{"id":511,"date":"2009-08-02T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T07:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/?p=511"},"modified":"2009-08-03T00:22:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-02T21:22:05","slug":"a-creative-sunday-3-imitations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/2009\/08\/02\/a-creative-sunday-3-imitations\/","title":{"rendered":"A Creative Sunday: 3 imitations (Fireworks\/Flash)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last Sunday, it was a &#8216;Creative Sunday&#8217;. It turned so that I&#8217;ve spent almost the whole day, drawing in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/fireworks\/\">Fireworks<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/flash\/\">Flash<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It has all started like this&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3>The Rabbit and the Sewing Machine<\/h3>\n<p>First, my wonderful wife <a href=\"http:\/\/www.molif.com\/en\/\">Ani<\/a> found a <a href=\"http:\/\/juliaroberts6.blogspot.com\/\">blog with a nice header<\/a> and mentioned that it is probably very difficult to make such a drawing or vector composition.<\/p>\n<p>That was a reason strong enough for me to fire up Fireworks and start re-drawing this header image right away. It was a challenge! :-)<\/p>\n<p>3 or 4 hours later, my <strong>imitation #1<\/strong> was ready:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/the-rabbit-and-the-sewing-machine-01-imitation.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} The Rabbit and the Sewing Machine (imitation)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/the-rabbit-and-the-sewing-machine-01-imitation.th.jpg\" alt=\"The rabbit and the sewing machine (imitation in Adobe Fireworks)\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Compare it with the original that I was trying to reproduce:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/the-rabbit-and-the-sewing-machine-02-original.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} The original image from juliaroberts6.blogspot.com (author is unknown to me)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/the-rabbit-and-the-sewing-machine-02-original.th.jpg\" alt=\"original image from juliaroberts6.blogspot.com\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You can see that the two images are almost identical, with the exception of a few details &#8212; for example, I&#8217;ve drawn a rabbit with long ears instead of a doll with no face expression (I like the rabbit more, actually). Also, you can notice that some other small details are not re-created in exactly the same manner, but this is intentional &#8212; I wanted to make a very similar image in Fireworks, not a 100% exact copy.<\/p>\n<p>Everything you see is just vectors and a few effects added here and there.<\/p>\n<p>I do not know how was <a href=\"http:\/\/juliaroberts6.blogspot.com\">the original<\/a> created (I tried to contact the author of the blog, but did not receive a reply to my e-mail) &#8212; maybe it&#8217;s Illustrator or Photoshop &#8212; but I think I have demonstrated that Fireworks is powerful enough to make quite complicated vector imitations. That&#8217;s the reason why I love Fireworks so much &#8212; it is powerful enough to do 90% of my graphic design work, and yet, very easy and intuitive to use! :-)<\/p>\n<h3>The City of Darkness<\/h3>\n<p>Next, I switched to Flash, and tried to recreate a nice drawing, made by Ani on paper, a few days ago.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my first try with a tablet (this is <strong>imitation #2<\/strong>):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/city-of-darkness-01-imitation.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} The City of Darkness (re-drawn in Adobe Flash)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/city-of-darkness-01-imitation.th.jpg\" alt=\"The city of darkness (Wacom tablet + Adobe Flash)\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I used a Wacom tablet and Adobe Flash; when the drawing was ready, I exported the image and then used Fireworks again, for the final version you see.<\/p>\n<p>It took me maybe 2 hours to make the drawing &#8212; I think the results are OK for a first try with a tablet and Flash:)<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the original image that I was trying to re-draw:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/city-of-darkness-02-original.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} The original drawing by Ani (scanned)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/city-of-darkness-02-original.th.jpg\" alt=\"A drawing by Ani (scanned)\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Again, there are some differences between the two images, but they are minor&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3>The solar eclipse &#038; the statue of Mahatma Ghandi<\/h3>\n<p>The same day, I also had the idea to re-create a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/bigpicture\/2009\/07\/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html#photo11\">real photograph<\/a>, taken during the last solar eclipse (on it, you could see the sun against the statue of Mahatma Ghandi, on a very dark sky).<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the day was too short for this purpose, but after two days, I went back to this idea of mine, and so my third imitation was born.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s <strong>imitation #3<\/strong> &#8212; what you see is Adobe Fireworks again, only vectors and a couple of live effects:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/solar-eclipse-mahatma-gandhi-01-imitation.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} All vectors in Fireworks! (a try to imitate a real photo by Reuters)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/solar-eclipse-mahatma-gandhi-01-imitation.th.jpg\" alt=\"Imitation of a real photograph, made in Adobe Fireworks\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the original, so that you can make the comparison:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/solar-eclipse-mahatma-gandhi-02-original.jpg\" title=\"{imitations} A photo by REUTERS\/Babu (2009)\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/wp-uploads\/2009\/08\/solar-eclipse-mahatma-gandhi-02-original.th.jpg\" alt=\"A photo by REUTERS\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>(click for larger size)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This was quite a quick job, maybe less than an hour. I was not trying to make a 100% perfect copy, but rather check if I can quickly make a vector re-drawing of this photo. The results look quite OK to me;-)<\/p>\n<h3>Adobe Fireworks<\/h3>\n<p>I love using Fireworks.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><del datetime=\"2009-08-02T07:40:54+00:00\">&#8220;Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.&#8221;<\/del><br \/>\nGood artists copy, great artists use Fireworks.<br \/>\n<em><del datetime=\"2009-08-02T07:40:54+00:00\">&#8212;Pablo Picasso<\/del><\/em><br \/>\n&#8212;Michel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Am I a great artist? Sure no! :-)<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s fun for me to try to imitate some other people&#8217;s work, especially using Fireworks, my favourite graphic design editor of all time! :-)<\/p>\n<p>And what still continues to amaze me is how good Fireworks can be, both with vectors and bitmap editing&#8230; and how underrated it continues to be, for Adobe and for many design professionals&#8230; (I hope this will change some day!)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Meanwhile, I&#8217;ll continue to <del datetime=\"2009-08-02T07:40:54+00:00\">copy<\/del> imitate in Fireworks, just like I did last Sunday, when the mood comes. It&#8217;s just too much fun! :)))<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Sunday, it was a &#8216;Creative Sunday&#8217;. It turned so that I&#8217;ve spent almost the whole day, drawing in Fireworks and Flash. It has all started like this&#8230; The Rabbit and the Sewing Machine First, my wonderful wife Ani found a blog with a nice header and mentioned that it is probably very difficult to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fireworks","category-graphic-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimiced.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}