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I love fireworks, especially the big colorful ones. The effect of watching these large displays from a distance has always fascinated me. When up close, the explosions seem to go slower than when seen from far away. I'm not sure which I prefer, they are just different experiences. The idea for "Bug Works" came from some bug stars that I created for our clipart site. I started with the existing graphic and then moved the bugs into the center and outwards to dissolve. The final effect was so neat that instead of just making 3 as I had intended, I made 6. The cityscape below started as a clipart line but I embellished it to make it more interesting. The separate animations are positioned using a table. Each image has a different number of frames and different timings so that they appear more random. In spite of the incongruous light background, I think the effect is rather good.
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I think the creative fount dried up after my last effort so the next graphic is pretty simple. "Lime Bugs" started as a freeware font by Jeffrey N. Levine. Using Ulead Photo Express, I simply used several of the "letters," added 3D and shadow effects, and mirrored the images. The colors and texture matched the letters of the heading.
The letters of the heading for the following issue were a brilliant gold and I wanted an equally bright image to match, hence "Rainbow Cat at Sunset." The caterpillar was hand drawn (after the larva of the Gulf fritillary butterfly) and scanned in. Colors for the background sunset were added in Microsoft Word, while the rainbow on the bug was created in paint, then blurred in MS Photo Editor. For such a simple result, I often use an embarrassing number of different programs. At least it doesn't take very long.
The title came first on the next image. "Bug Bomb" is a composite of two different existing clipart images. The ladybug bomb began at the full size and I just reduced it over and over in MS Paint. Creating the trajectory was easy in a single graphic, that was then split up into separate frames. The final explosion was part of another animation.
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Whenever the Halloween edition of our newsletter rolls around, I enjoy giving vent to my delight in darker humor. "Into the Light" was conceived from an insect's viewpoint, as it heads into the mesmerizing blue light of an electric bug zapper, with pathetically predictable results. This idea actually came from a handheld bug zapper that we love to use on mosquitoes. The entire animation was drawn in Microsoft Paint. I liked the title so much that I included it right under the image.
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The color scheme for our November issue was purple, hence the unusual hue of the cicada larva in the next animation. This one was pretty simple. It used an existing tiny clipart bug and I moved its legs to imitate the staggering gait of the real creature. The title, "Persistence," is ambiguous; it can either refer to the animal or to the viewer who watches and waits for something more interesting to happen.
The idea for "Snow Worm" came to me long before I figured out how to realize it. The first problem was how to create a basically white graphic and make it show up on the white background of our newsletter. Then next was how to make it 3D. I solved the first by adding a background. The snowflakes are a serendipitous addition found in the options of my Ulead Photo Express program. A simple border gives the necessary frame. The 3D snowballs were created with Z Paint, a limited, but very useful little freeware program. It took a bit of practice to place them just right, but the final effect was just what I wanted. The facial features were added the same way. In one version of this graphic, I made the background move, but that created a file that was too large for practical web application.
Once again, I came up with the name first, then had to figure out the execution. "Queen of Hearts" seemed like such a good Valentine's illustration that I was quite happy when I found an old engraving of a termite queen that would work. The hearts matched those used with the heading of that issue. Not sure how to combine the images I wanted, I resorted to finally trying to use the layers feature in Photoshop Elements (a program I'd received several months ago). This program is less intuitive and more complicated than the other graphics applications that I usually use, so I had to refer to the Help files a couple of times. Once I got the hang of it, the ease with which I could manipulate the various aspects of the layers made it worthwhile.
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Time for another animation. We'd had a lot of rain, and the shape of a beetle comes close to a raindrop. It wasn't much of a stretch to imagine "Bug Drops" but implementing the idea took me awhile. This is actually a single graphic shown twice, side by side. The whole thing was done using Microsoft Paint.
I'd just gotten back from an extended camping trip in southern Florida so beaches were on my mind. Insects are often found on the beach, usually having been blown there, or washed up; it is not a friendly environment for small non-aquatic creatures. Most of the elements of "Beach Bug" were found in various clip art collections, but the wave was hand drawn in MS Paint.
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