Graphics

My entry in the nationwide Final Shuttle Flight Graphic Sweepstakes. Click here to download a PDF of the graphic.

A graphic that takes apart the once cancelled, but seemingly now revived Orion spacecraft, which originally was intended to replace the Space Shuttle and eventually carry astronauts back to the Moon. Modeled from NASA drawings in Lightwave 9.

Full-page graphic explaining the difficult — though ultimately successful — process of reconstructing gunshot victim Johanna Orosco's face. Part of The Plain Dealer's Oct., 2007 "Johanna: Facing Forward" package, this graphic was awarded a Silver medal by the Society for News Design and was named Best Informational Graphic of 2007 by the Associated Press of Ohio. To download and read it in PDF form, click here.

An opinion piece explaining my views of why we went to the Moon in the first place, and the very similar reasons we had found to launch a program to return there. Download and read a PDF of the graphic by clicking here.

It was a wrenching experience researching this doubletruck explainer of the terrible Collinwood School fire that claimed 175 lives on March 4, 1908. The survivors' and their descendents' stories were so absorbing I almost felt as though I'd witnessed it. You can download and read the graphic by clicking here.

I traveled to Wichita, KS to crawl through the guts of "Doc," a Boeing B-29 Superfortress being restored to flight condition. It's one thing to read history in books. It's quite another to actually hold it in your hands. You can download a PDF of this graphic and read this bomber's amazing story by clicking here.

This graphic on Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital's abortive 2007 attempt to separate the conjoined Dogaru twins began with careful visual reporting so I could accurately model the twins' strange double skull, as well as the operating theater.

Crawled through every inch of this 80-year-old Cleveland landmark, from the ancient sub-basement to the base of the flagpole at the tip. Once again: holding history in my hands. This was named Best Informational Graphic of 2009 by both the Associated Press of Ohio and the Cleveland Press Club. Download and read it in PDF form by clicking here.

There's no better source of breaking-news medical graphics than the Sports desk when an athlete gets injured. This was a daily. Lightwave 9, Adobe Illustrator.

An opinion piece about Cleveland's surprisingly excellent water. This was just named Best Information Graphic of 2010 by the Associated Press of Ohio. You can download and read it in PDF form by clicking here.

A full-page graphic detailing the United States' planned invasion of mainland Japan — an invasion made unnecessary when two atomic bombings convinced the Japanese to surrender. This was named Best Informational Graphic of 2005 by the Associated Press of Ohio. Download and read it in PDF form by clicking here.

Ultimate breaking-news opportunity: this tragedy transpired literally up the street. Building plans were on file with the city, and it took about 20 phone calls to make sure I got my hands on them before TV did. Reporter Gabe Baird got a police officer eyewitness to walk us through the events, and we made the wires for first edition.

Still one of my favorite Cleveland graphics. Again, I crawled all over this downtown Cleveland landmark, from the Civil War-era sub-basement to the upper floors of surrounding buildings to uncover the structure's hidden details. This was named Best Informational Graphic of 2003 by the Associated Press of Ohio. Download and read it in PDF form by clicking here.

A replica of the famous vessel came to Cleveland's Tall Ships festival, and we offered this downloadable closeup. Modeled in Lightwave 9, text free-associated off the top of my head by me. You can download it yourself by clicking here.

This building is complicated. Complicated to look at, complicated to tour. But I never fully realized how complicated it was until I tried to model it in Lightwave.

Yes, the proper art for this would have been photos, but we'd used the photos to death. So I grabbed the opportunity to do some Trek 3d modeling. (And writing.)

One of our reporters was about to take a demonstration flight with the Air Force Thunderbirds. I knew how to explain the experience, because I've flown with them too.

One of my first 3d experiments. I knew I could achieve a convincing plastic look if I fired up Strata3d. I tried to adopt a different writing style for Sports graphics — edgier, funnier.

One entry in "Centennial of Powered Flight" graphic series I created in collaboration with colleague Stephen Beard. We broke down aviation history into manageable chapters, divvied them up, then researched, wrote and rendered our own segments. This series won us a Malofiej Bronze Medal in 2004.

An example of the kind of collaborative work I've produced over the years with The Plain Dealer's great science writer, John Mangels.

Demonstrating the always-durable "airline safety card" illustration style. I love it.

The two challenges here were a) to somehow make some sense of figure skating's utterly insane scoring "system," and b) to avoid making my Poser figures look like the usual row of cheesy digital mannequins. Careful, realistic posing is the key to <b>. There is no good answer to <a>. Though I'm told the figure skating association liked it.

A piece of the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage of the proposed change to the Mississippi state flag. A section, Jan., 2001.

The full-res version is here.

My dissection of John Glenn's historic flight aboard Friendship 7. Based on many hours of research, a two-hour interview with Glenn himself, and a lifetime of plastic model building. Click here for a zoomable version. Click here to download the full-res jpeg.

Sunday 1a graphic, May 21 2013.

The Plain Dealer's first-ever use of the Hellerick Triaxial Boreal World Map Projection!

A look inside the F-22 Raptor.

Doubletruck takeout on the new Goodyear blimp, which actually is not a blimp at all. This graphic was named Best Information Graphic of 2014 by the Associated Press Society of Ohio.

My edit of original copy by the Las Vegas Sun's Pashtana Usufzy.

This appears to have been the final PDIY. So Rudis, the PDIY Handyman, gets his walking papers ... But I'm still going to say that we had ourselves a fairly decent run with the PDIY project. It was interesting and fun to do, there were times when it genuinely helped folks, and it generated a fair amount of reader engagement.

Warthog enthusiasts, rest assured: The F-35 won't be replacing them anytime soon.

Freelance assignment for the Boston Globe, March 2015. This was the print component; see the video animation here.

The renovated Progressive Field. April 10, 2015

A one-man multimedia production: I pitched, researched, wrote and rendered the graphic (which paired with a well-timed George Will column), modeled and animated the Lusitania and the U-20, and wrote, narrated and produced the accompanying 60-Second Know-It-All video. Lightwave, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Flash, AfterEffects, Final Cut, Premiere Pro.