Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 January 2012 14:35 Written by Stefano Virgilli Tuesday, 03 January 2012 14:11

The making of Space Jam by Mansoor Shams Senior Animation Designer

Creative Crew Singapore is proud to present a unique occasion to hear from Mr. Shams a case study of the animation production and relevant techniques used to create the successful theatrical feature Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.

The quest to be creatively original by Lochani Ekanayake Trainer at VOX LAB

Creativity vs originality. Have these two concepts become mutually exclusive? Lochani takes a look at Singapore's ever changing trends and asks: are we repeating or are we evolving?

Shooting in a digital era by Stefano Virgilli Director of VOX LAB

It's 2012. Beside being the year of the Dragon, is the year where many things will change in the Creative industry and in Photography. Whether you shoot on film, own a DSLR or snap using an iPhone, the future of photography has started now. Learn the foundation and discover possible scenario of digital photography with Italian trainer Stefano Virgilli.

Written by Mark Plunkett Monday, 28 November 2011 06:46

When?

December 13, 2011
From 6:45PM to 8:45PM

Where?

Bedok Public Library, Prog Zone
21 Bedok North St. 1,
Singapore 469659

-- Flawless skin in Photoshop --

Google returns 103 thousand results for "Smoothen skin in Photoshop". What technique does Adobe Community Professional Stefano Virgilli uses? Learn in a 20 minutes session, how easy could be to get the best natural skin in photos. (A pressure sensitive graphic tablet is recommended).

-- Rapid Photo Retouching In Fireworks --

When designing for screens, photo retouching is essential for better digital images on websites and mobile devices.

How is it like to combine raster and vector together into image editing? Linus will demo how to do photo retouching like is done in Photoshop but with speed! Experience photo editing capabilities of Fireworks for the first time like no other.

-- Creating eBooks for mobile consumption --

Singapore is one of the top countries when it comes to smartphone ownership. While PDF has long been the standard for producing documents such as user manuals, class notes, product brochure etc, moving forward users will want to consume such documents on their iPads, iPhones and other smartphones.

We will show you how to create an ePub document. ePub is the most popular ebook format on mobiles. We will show you how to prepare the document on your MS Word (on Windows) and then use a Mac to convert the document. Finally we will show you how to distribute this ebook to your audience. We will also discuss the role that ebooks might play in marketing your product or service.

-- Have fun with CSS3 Transitions, Transforms and Animations --

CSS3 and HTML5 have brought on some amazing features that can create quick and simple interactive websites. We will demo how to create some hover animations, animated motions and even some dynamic graphics! As an alternative to using Flash or other interactive technologies, CSS3 and HTML5 can be used on any modern browser with no additional plugins or embeds. Have fun creating sleek interactions!

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 October 2011 05:20 Written by Stefano Virgilli Thursday, 27 October 2011 05:09

When?

November 8, 2011
From 6:45PM to 8:45PM

Where?

Toa Payoh Public Library
6 Toa Payoh Central
Singapore, 319191

-- Shaping bodies in Photoshop --

Always wanted a 6-packs abs? Wanted to trim the hips here and there?

Learn from Stefano Virgilli's expertise the most useful tricks in models retouch with Adobe Photoshop.

Understand the importance of pixels, lights and shadows to sculpt a perfect digital body.

Ideal Photoshop session for wedding photographers.

Demonstrated by Stefano Virgilli, Adobe Community Professional and Adobe Certified Instructor at VOX LAB.

-- Introducing Adobe Carousel --

Do you love taking lots of photographs and just need a simple way to view, browse, adjust and share them on any device - desktop, tablet or phone? Then check out Adobe Carousel, an amazing new tool which uses the same powerful photo-processing technology as in Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom®.

Introduced by Steve Lok, designer at VOX LAB.

-- Photo-portfolio for iPad made in Adobe InDesign --

Ever wanted to show your portfolio to the client using the iPad or even sharing your portfolio with the client onto their own iPad? Well this is where our very own Adobe Community Professional and Singapore InDesign User Group Manager, Mark Plunkett, will be there to reveal the secrets behind it. You can have your portfolio done in 5 minutes, and what's more, you can share it with unlimited clients (or unshare it) and protect your portfolio from being leached.

-- 5ml (www.fiveml.com) HTML5 made mobile --

It provides cross platform development with many easily manipulated controls in a WYSIWYG manner. The platform is fully customizable and expandable to each organization's or individual's needs.

Many multinational organizations already use it for their mobile advertisement needs, rendering it the global leader in online mobile rich media creation tools.

Vassilis Legakis is a member of the work group developing the platform under Velti inc. He will be demonstrating the platform's capabilities, many of its controls, sample projects, as well as many of the features which are coming next.

-- Tips for that "Film Look" --

How can an indie filmmaker get a low-budget video to mimic the look and feel of a movie theatre film?

There are a few techniques during the filming and post-production stages that can help to achieve that highly sought-after "film look", to make a video more pleasing to viewers.

Presented by Patricia Joy Lee, networker at VOX LAB.

Poster photo from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/765082

by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/papaleguas

Last Updated on Saturday, 08 October 2011 03:07 Written by Linus Lim Saturday, 08 October 2011 03:01

Venue: Jurong Regional Library, Prog Zone

21 Jurong East Central 1, Singapore 609732

Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Time: 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM

Tributes to Steve Jobs by Carlsson Chee

We have lost a visionary leader of our time who was such a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. To honor his memory, Carlsson will give a special tribute to Steve Jobs whose legacy will continue to live on for the ages among each of us.

Travel photography with a simpler camera by Preetam Rai

Travel invigorates us, exposes us to the unexpected and things that we don't see in our daily lives. And photographs lets us capture these memories not only for us but for the people around us. In this 15 minute segment we will explore 1. Why leave the DSLR home and take a smaller camera 2. Ideas on shooting great pictures with an inexpensive or phone camera 3. how to shoot photos of people without embarrassing ourselves and the subject and 4. Unusual ways to shoot familiar places - how to get an unique image of a familiar place or a object.

SCSS - Building on CSS by Sayanee Basu

Are you a CSS coder? Then SCSS builds on top of CSS for faster, more efficient and cleaner code. Scss makes CSS fun again. Scss is an extension of CSS3, adding nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance, and more. It’s translated to well-formatted, standard CSS using the command line tool or a web-framework plugin. Come and find out how you can start using scss right now and share projects with even non-scss developers and have fun!

CSS3 Mobile for Fireworks by Linus Lim

During Adobe Max this month at LA, Fireworks team announces the CSS3 Mobile for Fireworks. This allows web professionals to be more efficiently in creating web, mobile and tablet designs. Linus will introduce the tools and demo how you can use it to rapidly transform your vision into designs across different screen sizes, browsers and mobile devices, all while using the latest web standards.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 07:09 Written by Stefano Virgilli Tuesday, 06 September 2011 06:56

Venue: Woodlands Regional Library, Prog Zone
900 South Woodlands Drive, Woodlands Civic Centre, #01-03 Singapore 730900

Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time: 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM

Better Presentations

Synopsis

Haven't we through presentations were we squinted to read the small text and watched the presenter read their slides. Aren't we bored of PowerPoints were the presenters just dumped numbers and figures and tried to hide the dull content with fancy transitions? Let us try a better way of doing presentations where we use pictures to tell interesting stories to bring home the points. We will also services where we can find images to illustrate our concepts. And finally we will at look at some web services that help us include the audience in our presentations.

Speaker

Preetam Rai is a frequent speaker at tech events across Asia. He works with educators, non-profits and startups helping them better engage with their audience. Preetam is an Apple Distinguished Educator and he is online at smarterbysharing.com.

Singapore Joomla UserGroup (sneak peek)

Synopsis

Joomla is one of the most powerful Content Management System available online. It makes up to 2.7% of worldwide website. It means more than 100 million websites made in Joomla. An official user group made in Singapore is about to be launched. If you are keen to learn more about Joomla, keep your eyes open during this session.

Speaker

Stefano Virgilli is an Adobe Community Professional in Photoshop, Adobe Certified Instructor Design Master at VOX LAB Singapore.

Cinemagraph - Subtle motion in a photograph

Synopsis

Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg from New York have re-ignited the interested in .gif files by creating a stunning effect to any photograph. Using subtle motions at appropriate points, an enigmatic effect can be added to a still picture. This time, we will learn how to use a video and edit it in photoshop to create this kind of image with subtle motion that the creators call "Cinemagraph".

Speaker

Sayanee Basu is a full-stack web developer as she dabbles with both code and design. She's also frequently seen sharing and engaging with the local startup scene through podcasts, open source and talks. Sayanee can be contacted through twitter @sayanee_

The making of a corporate video in After Effects (3 minutes video)

Synopsis

Look behind the scene of Adobe After Effects: a 3 minutes exciting reconstruction by Mohit Sebastian, the author of "LABers we think in color".

Lightroom magic tools

Synopsis

If you are one of those photographers who think that Photoshop is too much and Bridge is not enough, then consider Lightroom. Learn how to apply effects and adjustments using a gradient or a brush. Bring your own laptop to try it live with the speaker!

Speaker

Stefano Virgilli is an Adobe Community Professional in Photoshop, Adobe Certified Instructor Design Master at VOX LAB Singapore.

Poster image:

Some rights reserved by B Tal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/109012466/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Last Updated on Saturday, 06 August 2011 13:22 Written by Stefano Virgilli Saturday, 06 August 2011 13:08

Order tickets via Eventbrite:

Second round of HDR talks for Stefano Virgilli. After the SAM (Singapore Art Museum) on August 5, get the change to learn more tips and tricks on HDR Photography (High Dynamic Range).

In addition, long time Creative Crew's memebr Sayanee Basu, will share a cocktail of HTML/CSS/Javascript for all the web designer keen to extend their range.

Responsive Web Design - how to make sleek fluid web designs to optimise viewing for all devices

Skills: CSS/HTML/Javascript Speaker: Sayanee Basu

Synopsis: Fluid design has been around for a while now, but a couple of months back a book on "Responsive Web Design" by Ethan Marcotte crystallized all concepts related to fluid optimized design. Ever since then many web ninjas have taken to designing their websites into a "responsive" style. We will convert a fixed web design into a fluid web design that are ready for optimized viewing on any devices just using some minor front-end coding with HTML/CSS/Javascript.

Good HDR vs Bad HDR... and Best HDR

Skills: Adobe Photoshop Speaker: Stefano Virgilli

Synopsis: From the very first HDR picture ever took to the cutting edge technologies available, you will take a long journey in the HDR jungle. Stefano will demo one of the most extreme HDR technique. He calls it Manual HDR. Learn the "science" behind HDR. Learn how to master HDR.

Poster picture by: xsphotos

Demo pictures by: Mohamad Ferdaus Bin Salleh Albert Lim

Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 June 2011 14:42 Written by Stefano Virgilli Saturday, 11 June 2011 13:56

Tuesday, July 12 - 2011
From 6:45PM to 8:45PM

Serangoon Public Library, Prog Zone
23 Serangoon Central, #04-82/83
Singapore 556083

Only 10 years ago the owner of a professional camera was considered a professional photographers. Now that DSLR cameras are more affordable, what makes you a professional photographer?

Learn from Stefano Virgilli how to get the best from your photos. In this two hours free event you will learn how to optimize contrast, colour and sharpness. You will also learn how to add text to your photos to visually appealing posters and presentations.

Stefano is the only appointed Adobe Community Professional for Photoshop in Singapore. He was born in Italy where he owned a design studio until 2006. Stefano Virgilli is the direct of LAB School.

Catch exciting events at SHINE Youth Festival this year

Last Updated on Wednesday, 04 May 2011 04:53 Written by Stefano Virgilli Wednesday, 04 May 2011 04:44

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
from 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM (GMT+0800)
Singapore | Woodlands Regional Library

Is this "Photoshopped"?

Learn how to spot the most common mistakes

Last week both Obama and Osama were on the paper for Photoshop reason. Both birth and dead were linked by the most popular Adobe software. Is it real? Is it a fake? Who knows?

Well none knows, but if you want to learn how to do a better job than the graphic designer at the CIA, don't miss next Creative Crew's meeting.

As we have seen last month, photo montage is always an addition to the original picture, even when the goal is to "subtract". Learn with Stefano Virgilli how to easily detect the tracks left behind by inaccurate Photoshoppers.

We will talk about Proportions, Angle, Sharpness, Light, Shadows, Adjustments, Colour and all the other give-aways of a photoshopped picture.

Joomla!

Set up and manage your very own website in 7 minutes

Surprisingly, out of the nearly 80 participants who attended Creative Crew's meeting in April, only one managed a very own website. At the end of the meeting, many guests required a dedicated session. Here it is.

Stefano Virgilli is a Joomla professional user who has worked on over 70 websites. He will show you how to set up your website:

• for free
• in 7 minutes
• without Dreamweaver of HTML knowledge

Sounds exciting? Do not miss this talk. It will change your web perspective forever.

Also, take a tour of the most impressive Joomla templates and extensions.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 April 2011 02:21 Written by Stefano Virgilli Tuesday, 05 April 2011 01:36

Stefano and Brinda are going to share more tips and tricks about Photosohp for photographers.  Leon and Preetam will get in depth about new and old web features. In a world in continuos change.

Don't miss next Creative Crew's meeting!

Date: Tuesday April 12th, 2011 

Time: From 6:45PM to 8:45PM

Venue: Bedok Public Library, Programme Zone #01

Free registration on Eventbrite

 

SESSION 1

Title:

Fun and profit with QR codes - add interactivity to your print adverts and posters

Speaker:

Preetam Rai, Educator and Technologist

Duration:

15 minutes

Synopsis:

Quick Response (QR) codes are two dimensional codes invented in 90s by a Japanese auto company. They are common in Japan where you can find many people snapping QR codes on their mobile phones from magazines or storefronts. You can embed URLs, email addresses or any other text information on these codes. Learn how to create your own QR codes and add them to your posters. Discover other fun ways to use QR codes. 

 

SESSION 2

Title:

Photo manipulation - The unexpected filters of Photoshop

Speaker:

Brinda Balakrishnan, trainer at VOX LAB, School of Visual Arts

Duration:

15 minutes

Synopsis:

My talk will be on taking an existing photograph and completing manipulating it. Photo manipulation, nowadays, is widely-used in the net to create artistic and inspired images. Several ordinary photos are edited and given a new concept- illustrating an innovative and original piece of art. With the aid of Photoshop, the combination of imagination and skills in using available tools are handy in Photo manipulation. 

 

SESSION 3

Title:

Introduction To SQL

Speaker:

Leon Lim, Director of Touch and Print

Duration:

15 minutes

Synopsis:

A simple brief introduction to SQL and databases. What is SQL and what is a database. Includes a simple demo of the SELECT statement in SQL to retrieve data from a database.

 

SESSION 4

Title:

Photo Montage AKA "Get that person out of my picture!"

Speaker:

Stefano Virgilli, Adobe Certified Instructor Design Master at VOX LAB, School of Visual Arts

Duration:

25 minutes

Synopsis:

Let's get the facts right. You can't possibly remove something from a picture without necessarily replace it with something else. Therefore, what do you want to replace it with?

Discover with Stefano how to perform amazing photo montages with Adobe Photoshop.

 

Photo by Nicholas Guzman

Some rights reserved 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick_g/1280155268/sizes/z/in/photostream/

 

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 February 2011 07:13 Written by Stefano Virgilli Sunday, 27 February 2011 07:01

WHEN:

Tuesday, March 08, 2011 from 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM (GMT+0800)

WHERE:

Toa Payoh Public Library
6 Toa Payoh Central 
Singapore 319191

HOW:

Free registration on Eventbrite:

http://creativecrew0311.eventbrite.com/

 

Prototyping iPhone App in Fireworks CS5

By Linus Lim, vice-President of Creative Crew

 

iPhone, iPad and Android. Yes, is now all about mobile now!  Be part of this as you learn more about prototyping designs for 1 of the most fascinating device in the world. Come and throw away your old workflows as designers today needs to quickly create prototypes to smooth out the creative process and get feedback on ideas.

 

Fashion photography unleashed

By Brinda Balakrishnan, Industry liaison at VOX LAB

 

In the Fashion industry, it doesn't just help to make beautiful garments. It is equally important to sell it. Fashion photography has been the best medium to get through to the public and make a statement. Photography that convey a sense of garments' physical quality. Formal appearance, as opposed to plain illustration.

With just a reliable camera and photo-editing software, becoming a fashion photographer is within reach. However, how does a photographer showcase personality while also communicating the designer's vision?

Let's go beyond the image.

Sneak Peek on Publishing Magazine in the iPad

By Mark W. Plunkett, Adobe Community Champion

 

Adobe Community Champions and Adobe InDesign User Group Manager, Mark Plunkett, will be revealing a preview on what Adobe have in store for graphic designers to be able to create fantastic magazine layout with InDesign CS5 and publishing to the Apple iPad with absolutely no coding knowledge required. Never seen before preview, hurry up and grab your tickets.

From monitor to print. Does your print look different?

By Stefano Virgilli, Adobe Community Professional

 

"Why my printed pictures don't look like the monitor?" - "I bought Spider, but the monitor turned green." - "Why my printed red sucks?" - "How do I print exactly what I see in the monitor?".

Stop whining!

Get the facts right.

What monitor to buy, what colorimeter to buy, what to do to go as close as you can to a 100% match.

 

Photo: Some rights reserved by torkristensen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bespoke/1052924097/sizes/m/in/photostream/