Guest starring: Kotoko the Kamikaze Sponge Ninja Assassin!

Doodling and drawing have always been one of best methods for me to maintain focus. Often I would use them as a brainstorming device – writing and drawing on paper while my mind either wanders around or tries to solve something.

Let’s Brainstorm (click to enlarge)

I drew this one back in 2003, just about time when I first met Cigdem. You can also see some Bici-Bee-like ladybug falling in love with a football.

Ah, the romance…

Many of my doodles are inspired by bits and pieces of conversations I had. This one was drawn sometime in 2003. If I recall correctly, it was spawned when picking a piece of music for a video.

Can you play that one again? (click to enlarge)

I am going to be away for the next 10 days, leaving the site relatively unattended. Thanks to the miracle of scheduled posts, however, there will be some fresh content coming out.

The Doodles&Noodles bonanza continues as every other day you will be presented with another sketch from my notebooks.

Additionally, be on a lookout for a very special four episode miniseries of Adventures of the Bici Bee featuring guest appearance by Kotoko the Kamikaze Sponge Ninja Assassin! Trust me, it’s big and you don’t wanna miss it!

If the fresh scheduled content is not enough, feel free to dig in the archives dating back all the way to 2002, check out the video tutorials, read some articles in brainstorm or post some comments around the site.

See you in 10 days!

Another one drawn during the seemingly endless department meetings at the university (back in 2003). I decided not to clean this up, since some parts of the doodle are related to the notebook markings.

Bilgi Meeting (click to enlarge)

Translations and explanations:

• Tarih: date
• Konu: subject
• Noktasindayim (not sure about my spelling): “I am on the point” – I am talking about this precise subject
• Ekhe-khe bi’ saka yapiyorum: Bad cough/laugh – I am joking (one of the staff kept on making really dumb jokes)
• Analiz ve Sentez: Analysis and synthesis (buzz words they liked to throw in)
• Toplanti: Meeting

In this After Effects tutorial I will show you how to create a cool underwater opening title sequence. Rather than using Trapcode Particular (which many of you may not have installed) or CC Particle World (which really could use an update to its coordinate system) the project fakes particle simulation through use of text animators.

This quite lengthy tutorial is derived from another Video Bits project I created a while ago. The original Alphabet Soup used Particular and wasn’t much more than an eye-candy. The new-and-improved one I present to you today can actually be used for something else than ambient displays :)

Let me also give the credit where it is due: The preview video uses an audio clip from Lech Janerka’s song entitled Absolulu. I have been listening to it all day long and I can still take more.

Running time: 66min
Difficulty: Medium (as long as you’re patient)
Required tools: After Effects

Preview video:

Alphabet Soup with Fake Text Particles Preview (click to play)

Tutorial:

Alphabet Soup with Fake Text Particles Tutorial (click to play)

Download the files associated with this tutorial below:

• Project File
  http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_HolOS_PassHack.zip
• Tutorial (182MB MP4)
  http://video.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_AlphabetSoup.mp4

If you happen to use this tutorial in your projects, let me know. I am curious about what the community comes up with!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Some people pray for rain, some pray for rainbows. Found this one in one of 2001 notebooks.

Prayer for Rainbow (click if you want, but it won’t get any bigger than this)

The character portrayed here is named Sycco and she originates from a series of short stories I wrote back in the 90’s. You will see more of her around.

Ah, the good old soft brush-tipped markers. I bought a set back in 2003 and drew this on the opening page of a brand new notebook. Unfortunately you won’t see many more of these as I used the markers on storyboards and never bothered to buy more.

And you would be?… (click to enlarge)

This was my favorite notebook to scan from – no lines to erase in Photoshop :) Just a quick levels adjustment and it’s ready for posting.

Password hacking is usually presented as a quite dull process in Hollywood visuals. It is even more dull in real life. In this tutorial I will show you my take on a HolOS password hacking interface – spicing it up with After Effects 2.5D crossword puzzle look.

The idea for this tutorial comes from one of the Video Bits projects published back in 2008: Crossword Hax. I think enough time has passed since I created that effect, so I decided to share it with the community.

Running time: 41min
Difficulty: Advanced
Required tools: After Effects
Optional tools: Trapcode Horizon

Preview video:

HolOS Password Hacking Preview (click to play)

Tutorial:

HolOS Password Hacking Tutorial (click to play)

Download the files associated with this tutorial below:

• Project File
  http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_HolOS_PassHack.zip
• Tutorial (138MB MP4)
  http://video.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_HolOS_PassHack.mp4

If you enjoyed this tutorial, have a look around the site. If you find something else you would like to see made into a tutorial, drop a comment and I’ll see what can be done.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.