Magento Devlopment

I’m currently working with a good friend on a Magento extension, which has thrown me into the deep end of the code. As everyone else has said about Magento, the learning curve is very steep, but after it starts to make sense, the software is incredible to work with. After we’ve launched the new venture, I’ll take some time and post a few Magento tutorials – there can never be too many!

Lip Service Kommandante Kyla

Meagan takes her duty to fashion seriously.

Another set of images for a Lip Service Webzine article! It seems they like our work enough to create a regular feature, Lethal Style – penned by Vanity Kills and photographed by yours truly and a few others, depending on the circumstances. It’s quite entertaining to put these shoots together, driving around randomly in search of nifty locations. We ended up at Buffalo Central Terminal for this one, as our first choice didn’t work out. Bea and Meagan are a blast to work with, too!

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Lip Service Fetish Aristocracy

Bea, left, and Meagan.

Bea lounging on the lawn.

This set is from a photo shoot for a Lip Service webzine article. I first met Bea at the Auxiliary Magazine release party, where there was a Lip Service fashion show. We took some closeups for a makeup tutorial, and then went for a drive to find a good location for the fashion shots. The first stop was at the waterfront, which would have looked much better around sunset. Plus, it was too windy, and the models were too squinty in the bright sunlight. We ended up heading to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens, which offered quite a nice compliment to the mood of the clothing. Thanks to the direct sun (ick), I used a good bit of fill-flash, and it was a challenge to balance the light levels and contrast. There are a few images that I’m very happy with, shown above, and a bunch of other good ones which you can see after the jump, below.

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Isoscelation and Friends

Fresh from the studio I bring you three twisted ambient soundscapes for a dark film.

Nine and a half minutes of psychotic ambient soundscape, crafted with a ghoul’s hammer in the forges of hell – or, at least, crafted by my hands with vintage synthesizers. Richard D. James would approve, I hope, and his fans will appreciate this subtly disturbing trip through a quiet alien landscape. It will make a fine backdrop to broken imagery. Please note: a subwoofer or good headphones are required to listen – it’s 90% sub-bass and you won’t hear much at all on, say, laptop speakers. This track is entitled “Isoscelation”.

[audio:aaronkondziela.com - isoscelation.mp3]

When you are exploring forbidden ruins on another plane, you cannot expect anything other than bizarre and terrifying bumps in the night. From the other room that you thought you saw, maybe just down the hall, beyond something that shouldn’t be there, it moves. Pray it didn’t smell you. This track is entitled “Mechanical Chair”.

[audio:aaronkondziela.com - mechanical chair.mp3]

You are the only one left. You did not escape unscathed. You left your friends behind, and hope for nothing more to forget them forever. Something has to play at your funeral. This track is entitled “A Long Sleep”.

[audio:aaronkondziela.com - a long sleep.mp3]

No, there is no sanity.

Cleric and Fable: Teeth of Beasts on Fangoria

Seregon O’Dassey intereviewed with Fangoria, and there’s a nice little writeup with some photos and video on the fangoria.com website. I worked on Fable: Teeth of Beasts last year, as the electrician and one of the still photographers, among other things. My buddy Rusty is doing the visual effects for Fable, and it should be fantastic from what I’ve seen so far!

Cleric Movie Poster #1

I have put together a promotional poster for the upcoming film Cleric. We wanted a soviet constructivist design aesthetic for the text, so instead of using a canned font I drew the CLERIC logotype custom for this project. Call it retro-futuristic avant garde soviet constructivism with a dose of unsettling lines to echo the film’s string-theory timeline warpage. Yeah, that doesn’t make any damn sense to me, either. The rest of the film will have even more references to the soviet-esque aesthetic subtly scattered throughout. I have plans for a few other posters in other styles, some leaning towards graphic novel, others towards illustrated propaganda poster. We’ll see how much time I can take to make them, being completely swamped in post-production hell right now. Visual effects take a loooong time to do right!