Blog design contest: Design my blog and win CS4 Master Collection!
Last week I realized that I am not 100% happy with the blog theme I recently installed. I like it, but it’s not quite exactly what I wanted. In all honesty, I don’t really like fiddling around with CSS and HTML. I hate having to navigate around different browser implementations and therefore never really got in to CSS and HTML. I also realize that there are people out there with much better design skills than me.
Last week I asked my Twitter followers if someone would be interested in designing/building a theme for my blog in exchange for CS4 Master Collection. I also asked if they would want to participate in a contest or if I should just pick one person based on previous work. The majority of the “votes” went to an open contest and so here we are…
What am I looking for?
A nice, fresh, clean and unique theme for my blog. You would provide both the PSD files and the WordPress theme files. The code has to be 100% valid and as SEO friendly as possible. The main content area must be at least 640 pixels wide. The theme would have at least 1 widget enabled sidebar on the right.
What’s in it for you?
Eternal fame ;-) and CS4 Master Collection (a €3300 value).
Moodboard
To get you started, I put together a little moodboard that should hopefully give you an idea of what I like. I like minimalistic and clean with nice typography.
I also like these designs (or parts of it):
http://www.fontshop.be/
http://www.engadget.com/
http://www.adobeusergroup.nl/
http://www.adobeusergroupxl.nl/
http://www.8020studio.com/
http://aigany.org
http://concentric-studio.com/work/
Deadline
To spare you from doing unnecessary work, I will judge this based on the static designs. You can add a link to the design in the comment section. The designs have to be in on December 18th 2009. I will pick and announce a winner on December 21st. The winner will then create the actual WordPress theme. The final theme has to be delivered on January 15th 2010. Don’t forget: delivering the WordPress theme is part of this contest! The contest is open to anyone anywhere.
More questions?
If you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment or use the “Get in touch” form.
Looking forward to seeing your designs!
A peek behind the scenes of Avatar
I’m sure it won’t shock you when I say that Adobe software is used extensively in Hollywood. Avatar, James Cameron‘s new movie, is no exception. So which Adobe software did they use and how?
PHOTOSHOP was used during the early conceptual stages to create art for getting the film green-lit by FOX. In addition to being a core production and design tool, it was also used to create many of the ultra-high resolution matte paintings and textures that were used as finished artwork passed along to the 3D pipeline for CG environments, vehicles and creatures.
LIGHTROOM was used by artists in the previsualization (previs) animation department to organize and catalog the thousands of set and lighting reference images.
AFTER EFFECTS had a multitude of uses as you can probably imagine:
- In the early stages of production, AE was used to place flowing camera moves on still artwork for concept art reels.
- On the live and mocap sets, AE was used to quickly create test composites to see if the live-action and “simulcam” green screen shots were lining up with the virtual animation and backgrounds. Within a few minutes of each take being shot, artists were able to mock-up composites for James Cameron to look at and approve or re-shoot.
- Automated rough comping of the video of the facial performances of the actors (recorded head via mounted miniature video cameras) into CG character face textures for the previs portion of the production. This allowed Jim a quick and easy way to know if the actor’s facial performances were going to be OK or if a take needed re-shooting.
- AE is being used by some of the vendors hired for VFX work to create 3D stereo composites for finished shots, to create complex motion graphics for use in the 3D holographic screens in the various control room scenes, and to create “heads-up” displays for various high-tech vehicles in the film.
- Adobe provides documentation to write complex procedural scripts for AE, and the AVATAR artists took full advantage of this. They created an automated rendering pipeline for comping the previs shots using AE’s scripting capability.
PREMIERE PRO was also used in different ways:
- Each time Jim Cameron does a review/critique of VFX work, an HD recording is made of the session. Premiere Pro is used to take the edited recording and format into various packages for digital distribution. The process is automated, with typically 8 hours or more a day of reviews that need to be processed.
- Premiere Pro was used extensively on set in combination with AE to check rough composites in playback context with animated sequences. A/B comparisons of VFX vendor work are easily set up and reviewed.
- Although the creative editing for AVATAR is done using an AVID based system, Premiere Pro is able to read in cut-lists and other important metadata using its built-in AVID “AAF” import feature. Rather than bog down AVID editors with having to render out updated sequences for the animation department, the AVID editor can export the virtual “recipe” for the new cut to a small file that Premiere Pro then uses to automatically assemble the cut to match the AVID. Digital video files of the shots that are online in the master shot database are sourced as clips by Premiere Pro.
ACROBAT CONNECT was used for collaboration throughout the making of the film. In one example, it was even used by one of the Digital Supervisors to remotely connect to the computer of one of the interns on-set to to take control of her desktop and help her get through the temp composites that Jim Cameron (the director) needed ASAP.
FLASH PLAYER is used to deliver the movie’s website with high quality images and high definition video.
And to top it off the movie also has a very slick AIR application that provides exclusive content to fans including video interviews with the cast. In addition, the interactive trailer provides a way for fans to track official updates posted to Twitter,YouTube and Flickr.
If you were lucky enough to be in the MAX audience during the Avatar sneak peek, you’ll agree that the visual effects in Avatar are absolutely stunning. It’s great to see that Adobe software made some of it happen.
Avatar opens worldwide on December 18th, 2009.
Why I switched to Rackspace Cloud + get a $25 voucher for your new account
Before I start about why I moved to Rackspace Cloud, I want to make it clear that I had no problems with my old host whatsoever. I’ve used Hetzner for my hosting the last oh… 5 years or so and really haven’t had any big problems. So why did I move? First of all, let me explain what I used for hosting at Hetzner. I used one of their managed servers to host some of my friends’ blogs and random sites. On top of that, I had a dedicated box for my blog and my ColdFusion install. The biggest reason I started looking for another solution was that I had no time to keep my dedicated box up to date, which was really starting to become a problem. So I looked at a number of hosting companies to see what they offered. With the Dollar to Euro ratio being what it is today, I favored US hosting companies. For flexibility, I also favored cloud hosting. I like the fact that I don’t have to worry about my server the next time I get featured on Techmeme.
So what do I like about Rackspace Cloud?
I really like their offering and how easy it is to choose. Cloud Sites is basically a managed solution. $100/month gives you the equivalent of a 2.8GHz machine in a clustered environment. You also get 50GB of space, 500GB of monthly bandwidth, automatic backups, SSL support and access to a live, fanatical 24/7 support team (and they really are fanatical!). You can even mix a LAMP server setup with a .NET setup. (I really hope they will add ColdFusion to this mix as well… *hint* *hint*)
They also have an offering for Cloud Servers. These are virtual dedicated machines and this is what really persuaded me to go for Rackspace Cloud. I really like that you only pay for what you use. If you’re not using the server, you don’t pay anything. This is perfect for development and testing servers but also for setups that you don’t use as often. The Cloud Servers are also flexible. You can start off with their smallest server (10GB HD/256MB RAM) and scale it up when you need more space or RAM. The Rackspace Cloud control panel is very easy to use and gives you a great overview of how much your servers are consuming.
I ended up signing up for a Cloud Sites account and also signed up for a 40GB HD/1GB RAM Cloud Server. I moved all the blogs (including this one) and sites to the Cloud Sites account and installed ColdFusion 9 on the Cloud Server. The move was a very smooth ride! I’ve been using this setup for a month now and was very happy to find out that I’m now paying a little more than a third of what I used to pay for my hosting (obviously also thanks to the Dollar to Euro ratio).
If you want to try Cloud Sites yourself, I have a $25 promotion code for you.
Just use the promo code [email protected] when you sign up for a new Cloud Sites account and you will receive $25 off your first month’s Cloud Sites hosting bill. But hurry up… The promo code is only valid until December 1st.
Adobe User Group XL, Amsterdam, Dec 3rd – Win 1 of 5 tickets!
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I am extremely proud to see how well the Dutch Adobe User Group is doing. Proud to see how fast they have grown from a dormant user group to the group that it is today. Every single meeting is very well organized and always sold out with over 250 attendees.
On December 3rd (a little over 9 days from now), they are raising the bar for themselves by organizing the Adobe User Group XL event. The speaker list is very impressive and I really hope I can catch some of the sessions myself. I’m really eager to see what Ralph Hauwert has been up to. He’s been teasing his Twitter followers with little sneaks of his new 3D engine and I really can’t wait to see more. I’m also looking forward to OOO-ii‘s session. These guys must have the coolest job ever. They build all the cool screens you see in Hollywood blockbusters like Star Trek and Minority Report and they use Flash to build them. And then I’m not even talking about the sessions by Group94, Layar, De Monsters, PowerFlasher and all the other speakers. This is really going to be a fantastic event and tickets only cost €75!
While I think the ticket price is well worth it, I did manage to get 5 free tickets. Want one? I’ll make this easy for you. ;-) Point your browser to the Adobe User Group XL website and write down the names of 5 speakers (speaker names, not companies) as a comment to this post. The five first commenters win! (Don’t forget to add your real email address) Well… That didn’t take long :D Congrats to Jolijn, Hans, Marien, Marc and Bart.
See you in Amsterdam!
Reminiscing: most influential Internet moments of the decade
The Webby Awards just published a great list of the ten most influential Internet moments of the decade. It’s great to see that they didn’t forget to give props to Flash Player for causing the online video revolution:
Online video revolution (2006)
In 2006, a perfect storm of faster bandwidth, cheaper camcorders, and the groundbreaking use of Adobe’s Flash 9 video player by YouTube combined to launch the online video revolution. The trifecta led to a boom in homemade and professional content – the Diet Coke and Mentos guys, lonelygirl15, SNL’s Lazy Sunday, and Senator George Allen’s “macacagate” – that has reshaped everything from pop culture to politics.
From http://www.webbyawards.com/press/topwebmomentsdecade.php
While it’s a great acknowledgement of one of the great things Flash has done for the web, I personally think Flash had caused a revolution way before that. Before Flash, the web was pretty dull and the only animation you would see on a site was perhaps a piece of text in a <blink> tag or an animated GIF. I’m sure you’ll all remember those and some of you may also remember the early days of Flash. If you’re in Belgium, you may remember the early days with the sites for Peter Hoogland, the Big Brother sites and the Idols site. The early days with sites like Gabocorp, Eye4U, NRG and later DerBauer. The early days with amazing Flash work from Joshua Davis, Branden Hall, Mano1, Yugo Nakamura and the crazy Flash based gadgets from Phillip Torrone. The early days of the very first Flashforward conferences in San Francisco and New York (I still have the attendee workbooks)…
Back then I would have never thought that I would one day work for Adobe. I remember the Adobe keynotes at Flashforward very well. I remember the Adobe speakers were the only ones wearing suits (Not kidding). I also remember the Adobe Flashforward party in NYC very well. We were all driven to a club somewhere. The party started out really quietly (food and drinks included) but then at (I think) midnight, the music stopped playing, the houselights were dimmed and the stage lights were switched on. And then the crowd was completely surprised by the performance that started. Adobe had hired Run DMC to perform live at their party… That was absolutely amazing and it was probably the best conference party ever!
Aaah man… The early days… I better stop now… I’m starting to feel old ;-) I do wonder who was there and is now following me on Twitter and/or my blog…
Flash on!
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