"If I were a shoe maker, then this website would be my barefoot child..."
A new site is currently under construction, please check back soon. Meanwhile, I apologize for the slew of largely unfocused info below!
Monkey Wrench Graphicsis a one–person home–based business specializing in
digital imaging - located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I have over twenty-two years
of experience in the graphics industry, ranging from ink–stained printing press operator
to mouse–clicking digital photo editing specialist and a lot else in between.
Before striking out on my own, I most recently worked for a full service
advertising agency as a Photoshop specialist, network and computer
systems administrator, and all-around graphics solutions provider.
Why should you do business with Monkey Wrench?
Experience. Technical expertise. Outstanding attention to detail. In a nutshell, my job is to make my clients look great! Top all of that off with direct access. In other words, when you call you will be speaking
directly to the person who will be doing your work – not someone in the middle who will
only be relaying the information through "who knows how many" others!
What does Monkey Wrench do best?
Photoshop, first and foremost. Full throttle, industrial-strength,
immaculate, photo-realistic color and image editing.
I started working in Photoshop way back in version 2.0, about 15 or 16 years ago.
I’m a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and I’m proud to say that I have achieved Adobe Certified Expert status,
as well as Brainbench “Master” certification – in doing so I scored
above the 97th percentile amongst over 30,000 tests administered worldwide.
What can I say – I love working in Photoshop. It’s my bread and butter!
Below is a “before and after” sample of the level of work that I can do in Photoshop.
This one was a fun challenge!! The client chose this stock photo themselves, they loved the two
on the right as a "young couple" – which meant the guy on the left was a problem!!
Also they needed a portrait orientation instead of landscape, and wanted to bump up
the color in the background. I suggested keeping the background color enhancement
as subtle as possible to keep the light on subjects looking natural, and warmed up the image to impart more of a "sunny evening light" feeling. Final image: 10” x 11” @ 307 ppi.
Unfortunately, many of the best samples of my work can not be shown here, as
many clients - professional photographers or advertising agencies, for example -
simply do not want others to know how their images have been "adjusted"...
One of the hallmarks of my work is "transparency" - high quality, high resolution image edits that are undetectable. So you never really know where I've been! ;-)
Sometimes the edits are meant to be obvious! The image below was composited for
a client from two digital camera captures that I shot here at the home office - one was the
foam on top of one of my home-made lattes (just before I drank it!), the other was the (empty)
latte cup and spoon. The darker "globe view" continents were later composited into the foam.
I can deliver pro–quality digital photography as well – I own two digital SLR cameras,
a 12.8 Megapixel Canon 5D and an 8.2 Megapixel Canon 20D, along with lenses, strobes,
accessories and miscellaneous gear necessary for most commercial product and
portrait photography. I also produce specialized imaging such as ultra–high definition
360 degree panoramic images for print, or smaller quicktime VRmovies for
web publishing - either standalone or as part of a "virtual tour".
Quicktime VR panoramas are typically produced by shooting one or more series of images ("rows") with a still camera on a specially-designed tripod head, then carefully remapping the
perspective of the captured images and joining them together to form one "seamless" image.
There are lens/mirror systems available that allow the capture of cylindrical panoramas
in a single camera capture - while there are obvious benefits to such systems, they are also
greatly limited in resolution. To date, I employ only the system of shooting rows of captures
as it produces a much higher quality and higher resolution in the end.
( All movies on this page require the QuickTime plugin to view - available here )
Cubic QTVR – Spareparts
(Midtown Mall, Saskatoon, SK)
Note: this VR scene was intentionally tilted off of level to add an "edgy" feel....
If you are not familiar with the QuickTime VR format, here's a hint: "Click and drag"
on the image in the movie frame above to pan around, up, down - wherever you like.
You can use the buttons on the controller bar at the bottom to zoom in or out.
Quicktime VR panoramas are unbeatable for website "virtual tours"!
QTVR panoramas can be "cubic" or "spherical", which allow the viewer to view
360º horizontally and 180º vertically (such as in the sample above.) Thus in effect,
you may see every angle of the space from the perspective that the panorama was shot.
Cubics are the most complicated to produce, as typically they require the shooting of three rows of images plus one straight up and one straight down.
QTVR Panoramas can also be "cylindrical" which allow the viewer to see 360º
horizontally but allow only a limited view vertically. Typically only a single horizontal
row of images is shot for a cylindrical panorama. (see sample movies below.)
Cylindrical QTVR – Golden, BC (as seen from the summit of Mount Seven)
Single-row cylindrical QTVR panoramas are less expensive to produce mostly because
of the reduced post-processing time required with only stitching a single row of images.
They are suitable for use in situations where the floor and/or ceiling of a space are not
deemed "interesting" enough to include.
Flattened cylindrical QTVR panoramas can also be used as ultra high-definition "scenic"
panoramas for print - I can produce full 360º views (above) or partial views
(180º from a high-rise balcony, for example - see below.)
QuickTime VR Object movies - whereby objects can be controlled/spun by the
viewer (see below). These are commonly used on e-commerce sites, and can be used
to depict almost any product. They can also be seen occasionally on websites such as
eBay, where sellers are listing expensive collector's items and wish to give prospective
buyers as good a view of the item as possible. The object movie below has been set to auto rotate - but you canstop the rotation and take control yourself by clicking
on the phone and dragging to the left or right, similar to the QTVR panoramas above.
This sample was created from a series of images that I shot for a photorealistic
"spin" animation that was edited into a television commercial. The actual end result
was rendered into a looping movie sequence in which the phone spun 360º in one second.
Since it uses the same photography techniques I was able to use the same image sequence
to create a single row object movie, in which the object rotates in the X-axis only.
QTVR object movies can also be multi-row - which would allow viewers to rotate in the Y-axis
as well as the X-axis (sort of like an object movie version of a QTVR "cubic" panorama.)
The possibilities of QTVR imaging are nearly infinite!! Give me a call if you're interested
in any aspect of QTVR, and would like to discuss details and options.
I also do lots of fully customized interactive DVD authoring, plus video editing and motion graphics to help the authoring along. Below is a sample movie that
is again drastically reduced in size for this page - the original edit was done in
HDTV (high definition TV) format, as a rough "proof of concept" for a client.
Click the controller's "play" button to start.
Please e.mail or give me a call if you would like to see a sample DVD showcasing
the possibilities that are available in custom DVD authoring. What was the nearly
exclusive domain of Hollywood movie studios less than a decade ago, has now
become affordable even for many small business applications.
I’m a professional scanner operator, equipped with a prepress–quality Heidelberg
flatbed scanner, capable of producing stunningly sharp and colorful images.
And of course I can produce any sort of general digital desktop graphics for a wide
variety of media, from billboards to glossy press-printed product catalogs.
Providing solutions for your toughest imaging problems is my specialty.
Contact me today, and let Monkey Wrench be the cure for YOUR digital imaging headaches!! Thank you for visiting, and I hope to hear from you soon!
Contact info:
Allan Janzen, proprietor
e.mail: allan "at" monkeywrenchgraphics.com
vox: 306.229.2125
fax: 306.244.0537 ftp: available upon request
The majority of my clients’ project data is transferred to and from my location over
the internet, typically via ftp. If you're a new client, contact me directly for immediate setup
of your very own private, password secured ftp folder on my server.
Or if you prefer, I’m happy to handle the transfer of files
to and from YOUR established ftp service.
