:::New Sounas art for print & canvas:::

Here are some Sounas artwork available for print and canvas available at MySoti.com

::Τέρμα στα greeklish!:::

Τα τελευταία χρόνια παρατηρώ μεγάλη μερίδα χρηστών να γράφει στο διαδίκτυο χρησιμοποιώντας την δυσνόητη μορφή των greeklish. Τα greeklish ήταν στην ουσία η εύκολη λύση στην αρχή του ευρύτερου διαδικτύου (τέλος '90) για τους ελληνόφωνους που αναγκάζονταν να γράψουν μόνο με λατινικά γράμματα. Το ίδιο πρόβλημα είχαν όλα τα έθνη που έγραφαν σε γλώσσα με μη λατινικούς χαρακτήρες.

Η δε χρήση των Greeklish προέβλεπε ότι όλες οι λέξεις γραφόντουσαν με απόλυτη σωστή ορθογραφία της ελληνικής γλώσσας και όχι ο καθένας να γράφει και ουσιαστικά να "βιάζει" την γλώσσα με όποιο γράμμα πατήσει στο πληκτρολόγιο. Το δε έκτρωμα των Greeklish υποτίθεται ότι λύθηκε στις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 2000, όπου έγινε δυνατή πλέον η χρήση και γλωσσών με μη λατινικές. Επομένως δεν υπάρχει κανένας λόγος να βιάζεται η ορθογραφία και η καλαισθησία της ελληνικής γλώσσας εδώ και τόσο καιρό.

Αντίθετα όλοι μας στο διαδίκτυο θα έπρεπε να επιδιώκουμε να γράφουμε στα ελληνικά, όπως κάνουν όλα τα σοβαρά έθνη στον κόσμο (Κινέζοι, Ρώσοι, Σλάβοι, Άραβες κτλ) που σέβονται την γλώσσα τους.

Πρόσφατα ανακάλυψα έναν μετατροπέα Greeklish σε γνήσια ελληνικά από τον capital.gr:

http://services.innoetics.com/greeklish/

Είναι ιδιαίτερα χρήσιμος κυρίως για Έλληνες εξωτερικού που δεν έχουν πρόσβαση σε πληκτρολόγια με ελληνική γλώσσα.

Σίγουρα θα υπάρχουν κι άλλα παρόμοια προγράμματα. Δοκιμάστε τα.

Τέλος στον χώρο των γραφικών τεχνών, θα ήθελα να σημειώσω ότι οι επαγγελματίες χώρου θα έπρεπε να είναι ιδιαίτεροι προσεκτικοί με την ορθογραφία λέξεων σε μακέτες, λογότυπα και σήματα. Δεν είναι λίγες οι φορές που είτε από απροσεξία-βιασύνη είτε από καθαρή αμάθεια, σημειώνονται τεράστια ορθογραφικά λάθη! Στο κάτω-κάτω όλοι φωνάζουμε για δωρεάν παιδεία και οι περισσότεροι αδυνατούν να γράψουν έστω σωστά στο ίντερνετ.

:::Sounas T-Shirts at Mysoti.com:::

I have created some new T-shirts at Mysoti.com with playful characters. You can order your favourite T-shirt, so you can walk around in Sounas style! More designs will be added in the future :)

Check Sounas T-shirts here!

:::Sounas tutorial on Hongkiat.com:::

Last year I had created a tutorial for a nice guy, Simon in Switzerland for its blog Condomunity.com. He has just dropped me a mail to tell me that my tutorial is being included in a collection named "40+ Excellent Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Tutorials"

at Hongiat.com.

Very nice :)

:::Dunlop's bio - Animated video for dutch tv:::

Another animated video I did for Dutch '3V12' TV show (Nederland 3 channel).
Animation in After Effects.

:::Ericsson Connected Home (animated videos by Ilias Sounas)::::

Here's a couple of videos I created for Ericsson Connected Home service.
The project was assigned by House of Radon (Swedish Production House).
I had a great time to create these using a combination of Flash, Illustrator and After Effects.
There are some new videos, which I will publish in future posts.

You can check images on my website, as well.

(Rough version, no sound)

:::Illustrations for Visionmobile.com:::

Some new stuff here: a series of new illustrations for visionmobile.com (UK) were made recently to enrich their valuable blog posts on mobile industry.

I have designed them in Illustrator.

:::ChillOut cover by Ilias Sounas:::

ChillOut cafe news is a famous newspaper in Chania, Greece for lifestyle, fashion, nightlife etc. Recently, I created the cover for a special edition of ChillOut.

On November 2, it broke the Guinness World record and was honoured as the biggest print newspaper (3.15 m x4.50 m) in the world. The event took place in Heraklio city, Greece.

::::Happy Cloud- winner in 4mations.tv::::

Yes, these are great news! "Happy cloud" animation is a winner in UK 4mations.tv summer competition 2009. And here are the critics it received:

Happy Cloud by Ilias Sounas
Adam Gee: “A little burst of bouncy, colourful cosmic joy.”
Hugo Sands: “A cohesive, coherent and nicely-designed execution of a simple idea.”

Thanks!!!

Check the full list of winners here

:::Buy Sounas Artwok ::::

Now you can order some of my designs, which are available for paper and canvas prints to decorate your space (home, shop, cafe etc) in Sounas style.

Check all the available illustrations at various sizes for all tastes :)

You can choose your print from a vast variety of papers and canvas textures with or without framing.

:::Sounas characters for Character Synthesis Exhibition:::

These are some new pieces I did for Character Synthesis Exhibition, which will be held by Athens Digital Week festival (14-18.10.2009 in Technopolis, Athens.

I love Cookie Monster character :)

:::Ilias Sounas in Digital Brush magazine:::

The korean magazine Digital Brush held recently an interview of mine along with some of my illustrations. The artcle was named Work or Art and it was in the issue n. 8.

Here is a short extract:

[...Q: Are you more of a heavy producer(meaning you make a lot of work) or a careful producer(meaning you spend quite some time in one work)?

I spend a sufficient time on any work every time, so there’s a satisfying result no doubt. It’s more important to have a perfect finished project than many mediocre works. But as always, I have to stick to certain deadlines, which sometimes don’t allow for as much experimentation as I would like because time is not always enough. In a kind of way, I’ m trying to “develop skills” to produce works fast, but without compromising the overall quality and detail.

Q: How much time do you spend for your own work compared to client work?

Normally, a designer/illustrator spends more time on his/her own work but that doesn’t mean is an absolute rule. I like spending enough time, so the resulting image impress me in the way I want. I enjoy the process of building up my illustrations without having an obvious pressure for the commercial use of it. Unfortunately, if I’m extremely busy with client works, there’s no time for my personal projects...]

I will try to publish the whole interview in future posts.

Swatch MTV Playground in BIOS, Athens Greece (September 18-19)

"Are you ready for the complete Swatch MTV Playground experience? Then come and play with us at BIOS in Athens on 18th & 19th September. Immerse yourself in a full-on art extravanganza. An assault on your artistic senses, you’ll be able to get hands-on with an array of arty activities. Show us what you’ve got with areas where you can design your own artwork, create your own light grafitti and project your chosen images. And there’s more. See creativity as it happens in Art Battles, where artists at the top of their game go head-to-head against the clock, putting their artistic skills to the test live on stage. And all of this to a block-rocking soundtrack from the DJ booth. This is one event you won’t want to miss – and best of all, it’s free.

More info on http://www.swatchmtvplayground.com/el-GR "

Swatch MTV Playground event in Athens hosts one of my illustrations, while the official Swatch MTV Playground website has used my illustration as a promotional image around the world.

:::VisionMobile Illustrations:::

Recently I created 10 illustrations for VisionMobile.com website (UK). They were supportive im ages to the posts related always to the mobile industry. Here are some samples. More on my website: www.sounasdesign.com

:::80's Memories by Sounas:::

This a new design I created for Swatch/MTV playground. Kind of 80's but with some modern twist. I like vivid colours a lot and this is obvious here :)

Check on Swatch MTV Playground

:::Happy Cloud featured in ColdHardFlash.com:::

What a nice surprise.
One of my favorite blogs, the ColdHardFlash.com posted the Happy Cloud animation!!!!

I always wanted to see my work there :)

And thanks everyone for your comments!

:::Happy Cloud:::

I have created a new short animation called Happy Cloud just for fun.

I did the character animation in Flash, backgrounds in Photoshop and then I composed all elements in After Effects. It's a single-camera shot. The main idea behind this was that people sometimes try to find their soulmate "looking far away", while he/she is "closer" than they think.

:::Grafistas+web design cover issue 53::::

The new Grafistas+web design issue  cover features one of my new illustrations. Fresh shapes!

(#53, available in greek only) 

:::Flash presentation in TEI Athens:::

Tomorrow I will present a short seminar in TEI Athens (state school of graphic design) about Flash and how to work in it for animation purpose. There will be examples of the Flash workflow along with many useful tips and advice to the students, so they can lay their hands on the magical world of Flash animation. 

See you there!

:::1st prize in Voadfone CU Land contest:::

Happy news! The 3 winners  for the Vodafone CU Land & Athens Voice contest have been announced and I'm really excited as I'm the 1st winner. The results were published on May 14 in Athens Voice weekly newspaper, where my illustration was the alternative cover for that week. According to the contest, the 3 winning illustrations will be the cover for the next Vodafone CU packages.

Really cool!

:::New commercial animated clips:::

Here are a couple of new animated presentations I did recently for MXSweep and GetThatFlow.

I did the illustrations and characters in Illustrator, then I paste them into Flash, where did the animation and I finally added camera movements in After Effects (+cc -colour correction).

:::Ilias Sounas:interniew for MyAegean.gr:::

MyAegean is a very nice portal from Aegean  University. The students have recently asked for an interview about my designs & workflow analysis. So, after a while my recent interview has been posted in MyAegean website and it contains a lot of useful comments about my artwork (you can read the full post but it's available in greek only). It's an honour for me to be asked for an onterview, so I'd like to thank Yannis Apostolopoulos from Aegean University.

(the following post is in greek)

------------------------------------------------

Η φοιτητική διαδικτυακή πύλη my.aegean.gr πρόσφατα δημοσίευσε συνέντευξη μου που είχα παραχωρήσει τους υπεύθυνους της Πύλης με ενδιαφέροντα ζητήματα προς συζήτηση. Υπάρχει αν'αλυση της φιλοσοφίας των έργων, τεχνικών που εφαρμόζω και γενικότερα πρόκειται για μια ανοικτή συζήτηση που είχα σχετικά με τον δρόμο που έχω ακολουθήσει μέχρι στιγμής. Με τιμάει ιδιαίτερα το γεγονός που μου ζητήθηκε να παραχωρήσω συνέντευξη και σε αυτό το σημείο θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω τον Γιάννη Αποστολόπουλο, φοιτητή του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου που μου έκανε αυτή την πρόταση.

Πέρα από τις δικές μου αναλύσεις και σκέψεις, επισκεφθείτε την πύλη του πανεπιστημίου για πολλά άλλα ενδιαφέροντα θέματα, μια και όλοι οι ιθύνοντες της σελίδας έχουν αφιερώσει τον χρόνο τους για ένα πολύ καλό αποτέλεσμα, με πολύ μεράκι και πάθος για όλους τους φοιτητές.

Συγχαρητήρια σε όλους!

Απόσπασμα από συνέντευξη:

[...myAEGEAN: Είστε γενικώς ένας πολυάσχολος άνθρωπος; Πώς θα χαρακτηρίζατε τον εαυτό σας και με τι αντικείμενα ασχολείστε, στον επαγγελματικό σας χώρο;

ΗΛΙΑΣ ΣΟΥΝΑΣ: Πράγματι ο χρόνος που καταναλώνω για τα σχέδια μου, τις δουλειές μου και την προσωπική μου εκπαίδευση παράλληλα, είναι αρκετά μεγάλος καθημερινά, με αποτέλεσμα να είμαι διαρκώς απασχολημένος με τον έναν ή με τον άλλο τρόπο. Θα έλεγα ότι δεν εφησυχάζω σχεδόν ποτέ. Εκτός βέβαια από τις φορές που χαλαρώνω με φίλους. Δυστυχώς πλέον τον περισσότερο χρόνο τον περνάω μπροστά από τον υπολογιστή, σε αντίθεση με παλαιότερα χρόνια που ήταν σίγουρα πιο ξένοιαστα. Σαν επαγγελματική ιδιότητα θα έλεγα ότι με αντιπροσωπεύει ο τίτλος του σχεδιαστή, εικονογράφου και animator. Ασχολούμαι και έχω ασχοληθεί με ένα μεγάλο φάσμα της ψηφιακής τέχνης (γραφιστική, video, web design κτλ), αλλά ο κύριος τομέας παραμένει πάντα η εικονογράφηση και το δισδιάστατο animation...]

περισσότερα εδώ

:::Grapharw.gr::::

The follοwing post is for greek viewers only; it is written in greek for this reason:

Η εταιρεία Kartomania σε συνεργασία με το περιοδικό Γραφίστας+web design διοργανώνει τον διαγωνισμό Grpaharw.gr και απευθύνεται αποκλειστικά σε φοιτητές και σπουδαστές σχολών Γραφικών Τεχνών. Μπορείτε να συμμετάσχετε με ένα ή και περισσότερα έργα διεκδικώντας τρία μοναδικά έπαθλα. Το θέμα του διαγωνισμού είναι να δημιουργηθεί μια διαφημιστική καταχώρηση Α4 για την εταιρεία Kartomania, η οποία κινείται στον χώρο των εκτυπώσεων και καρτών για τους επαγγελματίες του χώρου, ενώ η τεχνική  της τελικής δημιοργίας είναι ελεύθερη με οποιοδήποτε υλικό. Περισσότερες πληροφορίες στην επίσημη σελίδα του διαγωνισμού (ημερομηνία λήξεως 8 Μαΐου 2009). 

:::Ilias Sounas on Microsoft DevDay:::

On Tuesday  April 7, I was one of the speakers in DevDay conference held by Microsoft Hellas.

There was a common presentation of Silverlight/Blend workflow along with designer/developer Vassilis Linakis and my part was mainly about the presentation of new Expression Design 2 software. 

My presentation involved a subtle presentation of Designer package workflow and its flexibility to export graphics in XAML, ready to be used in Blend. Vassilis Linakis had a great presentation about the core features of Blend app. Nice!

SounasDesign.com

My new website is online.
You can visit www.sounasdesign.com and check my best artwork and animation creations in an easy way and if you like send me your feedback.
Fresh graphics, colourful experience  with nice use of flvs.

:::Twestival video:::

This is a concept video I made for Twestival (twitter festival) held in over 175 cities. 

A minimalistic approach created in After Effects

:::Children illustration:::

Rough experimentations with the improvised Brush settings in Photoshop CS4. Brush strokes are even smoother and the Rotate View Tool allows for a relaxing painting experience. 

:::Illustrator CS4 & Phantasm CS:::

Adobe Illustrator is the top application for my designs. I daily use it for my illustrations. I have tried CS4 lately and I can admit the top features are:

-multiple artboards (they are fantastic and give  tremendous freedom & flexibility in workflow)

-export multiple files

-transparency in gradients

Though, Illustrator CS3 introduced LiveColour ability to edit colours in  designs, I still think Phantasm CS is  a far more better than it. Phantasm CS is plug-in available by Astute Graphics and provides very handy options like: Hue/Saturation, Levels, Curves, Brightness/Contrast etc. You have to give it a try and I'm sure the moment you first use it you will realize how you could live without it. Phantasm CS boosts creativity and workflow because it allows to edit colours on the fly even in Gradients. It's more precise than LiveColour and all its options are similar to Photoshop Image Adjustments. I'm still wondering why Adobe hasn't hired Astute Graphics  to embed Phantasm in feature Versions.

It is available in three versions:

Phantasm CS (basic)  $37 / €26

(ideal for people who don't do demanding works in Illustrator)

Phantasm CS Designer $72 / €51

(the best solution for professional illustrators/designers)

Phantasm CS Studio   $132 / €93

(ideal for printing houses and professionals who print directly from Illustrator).

If you own a previous version you are also able to update in a reduced price and this makes me a returning customer, no doubt.

 

In my opinion, Phantasm is the most useful plug-in for Illustrator users at a reasonable rate.

:::Winter Spirit::

This is a photo taken by Ria Vardi and I decided to spice it up a little bit more :)

::::iphonelands.com logo:::

Recently I have created the logo for iPhonelands.com , a new website containing info and news about iPhone. Colours are similar to the website colour scheme with an iphone designed in Illustrator.

:::Tutorial:Create a tag in Photoshop:::

Ok. Here's a new tutorial about creating a paper-like tag in Photoshop using textures and various layers in different blending modes.

Note: The settings used in this example applies to a usual A4. Try different settings depending on the document's size.

Image 01
Select the Rounded Rectangle tool and tick the option Fill Pixels in tool’s properties bar (thus the final shape has a color fill,too). Set Radius at 50 pixels so the final rectangle has rounded corners. Draw a rectangle resembling a usual tag shape on a new layer.

 

Image 02
Using the very same tool draw a smaller rectangle with the same settings on a new layer. This will be the tag’s top. Try to make it have the same height with the first one, though you can fix this later (if you like, give a different color, so this second shape is easily distinct)

 

Image 03
Transform the second shape with Ctrl+T. Drag the top and bottom side of the transform frame, so the shape has finally the same height with the first rectangle. By pressing Ctrl+Space Bar you can zoom-in deeper to check perfectly the scaling.

 

Image 04
Don’t press Enter yet! Having  the Free transform frame still active, right click and select Perspective. Holding Shift, click and drag inwards any of the edge points, so you can have a similar result as in photo’s and press Enter to confirm transformation.

 

Image 05
Select the plain Rectangular Marquee tool, choose the first layer and draw a selection, including the whole part which stays out of the shape (check the photo). Then press Delete to get rid of it.

 

Image 06
Then select the second layer and from the Layer palette’s flying menu, choose Merge Down (alternatively press Ctrl+E). This way both shapes are flattened into a single layer (fill with the same color)

 

Image 07
Create a new layer, select the Ellipse Tool with the Fill Pixels option once again and draw a small perfect circle holding Shift. Select both layers, press V to activate Move tool and click Align Vertical Centers button in the tool’s properties bar.

 

Image 08
Click on layer’s thumbnail holding Ctrl  to load the circle as an active selection. Select the first layer and press Delete to make a hole in the tag. The Circle layer is useless now, so you can freely delete it.

 

Image 09
The tag’s shape is ready. Choose a light cream color (#fffcde) (it’s wise to change background’s color too, so the tag pops out). Press Layer Style icon in Layers palette and choose Inner Glow. Give the following settings:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 90

Size: 170

Choose a darker cream/brown color (#e2c49c). By ticking the Preview option you are able to see the changes automatically updated (check the screenshot for precise settings).

 

Image 10
For the tag’s texture you are free to use whatever texture you like. In this tutorial, simple paper and paper bag textures were used over the tag’s layer and from the menu Layer/ Create Clipping Mask their contents were limited to tag’s edges.

 

Image 11
Time for experiments! Try different layers’ opacity and blending modes, so the textures blend smoothly with the original flat shape. There’s no absolute rule for these results, everything depends on the files you use. Here for example, the paper bag image was set to Darker Colour at 30% opacity and the paper texture was set to Linear Burn at 20%.

 

Image 12
Add some type and rasterize it (right click/rasterize type) to convert it to usual pixels. Apply any colour you like and change the blending mode to Multiply. Now, it seems as the text is really printed on tag’s surface.

 

Image 13
Create the price area by drawing a rectangle with a light color fill using the Rectangle Tool. Apply a Stroke layer style set at 9 pixels.

 

Image 14
For dotted lines in Photoshop, select the brush tool having a tip with Hardness 100%. Open the Brushes palette and untick the Shape Dynamics option. Set the Spacing at 150% in Brush Tip Shape section. Now draw a perfect dotted line holding Shift key.

 
Image 15
Using the very same settings and tip draw a small size chain. Give better depth choosing a Gradient Overlay from the Layers Styles icon. Use the default black & white gradient at 45% opacity in Multiply blending mode. In addition, use an Inner Glow with black color in Multiply. This way the dots will look like chain balls.

 

The tag is ready. Add whatever detail you like and even try to have a different background for better results.

Hope you enjoy!

:::Space Alone- Special Award in Animacam.tv:::

Animacam.tv festival has announced the winners for its first year competition. Among others my "Space Alone" animation was given the special award Campus Stellae for the contents that relate with travel, friendship, world confines, the search and the finding.

I would like to thank the team of Animacam for its support and its great prize!

:::Computer Arts 156 Sounas Design:::

Great!  My "Amphibious Vehicular Love" animated video clip for "The Majestic Twelve" music band was featured in issue 156 (cover disc) of Computer Arts Magazine UK. 

I'm very happy it was included along with other great  inspirational animated creations :)

:::Geneve, Switzerland:::

Recently I visited Geneve, Switzerland for some projects of mine. But it was also an opportunity to take a short rest and enjoy the peaceful city of Geneve. It is a beautiful city which gave great inspiration as I walked down all the streets from Carouse area to downtown. 

Vey nice! I also had some time to organize all my

 ideas and prepare some roughs for all the new stuff I'm preparing 

in 2009. 

:::Autosport Illustrations by Sounas:::

Some new illustrations for Autosport Magazine UK themed:" Rockstars & Race cars".

:::Microsoft Designer's Night in Athens Photos:::

The Microsoft Event was quite succesful and there was a thorough presentation of Microsoft Expression Studio. Here are some video stills from the speakers including me.

Thanks Eleni & Isavella!

:::Microsoft Designer's Night in Athens:::

On Wednsday November 26, at 18:30 Microsoft Hellas is holding a special presentation for its Expression Studio suite at Nixon Bar, Athens. There will be live samples and short workflows for working with Blend, Designer, Deep Zoom and other Microsoft® tools to create rich applications exported in Silverlight™ technology. I will be one of the four speakers, presenting the Expression Design app, a powerful tool which allows users to create vector graphics for any use. Its interface and tools are easy to be mastered and provides flexible export formats-especially XAML, which fills the gap between a designer & developer's workflow.

If you like to attend, read more here now!
(in greek only)

Την Τετάρτη 26 Νοεμβρίου στις 18:30 στο screening room του bar Nixon, θα σας δείξουμε μέσα από πραγματικά σενάρια, τις δυνατότητες που προσφέρουν η καινούρια τεχνολογία της Microsoft® Silverlight™ και τα Microsoft Expression Tools στην επικοινωνία μεταξύ designer και developer για τη δημιουργία τόσο Silverlight user interfaces, όσο και πλούσιων, διαδραστικών Desktop & Web εφαρμογών. Θα είμαι ένας από τους τέσσερις ομιλητές, παρουσιάζοντας τις δυνατότητες του Expression Design.

Εάν ενδιαφέρεστε, δηλώστε συμμετοχή τώρα!

:::Sounas illustrations in Autosport magazine UK:::

Recently I was assigned some illustrations for a couple of Autosport magazine issues in UK.
The project has included a cover illustration featuring Kimi Raikkonen, a full spread about him and a full spread concerning Nascar races. I have used vibrant colours combined with high-resolution photos for sharp details. Enjoy!

:::Sounas in Computer Arts Projects issue 116:::

Computer Arts Projects magazine issue 116 has included some samples of my artwork in character design in its DVD along with the Space Alone animation. This issue is fantastic featuring "Character and Toy design" articles and tutorials.

Nice to see my work there!!!

:::1st place in MotionFest:::

Another great recognition for Space Alone animation.
It has won the first place in the following category:- 1:00-5:00 Pro Animation in MotionFest 2008, New Mexico, USA.
Motionconference was a fabulous event this year hosting gurus from the video & animation field.
It was a pitty, I couldn't attend :(

Anyway, thanks Elaine and Becky for their info mail!!!