LittleLion Studio » Getting Nerdy

Quick Tips # 2 – Changing a Pattern’s Background Color

LittleLion — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:32:21 +0000

There are several ways to adapt a pattern to the project you’re working on. One of the most hassle free options would be a simple background color change.

Easy as it may sound though (and it really is!), there are a few steps to follow to make sure you get the desired result.

If in doubt, check this video and start coloring your backgrounds away!

Quick Tips #1 – Adjusting a Pattern’s Size and Repeats for Final Printing

LittleLion — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:00:55 +0000

Ever so often I do receive requests from clients with varying levels of expertise in editing vector graphics asking me how to accomplish some simple but key changes before they can apply my designs in their projects. With this crowd in mind and taking to the heart the maxim that "a picture is worth a thousand words", I decided to experiment and see where 20 pictures per second would get me. ;-)

In other words, welcome to the first installment in a series of Quick Tips videos by LittleLion Studio!

The videos won’t follow a strict rule, just the general idea that I might be able to contribute a few tips here and there regarding techie stuff.

Without further ado, please feel free to watch the video on how to adjust a pattern’s size and repeats for final printing.

This video should be particularly interesting to those looking to print wide format jobs such as wallpaper, textile, canvas, posters and similar items.

If the resolution is too low for your taste and bandwidth, make sure to click/select "720" and watch the HD version in full screen mode.

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions for future videos.

Silence Is Golden

LittleLion — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:08:06 +0000

Silence is golden. Really! When working from home, one must learn to make do with the resources available at hand, unless of course, the will and the wallet are high and deep, respectively. My very own challenge was reaching silence nirvana but happily, solution was just an "adventure" away… [↓]

The problem came from the fact that my use of computers demanded a workstation as opposed to a regular desktop and those are designed for enterprise environment, not your regular run of the mill home. That generally translates into a freezing cold room jammed with servers, workstations and render horses piled up in racks operating in deafening levels, but that is alright since the users are comfortably sitting in their cubicles, in pleasant room temperature and not a sound but the background music (ideally…). Anyway, that was not case. My workstation sits right next to my desk used to carry 10 (as in 1, 2, 3, TEN!) small and medium sized fans.[↑→]

Obviously, the smaller the fan, the faster its must run to generate a decent amount of air cooling and the faster it runs, the louder it gets. Each fan was spec’ed at approximately 35 dB. Let me break it down to you: it was like working next to a hover throttling up and down driving me nuts! Some serious and swift measure was called for.

I have always custom built my own computers and those of my family and friends, but even with a couple hundred builds on my back, liquid cooling was a mystery to me. To make matters worse, most liquid cooling systems these days are geared towards desktop computers used for gaming, not workstations, so many adapters would be needed to cool [↓]

but it is definitely worth the research and moderately painful implementation, but if I did it, so can you! After all is said and done, you will feel proud of yourself besides, as they say, “if you’ve done, it ain’t braggin’” ;-)

off my two-die-eight-core machine. So, to make a long story short, after a thorough online research and one entire day of putting pieces apart and back together I ended up with a computer with 7 fans, which initially might sound like not much has changed, but that is far from the truth! From those, 5 reside inside the case cooling components such as hard drives, memory and the motherboard’s south bridge while 2 others are outside, cooling the radiator. All seven are big and spec’ed at 8 dB, which together sound like a whisper. Both CPU dies and the GPU are now liquid cooled.

The end result is this machine whose power led I must check every so often so I can tell if it’s on or off, that’s how good it is! If you suffer from the problem I used to, don’t think twice! Taking the leap to liquid cooling can be tricky [↑→]