Phil Roberts Design

SKYFALL poster

Phil Roberts — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:54:29 +0000

The teaser poster for the 23rd James Bond film SKYFALL was released worldwide today. The first trailer for SKYFALL will be released on 007.com on Monday 21st May at 8.30am BST.

Download the wallpaper 3200x2000px

SKYFALL wallpaper

www.007.com

3D Mapping on an iPad

Phil Roberts — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:47:21 +0000

C3 Technologies have developed an incredible 3D map imaging system… a kind of Google Earth on steroids. The 3D projections are amazingly accurate with over 100 cities covered – far more than Google or Microsoft. Watch the video – the images are stunning…

The key to building such detailed models (and so quickly) is that C3 use aerial imagery (rather than manually-constructed models or laser-scanning) which their ‘secret sauce’interprets into photo-realistic 3D models. Users can pan infinitely around the models created in real-time with 10 centimetre accuracy. With all the cleverness done on C3’s servers the imagery can be streamed live to PCs as well as mobile devices like the iPad – no special hardware is required.

Having done some online house-hunting recently I can immediately see some uses for real-estate agents, but the software is being licensed for a huge range of uses… In the UK ‘yellow pages’ listings provider Yell.co.uk is using the technology to map major landmarks.

Source

Address Is Approximate

Phil Roberts — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:27:56 +0000

Google Street View stop motion animation
Directed by Tom Jenkins.

Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.
Produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited & graded by Tom Jenkins @ Theory Films
Shot using Canon 5d MkII, Dragonframe Stop Motion software and customised slider.

Visit Theory Films

Focus 2012 @ NEC

Phil Roberts — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:40:44 +0000

FOCUS ON IMAGING is Europe’s biggest annual imaging show, covering all your needs from image capture through to output and beyond. Whether you are a professional image maker or processor, a buyer of image making equipment or materials, a manufacturer or distributor of products or a keen hobbyist, a visit to FOCUS ON IMAGING is the place to go.

As one of the first in line on the Monday, I got to have a look around before the masses descended on the show. One of the most anticipated parts of the show was the Canon stand, and particularly the release of the 5D mark III which had a swarm of people around it the entire time I was there.
I was really interested to get up-close and personal with the new Wacom flagship tablet the intuos 5. I sat and watched the seminar and was taken through all the new features, but still wasn’t wowed (maybe it was the guy doing the presentation) and didn’t feel as excited by it. Personally I like the feel of a mouse and still like to make selections using it switching between mouse and pen dependent on the task. All of that has been replaced by ‘apple’ like gestures and doesn’t seem as accurate.

I was blown away however by the Cintiq 24HD, which was everything you could dream of in a tablet, super responsive and able to draw directly onto the screen just feels a lot more natural. I’d like to see them bring a touch version of the Cintiq out then I’ll be genuinely selling possessions to fund my tech habit! I was also interested in GoPro which if you don’t know is a small 1080p video camera the size of a large box of matches, that is water proof and comes with an arsenal of accessories to attach the camera to various objects. I hadn’t seen one until yesterday and was amazed at the quality from such a small device, highly recommended! Here are some of the other seminars I sat through:

Phase One – Capture One

This presentation on the capabilities of this image capture software was really interesting. I have the software but as most users who don’t know they way around it, I don’t get the full benefit. Now I feel very confident in achieving great results even before I take it to photoshop, for instance the keystoning tool for correcting verticals and horizontals is very advanced and produces fantastic results in a few clicks.

on1 software

on1 software’s seminar was quite interesting, as I’m always open to new software that can do a job quicker and better, however after watching this I realised it’s not in the same ballpark as photoshop and more for an amateur looking to batch process

Lupolux Lights

I hadn’t heard of this company until yesterday and was drawn to the stand by a large crowd gathering. The photographer was inviting people to take shots of the model to show the ease of use and the quality of the lighting rig. He changed the position and the intensity to show the range of versatility and had a great set-up which I hadn’t seen before: Canon 5D mark II showing video through a monitor and all the in camera controls displayed on it such as ISO etc, and when he took a shot it would freeze for a moment and the video feed would continue.

New Photoshop

Phil Roberts — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:13:59 +0000

Here are some sneak peeks at some of the new features coming in Photoshop’s next installment, Video 6 is my favourite with the ability to control depth of field after a shot has been taken…. very handy!

New Wacom Intuos 5

Phil Roberts — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:06:47 +0000

I own a large Intuos 4 tablet at the moment and bought it as soon as the range was available, and I’m always interested in what Wacom will do next. Wacom’s latest product the Intuos 5 has some great features like the multi-touch shortcuts, that I would definitely use for zooming in and out. However they haven’t made any other significant changes that seemed to happen between Intuos 3 and 4, even the wireless technology isn’t built in (it’s an add-on you have to buy for £35) which I think should have been integrated. I don’t think this would speed up my workflow any more than my current tablet, maybe I’ll just wait to get Intuos 6…

Key features:

The multi-touch function supports user-defined shortcuts and conveys a natural feel – simply through multi-touch gestures
Focus on your work with the revolutionary Express View display on-screen
Gain new freedom via the optional wireless accessory kit
Deliberate ergonomics: the new soft-touch surface designed for maximum comfort
Highest pen precision: 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and pen tilt for a real pen-on-paper feel
Intuitive: up to 8 individually configurable ExpressKeys with new surface feel
Efficient: multifunctional Touch Ring with 4 freely programmable functions per application
Proven Intuos technology for maximum productivity

BoxBag Site Launched

Phil Roberts — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:52:07 +0000

I was commissioned to redesign www.boxbag.co.uk and add a ‘pay online’ functionality to it. Previously it was a list of products and customers had to ring up and inquire, now all the products are displayed in an easy to use way. I concentrated on giving the user very easy access to each product and it’s variables, I wanted the customer to be able to customize a bag and buy it in the least amount of clicks possible, so in theory even if you haven’t used the site before you already know how to.

Vimeo gets a re-design

Phil Roberts — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:19:28 +0000

The Vimeo re-design seems to be taking the Facebook approach to change, with a ‘try before you buy’ opting either to try the new version or opting out, but I guess in the end the change will happen not that I think it needed to. Hopefully there will be some cool new features to come and greater customization for normal users.

Exposure

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:25:33 +0000

Profile

Advanced Photoshop Magazine Issue 80 – 2 pages

Profile

The Professional Photoshop Book – 2 pages

LINK

James Mann Photo

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:45:25 +0000

I had fantastic day down in Devon today meeting James Mann a photographer specialising in car photography. It was a great incite into that side of photography and he had lots to show me, including some of the many books his photography has featured in, and his newest publication Form follows function The art of the super car which is solely his photography.

Please click on the links below to see a preview

James Mann Photography www.jamesmann.com