Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Watch Face Design Studio Showcases Detailed Photography Process
Wired earlier this morning posted an interview with Apple Human Interface Chief Alan Dye, in which Dye discusses a few lesser-known details of the Apple Watch, specifically giving Wired an inside look at the obsessive level of detail that went in to making each of the Watch's customizable faces.
An Apple designer works to capture a jellyfish for a photograph in Apple's design studio
During the interview, Dye elaborates on his team's enormous talent, but says what makes them work so well is that they "really care" about what they create. Echoing back to Steve Jobs' creative concern over every bit of minutiae within any one of Apple's products, Dye begins discussing the process of capturing a simple flower bloom for one of the Apple Watch faces.
A look at Apple's detailed process in photographing jellyfish, butterflies, and flowers for the Watch.
The Mickey Mouse face features a similar level of detail, with the popular mouse's feet tapping in exact rhythmic beat to a one second count. Dye claims that if one were to line up 100 Apple Watches with the Mickey face on, his foot would tap in perfect unison on each one. The astronomy faces are some of Dye's favorites, however, with the Apple chief noting how hard the team worked to perfect the Earth and Moon's daily orbits and cycles.
Check out the full Wired interview here.
During the interview, Dye elaborates on his team's enormous talent, but says what makes them work so well is that they "really care" about what they create. Echoing back to Steve Jobs' creative concern over every bit of minutiae within any one of Apple's products, Dye begins discussing the process of capturing a simple flower bloom for one of the Apple Watch faces.
Yet what Dye seems most fascinated by is one of the Apple Watch’s faces, called Motion, which you can set to show a flower blooming. Each time you raise your wrist, you’ll see a different color, a different flower. This is not CGI. It’s photography.The same goes for the jellyfish face, which was captured by the team after building a tank within the design studio and shooting a variety of different species at 300 frames-per-second with high-end Phantom cameras. The resulting 4096 x 2304 images were shrunk down to fit the Watch screen, Dye noting “when you look at the Motion face of the jellyfish, no reasonable person can see that level of detail. And yet to us it’s really important to get those details right.”
“We shot all this stuff,” Dye says, “the butterflies and the jellyfish and the flowers for the motion face, it’s all in-camera. And so the flowers were shot blooming over time. I think the longest one took us 285 hours, and over 24,000 shots.”
The Mickey Mouse face features a similar level of detail, with the popular mouse's feet tapping in exact rhythmic beat to a one second count. Dye claims that if one were to line up 100 Apple Watches with the Mickey face on, his foot would tap in perfect unison on each one. The astronomy faces are some of Dye's favorites, however, with the Apple chief noting how hard the team worked to perfect the Earth and Moon's daily orbits and cycles.
Dye points out the subtlety of this face. “When you tap on the Earth and fly over the moon: We worked really hard with our engineering team to make sure the path you take from your actual position on the Earth to where the moon is and seeing its phase, is true to the actual position of the Earth relative to the moon.”Wired interviewed both Dye and Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch earlier in April, with the two providing some behind-the-scenes knowledge on everything from the origins of the Apple Watch to the reasoning behind the look of the fitness-related medals.
Check out the full Wired interview here.
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Top Rated Comments
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58 months ago
Some aspects of the UI I absolutely hate - the confusing fitness milestone icons, ugly glossy emojis, creepy white hand, exploding hearts etc. Way too skeuomorphic and just plain ugly. Just my opinion, of course.
I think people are misunderstanding skeuomorphism, which is about real world features represented on a screen. Stitches in leather, shadows under watch hands, torn paper calendars etc.
3D emoticons and hands are not skeuomorphic.
Mind you, I totally agree, those emoticons are horrible and the worst thing about the Watch. I like the fitness rings though.
58 months ago
So, skeuomorphism is back?
:D
A photo or movie on a screen isn't skeuomorphic. I think they're nice and just show the attention to detail within the RandD of this Watch
58 months ago
I think playing around with the customizable watch faces is going to be the most fun part of the Watch. Especially once we start getting third party ones.
58 months ago
My take on Apple Watch solely based on what I've heard (for whatever it's worth):
So ambitious that it fails to be great at anything.
So ambitious that it fails to be great at anything.
58 months ago
I for one appreciate the level of detail that Apple does for their products. Some blows it off as a waste of time and effort. Thats fine, everybody is different. For me, I love it. The fit and finish of Apple hardware products is astonishing.
58 months ago
I'm always impressed with the level of detail Apple strives for. Whether I like the results or find it useful doesn't matter, it's the attention to minute details that always impresses me.
I generally love the results lol.
I generally love the results lol.
58 months ago
As impressed as I am by the level of detail strived for with the photography, this doesn't seem to be nearly as amazing:
The exact second? Is that feat even possible in a watch?
The Mickey Mouse face features a similar level of detail, with the popular mouse's feet tapping in exact rhythmic beat to a one second count.
The exact second? Is that feat even possible in a watch?
58 months ago
THIS is what makes Apple superior to it's rivals. This is what has made them the elite company they are.
It makes me very happy to know that Steve's attention to detail lives on and that he influenced so many others to strive for perfection.
This point is lost on a lot of people. Some of us appreciate it though and I'm glad Apple designers/engineers do it. It's one reason I purchase Apple products.
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From Apple's website "the second hand (or in Mickeys case, foot) of every Apple Watch across the world is in sync. "
He/she was being sarcastic... :rolleyes:
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