Bigger, Badder, and Redder-Blacker-Grayer
Do you like what we did with the place? Today marks the launch of our 2005 redesign, which is a big improvement on the previous versions. The typography and layout are cleaner for better readability, using CSS and XHTML instead of HTML tables. Everything old like Shoot and Second Nature can be found in the Cardboard Box, but the music section has been expanded into a full-blown band archive. There's a little random Flash and After Effects animation thrown in for good measure. I wanted to redesign the site for a while since I'll eventually direct potential employers over this way.
There are some exciting updates coming up on the horizon. I've got Hank again for an annual reports class, which should infuse some excitement into a seemingly dry subject matter. Imagine Design is about to launch and maintain a Christian website that I created with Lisa. I should finish plugging in the finishing touches to Miyamoto soon, and finally turn my full spare-time attention towards Cadence of Seasons. Cadence was recently mentioned in Step Inside Design magazine in an article about Portfolio Center, which I'll scan in and post here once the computer labs are back up and running (PC is currently going under renovations).
In a strange and interesting way, playing Metroid Prime 2 over the holidays has influenced Cadence big time; I knew I had to beat it before school started or I wouldn't get any work done. MP2 and its predecessor are two of the best video games of all time, no kidding. I was constantly impressed and inspired by the sense of exploration in a foreign world. The environments are so rich, organic and detailed that just the experience of walking through them is breathtaking, and shooting up creatively-designed alien creatures is just the icing on that cake. Even more impressive are the concept art galleries that you can unlock during the course of the game, which show the incredible amount of thought put into these worlds and creatures. So I sat back down the other night and began to re-imagine the world and characters of Cadence, and I think the end product will be much better as a result. Before, I think I was falling into a tried-and-true Flash cartoony style, with simple outlined vector shapes that are easy to animate. Now I've reverted back to my hand-illustrated style, which is still cartoonish but it feels distinct, unique, and less computer-generated. We'll see what happens. I hope to keep writing updates and posting artwork along the production process since you guys seem to like that sort of crap.
If anything, I hope this redesign gets me (and maybe the rest of the samurai?) to write a little more often. It was entertaining reading through the older entries when I was reformatting the journal archives. A lot has happened in just the past few years...it's scary to think that I'll be back in corporate America by this time next year.
Enjoy the new site. Now.
Thursday, January 6 at 7:17 PM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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Lars Amhoff: Kinkyform Design
Colin Anawaty: Cubed Companies
Chuck Anderson: NoPattern
Haik Avanian: HaikAvanian.com
James Bailey: The Kingdom of Sad Machines
Ben Barry: CarbonFour / Forced Connections
Dimitry Bentsionov: Arthero
Joshua Blankenship: JoshuaBlankenship.com
Casey Britt: CaseyBritt.com
Duncan Brook: Superfreaky Memories
Matthew Burtner: Burtner.net
Jeff Chin: JeffChin.com
Mary Campbell: Mary Campbell Design
Sarah Coffman: Minus Five
John Contino: drawings&co
Angie Cosimano: Angie Unit
Chris and Linda Doherty: Citizen Studio
Anne Elser: Annepages
Neil Epstein: Mediafactured
Bjorn Fagerholm: 3jorn
Dave Foster: Dave the Designer
Justin Genovese: JustinGenovese.com
J Grossen: Sugarcoma Labs
Audrey Gould: Aud's Blog
Greg Hackett: GregHackett.com
Sam Harrison: Zingzone
Todd Hammell: Solid Colors
Leon Henderson: LHJ Photo
Howard Hill: Fascination Streak
Peter Hobbs: Peter Hobbs Photography
Matt Ipcar: Ipcar Design
Michael Johnson: Michael J Rox
Melissa Jun: MelissaJun.com
Jiae Kim: Theme magazine
Zack Klein: ZackKlein.com
Katie Kosma: Flying Conundrum
Peter Lada: Proxima Labs
Josh Levin: Nothing Learned
Larry Luk: Epidemik Coalition
Mike Mates: Urban Influence
Alison Matheny: Life of a Harpy
Turi McKinley: Turi Travels
Alaa-Eddine Mendili: Furax
John Nack: John Nack on Adobe
Allen Orr: Anthem In
Scott Paterson: sgp7
Joe Peng: MacConcierge
Paavo Perkele: Astudios
Brian Perozo: Ephekto
Jason Puckett: Everyday Puck
Kate Ranson-Walsh: Thinkradical
Tania Rochelle: Stone's Colossal Dream
Angela Sailo: Peanut Butter Toast
Mohit SantRam: Santram.net
Dan Savage: Something Savage
Kevin Scarbrough: Thin Black Glasses
Scott Schiller: Schillmania
Jason Severs: JasonSevers.com
Anthony Sheret: Work By Lunch
Nick Skyles: Boats and Stars
Sujay Thomas: iSujay
Joe Tobens: JospehTobens.com
David Ulevitch: Substantiated.info
John Verhine: Verhine.com
Armin Vit: Under Consideration
Ian Wharton: IanWharton.com
Roger Wong: One Great Monkey
Clay Yount: Rob and Elliot Comics
Jack Zerby: Jack Zerby Music