Goals of the design included making it unique, appealing to kids, cheery, bright, fun, and easy to animate. We also strove for simplicity and contemporary colors and shapes.

After several stages of review, this is the logo design chosen:

The logo looks best on dark backgrounds which accentuate the glowing sun. In those cases, the grey lettering is almost white. However, for light backgrounds we also created this version.

There is also a 3D version of this logo that is being developed. In the 3D version, the sun is a sphere, not a disc. The letters may have a tube shape. However, details of the 3D version have not been finalized yet. When the 3D version is complete, it may become the official logo in place of the flat one.

It was created with a combination of SketchUp, Swift 3D, and Photoshop.

One trick was to create a picture in which 3ABN’s logo would look OK, once automatically scaled down and cropped by Facebook’s software. This was part of the inspiration for having a screen with the logo in the center, surrounded by other screens. To be cropped correctly, the logo must fit within a space defined by a perfect square with a width and height less than the smallest dimension of the image.

For the November issue of 3ABN World, we needed to illustrate a devotional article based on the famous Apollo 13 mission. After a futile search for a useful clipart image, I decided to take the plunge and make my own composition. Keep in mind that I do not have much experience in 3D — I think I could count my 3D illustrations on one hand — and I had only six hours or so across two days to work on this. Besides that, my tools were a clunky 3D application called Swift 3D 4.5 (nothing “swift” about it), SketchUp 6, and Photoshop CS2.

I found a number of 3D models. Interestingly, each one was different in various ways, including in regards to the colors and materials used for major pieces of the Apollo command module. So I compared them all, noted the common features, and also perused some online articles about the Apollo 13 mission (characterized by fuzzy, black and white images). In the end, I went for as accurate as I could guess, along with adding a few random stylistic elements that are almost certainly not true to life, but which make it look more believable.

Here is the base model that I downloaded. Note the absence of color and detail, and that the dish antenna is completely missing:

I added basic colors, materials, and textures in Swift 3D, and got the angle set to what I wanted. Then I exported it as a PNG image, and opened that in Photoshop. Then I added more color, shading, and texture. I also added lettering, rivets, the words “United States,” and other little do-dads. In the background I added stars (using a real photo of the night sky, not just random stars), and a view of Earth.

Originally I had added a dish antenna borrowed from another model, which I retouched in Photoshop. But I was not happy with the result. The new graphic below shows the new antenna that I made from scratch using SketchUp, Swift 3D, and Photoshop.

Here is detail of the craft:

Here is a small version of the final image. The full size one is 11 inches wide at 300 ppi.

Below are a couple more scenes I made with the same software. Every one of these scenes is created the same way: by defining a simple master object (a basic line drawing like a triangle or other polygon), and then cloning it a few times, scaling and positioning each clone to define how the fractal iterations will develop. The results are rendered in real time, which is what makes the program so easy to play with.

As you can see, these fractals strongly mimic natural patterns we are all familiar with, suggesting that fractal structures are building blocks in the physical world. I spent maybe 10-15 minutes on each of these; more time or expertise with the software could yield more realistic results.

Because the story and activity were related to ducks, I decided to go with a pond theme. So I created this simple graphic in Illustrator:

In the final piece I had to rearrange the flowers, turtle, and dragonfly to accommodate items in the page layout. The dragonfly didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but I think it looks OK when reduced in size. If I had to do it over, I would also use a different technique to create slightly more realistic flowers (although I was purposely not wanting a photorealistic look).

If you would like to see what 3ABN World looks like, back issues are available on 3ABN’s website in PDF format, at the bottom of the page this link jumps to.

I didn’t have any birthday cake this year (or last year, or the year before that, or the…), since there is no one around with a heart to make such a thing for me. So I decided to try my hand at making something in Photoshop, the challenge being to draw it from scratch without using any source art. This represents about 45 minutes (if I had more drawing experience, I could no doubt chop that time down; but drawing is not a regular part of my design job). Here is the result:

This is a small, actual-size piece of the art that is currently decorating the desktop of my PowerBook laptop. At actual size you can see the detail much better.

Below is a scaled-down picture of the whole image. As a desktop background, it is a bit busy. I wouldn’t use it for a production computer. But it does make a rather pleasant backdrop for general use, although desktop icons tend to get lost. You can see the original that I adapted it from here. (I also made a light and a dark version, without the blue, which are less busy. But I still think the blue one is the most beautiful.)