iNNOVATION: Poland artist draws on his creativity

Poland artist draws on his creativity

By RICK ROUAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Seen Bigfoot? How about the Loch Ness monster? Had a close encounter with an alien or a leprechaun, but just couldn’t convey how they looked?

There’s an app for that.

Tom Antonishak, a Poland-based artist, began creating applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch by designing a program to create composite sketches of the mythical creatures.

“It was a little bit of a fluke,” Antonishak said. “I was being really practical, looking for something functional rather than fun.”

The idea to create an application came from Antonishak’s daughter, who challenged her father to try. But spinning-art and wine-tasting applications already had been developed. Finally, an idea crystalized for Antonishak.

“People who claim they’ve seen Bigfoot ... should be able to identify what they saw,” he said.

In the banner to Antonishak’s Web site is a cartoon of the artist painting Bigfoot, who is sitting on a stump. Antonishak dug up old sketches and set out to create an application that would allow the user to choose characteristics of the beast and see a sketch in the end.

The graphics were easy to devise for the longtime artist, but he encountered problems with programming the application. Applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch are coded in C++, a complicated programming language used to write operating systems.

Antonishak is an artist, not a programmer. His house and basement studio are decorated with paintings and sculptures he has completed over the years. In one corner stands an easel with a partially finished Christmas card he is designing. But in another area of his studio is an Apple computer with two screens where Antonishak spent hours each night learning how to create an application.

“Doing the programming is what held me up,” he said. “This was way out of my realm.”

For about 40 days, beginning in March, Atonishak said he found himself in front of the computer until 3 a.m., toying with the software he downloaded from Apple and following tutorials online.

“Everything was very helpful, but there was just so much of it,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I wanted to give up.”

Antonishak said he wanted to have a million different combinations, but the limitations of the screen size forced him to reduce the number. As he was on the verge of looking for a programmer to write his application, Antonishak discovered an online tutorial from a 14-year-old who had been programming for about a year.

“That age group would seem to be the type that grasp the concept a lot easier,” he said.

The rest, for Antonishak, is history. He spent his first 40 days learning how to create an application and the final 40 days actually writing the program and plugging in graphics. Instead of selecting characteristics and seeing the final sketch in the end, users can grab physical attributes and drag them onto a blank face.

The Bigfoot CS application launched May 18 with an alien and Loch Ness monster application as well. In June, Antonishak released a similar application with a leprechaun. The applications sell for 99 cents each on the iTunes store or through his Web site, www.antonishak.com.

“I started out being practical, but it seems like the strangest [applications] really capture the market,” Antonishak said. “The one I’m doing now is a little more functional.”

Antonishak is developing an application that will calculate the ultraviolet index wherever a person is. The user will answer questions about his or her surroundings, and the application will calculate the UV index and tell how long a person can stay safely in the sun.

Web services such as Antonishak’s application exist, but he wants to aggregate them into one risk calculator. He is working with his Washington D.C.-based brother to get the backing and help of skin-cancer awareness groups. The brothers hope to launch the application by the end of the year.

“You can have one of the best ideas, but you still have to make it functional,” he said.

Over the years, Antonishak has had his hand in several different art ventures. He has done commercial art for puzzles and T-shirts. He has painted murals and molded statues cast in bronze. He teaches art classes in his basement studio. In 1980, he began his business, The Art Department.

But in the downturn economy, Antonishak said that some of the commercial art and commissioned work he once did is drying up and that projects such as the iPhone and iPod Touch applications are just his next move.

“You have to constantly change,” he said. “You have to adapt.”

rrouan@vindy.com