Update and Evaluation.

Recently I set up a Domain name and host from Digital Pacific. Coming up with a name took a bit of time and some research, but in the end I picked "Logical stream" as my Domain name. Now I'm waiting for everything to process through, then my site can go online.
I also went into each of my pages and did some tweaking with the div box tag which wasn't in the correct position. In fact in kept changing on me, so I made the box transparent and fixed up how far the box goes down the page. Hopefully this fixes the issues I had, with it moving around. 

Now for my overall evaluation of this project. In the beginning I started off with limited knowledge of web development especially CSS. This became apparent when working through a tutorial on building a drop down menu, where nothing appeared on the page. After gaining some more skills, I found out the problem was very easily fixed, as I only needed to close the style sheet code.
The program I've been using to construct my site is Adobe Dreamweaver. The things I enjoy about this program is being able to work with the code, which is a necessity in regards to this.

In the early stages I mainly focused on the design, which I had the most problems. I did however research other animation portfolios and made a mood board for inspiration purposes. This proved useful especially during the later stages where I still wasn't satisfied with a design layout. I managed to overcome this thanks to my friend, James from animation who is currently studying Web Development. He pointed out many issues I needed to fix, which resulted in going back a few steps. I redid the earlier layout draft to how it should be and made a design layout I was slightly more comfortable with. I believe I still need more refining and will continue doing so as I gain more skills.
James also gave me some information on CSS, that was done wonders for me with  constructing my site.

The design itself mainly focuses on one of my favorite projects, "A Lone Scar". This project is about cats and I decided to incorporate one of the concept images into the main design layout. I've noticed a few other portfolio sites also feature a character or two in the main design.

The pages of my website contain the following:
Index: This is the home page, where a link above the footer navigates you back to.
About: Personal information about myself including o my past education at CSU studying animation.
Contact: My main email address is only featured on here.
Show reel: This is complete and contains my show reel made in Felicity's classes as part of our final assessment.
Gallery: This is still under construction but does feature some images.

Now the reason why my navigation bar has extra space is for the additional pages coming soon. This will include a game development page, 2D animation and 3D animation page. This will include a lot of in progress work and some of my animation projects. One thing I discovered from a tut is how to export out a clip for web which would be a flash file, which Dream weaver does accept.

Overall I enjoyed this project the more it progressed, especially when I started focusing on the coding during the site construction. Unfortunately I did lose some time during the break where I had a lot of work and less time to focus on my studies. I did overcome this time issue and kept working on getting a site up and running. I do regret not having to online by now but I can still demonstrate the progress and website pages.
Very soon it will be online and now it's just a waiting game, but in the mean time I can tweak and refine what have so far.

This site does have issues still in regards to the box div. This is a current issue and something that needs to be fixed soon, before it goes live. The last thing I want is for the contents to be all over the place when someone clicks on each page. At first I thought it was the position being set to absolute but when I changed it to fixed, the box went all over the place. Now I'm staying on absolute but will do some more research for solutions on google.

I can now say that thanks to this project, I enjoy web development a whole lot more and have made some progress since my days at university. 

Progress update.

Okay at present I haven't progressed much due to work experience which I've now completed. My pages are nearly there, just have fix up the div tag which is the box containing the contents for each page. Then I'll sort out everything I need to do with Digital Pacific in regards to a domain name and hosting it. Also need to do some testing following this is I have time before next Monday.
What I've gained from this project is more of an understanding and appreciation for web development which I never had at uni. Overall I actually have been enjoying this project and can now focus all my attention to it.

Also some time ago I did some tests on creating a personal logo for this site. I've got mixed feelings on it as I'm not entirely it has good design.

I probably won't use it but if so, I do some more refining which is probably the likely outcome.

Website progress

Okay now I have finished constructing the website pages which includes following:

• Index
• About
• Contact
• Showreel
• Gallery

 I can go back and refine them later on but more importantly, next is actually getting this site up and running online. Unfortunately I'm slightly clueless on this matter but I do know to use the web host Digital Pacific. This was recommended to me by James, so I know it's a trustworthy site get my domain from. I have also found a tutorial here: http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/dreamweaver-cs4-tutorial-1.shtml

Hopefully this will point me in the right direction, if not then I'll have no choice but to present what I have done so far which will just be the pages in Dreamweaver. I'm hoping this won't happen as I do want a site up and running by Wednesday.
Also on a brighter note, I worked out what went wrong with the drop down menu I attempted a while back. I simply didn't close the style sheet code, which had caused it to affect the rest of the code. Now it's working as it should and shows up in the design.

Web design re-done draft and design.

Okay not long ago I got awesome feedback and help from my good friend James. He was one of my animation classmates and is now studying web design at TAFE. In regards to this project, James has helped me out immensely and now I'm at a good stage in my website's construction. I was at one stage very concerned at it's progress but now that I've gone back and re-done earlier steps properly, it's now looking good. I have also gotten a better understanding of CSS and coding a website, which I actually enjoy more than actually designing the site itself.

It's not the best thing out there, in fact it really needs some refining if I've got time but right now I've gotta get my pages constructed and this site up and running before the Wednesday due date.

Web design tutorial attempt.

Some time ago, I attempted a tutorial on creating a web page layout. The tutorial design itself didn't look too bad, however my attempt was less than pleasing.

This is only for tutorial purposes and is not my actual design I'll be using. The tutorial came from the Web design for beginners magazine, which is full of useful information and tips on web design. It has helped me out immensely over the past few weeks and will continue to do so in the future.

Dreamweaver CSS Drop down menu

Currently I've been researching on doing a drop down menu for my website. Reason why I wish to use this feature is because it makes navigation user friendly and I've noticed it a lot on animation portfolio websites. Some have even gone further and made extremely personalised like these sites for example:

http://www.tughan.com/animations.htm

http://www.jessejaymesjones.com/

I have attempted it earlier by following the tutorial in the web design for beginners magazine. Unfortunately it seemed to skip over some points and after completing it, nothing showed up on the page so it didn't work.
Now I've found a reliable tutorial to get me started in the right direction. Then once I've completed it, I'll work towards making it more personalised.

 http://dreamweavertutorial.co.uk/dreamweaver/articles/css-dropdown-menu-dreamweaver.htm

As the progress for this project is behind and the submission date drawing closer, I'll need to cut down the actual content. I'll include my information and my showreel which is now complete and ready to go.

Layout Design update

My layout has been complete to a point where I'm satisfied enough to use it. Due to lack of inspiration and lacking graphic design skills, it wasn't so easy but thanks yo the tutorial from the Web Design for Beginners magazine, I got something done at least. Now it's back to constructing the website in Dreamweaver which I had started sometime ago. In order to get this project complete in time, I'll have cut down on the number of pages I had planned originally. I now plan to do a index page, information page containing about myself, contact information, a showreel displaying my best works from animation and a Interactive Digital Media showreel. Might also add in a page for my sketches too. That's the current plan and later on I'll keep it updated with more works.