Ballio Chan

Recent graphics experiments in January and February of 2019

Below are some recent graphics I’ve been playing with in recent months. Most of the work are still generated in Python with Drawbot. Some new techniques I’ve been experimenting with is generating SVG or PDF vector outputs with code, while importing those vectors into After Effects to further convert them to shape layers. I find it much more controllable and the possibilities are even more endless. Although now we’re dealing with time-based animations only, there’s less computation and code-based things we can do with AE. Although, there might be something I can do with the data and After Effects expressions in Javascript.

Also, I know Cinema 4D uses Python, so I’ve been starting to play with that in C4D as well to make some time-based animations — like this one experiment I did for WordPress.com:

Lines > Circle

Playing with a few rotated lines to create a circle. Mostly color studies here.

Something cool I discover is that the moire pattern in these graphics create a nice vibration when you scroll the page. This reminds me of the genius SONOS rebrand by Bruce Mau Design that uses computation pattern to visualize sound.

Rotated squares

Inspired by Bridget Riley’s works. I started experimenting with squares that are slightly rotated and tiled, which creating some weird optical illusion when moved.

2018 Chans

Made this piece as a cover for our 2018 family holiday card.

The idea here is making a piece of art with our last name 陳 (Chan) written out 2018 times.

2018 counts of the Chinese character 陳 (Chan) written out on a 1000x1000 grid

Circles experimentations

Back at it for more circles drawbot fun. Playing with just using a circular shape and looping it many times with different rotations.

My favorite of the night. The inner curves of this ones are sublime.

WordPress 5.0

In celebration of the new WordPress 5.0 release, I’m giving my site a new look! It’s using the latest and greatest Gutenberg-ready theme — Twenty Nineteen, designed by my talented Automattic co-workers and friends, Allan Cole and Kjell Reigstad.

Pretty sleek!

I am loving the flexibility of the block editor, and just how intuitive it is to see exactly what your post will look like. I’m still tweaking and playing with things, so more to come.

Another thing that I’m really excited about this WordPress 5.0 release is the release video! I had the pleasure to co-lead the creative direction on this video with my talented co-workers, Matias Ventura and Josepha Haden. We worked with the fine folks over at ThinkMojo to produce this video for us.

The result is an energetic, jazzy piece of animation that showcases the possibilities of our new block editor. Enjoy.