I have recently installed BeOS on my computer and I am experimenting with the powerful graphics OS. Unfortunately, it does not yet support the network interface with which I share a cable modem so…. Windows wise, I have replaced the entire shell with a program called LiteStep, making my computer’s GUI very, very customizable. The rest of my time at my computer is spent playing Quake 3 Arena. I am also back to using ICQ regularly - check me @ 5489690.
After a complete lack of anything usefull to add recently, I find myself reopening these files to mention the recent addition of a cable modem to my apartment. This means a permanent IP and possibly (if I feel the need) a personal url. Known bugs in this page include: too much text, not enough content, no ‘come-back’ potential, and the occasional utter lack of compelling design. Compensation is on the way!
Server problems allowing me to only update existing files and not allowing me to create new ones has mysteriously gone away. The new artwork is now online and I am back to working on the content. A new favs page is in the works with images and sound. I am also planning to digitizing the demo tape of my band Curious Yellow and creating a page for it. Keep comin’ back!
Yesterday was portfolio review day for my admission to the Imaging and Digital Arts major at UMBC. I updated (read foobarred) this page by accidentally saving over it, downloading it from webjump and uploading the new version without removing the banner frame at the top. This caused the page to not load so UMBC got nothing. zip. nada. 404error. I’ll never forget the moment when a friend called and said “Hey man, what’s up with your site? It’s not working or something.”
I have been reading all the literature I can get my hands on concerning cascading style sheets and graphic web design to speed up page loading. The style sheet ref page has been revamped and a new logo is in the works which can be seen on the bottom of all the pages now. I am still in the process of tweaking it both compositionally and lowering download time. Stay tuned!
Over the course of the past few years, I have created some artwork related to the band that I am in, Curious Yellow. We got our name not from the classic film, but from Jeff Noon’s novel, Vurt. The graphics on this demo tape are adapted from the book cover of the story. Hence, this is not a distribution cover, it is something I made as a quick j-card for my personal copy.
This is a pattern that I have created in Photoshop and find visually stimulating. Here, the artwork is in more of an albumn cover format, named, again taking from Vurt “Dreamsnakes”. I enjoy creating things that give the illusion of depth without utilizing standard perspective, instead relying on layering and atmospheric type perspective.
My original intention with the creation of this site was that it be a forum for my computer graphics portfolio. Since that initial impulse, my ideas for the pages have progressed immensly and I’m already considering a complete revamp after less than a month online.
From the beginning I had only the most rudimentary knowledge of HTML coding so I started with wysiwyg editors like Symnatec’s Visual Page (shareware) and Microsoft Front Page Express (freeware). After delving deeper and deeper into web page building, I became disillusioned with these weak word processors and downloaded Hot Dog Pro 5 from Sausage Software (30-day trial version). I have been very impressed with this software and used it to work with all of the fonts, javascripts, and tricky HTML.
Credit must be given to Developer.com, Javascripts.com, and Sausage’s tips page, where I learned enough of the fancier codes to break away from a total cookie cutter design. These are great sites and everyone should check them out…
The graphics on this page are all original and were created/edited in a variety of programs. The purple cubes began life in 3DStudio and were then moved through Photoshop. Some images saw time in Paintshop Pro but for the most part, Adobe won the day…Conceptual assistance came from a long time friend of mine; Eric Leivo, who is a phenomenal artist. The main theme of the page revovles around that concept of rotated/lofted shapes producing 3d forms. This is something that has been in the back of my mind since my fist experience with the 2d lofter in 3dStudio R2.
Unfortunately, my PC has been innoperative for the past two weeks. With the hard drive failing and the system getting slower and slower with ever boot, I’m beginning to truly hate Windows. After I get solve my hard drive configuration error that crashes Norton Disk Doctor and Speeddisk (along with Microsoft’s comparable progs) I plan on partitioning the drive and installing Linux.
