AWBenson.com - WIP

[AWBenson]

I've been working on my website and wanted to get some opinions on how people like the layout, color scheme, ease of use, etc.

Here's a link to my website: http://www.awbenson.com

I do plan on updating the home/index page within the next few days to make the flow of links to the inside content easier. I also plan to go over the text content and fix grammer errors and typos (of which, I make alot ). I will be addressing some tutorial clarifications at the same time and further develop some of the weaker points on the tutorials that some people are having trouble with.

I've just added a background image to frame the content, added HTML pages for each of the gallery images and wip images that also contain textural descriptions. The HTML for the WIP is needed because I plan on dicussing the process of each subject matter as I work on them. I will make animated gifs of each major step on the wip.htm as the content of each wip item expands.

In Eovia3D.net tutorial section: I've posted up links in the tutorial section here for my Carrara tutorials that go directly to my website's tutorial.

The next step that I've planned is to work on generating some quality gallery images of all different media types. This will take some time to accomplish, but the results are quite neccessary for me to develop a freelance persona.

Then, I'll be adding more to the tutorial sections. Of course, I plan on finishing the UV Series but I will be mixing that with other tutorials.

[bwtr]

Your site has been on my "favourites" list for some time. Compared to many it's extremely good--wish I had the --nerve!--to try doing a site for myself! More tutes. Whacco!!

[LoneGunman]

If you ever visited my website ( ), you would know how big fan of B&W I am, but lime green and white is good too, also, obviously you need more content as well

I see you are on Yahoo, are you paying for your webspace or is it a free one?

If you are able to install some PHP content menagment software (like PHPwebsite, GeekLog, WordPress or PostNuke) I would highly reccomend that, so you can focus more on the fun stuff you like, than endless coding of things in HTML for every page you want to make (discard this part if you are already using one of these on Yahoo).

Another thing, you e-mail address is exposed to the harvesters (check your page code), you have to wrap it up in JavaScript or something so it is not that obvious

To be more in sync try to give exactly the same border (color and thickness) to every image you post (like first 2 on the right top column).
AWBenson logo on the very top need some work, maybe made in Carrara or Photoshop


Do some networking: link to other peoples websites and other interesting tutorials, not just for Carrara, 3D in general which is connected with your current and future content and interest...

BTW, I like all of your tutorials (read them all already)

[steama]

Andrew, I think it is a commendable srevice you are doing for the community.

Thanks

[AWBenson]

Yep, I use Yahoo's geocities to host my website. I do pay for the service that is why I do not have other peoples banners floating all over the place. They recently increased by webspace from 25 mb to 2gb for no extra charge. Nice :-), wonder how I can fill that up?

Lime green? It should appear as a creamy yellow or tan...

Yahoo supports php content. So, I can include that sort of stuff to the webpage. Now, I have never used php so that will be a learning experience. One of the considerations to explore is to place a small contact form after each tutorial for people to use to contact me (which will convert that sending into an email for me.)

Yahoo also has built in tools for me to monitor my website. On average, I am getting about 100 unique IP addresses a day. I do not get to see those IP addresses but the amount is available for me to view. Statistics on various other aspects are also reported to me. This is one of the reason's why I haven't moved away from yahoo. I don't use their tools to build a website, I have my own. I also use an FTP program to upload my files because it is so much faster then hand picking one file at a time to upload.

As for the borders (mainly only on the home page) around images, those will be re-addressed when I re-stylize the lower have of the home page. I also need to change the images and links to point to where they need to go, instead of not doing anything except display the picture.

I know that I expose my e-mail address, but yahoo has really great anti-spam filters. (in case you are wondering, andrew@awbenson.com gets forwarded to my yahoo based e-mail address.) I get only 1 unmarked spam every week or so.

Been working on the networking aspects, especially with the tutorials I have. I plan on having more tutorials and including programs such as blender, photoshop, illustrator, wings3d and a few others. However, writting tutorials take time and I do need to spend time on making gallery images too which as you've stated needs more content. :-)

Originally Posted by LoneGunman

If you ever visited my website ( ), you would know how big fan of B&W I am, but lime green and white is good too, also, obviously you need more content as well

I see you are on Yahoo, are you paying for your webspace or is it a free one?

If you are able to install some PHP content menagment software (like PHPwebsite, GeekLog, WordPress or PostNuke) I would highly reccomend that, so you can focus more on the fun stuff you like, than endless coding of things in HTML for every page you want to make (discard this part if you are already using one of these on Yahoo).

Another thing, you e-mail address is exposed to the harvesters (check your page code), you have to wrap it up in JavaScript or something so it is not that obvious

To be more in sync try to give exactly the same border (color and thickness) to every image you post (like first 2 on the right top column).
AWBenson logo on the very top need some work, maybe made in Carrara or Photoshop


Do some networking: link to other peoples websites and other interesting tutorials, not just for Carrara, 3D in general which is connected with your current and future content and interest...

BTW, I like all of your tutorials (read them all already)

[hornet3d]

Had a quick look at the site and I have to say I am impressed. I have just purchased C5 and Hexagon (thanks for the deal Eovia althougth the 19.5% Tax for us in the UK (17.5%) is at bit of a put off).

Up to now I have only used Daz Studio, and only then very sparingly due to lack of time. The bad news is I am drowning in all the new features and tools available, the good news is I am about to retire and getting to know these two programs is a challange to keep me amused. I can see me being an avid reader of your website in the coming weeks.

Thanks for sharing your skills and experience - I wish you every success with the site.

[danilo.massa]

Wow the site has good contents!
But ... it has also a small security problem ... I will send a private message to you with the explanation and the solution.

Regards

[JuST]

If you are able to install some PHP content menagment software (like PHPwebsite, GeekLog, WordPress or PostNuke) I would highly reccomend that, so you can focus more on the fun stuff you like, than endless coding of things in HTML for every page you want to make (discard this part if you are already using one of these on Yahoo).

I would not do that!
I'll explain that further down...
First of all I think, your homepage looks cool. It is full of all kinds of information about using Carrara and Hexagon and that's the most important thing. I absolutely dislike homepages without content.
I do not perfectly like your chosen color-sheme, but it is a question of your liking and not mine. (on my monitor it is also slightly green and brown)

Now let me explain why I would not use any content management system if I were you.
I used several of those systems and realized, that there was not a single one (for no charge) without bugs! Only Mambo was very good, but it did not offer the functions I liked. It is also difficult to create an individual look for your homepage (I do not only talk about a color-sheme, but background graphics and so on).
The html used by those systems is nearly catastrophy and therefore it is really difficult to create those themes which define the individual look of the site by hand.
If you want to have a really good working system, you have to buy something like vBulletin, which is expensive.

Furthermore, if you do not want to create a community, in which every user can login and upload his own pictures, there is nearly no need for such a system. You have shown on your website, that you are perfectly well able to upload your content without any content-management-system.
I hope nobody will hate me for my comment.

Best regards JuST

[AWBenson]

I use dreamweaver to create my pages, so I do use template and so on, but from a non-server standpoint. I also have hand-crafted the pages from the code view because I made the website table-less.

If you look at the source code, I have not used any HTML tables in it's construction. It also doesn't use javascript, although I am not a novice with that either.

For me to change the look of the site, even drastically, I would simply have to replace my style sheet and "proof" website's layout and color schemes change across all pages. This can be seen with the addition of the background image across all pages with one little line of code in the CSS definition.

Writing table-less pages is nothing new to me. I do this at work all the time so I have a level of familiarity with the IE/Mozilla CSS bugs to avoid most issues between browsers.

I will look into the color scheme and change it slightly. I want it to appear more cream color and not greenish.

[JuST]

I like sites which use CSS
Mine does it too. So I am right. You do not need those management-systems

[-ash-]

I think the site looks fine, navigation is easy and clear. I would have liked to see a bit about yourself, your background, etc. but the tutorials are great. Thanks for these.

Regards
Tony

[Nate Owens]

AW...

I come from a print design background, but the concepts should work on web stuff also.

For what it's worth...
Your art (images) are great, so they should be the star attraction. IMHO, the complex border and colors steal the show where instead they should be a supporting cast for the art... I have a hard time looking at the art on account of the saturated colors surrounding it.

This is something I hope to accomplish at my own site... Glen Southern has a nice color theme for his site - http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/blogger/
but maybe a little too heavy on text.. if he had more color in his models, they would sing, pop and sizzle...

anyhow, just a thought (not being critical)

[AWBenson]

At this very moment, I am tweeking the design, some underlying HTML, and color scheme (only lightly changing the colors to make a more warmer tone). I'm running into some CSS issues which are slowing me down because of the mess-ed up box model in IE, but nothing that I cann't handle. If everything works as planned, then the newer look will be turned on very late tonight or sometime tomarrow. Then I can start spell/grammar checking myself.

I also have a smallish update to one of my wip images (kid wizard).

[AWBenson]

Here's a little introduction to myself, for those who do not know me:

I went to college for animation. I've had about 3 years worth of training in 3D design, game-asset creation and texturing. I learned on 3D Studio Max and Maya. In addition, I had about a year's worth dealing with of flash animation work. Mix in many classes of traditional drawing/painting and anatomy classes and you get a degree in it. I went to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

I have a job in Graphic Design. Not quite an animation field, but often-times this pays better. I got hired two weeks out of school. Most of my class of graduating animators of just over 30 people didn't get into any artistic jobs for the next year (after that I lost touch with most of them) and of those, only myself and another got jobs within for first two months. Anyway, I started with about 8k more than what an entry-level animator does (which is low 20s; regardless of 3D or 2D) so it wasn't too hard to accept this job even through I wasn't property trained in the areas of print-publishing, web-design and many other areas of a graphic designer. This is where ALOT of self-study comes in and many books brought and practiced through.

I've been at the same work for the last 5 years. I've gotten extremely good with PhotoShop, Illustrator and PageMaker (not my choice, but my work isn't willing to pay to get QuarkXpress). I've expanded my localized 3D toolset to include Wings3D, Blender and a few speciality or just to try "this" version of such and such. I've also played with a variety of open source products and added those to my home studio.

However, a couple of years ago, I've been suffering from the 3D "itch." I pulled out my old (pre-bachelor's day) copy of RDS 5.5 and started playing with that at home and for a couple of really small illustrations at work. Then I brought C2 from Purplus and played with that while debating rather or not to upgrade to C3. Two months later, I got C3 (the then current version). Much later, I've upgraded to C4P and got Hex too. Then upgraded to C5P.

For the most part, I use my own copies of Carrara and Hexagon through my own laptop at my work to produce 3D stills for newsletter illustrations, T-shirt designs (for the annual conferences), recruiting concepts and even magazine ads. My "biggest" 3D illustration is on a 8ft by 16ft presentation boards for conference work.

However, my employer will not let me show off my work. This is sad because I've done some of my finest pieces in 3D, 2D and graphic design. But this isn't going to stop me :-).

I still use my 3D equipment at work, otherwise my skills will atropy instead of getting better.

At home, I do the daily stuff of life and pour myself into my website, our community and the creation of another portfolio. (Funny how the graduation portfolio makes you think, "HOW DID I GRADULATE WITH THAT???" when you look at it again.) So, in a way I have to play a massive catch up with my portfolio. I can (and have done) far better than what I am allowed to show off and this needs to be fixed.

This website is a living portfolio and personal advertisement/validation.

[bwtr]

Andrew, you did not mention a "better half"! You need that to make life worthwhile-- an --"UNDERSTANDING" better half!

[AWBenson]

I left out details of my personal life from that description.

Yes, I have a "better half." Her name is Damaris and we've been married for 3 years now. She is from Puerto Rico so there is a difference in cultures but that doesn't seam to make much of a difference to us. She is a nurse and is currently working on getting her Masters degree in the same while working full time at a local Hospital on the cancer floor.

She doesn't have an interest in Art or 3D outside of just watching it. I've introduced her to Anime and she likes it. Still working on getting her interested into D&D, through....

Anything else you would like to know about me?

[AWBenson]

I've just uploaded the tweeks to the look of the website and fixed some of the home page's flow of content.

I haven't fixed the spelling and grammer from most of the pages, but that I something that I can concentrate and upload a little bit at a time until it's finished.