Awesome Art & Design

Harow’s Apollo 11 table features an accurate scale model of part of the Moon’s surface. The craters were carved into fiberglass and then covered with resin. The table’s brass and aluminum alloy feet are based on the Lunar Module’s landing pads. Limited to 8 units.

(PG-13) Videogamedunkey talks about the video game industry’s never ending quest for beautiful, detailed, or realistic graphics. While it is mainly a visual medium, the quality of a game’s graphics – and all other aspects – should be second to the quality of its gameplay.

Yep, it’s from Japan. Yukai Engineering’s Qoobo is a simple robotic pillow that’s meant to provide the comfort of touching a pet animal. Its furry body vibrates when stroked enough times, and its tail will wag from time to time. This is what androids dream of.

We are intrigued by the rich hand drawn stylings of Jake Fried, and in his latest vid, created from ink, white-out and collage, we continue to marvel at the endless rapid transformations, quantum vacuums, and other life stuff. How does he do that?

Auto Fabrica’s Gaz and Bujar Muharremi are masters of elegant silhouettes – even at small scale. Made for Gaz’s son, the Type 0.1 has an old Franco Morini engine, a frame and wheels from 1970’s minibikes, and custom rear shocks, seat and exhaust. More on BikeEXIF.

Just Write compares the stories of Disney’s 2D films with 3D successors from Pixar and DreamWorks, then points out how 3D animation contributed to that change. We’re not entirely convinced of his thesis, but his comparison is food for thought.

(PG-13) The future of comic books. Written, illustrated and animated by André Bergs, Protanopia is a digital comic book set during World War II. Each panel is made of layers of animated 3D models. When you tilt your iOS device, the panels’ view adjusts accordingly.

Fans of American traditional tattoos and pop culture will love these awesomely illustrated prints inspired by everything from Taxi Driver to Totoro. LA artist Quyen Dinh of Parlor Tattoo Prints also offers designs on t-shirts and a limited-edition wall calendar.

Watch as artist Juliana LePine painstakingly sculpts an incredibly detailed clay sculpture of musician Freddie Mercury in one of his most iconic and victorious poses. We had no idea that sculptors started by building a skeleton before applying the skin and other details.

Maker Ivan Miranda shows off one of the cooler 3D printed objects we’ve seen – an oversize replica of one of those rotating rubber stamps, made possible thanks to pliable, rubberlike Fiberflex 40D filament. He neglected to mirror the letters, but it’s still a nifty build.

This electric motorcycle is only a proof of concept, but Honda is keen on using its Riding Assist technology on production models. The self-balancing hardware takes up only the bike’s front end. Honda hopes to first launch it on its touring motorcycles.

Just when you think you’re so clever, here comes Helsinki-based talent Lucas Zanotto. In his latest playful and creative offering, he’s playing around with the idea of eyes. We wonder if we’d be as sharp if we had more coffee.

Vietnamese shop Wood Marble Machine shows off one of their super cool kinetic toys, a modular machine which sends dozens of marbles rolling around in perpetuity. It looks like you can even order their machines, though we’re not sure if they ship internationally.

Jewelry designer Patrick Adair wanted to see if he could make a chess piece from a block of carbon fiber, so he set about carefully carving one on his lathe. Now we want a full set of pieces made from the stuff.

The Modulos desk consists of solid wood tiles that can be connected to each other using wooden pins and a screw. There are square and rounded tiles, as well as ones with added features such as a hole for cables or even a built-in USB port or wireless charger.

Neill Blomkamp’s Oats Studios picks up where last year’s ADAM left off – as a group of humanoids who find themselves freed from oppression, and searching for meaning after they meet two mysterious strangers. Like Chapter 1, it was created using the Unity engine.

Great Big Story introduces us to Butch Locsin, an LA artist who creates wonderful Day of the Dead-inspired skull masks and combines them with colorful smoke grenades to bring them to life. His Instagram feed is packed with wild photos of his work and collaborations.

We at TA are no stranger to Duane Keiser, and he is no stranger to making wonderfully entertaining animations of his paintings. His most recent playful piece involves the tweaking of a still life – with a white vase, of course.

Kelli Anderson’s This Book Is a Planetarium, features six usable pop-up constructions, including a tiny planetarium, a Spirograph-like drawing machine, a secret decoder ring, and an acoustic amplifier. Each object is accompanied by an explanation of the science behind it.

Paulo Raposo shows us how it doesn’t take a ton of time or money to make an entertaining short film – just a bit of creativity. He made this stop-motion animation in just a couple of days, using paper, pen, tape, and a little work to put it together in After Effects.

Like the Nanoleaf Aurora, LIFX’s new Tile is a set of flat LED tiles. Each tile emits up to 420 lumens and is dimmable down to 1%. Each tile also has 64 individual zones, which lets you program smooth animated color-changing effects. The set comes with five tiles.

Ocean-themed tables typically have a topographical design. But Eduard Locota’s Crete Table uses different colors of epoxy glass and a marble base to create an unbelievably realistic look. Customers have the option of choosing an island as the basis for the table.

Illustrators Josan Gonzalez and Laurie Greasley follow up their amazing The Raid poster with an equally chaotic print based on the hit FPS Overwatch. Officially licensed by Blizzard, the 36″x24″ Hanamura Showdown sees the game’s characters battling robots in a Japanese mall.