Editor's Note: Staff investigator Meowza Katz presents an ongoing investigation into the E! True Hollywood story behind the colorful cast of Aviary. We now present to you the second chapter in an ongoing series entitled, Behind the Nest.. In tonight's special chapter, fame goes to Phoenix' head. What will happen to the flock?!? 
Previous Chapters: Part 1
Why, hello there! Aren't you looking fine this evening? May I pour you a tall glass of fine champagne? Why, you ask?
Oh, you hadn't heard? Aviary hatched!
We've officially released four awesome design apps, a new Firefox extension for easy screen capture, 60+ new tutorials, and best of all we've completely overhauled our website design to make it easier for collaboration to happen.
We've also finally landed our branding, as you should note we are now located at Aviary.com (no more a.viary.com). We feel less web2.0 now, but trust us, that's a very good thing.
Going forwards we're going to keep the exact changes we make (just about every Wednesday) in a specific list of release notes in our announcement forum.
If you want more up-to-date release notes, please check our Announcements forum or subscribe to the announcement RSS feed.
A special thanks to the following sites and fine feathered friends for the great coverage and reviews!
photojojo readwriteweb mashable cnet zdnet fayerwayer centernetworks
Congrats to everybody on the team and the awesome Aviary community! We can't wait to see what awesome things you all will make!
With the recent Presidential election, the American public has shown that they're ready for change. President-elect, Barack Obama, had spent his entire campaign promising these so-called changes. I guess, in a sense, he was saying we are entering the beginning phase of America 2.0.
The first step in the re-building process would be to start the country fresh with a new logo. As a nation, how are we to attract new, prospective citizens with the current one?
First off, there are, like, a hundred stars, which just mucks up the entire design off the bat. And what's with the dark, dreary, colors? When was this thing designed? 1992?
And the sharp corners? Everyone knows rounded corners are a lot more inviting to click-through, and that's what we want from a passerby who happens to come across America.
What better way to start re-branding the country than with a fresh new logo?
The economical crisis facing the nation is probably due to design, as well. I mean, who would put any value on such a horribly designed piece of currency?
First of all, it's just busy as hell, with "1"s plastered on every square inch of the thing, and signatures of everyone and their grandmother scrawled across the bottom. And who in their right mind thought that seaweed green would be an appealing color of choice?
This just will not do.
So let's revamp the nation's currency to get this economy rolling again.
I can hear the economy growing already. With our economy back on the right track, we'll be able to focus back on the real issues.
And that is, re-shaping America.
Well, I propose we start the process with the squarest states, such as Colorado and Wyoming.
And simply re-shape them to suit the new America.
And the final step would be to transform all of the national landmarks to suit the new country's brand, as well.
The first to go would be the Hollywood sign.
And re-create it using the friendlier, softer, more popular "today" font, VAG Rounded.
I believe America is ready for change. Change is nothing to fear. After all, the country was built on change. It's as American as baseball.
Besides, a country can't be held accountable for it's actions and behavior. As long as we remain in beta.
================
Meowza Katz is the Artist in Residence and Chief Awesomelogist at Aviary, Inc. To read more of his discourses on comparative literature, leather tanning techniques and pre-Mayan civilizations, please subscribe to the Aviary blog RSS feed or email newsletter.
Aviary is a powerful suite of browser-based design tools. Want to be as awesome as Meowza? Head on over to the Aviary homepage to try the applications out for free and learn more!
Editor's note: We've been asked by so many of our fans for the story behind the birds. Why did we choose an avian theme? How did we choose which birds would make the cut? Why is it dangerous to walk under a flock of birds without an umbrella?
Staff investigator Meowza Katz presents the first in an ongoing investigation into the E! True Hollywood story behind the colorful cast of Aviary. We now present to you the first chapter in an ongoing series entitled, Behind the Nest.
This week's question comes from Vijay S., 14, Toronto, Canada. He asks:
"Do you think certain people are born natural artists? Or do you think anybody can draw awesomer with practice?"
Thank you for your question, Vijay.
Yes, it is a fascinating, ongoing debate among those with no lives. Just for you, I set out on my path to discover the true answer, whether or not "awesomer" is a learnable trait. Personally, I believe almost all of us are born with the inherent ability to draw.
From the early cave paintings to the hieroglyphs in Egypt, there is evidence showing that man has always had a fascination with creating. And as with anything, we have the need to perfect everything we do. So it only stands to reason that throughout the history of humankind, throughout generation to generation and culture to culture, we've spent our entire existence on Earth trying to discover the secrets of true beauty in art and form.
So what is it that makes certain art... awesomer than others? Does it have to do with composition? Aesthetics? Color? "Overlay" blend mode?
The correct answer is none of the above.
It's actually very simple. Think of it this way:
If you want to make food saltier, what do you add? Salt.
So, if you want to make a drawing awesomer, what do you add? You add awesome.
How to Draw Awesomer
I'm going to paint a portrait of a woman for my tutorial example.
Step 1. As with a lot of drawing tutorials, I start off my figure by drawing the basic skeleton for the woman. I draw in an oval shape for the head, with a line to indicate her spine drawn out from the woman's neck area. I then mark off where the shoulders will be, and include the woman's hands into the image. I now have my basic composition ready.
Step 2. The next step is to start fleshing out the figure. Using thin sausage shapes, I add in the woman's bicep and forearms. Then I start to outline around the figure, giving me the general shape of the woman.
Step 3. Fairly simple so far? I thought so. Now that we have the outline for the figure drawn, it was time to color the woman. I began painting over the woman using a skin tone, following my guidelines.
Here's the important part.
Step 4. This is the final step, the step where people often deviate. A lot of people choose to add crap to their image at this point. But I find you get a much nicer image if you decide to add awesome. And anyone can do it! Simply add awesome where there wasn't any. I went back to my partially colored example figure and proceeded to add awesome to the image. And after adding about a 67% dosage of awesome, I decided my image was complete. Feel free to add your own desired level of awesome. (Tip: The more awesome you add, the awesomer your image will become.)
There you have it, a simple way for anyone to make their art awesomer.
Had this secret been known earlier, the landscape of art may be completely different today.
For example, nobody knows why Picasso was heralded as an art genius. In this example by Picasso ("Tete de Femme of Dora Maar"), we can see many glaring flaws apparently not noticeable to the easily impressed art public of the 1930s.
Examples:
A) Picasso uses two completely different perspectives for the woman's eyes. (Human eyes don't do that. Feel free to check a mirror to confirm.)
B) Picasso lazily draws a figure eight for the woman's nasal cavities.
C) Apparently, this was supposed to be the woman's hand.
It's disheartening that such an amateur can be as successful in the art world as he was with his skills (or lack thereof). It's even more sad to realize that his weakness in drawing humans could have simply been remedied by adding more awesome where the awesome was lacking. If only I were around back then to teach him the ways.
Here's a rendition of the painting, had Picasso decided to add more awesome.
Picasso's original "Tete de Femme of Dora Maar" portrait was estimated worth 13-17 million dollars. To think how much more it could have been worth today for his estate had he decided to be a little more generous with the awesome during his time, boggles the mind.
Of course, we here at Aviary are on the ball when it comes to innovation, as an "Add Awesome" filter is already in the works for Aviary's image editor, Phoenix.
Here's a demonstration of the filter in action.
And there you have it, how to draw awesomer.
It's so simple it boggles the mind that the secret wasn't discovered earlier. To think that all the wasted generations of crappy art didn't have to be so. But no time to dwell on our losses now! Onward with your new found knowledge and spread awesome art throughout the world!
Meowza Katz is the Artist in Residence at Aviary, Inc, makers of the most awesomestest suite of design tools available in your browser. Before joining Aviary, he had no skill whatsoever and used to rent out his hands for second-graders to make Thanksgiving hand-turkeys. Then he discovered Aviary and became awesome. (It's all in the tools, baby.)
You can preorder his new tutorials book on Amazon.com and check out some of his more helpful Aviary tutorials online.
Have an art query or image you want to discuss? Feel free to drop him a line.
Hey folks, just a mini-update: As part of our pre-launch prep, we have just released a set of 42 tutorials for beginners and experts a like, explaining how to use Aviary to achieve certain effects.
Check out the full list here!
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Understanding Layers (beginners)
Read the tutorial
Converting Day into Night (expert)
Read the tutorial
Wrapping images around curves on a shirt (expert)
Read the tutorial
These were all written by our very own crazed feline, Meowza. He made them as cross-platform as possible. These can be used for Photoshop and GIMP without too much trouble, and even some other web-based editors. 
If you're an educator or teacher these are excellent (and free) to use for the purposes of sharing in your class to introduce students to different concepts in image editing. And of course the Phoenix editor itself is now available for your students to use.
They are sorted from beginner through expert, check out pages 2-3 for intermediate effects and 4-5 for some of the more advanced effects.
A lot more to come, including video tutorials and user submissions!
Well, it seems we weren't alone in watching the US Vice Presidential debates last week. I'm also sure we weren't alone in noticing the intense sexual chemistry between Joe "Six-Pack" Biden and Sarah "Nukeyoolar" Palin. We couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if their podiums had been any closer? We needed to find out.
Aviary tracked down world-famous DNA specialist Meowza Katz, currently enjoying retirement at an old age facility in Florida, and convinced him to get back in the game. We captured a live video feed of the horror that transpired...
View the sources and full layered file
Sources:
Meowza is so good, he was even able to generate a shot of Jarah Bilen, Soseph Paden's twin sister:
View the sources and full layered file
Sources:
Kudos to the awesome Ronald Jenkees for allowing us to use his new single Stay Crunchy. You can get the full MP3 tracks at his store.
An additional kudos to the awesome Mike Peutz, who made the snazzy video intro for us.
Standard disclaimer: For those of you new to this blog, this was not created in Photoshop. It was created in Aviary, a suite of online web applications. You can sign up for the current beta at http://a.viary.com. We're currently allowing a limited number of people to register (without needing to wait).
Sign up here!
The web enables us to listen to music, watch tv shows and follow the latest news all without paying a cent. But while things are slowly but surely becoming free, I still believe people are willing to pay for certain value propositions.
Image courtesy of laffy4k
I believe the following 5 things are uniquely profitable in a world of free:
1. Convenience
People are inherently lazy. If you make their lives easier, they will pay you for it.
There are several ways to listen or download music for free, yet people are still paying for songs via iTunes or amazon.com. Why? Because of how easy it is to find and download music on those sites. People value their time more than the 99 cents per download. If you make things convenient and easy people will pay.
2. Quality
Price ensures a more serious and interested clientele. There are many online forums that are free (i.e. Sitepoint, DPreview), but there are also a handful you need to pay for to access (i.e. Webmasterworld, SomethingAwful, metafilter). I believe the reason people are willing to pay for those online communities is because the quality of the content is better. There is a higher signal to noise ratio. This same premise applies to dating sites. People will pay for membership to online dating sites, as opposed to finding dates through any number of free social networks.
3. Additional Functionality
Many websites give consumers just enough services to whet their pallets, and then charge for more functionality or more services, also called the "freemium model." Notable examples include the 37 Signals' product offering, Flickr's Pro Account, and Skype.
4. Customization
Wordpress.com is a great example of this. They provide anyone the ability to have their own personal blog for free however they charge for the ability to customize the CSS or a the blogs domain name for additional fees. Smugmug is another example.
5. Privacy
People still value keeping their private information private. To protect their identity people are willing to pay GoDaddy an extra fee when registering a domain name to ensure the address remains undisclosed.
What do you value enough that you are willing to open your wallet for?
========
Note 1: I would like to delve into this further and have proposed a talk for next year's SXSW conference on this topic. If this discussion is of interest to you, I welcome any feedback and would appreciate your vote.
========
Kevin Kelly, Wired Magazine's cofounder, has a really great list of attributes he asserts are "better than free." These qualities people will pay for in a digital age and include:
1. Immediacy
2. Personalization
3. Interpretation
4. Authenticity
5. Accessibility
6. Embodiment
7. Patronage
8. Findability
I asked my twitter followers and received some interesting suggestions:
* accessibility
* silence
* beauty
* freedom
* peace of mind
* respect
* attention
Any other ideas?
Almost all of us have our own weaknesses when it comes to illustrating particular subjects. I, personally, can not draw a horse to save my life. I can't imagine a situation where the difference between my life and death depends on my ability to draw a horse, but still, it's haunted me for years.
I've talked about my lack of ability to draw horses to many of my artist friends and peers. To my surprise, many of them recounted me their own secret, shameful inabilities to draw all sorts of subjects including hands, proportions, machinery etc...
I then realized I was not alone in this. We all have our Achille's heel, and I wanted to help all of us.
So a while back, I asked users here to email me illustrations they just could not finish due to their own personal weaknesses, or to send me any illustrations for general critique on areas that could use improvement. So that maybe I could find a common thread in all of our inabilities.
And it dawned on me. All of our problems could be solved with one simple technique:
Practice? No.
How To Draw Anything in One Step
You may be asking, "How could you possibly learn how to draw anything and everything in just one step? Are you a moron?" And if you are, there is no need for childish name-calling. Let's be civilized adults here.
Follow along as I teach you how to draw everything, in this tutorial.
Step 1. Draw a dog covering the thing you can't draw.
Don't believe this works?
Remember how I asked users to send me their problem illustrations? Well, let's test it out firsthand, shall we?
Brandon Kobayashi from Burnaby, Canada sent me this email and his illustration of a woman sitting on a tree stump:
"I often find myself having difficulties drawing human feet. Do you have any tips on how to improve my ability (or lack thereof) in that department?"
Sure there is, Brandon. Just follow my tutorial and you will be set.
Step 1. When finding you can't draw feet, conveniently enough, a dog decided to rest at the woman's feet the day the portrait was painted.
Melanie Goode of Auburn, WA, wrote me asking for help on this particular image:
"I don't seem to have problems drawing bodies, but I am mystified when it comes to getting the proportions of a human face just right."
Well, Melanie, I see you're off to the conventional start by adding in the guidelines for the facial features. Most art instructors teach this very method. But I find it's a lot easier if you follow my tutorial.
Step 1. Pretend a dog ran across the woman's face the day she decided to lay in the grass.
At this point you're probably wondering, "Wow, this is great! But will this technique work in different illustrative styles, as well?" Why, thank you for the compliment! And yes, it will work in all illustration styles.
For example, Ken Tanaka from San Diego, CA sent me a cartoon image of a solider he wanted depicting an M-16 machine gun.
Step 1. I have never personally been interested in drawing weaponry, but even with my lack of experience I was able to use my own tutorial to complete the image of a soldier holding an M-16 machine gun. (Who just happened to be walking along the direct path of a leaping golden retriever.)
And people of all ages can do it, too.
Wendy Lee of (address undisclosed) sent me a drawing by her 6 year old son and told me how he loved to draw dinosaurs and wants to learn to draw them more realistically.
Well, first off, dinosaurs do not talk, smile, nor has there ever been (in any official documented report) a dinosaur that existed labeled a Kevinsaurus.
So how will my system work on a 6 year olds drawing? Very well, actually!
Step 1. As we can add multiple dogs to cover the child's numerous, major technical flaws.
So, there you have it: The be-all, end-all of illustration tutorials.
With my method, I guarantee you'll find yourself with a newfound ability to draw anything and everything you can imagine on this big, round Earth. Including the Earth.
Q: "What if my weakness IS drawing dogs?"
A: It's time to change hobbies.
Like just about everyone else I know, I'd been meaning to join a gym for quite some time. Until a few months ago I'd run the gamut of excuses: "I don't have enough time;" "I can't afford to join right now;" "I don't have enough energy after the long commute;" etc, etc...
Image courtesy of PhillipC
A few months ago, after complaining about how I never have the energy to do anything, friend of mine who had been going through a similar predicament told me that she had just joined a gym and was paying only $5 a month. Whaaa? $5 a month in the city? How can that be? Apparently her health insurance offered a gym reimbursement plan.
For every 6 month period, they'd reimburse her $200 if she attended a gym with cardiovascular equipment 50 times. (That comes out to slightly more than 2 times a week). "I can do that!" I thought, and off I went to determine if I too was entitled to such a reimbursement. Indeed I was, and after another 2 weeks of procrastination, I got off my lazy bum, waddled to the nearest gym and signed up on the spot.
Inspirational video courtesy of OK Go
For a while, the only motivation I had to keep going was the desire to burn off the pounds earned from 9 hours in front of a computer screen with only a 15 minute interruption in the middle of the day for a pizza break. That and the fact that if I wanted that $200 reimbursement, I'd have to earn it. After 2 weeks of this I noticed that the effort required to get off my couch and work out had lessened. In fact, if I missed a day, I'd start to feel antsy. For the first time in a long time, I had too much energy. That's when I realized that I had somehow formed a health "inducing" habit. Wierd.
You're probably wondering what this has to do with tech, or even productivity in general. Well, in short, nothing. Not directly anyway. Indirectly, it's done a heck of a lot. The simple act of injecting something new and productive into my daily schedule has a positive impact on my daily routine.
I now tend to look at new things in a more positive light. I overcame one adversity (laziness), and other life challenges seem more manageable because of it. When I go to the gym in the morning I find myself with a lot more energy earlier in the day. Instead of stumbling into work in the morning and staring blankly at my monitor for 20 minutes waiting for my brain to boot up, I spring into the office ready for action.
I know it's a common theme because people have been offering me similar advice all my life. I've only just set out on my path to an ordered existence, but clearly it's important enough to reiterate some of the tricks I've used to help keep me on track. More to come.
Editor's Note:Here are some helpful links for you to save money on gym memberships, depending on your insurance provider. Check with your specific provider for exact details on what you're entitled to:
- Oxford Health Plans Up to $200 off, every 6 months for attending a gym with cardiovascular 50 times. Spouses can receive $100 off.
- BlueCross BlueShield $20 off your bill, per month. This varies from state to state (this particular link was for Minnesota). You'll need to call the number on the back of your insurance card to find your local policy on reimbursements.
- Aetna (see page 23) They offer 30%-60% off discounts on some gym memberships.
- United Healthcare (see page 6) Save 10-60% on gym memberships.
- Tufts Save 20-60% on gym memberships.
- Cigna Up to 62% discounts on gym memberships.
- On a somewhat related note, if you are 55 or older, you may be eligible for a separate reimbursement program called Silver Sneakers. Check your state for eligible health plans.
< view newer posts | view older posts >
Try Out Aviary»
Aviary is a powerful suite of browser-based design tools for people who create. Head on over to the Aviary homepage to try the applications out and learn more. It's free to try our tools or sign up!
RSS
Email