all theory and doing nothing productive, that was a moment of absolute happiness and a sense of victory engulfed us. Its really sad why this venture comes to a dead end. I never considered my team members as my teammates. Moreover it was like a group of friends coming together and doing some work for fun. After all the motto of opdyne was,”Work for fun and learning”. True!. It was a motto so far fetched that i had to fill in my real experiences with fantasies to complete it.

A great man, once remarked.

“Anyway, do whatever it is that you must. When you have finally understood what I’ve said (since you so obviously haven’t, judging by your quotes) we’ll sort this out. Go and think.”

Little does he know what the person he is accusing hasn’t anything other than the prestigious post of being a member of Opdyne. And this is my statement.I will say it loud and clear.

“I love Opdyne.”

Recently, Opdyne got an offer for the logo design of iHostQ.com ; a new hosting company.They wanted a simple but a different one. Here is a simple vector mockup.

The very first time i saw a website(probably yahoo), i didn’t want to read the content in it…rather i searched for “making a website”. Yes! That search didn’t make any sense to a 6th grader back then but i definitely knew one day i would know it for sure.

Years have passed by, Here I’m celebrating what’s best know equivalent my life right now.

Opdyne.

During my days at Loyola, i used to hear stories about our seniors doing amazing things in the’ webosphere’. During my long, boring vacation after my entrance exams (which i messed quite bad!), i was searching for a good, productive way to spend time.Reading some blogs was a main cause for the initiative to start Opdyne. As always had a liking to do something creative all that time because some weird, uncanny instinct makes the work quite fun for me!

I started slowly… reading small tutorials in Photoshop (the glass orb was a good start!) . I realized that i had something to survive in the the hostile world for a newbie. After that i did watch arun (already established artist) at work. The way he produced wonderful computer generated imagery with a handful of harmless clicks and curves really got me inspired to be glued to the PC for the next two months.

“…emerged from the cocoon, was a beautiful butterfly fluttering in the wind with gracility and charm. Quite sensitive were its receptors to the outside world, spreading its beneficence to every single object in its surroundings.”

OMG! Sorry but that was a sudden emote due to all ‘excessive grammar classes’ i had with DP(once in a year). Well, anyway i got into full swing after that…. jumping around frantically like a monkey from the ‘branch of code’ to the nearby ‘design tree’. It was fun. I really enjoyed learning many new and exciting things at Opdyne. I may sound like i am going to stop tomorrow but have “miles to go before i sleep”.

maximumcompression.com deals with the various compression technologies available today on different types such as image files, text files, and bulky video files … all in a very impressive tabulation of their tests. This kind of tests are very useful when we have to choose among a lot of compressors.

Later.

When i first started to read about web and its related designs, I was not aware of such a branch of design, people just love to see. There is no proper definition for vector art as such (not even in Wikipedia). Let me attempt on one. Its yet another world far away from the reality itself, with minuscule details of a real life entities wiped off with importance given only to one and one thing alone, BEAUTY.

My first contact with anime (Inuyasha,i suppose!) saw a slight reluctance from my part to accept the style of art (Huge eyes were a main cause). Later i realized that it was a totally different form of artwork from the conventional one. The exaggerated features of a manga art were later accepted by me with a renewed craziness. Yes i know, anime is not vector art. My first contact with vector came with deviantART.Oh! amazing. Beauty galore!!

I was reading through one of its members’ journal.[http://vbu.deviantart.com/] Boy! all we need to know about vector art!

I understood a few things now from his journal.

Vector Art is a technique, not a style. Perhaps a better term for the category would be ” vector-based art,” meaning art created in a vector-based program.

Vector is not a ” style” like anime, but a “medium” like charcoal. Asking what vector-art looks like is like asking what an oil painting looks like. It could look like Rembrandt, Picasso or a 5th grader. (A very talented 5th grader!)

Just because something is “cell shaded” or “flat colored” does NOT MAKE IT A VECTOR. The CUTOUT filter creates a raster-based image and thus is disqualified from ever being considered a vector image.

Not that i believe this is the definition for vector art but his statements are mostly true. Now then a few samples from heruka’s gallery.

Thats some classic example of vector art produced with Illustrator and Photoshop.

There are magazines dedicated to showcasing some of the finest vector masterpieces.Some of them are Vectorika, Kromag, Artzmania, and many many more ‘download’able issues from pdf-mags.

On a personal note i would suggest browsing through some fabulous vector art by Jeremy Prasatik .

Halycon theme of Opdyne has served us well and now it is time to redesign the design wing homepage.The process is currently being completed.Opdyne V2, code named ‘Klusita’ will be all set for launch soon.We were so impressed that we are giving away the color theme,text styles etc in this sneak peek.The theme is very simple focuses on less images and more usability. Halcyon was unique and couldn’t be very easy navigating that. Enjoy the small peeks.The date of release is fast approching.

This is not any devkit or anything that is meant for making new classy web products. I prepared this image templates for a site associated with the Dynz network. Later we had to switch to a different color theme so these remained untouched. That means anyone who feels like seeing the source of these images can download this web pack, customize, rip and create even better image work.

Well … The download button in this pack is created using Maxon Cinema 4D and Photoshop. The tutorial for creating that button is creating such an image is listed at Opdyne.It explains some of my unorthodox methods of dealing artwork with Photoshop.

An excellent collection of Photoshop Tips and Tutorials.

I am a windows application programmer…i don’t know whether i can boast about it anymore? The first few years of my programming life were concentrated around visual basic and windows application development. Back then i didn’t have an internet connection(, probably one of the bigger reasons why i evolved away from being one). I created a few applications based on some loose codes from planetsourcecode.com. I really enjoyed it! Every bit of code. I was very inquisitive of the how the softwares were made and that led me into a very simple but exciting world of VB. (I was 14 back then.)

Once i got older (and when i got an internet connection) , i did sense a migration into a much more wider, more reachable platform..the web itself. I was truly inspired by lots of wonderful websites from various design showcases including webcreme, cssremix, cssmania etc. Soon i was exercising my artistic talents and was frantically trying to learn the skills of many accomplished designers. (I used to go ‘wowwwwww.’ seeing some of the websites created by avalonstar.) My entry into professional web development was marked by the founding of Opdyne; a group of young developers, designers, and programmers.

Opdyne has now evolved into a professional firm offering many design solutions with decent quality.(We won’t blab about exquisite designs now as we are still learning.) Now that i look back i find it very difficult to understand whether i would have become an accomplished developer. A few applications like a hapless media player(Neu + Media Player), a CD/DVD indexing software(Thikset) are not enough to make one an expert in that field. Another of my ventures in application development was a CD presentation maker for an event including features like video encryption, authentication module , a fully featured media player , a scriptable interface with advanced skinning options(XTOOP CD).

Just because i am spending all my energy in web development these days doesn’t mean i am done with my old passion. I hope i will be able to complete , many of what i still want to achieve in that field.Presently there are lots of things to finish in Opdyne with release of LF and many other projects slated on immediate dates. Later!