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.

Layout Plan

Okay after much inspiration and thinking, I got a rough idea of what to do for my website layout. I'll use both characters Ace and Terry from Alone Scar, a project I worked on at uni and create some line work with them both. The magazine I brought goes into details on creating nice looking glowing lines in Photoshop and I could just have the background color black. This will the template layout plan including the header and footer elements. Hopefully this work out nicely and not turn into a messy blunder like my last attempts at making a professional looking template.

Also for inspirational purposes is this useful adobe site magazine:

 http://www.adobe.com/inspire.html

Website Update.

Okay so far I'm still constructing the website and getting the hang of it. Recently I purchased a web design for beginners magazine which is full of useful info. It contains information on CSS, HTML, tips on designing professional layouts and helpful tutorials. I consider this resource vital and will help me to pick up on the basics and how to code it all. Currently having issues with a drop down menu where the coding might be incorrect somewhere. In the design mode nothing comes up, so I'll be sure to seek some assistance at TAFE.

Project update.

Hi, long time no see. Currently I'm working in the design/construction phase of my website in Dreamweaver. These holidays have been a little difficult for progress due to work giving me a lot of hours so I might be slightly behind. I also had some confusion with MySQL thinking I needed it, but my friend told me it's not required considering my site is only for personal reasons like showcasing my digital media/animation work. These was a sigh of relief as I had no idea what my MySQL password was anymore. I do however have Apache functioning perfectly on my computer still so that's all fine and dandy.
Here's another concept for my site layout which isn't too bad, but I'm still feeling picky and will tweak it until I'm satisfied while constructing it.

Website Design Draft 2

Here is another website design draft for my project. I included some images which I used print screen to get from my animation showreel.

There's still a lot I want to refine mainly the layout and image positions. Seems a little bit cluttered so I might make the navigation images smaller.

Mood board

Here is my mood board which features all the inspirations for my personal website project. Each part of the board is from different personal animation websites that have inspired me in regards to my website design.

Draft Design and Inspiration

Here is a draft of the layout I'm considering for my Portfolio website. It will mostly likely change as I get more of an idea what I'm after. Technically my goal is to make a website aesthetically pleasing and not too complicated. I want to include images of my characters from the animations in the showreel.

Right now it does look pretty ugly but this is a first draft layout and will progress as I research more inspiration, idea's, references and create a mood board.

Anyway here are three inspirations I found during my searching which are animation portfolio websites.

Project Report Draft (in progress)

For a major project, the plan is to create a personal website to promote my work online for employment purposes. It will contain the necessary features for an animator selling themselves to any potential employer which includes: a CV, showreel video, various images of completed works, a resume and contact information. In regards to this various points must be outlined, the conceptual and technical ideas, the means of achieving this project to how it's envisioned, stakeholders or who will be involved, the standards and expectations I wish to accomplish both aesthetically and technically, how this project will be beneficial and the outcome of a finished project, a timeline to map out the progress and how long each task should take, resources needed to complete the project and risk management of what risks could occur and the solutions.

The concept I'm aiming for is a website not too overly distracting so meaning no audio. Could have a couple of animations or images in the background layout but that's if time allows it. Right now I need a website that doesn't subtract from the main goal. For the design purposes, I might consider Dreamweaver for this which I have some experience with. I wish to design my own layout and not rely on a template, so the best option is Dreamweaver but considering it has been a while since I used it, seeking out tutorials is a wise plan.
Technical ideas is to make a website not to over complicated and straight to the point. For building this site, I'll use WordPress along with Dreamweaver. WordPress has many widgets, plugins and features at my disposal.
 I have used this tool before during my studies in Animation and Visual Effects, but despite this I'm still lacking confidence in the Web Design area.
To achieve a personal website appropriate for viewing online and aesthetic quality, I'll need  to overcome this weakness in Web Design by researching various resources like tutorials and information that can expand on my skills and increase my confidence. Also will be collaborating with Susan and Gerard who are also working on Websites as a Major Project. We'll be bouncing idea's and information off of each other and there's also our teacher Liam who has experience in this area.
Stakeholders or people involved in this project would myself as the manager due to it being a personal website. As mentioned earlier, Susan and Gerard are involved as collaboration in regards to sharing of ideas and information, our teacher Liam specializes in web development so we can ask him for help.
The standards and expectations I want to achieve is a high quality website. I aim to develop a website with aesthetics and overall design that screams out animation and Digital Media. It has to reflect it to employers viewing it so a lot of thought will need to go into designing an appropriate layout. An idea could be to include a couple of characters from the showreel animations into the site layout.
The benefits are high in regards to employment purposes, as this personal website will allow me some online presence and not just restricted to sites like Facebook.
A Time line will be a graph outlining when parts of the projects process are to be completed . To accomplish this, I'll use Microsoft Excel to build a Gantt Chart which I researched a tutorial for.
The budget for this project is zero due to being a personal website and the vital resources required for completing the website is Dreamweaver for design aspects, WordPress for a variety of useful tools including widgets, plugins and other useful website based features. However there may come a time when I might have to purchase plugins needed to further enhance the quality of the website.
With developing a website, there will be risks involved. Any project can have issues that can slow down the progress which is why time needs to be set aside for this. A website can get errors which must be kept at zero as these can lead to a site loosing some functionality like a broken link to an image. Error checks are best left to when it's near completion so necessary trouble can be made before submission. It will also be wise to conduct more research into other risks that can occur in web development.

Therefore this project will be a challenge but will be worth it, as the benefits are great in achieving the goal of promoting my animation and Digital media work online. Not only this will be an ideal outcome as there is also gaining more skills and confidence in another area I've never been too familiar with.

Introduction

This is a blog about my project which will be a personal website. What I wish to achieve is a website promoting my work mainly animation via a showreel.
I was thinking of incorporating some interactivity like animations but this might be too distracting for people viewing it. Right now I'll focus on the layout, aesthetics and getting it up and running with no errors. First off will be planning it out and an appropriate progress chart via Microsoft Excel charts or Gantt charts.