Hello, friends!

I am a happy Windows 7 x64 user since 1st of January 2010. Although, since day one I wasn't happy about the default Aero theme, because it is too transparent and the title bars texts are not visible on dark wallpapers and such. So, last week I thought of doing something different. Here's a Windows Accessible Aero theme done by me, based on the default Aero theme. I just changed what I thought it lacks contrast. I've searched on-line for such themes, but I liked none of them. As such, I publish this theme for others who might need such a theme.

Download the Windows Accessible Aero theme (ZIP archive)

For easiness, I prepared several screen-shots portraying the difference between my theme (Accessible Aero) and the default Aero theme. These screen-shots are a mash-up of different Windows elements, in Basic and Aero modes.

If you like what you see, download the Accessible Aero theme here.

Here is a round-up of what this theme features:

• considerably less transparent glass, dark glass
• white text title bars with black glows, so they are readable irrespective of the background of the window
• increased contrast in the title bars for the Basic mode, when not using Aero and I also adjusted the caption buttons accordingly by enhancing the contrast between the glyphs and the buttons
• a much darker task-bar in Basic mode, making the clock and pop-up titles of the applications running much more readable
• a darker Start menu in Basic mode
• increased contrast for the Alt-Tab application switcher in Basic mode
• added a strong white glow to Alt-Tab app switcher to make the the title visible
• made text fields slightly more visible
• defined a clear difference between active and inactive text fields, making the borders thicker
• a more visible highlighting color for menus, pop-ups menus, while trying to maintain the default look
• file column headers in Explorer or other applications, are enhanced as well; more visible and a more clear border between them
• changed the gray text color of tool tips to black for increased readability
• added dark glow to application titles in task bar and in the thumbnails to avoid situations when the titles are unreadable
• made the address bar, search field and the whole breadcrumb much more readable; brighter background and darker texts
• more visible separator in unlocked task-bar and other types of separators or window resize grippers
• bigger close button in task-bar pop-up thumbnails
• made the task-bar icons less wide, more ergonomic, both in Basic and Aero modes
• made more visible the MDI window buttons: close, minimize and restore/maximize
• restyled the whole task-bar to my personal taste

By now, it is clear what is my main purpose with this theme: readability, accessibility, hence the title. So, it is not about eye-candy, fancy designs, or not even originality. I also published this theme on deviantart.com, for those using dA.

Download the Windows Accessible Aero theme (ZIP archive)

Feel free to send me comments to improve this theme.

Hello!

I finished two new images. In December 2009, I bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet to start painting. These two images are the first ones I did with the tablet. Both are just some exercises I did in order to learn to paint.

The latest painting exercise is "Remote village". This painting is done after a photograph I had from the village where my grandmother currently lives. The photograph was considerably much more different. After I finished manually repainting the whole photograph, I began improvising. I added two trees, a horse and another peasant. I also changed the weather and time of year. It was a clear sunny mid-summer day.

The first painting exercise I did was to repaint and to add details to a previous sketchy image I did in 2008. The original image is "Love is a burden" and it is still available on the site.

There's more to come. I still plan to do more types of exercises. I hope you guys like them. :)

Hallöchen!

It's been a long time since I posted anything new. But, here I am with a new set of images.

Since November 2009, I've been working on something new. The initial idea was to do a landscape image using a new technique developed by me to achieve a final image. The 3D scene is rendered in customized layers, without using the usual built-in functionality of rendering multi-pass images. As such, I do not have a layer for each shading aspect, like specularities, reflections, shadows, GI, etc. My layers are obtained by having multiple instances of the 3D scene with different light setups or different textures, thus, in the end, I only separate the lights by type and the color/texture maps. And, of course, for easing the post-processing, I use depth maps and masks for specific objects or class of objects. All the layers are then composited in Photoshop. The actual rendering, if I may say so, is done in composition, where I can control each aspect, much more accurately than in 3D, and it also contributes to getting closer to painting. Due to the endless possibilities, I made three versions of the image.

I used Cinema 4D, Vray to render the images and Photoshop to composite the different layers I rendered. I used Vray Proxies for the first time. I was amazed by the amount of polygons I am able to render. The scene has approximately 30-40 millions of polygons.

The church is a 3D reproduction done by me after a real church which was built in 1821 by the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The architectural style is late baroque, with simple ornaments. The real church is located across the street, where I live.

I hope you guys will enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed doing them ;).

This project was an exercise to do a 3D interior as fast as possible. My last projects took about 1 to 2 years to finish, so I really wanted to prove myself I can do one fast. This one took me only 3 weeks to finish at a slow pace. So, it's a real improvement. Done with C4D and Vray. It's a reproduction of a photo I found on the Internet.

The quality is not top notch. The major culprit is the plant and there are, of course, other minor details, such as the books on the shelf, the curtains and others. Despite these minor flaws, I really like the overall mood which is a positive one, very intense light; it has a certain sense of freshness. Here's the image:

I hope you guys like my new image ;).

Salut, oameni buni!

Am luat decizia să continui să mai scriu texte artistice. Ultimul text artistic a fost scris pe data de 1 decembrie ... 2007 ;). Voi încerca să schimb stilul într-un proces lent. În mod evident, acest text este în stilul obişnuit:

Mai ştii tu soare cum îmi ziceai tu "lumină", în ploaia de raze solare? Atunci când ale noastre lumini erau contopite într-o metaformă omogenă ce plătea tribut zeilor, iar neuronii noştri calmi dansau un vals cu capetele bulbucate de un exces de ocitocină. Lumina omniprezentă eclipsa sinapsele neuronilor din lobii frontali, astfel încât funcţiile vitale supravieţuirii erau doar un reflex. Deşi ea pâlpâia ca un neon defect, era a noastră şi era bună. Numai o scânteie a fost necesară ca o revoluţie la rezoluţie mică să se petreacă. Acum, în cea de-a doua zi a genezei, când lumina şi întunericul sunt două entităţi diferite şi cuantificabile pe plan conoscitiv, ale noastre lumini sunt la ani lumină distanţă fiindcă quarkurile ce compun materia grea a entităţii tale sunt suboptimal aliniaţi şi astfel un proces de repulsie reciprocă a decis soarta. Întunericul ne învăluie precum o pauză în infinitul etern, asigurând pacea. Când repauzat voi fi, lumina mea nu va înceta a mai fi, dar a ta lumină fără fond cu mult timp înaintea repaosului etern va fi stinsă.

Inefabilul a prevalat iaraşi.

Hey guys!

I finished a comprehensive "Making of" page for the piano room project which details how I modeled the most complex objects, the most complex shaders I used and how I rendered and post-processed the images. Click on the following image to get to it:

See the Making of the piano room

Hello readers!

Today, I'm proud to announce a new personal project I completed. During the last year I worked on a photo-realistic 3D scene for further advancing my skills in architectural visualization. With this project I learned a lot about Vray and about lighting ;). The project consisted of reproducing an entire room in 3D. I'm happy now to see it done.

Please click on the images below to see more and to read more about the project:

I hope to post more stuff during this autumn, perhaps a "making of" or tutorials along the project.

Hello, fellas and playas! ;)

It's mid-summer and it's also a very long time since I posted anything here. I am rather busy to post anything. I've been working on several book covers since my last blog post and, of course, on my big project: the piano room (for the latest WIPs check this forum post on the VrayforC4D forums). I've been unable to complete the final renders, due to crashes and very long render times, in early march, this year. A few days ago I resumed work on the project. I hope to get it done this year.

For more details about each book cover, please click on them. Here they are:

For the Faronir novel written by Michael Auerbach, I tried a different approach, which I hope was successful. Until now, I always had to do book covers on scientific subjects, like artificial intelligence, robotics and mathematics. I never had to deal with literature. Being the first book of this kind, a science fiction novel, I wanted this cover to stand out in my gallery. I hope you find it great. A great amount of effort and time was put into getting the book cover right.

Besides book covers, I also did the logo and the new interface for the PaintWeb project of my twin brother. Some of the frequent visitors of our site already saw the new logo, but for those who did not, here it is:

I've also done other small projects, but I won't post them since they are insignificant.

'Til next time, I wish y'all the best and have a nice summer. I hope to be posting more stuff during the year.

Hello!

I couldn't name the blog post "more posters", even if the title would have fit like a glove, because I have another post with this title ;).

What could be a better way to start the new year than with some messages related to environmental protection? :) Instead of waiting again for Saint Valentines day, I'm synchronizing the release of these posters with the global warming :). So, I decided to make two posters on this matter. Both are well intended :). Hope you like them, and find 'em witty enough to tickle even the sharpest eyes.

I also made another Milk Inc related poster before last year ended. Perhaps I like Milk Inc. :). Anyways, it goes beyond that, like all the other posters based on their lyrics.

More stuff scheduled to come soon, and not just posters.

Hello!

I've done more posters these days. None yet for the Christmas ;). I plan on doing one, some day, but I don't know when.

Two of the following posters are related to Milk Inc.

I hope you guys enjoy the holidays season and I wish you all a Happy New Year.