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My Showcase Design Website

T

The Reaper

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 17, 2003
77
0
Brisbane, Australia
My Design Showcase site (just finished)

Hi, guys. I just completed my 3D Showcase website, after several months of tweaking.
What are your opinions on the site? Also, any opinions on the layout, coding and images are welcomed.




T E C H N I C A L

From a technical point of view, it features heavy use of PNG images to create all of the transparency effects, in a way that allows Internet explorer to see them (which is unusual). It uses CSS to position and style all page elements. Because of browser incompatibilities, i had to write separate CSS files for every major browser, and used java script to serve them up to the right browser. I tested the site with 3 browsers: Safari, Internet Explorer 6 for Windows, and Mozilla browsers.

In addition, if you have ever seen some design sites on Windows, all images are horribly dark because PCs have darker displays. I made a separate set of images for Windows and Mac, so that images look their best on every platform. To achieve this, i used CSS (and rarely java script) to insert all images. Finally, all of the buttons on the site use CSS to have 3 'states': normal, hover, and clicked.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
 
Just took a quick swing through your site, and I think it's VERY good... nice, clean layout, consistent positioning, great site graphics, and your renderings are REALLY nice. I'd especially like to see some of your abstract 3-D images rendered as high-resolution (1920 x 1200) wallpaper. :) (Specifically, the Inferno, Refraction, Reflection, and DNA images.)

One minor nitpick... on the Abstract page, you appear to have used the Cinematic text, not Abstract-specific text.
 
Very impressive . I am certainly no expert at web design but I know what i dont like and what i do (if that makes sense). V impressed.

Just hope there is someone local to me like you to assist me with my company's new site.
 
Very impressive. I really love the clean site design. I'm working on a portfolio site of my own and could use a few pointers for Mac vs. Windows. Do you mind if I PM you with a few questions?
 
Very clean work. If you are really an 18 year old kid doing this, i'm very impressed. As a father of a 3 year old boy, I would be very proud if my 18 year old son can do 3d work like this.

As for the web design, i took a quick look and here are my inputs:

Align your thumbnails and description text to align with the logo and navigation on left and right. Currently they are too close and seems like an error. If you prefer it to step in, then there needs to be a little more.

What i'm trying to get at is there is currently too little of step in and it does not help the strict look that you are trying to acheive. Be a little more deliberate. Either align it or inset it more to show deliberateness. curently, it seems like you have overlooked this alignment. Since you are almost in alignment with the left and right margin, it would be wiser to align then to step in.

Otherwise the site looks vert tight.

Also when you have some time, i would maybe work on your mast title. The leading of the letters does not seem to help the overall look. Push your envelope and come-up with a mast logo that expresses your work. I'm not crazy about your letter spaced typography. I believe you can do better. Currently, it is not up-to-par with your 3d work.

Wish you lots of luck in your design career.
 
I just turned 19, so i will update the site. I use Cinema 4d software to model and render everything that you see in the architecture section. The landscapes in the cinematic section, as well as some of the 'glass/metal spheres' renderings in the abstract section were done with Bryce 5, but can also be done in Cinema 4d.

As for including a logo, i have a design but i am hesitant to put it online because i am worried someone will copy it (i do not have a registered company yet). As for the 'indentation', i experimented with lots of different options, and the slight indent seemed to work best. I may increase it by several pixels.

The masthead was spaced out deliberately, and the font was chosen to be as clean and minimalistic as possible. Every other combination of fonts and spacing i tried ended up looking cramped or not minimalistic enough.

I just discovered some serioius bugs in the Internet Explorer for Windows version of the site, so i am fixing these.


I am considering offering wallpaper sized versions.
 
Looks very nice.

I can't decide whether I'd like the linkbar and logo to be condensed to align with the text or not. Either way it looks great.

scem0
 
Looks really cool!

but for some reasons, I can't play the showreel, maybe its because I am using firefox?
and also the contact information seems a bit out of place, the dotted line looks like its been highlighted, which for a moment, i thought it's a coding error.
 
cool stuff Sergio!

U definitely have to put your images in high res 1920 x 1200 or at least 1024 x 768. I really want to put one up as my wallpaper.

Did you use Dreamweaver to make ur site?
 
dornoforpyros said:
overall I do like your site alot...however the nav bar is very derivative of macromedia.com...

Your 3D work is stunning though :)
Click to expand...

I based the Nav Bar skin on a combination of the Graphite and Pro themes in Mac OS X, and made it look bit more silky.
 
daveway00 said:
I love the clean look of your site. It has what many sites these days are missing, easy on the eyes and to use.
How did you make the site? Dreamweaver?
Click to expand...

The layout and image creation were done in Photoshop, and all the coding was done by hand using textedit.
 
The Reaper said:
The layout and image creation were done in Photoshop, and all the coding was done by hand using textedit.
Click to expand...
Haha way to be! :D That's my preferred method as well... None of that Dreamweaver/Frontpage junk, just makes it confusing.

As for the site, it looks VERY nice. That blue logo at the first page makes it look very professional and clean. Your code looked very clean and tidy, and was obviously meticulously written. It's sites like yours that make me want to improve mine! :D ;)
 
Wow.

Color me very impressed. I like the site, but I am truly floored by your 3d work.

Any chance of getting the abstract Dark-Entities piece as a high-res wallpaper? (1680x1050)?
 
I think it's fabulous. Killer images, too.

The only thing I don't like is the navigation bar. Maybe it's the gradient, but for some reason, it just seems too "heavy". I like what you did with the "3d design portfolio" text on the home page. I would do something similar with the nav bar.
 
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