Re: OT- building a lightwave website

Hi Farmer

to continue...I think the problem you're having is that you arent talking
directly to people who use HTML, flash,dreamweaver,inDesign etc everyday.
personally i have the 'luxury' of working with programmers with what i do (i
do everything from web-design to 3d/film/all that stuff) the best thing ive
found (starting off in playstation game design) is working WITH programmers.
They make stuff happen. They're extrememly creative people, but with a
different slant. They're like engineers, they make well designed things
work. Im assuming that you are more of the design angle. Programming isnt
SUPPOSED to mean anything to you! Its bloody difficult because it requires a
whole new set of principles. In programming, it either works or it doesnt,
in design, you try stuff, ask a few folk, try again, and learn that way. Ive
ALWAYS wanted to be able to program what is NEED, because my ideas require
more than im capable of. What you really need to do is get one-to-one with
someone who's as keen as programming as you are to design something cool ,
that does what you want online. That may be as simple as banging a website
together, but its a world away form what you're actually capable of. dont
try and diversify as far as HTML can go. Ive found that youre best sticking
with what you know, because thats complex enough in itself.You need to be
able to offer something, so you dont have to PAY for what you want. Blag it,
barter it, GET WHAT YOU WANT!!! Ive designed SO many websites as favours,
because my skill (isnt actually 10 a penny), being design, is just as in
demand as is the real programmers to make it happen. Do a few favours, get
someone to build what you need, then get them to explain it all. Cos its a
damn sight easier that way. Anyone can learn how a program works, then
modify it. Learning is EASY that way. Thats the mad thing about programming,
lots of god-dam x=y but y the fk does y matter kinda thing....Re-install
flash, it really is an awesome bit of software, it will do ANYTHING youre
likely to want it to do. Im not just banging on about flash because im some
kind of evangelist. I learnt how to make it do what i needed at version3,
about 6 /7years ago, and you really do build up knowledge with use with it.
This is the thing with multi-media, i absolutely HATE that term, but thats
what it is, and its a hell of a lot of softwares to learn if you go the
whole way. I think the last time i filled my CV in, it was over about 8
different platforms, and about 30 programs. NIGHTMARE. so all in all. get
that one-to-one thing going with a friend who has the complimentary
knowledge you need. seriously, you can have my flash files if you like, and
i'll glady help you as much as i can. cos i know what a fkn nightmare it can
be!!!

ps..all that slicing in photoshop, its still a goddam mess.
InDesign is for print layouts, its like a turbo-charged Quark, its the
industry standard now for print (where i am)
in flash - if you PUBLISH your site, and call it index.fla, it'll output a
index.html, which auto-loads your site. simple as it gets mate.
anyway, its friday, im off to drink whisky with me neighbour (he makes stuff
outta steel,but dont know sh*t about design---VERY useful!!!)
have a booze.

Iain




"Farmer" <getoffmyland@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5Yudnf35PKvrqgHZRVnyhA@xxxxxxxxx
Yeah, getting into that slicing business now with Photoshop and Image
ready....this is a bit more like it. I think the trouble is theres so
many packages to go at it's difficult to know what the workflow would be.
By starting with Go-Live I've ended up bogged down too quickly. I may
look at Flash8 again....just unistalled it too.

"Farmer" <getoffmyland@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EI2dnSoLJoYSrAHZnZ2dnUVZ8sidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxx
Thanks Jeff, that gives me a new starting point. I'll start with
Photoshop and try and slice up a panel design and then creating a
Photoshop gallery. If all that works a flash video too...crikey...then
I'll be motoring.

Opened Go-Live again....it's dead easy apparently.....it's dead
easy....it's dead easy..easy peasy lemon squeezey. I can type a line of
text and preview it.....yes success. I now want to add a photo
gallery...errrr.....ok, I now want to add a video onto the page....errrr.
I'm now reading the help file, click this click that...20 minutes
later...I've now generated 4 sub pages of a main page with an archor
file apparently....at this point I'm desperately loosing the will to
live. I eventually ended up creating a webpage with 'my webpage' at the
top and a link that took me to four other blank pages. An hour well
spent...not.

I've just tried Word ( i didn't know that saved html pages).....wow,
thats great for getting started, you can add images and links to videos
at least. My son just told me I can make webpages in Word
apparently....thanks son. Now wheres my grandma's number.



"Jeff" <nomail> wrote in message news:r-qdnbBSZvz2vwHZRVnyjQ@xxxxxxxxxxxx
The way i usualy work is, to start off in photoshop. Just designing away
for a
couple of hours/days/months. All depends on your idea's and skills i
think.
Then use the handy "slice" in Photoshop to slice all elements up so that
photoshop can easily, fully automated, make an html page with
the whole design slided in tables.

You can then erase images in one of the tables and set them as
background
image for that particular table, and type some text over it.

Photoshop can also do photo gallery's if i remember correctly. It gives
you an instant design wich you can ofcourse change to your own design
needs.

But honestly i think you just have to start with making a nice design.
Then
figure out how to convert it into a website. That's the way i work
anyway. I'm defenitly not a skilled programmer but everything i need for
designing a website is easily googled. There a tons of good resources,
forums, etc. It just takes some time ....

And Flash is defenitely not only for making cartoony animated stuff for
the web.
The cool thing about flash is that you don't really need any programming
skills
to do the basic stuff wich is needed for making a website. Just import
your
photoshop design and look in the helpfiles how to make a button on top
of it.
That way you can also add video content to your site. And the new
videocodec
in Flash 8 is truly amazing, very small files for very good quality
video.
I've used it for my new website.

Well, just my 2 cents ...
Good luck ;)

- Jeff
www.xs4all.nl/~jeff1983



"Farmer" <getoffmyland@xxxxxxxxxxx> schreef in bericht
news:rvCdnbp2AK8wXQfZRVny0A@xxxxxxxxx
This is driving me nuts, help please.

I want to put my work on a website, my website, for promotion, jobs
etc. I've tried several times over the years but always gave up. I
started with Frontpage but found that after you'd typed a heading,
anything more fancy required Frontpage extensions on the server and
more money for the ISP. On line create your own tools are a waste of
time, all you end up with is a heading and an email link. I want a
photo's gallery, a video page and a blog diary thing. So I bought
Adobe Creative Suite 2. Now I know what Photoshop and Illustrator do
but I cannot figure out what Designer, In Design or go Live are all
about or why they exist. Nothing in the manuals or the website
actually explains the function of this software. Ok so I've now sort
of figured out that go-live is for websites but jees is it tough to
understand. Then for no explicable reason the help menu on all my
adboe software stopped working, it just starts to load then nothing.
*&@@@****..&%@>*

I then decided to put that lot on the shelf and look for a simple
consumer website creator. I came across www.coffeecup.com which has
lots of peeps going on about 'simple this' and 'easy' the other. I
download the trial but find once again that I can type 'My Website' at
the top but thats about as far as I can get. Anything else requires
understanding HTML. Are you trying to tell me that all those grandpa's
on the website know HTML. THey even have handy help instructions for
pasting HTML javascripts into the code....It just doesn't work for me.
I get error on line this and cant execute the other. Load a template
and learn from that the website suggests....so I do but all the
template seems to be is some fancy photoshop image thats been sliced by
some other godforsaken programme into squares and imported as code that
leaves me non the wiser.

Please don't tell me that with all those websites in the world, with
all the software in the world, there isn't an easy way to make
reasonably sophisticated websites without learning type in html
coding......please help....damn this crap has wound me up....I want to
give up completely on computers.









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