Friday, February 10, 2006 21 Comments
I’ve been futzing with a new theme that offers some cool functionality, so check it out. If you don’t see a difference, use the Theme Switcher in the sidebar. And if it totally busts your viewing experience, just switch back. I know it’s very “traditional” in the animation sense of the word, but don’t get all bent, there’s a CG theme coming soon.
I think it looks better than the old site theme. I would change the header graphic to something that better reflects animation. At least that’s my idea.
You suck. That looks AWESOME.
I’m totally going to copy you.
🙂
Nicely done on the theme. The comments are hiding, but I now know how to find them. 😉
You have a misconfiguration in your theme switcher. It goes to a deadend file that redirects to the homepage. Should be an easy fix in the plugin editor. . .
You crazy kids and your bottom pegs. . . =P
It looks more “animation-y”, but that doesn’t really matter to me. For my part, this site could look like a 1995 homepage, and I’d still love it. As Iger says: It’s all about the content! ^^
Oh, and something else I was wondering about: any chance you’ll be updating the “animation principles” part soon?
Neil – I’m glad it’s better. I couldn’t stand looking at the generic WordPress theme any longer. Well, I’m still playing with header ideas, but the one up now has a pencil, an x-sheet, an animation disc, and they’re all sitting on wood from an actual animation desk.
Jim – Thanks. Combine my meager photoshop skills and my gift of colorblindness and this is the magic that results. I’m sure the code is all wierd, but it seems to work in Firefox and that’s all that matters, right?
Brenton – Good on the comments. I’m still working on that part, but my brain needs a rest. Thanks for mentioning the redirect. I wasn’t sure if it was just my experience. At least the switch isn’t something you’d want to do all the time, so if I can’t resolve that bug, I don’t think it will be a total loss. As for the pegs, I like the reminder of what animation paper looks like.
Benjamin – You’re right about the content. I actually felt a little guilty spending time on the look of the site, but it’s been the same for so long, it had to be done. About the principles, I do have them all written out, but I want to elaborate on most of the points, much like I did in the first portion. I’ll see what I can do about at least getting the next section out. I’m glad you asked.
-Clay
I prefer the animation desk look over the old one but imho the light green background color doesn’t blend that well with the rest of the colors. Still, tastes differ and Benjamin is right – them audio watchamacallits make anything beautiful.
Is it really green? Damn, I am colorblind.
I don’t see light green anywhere.
On a side note, I’ve always been curious what it’s like to be colorblind. Especially since what I think of as green, someone else may think of as my red, but we’ve both been taught to call it ‘green.’ It’s it just tough for you to distinguish aprticular colors? Can you tell the difference between color and greyscale? Does the Saturation filter in Photoshop do anything for you?
Ahh, the learning. =D
Actually, I can see most colors pretty well. If I’m seeing the same colors as everyone else, it’s anyone’s guess since it’s all relative. My grandfather can’t see a red stop sign in front of a green bush. He just sees the white STOP floating there. That’s the extreme version. I’m more deficient in the army camo colors. Just yesterday I met a friend for lunch and he said, “We’re both wearing green shirts.” His shirt looked grey to me. That’s why I believed it when Christian said there was light green on the page. Life is definitely in color for me, I just have a hard time matching dark socks, but I hear that’s a problem everyone has.
lol Good deal. Thanks for the quick reply and the great resource!
I’ve been thinking I should make a theme for Feed The Clown, but I’ve been busy with other things, and I’m not quite sure the best way to do it. I wanted to use fettuccine on the left edge but I can’t think of a good way to scale it dynamically. Maybe I’ll put it in a bag that grows and only 3″ of fettuccine shows at a time. I don’t know – blah. What theme did you base 2D off of?
Brenton – your site is nice! Judging by the look of things, you know more about what you’re doing than I do.
Hehe, thanks. I didn’t design the site. It’s just some theme I found (I have a credit on the bottom cause I merged it into a WP 1.5 theme). It’s the best food theme I’ve seen for WP, but I don’t think it fits the kinds of recipes on FTC.
I did the color and logo on The Illustrated Life, which I think works well for what it is. Anyway, enough of my WP mumbo jumbo. You did a great job on your theme!
Hello Clay,
I just wanted to write and let you know how much I enjoy your podcast! I find myself thinking about it and listening to it quite often (I love the first interview)! I happily look very forward to each new episode. I am not an animator, I am a wife & mother and an artist. Largely pencil & paper based though. I took a 6 week Adobe Illustrator intro. class at a community college a while back and it opened up a whole new world to me…anyway, this is supposed to be about you. SO Thank you for doing this, I love love love listening and appreciate that you take time from your life to share this stuff with the world. I cant imagine how many lives could potentially be changed for the better and given hope because you have taken the time & care to do this…(unbelievably)I still hear parents tell their kids, “you cant *really grow up to be an artist, only very few people ever ‘make it’.” I realize that it’s not easy, but what worth doing is? I hope that these future animators will have the opportunity to hear your show, learn where to focus their efforts & work hard towards their dreams. Thank you for it all Clay.
Warmly,
Mariah DeMarco
my blog:
http://drawingtrees.livejournal.com/
I think the theme looks great. I love the pegs — great idea. Colors can be very subjective, but I definitely don’t think the background is green. It’s more of a light khaki, aka, a warm grey. Christian could have a calibration issue and actually be seeing green, or it could be that he has a harder timing seeing or describing subtler colors. Though he might be picking up on a sort of “olive” quality, in the “olive-skinned” sense of the word. Still, no green. Just a little further into a blue field, though, and you would definitely have a more clearly olive color.
Enough color talk already?
The new theme looks great, Clay! It’s nice to see a change on one of my favorite sites. I love it. And it’ll be cool to see the other theme, too. Keep it up, man!
I like it, Clay. The functionality is great. Since I get the podcast automatically, I often forget to check the site. Nice work.
Hey guys and gals, I was out of the country on vacation last week, so I’m just getting back to the blog.
Brenton – I like the post-its. I considered doing that on this theme (since they are an integral part of animating) but I didn’t want to have too many things going on. I like the way they look though.
Mariah – Thank you so much for commenting. You’re right. People should know that being an artist (whatever kind you are) is absolutely a possibility, not just a fantasy. I’m sure my parents may have had concerns about this strange new career, but they trusted me and supported me in its pursuit. My girlfriend at the time wasn’t too sure, so she dumped me. Ha ha, who’s laughing now? By the way, I like your cards.
Lee-Roy – Yes, enough color. I like it fine for now! But thanks for commenting.
Ward – It’s been a little tougher to create a CG theme that isn’t cold and lifeless, but I’ll work it out. Now that I’ve got this one out there, I’m going to focus a little more on more shows.
Josh – Thanks for swinging on by. Good to know you’re subscribed. Everyone should do it!
haha thanks. yeah, those came with the Banana Smoothie theme. i just repaired and distributed it.
I guess I should thank your x-girlfriend… oh wait, I did.
Nice look! Really clever idea to put acme pegs for posts.
I like the old theme too but at least your experimenting.
Loved the podcasts btw, I’m not sure if this is the right place to mention that.
I’ve listianed to them all now, they’re very inspiring and make me want to animate more!
This is good as I’m a student in an animation program.
Could I link your site on my blog?
Hi Mike – Linking is always a welcome thing. Thanks!