First Webpages

So I have started my first few webpages. I have to admit...I expected that they would have to look different from my comps just because that is sometimes how design works, but they don't. They look just like I had planned. I have never used Dreamweaver before or done any html code which I figured was going to make the website suffer greatly, but seriously... it looks the same! I am real happy. I am still figuring stuff out so the going is slow but I am getting faster. Here are a few of my pages that are in process. There is no navigation yet...I am leaving that for tomorrow. I have also let the content run long for now until I can get everything placed then I will make a second page that can be linked to and will show the rest of the info.

Remaining Pages Due

Seriously...I cannot have everything done! I plan on bringing as much as I can to the critique so that I can get feedback. I need to develop some new and different pages this time so that I can get direction on those. I have not even thought about a home page. I have an idea for my timeline which I am super excited about but it requires some drawing. I removed everything off my chalkboard and have plastered it with webpage comps to try to make sense of how it is going to work from page to page.

The home page has to be pretty cool if the website is about Tim Burton. It also has to be creative and have some humor involved. No small task...I was kicking some ideas around with a friend and we stared thinking about the movie Batman that Tim Burton directed which led to a YouTube video of some weird parade balloons which then made me think about a movie clip I show in Design Theory from the musical Chicago. The scene is a creative take on a lawyer who is telling his client to lie to the press about how she murdered her boyfriend. In the scene he plays the role of a puppeteer. He is in control of the girl, the press and is totally enjoying it. I started to think about how Tim Burton has total creative control over his movies. He creates characters, spaces and environments that have his unique style. I decided to design the home page so that it has a hand holding the wooden puppet control. There are several strings dangling and at the end of each string will be a images that will link to different pages. The images correspond to the pages (i.e. a pocket watch for the timeline page). I think I am going to add an Edward Scissorhand that will appear to be trying to cut one of the strings to get some humor as well as some balance between that images.

The time line idea involves drawing a series of buildings that will "house" the various movies that he had directed. I will probably separate them by movie or by year depending on how many I need. I may try to do something with hovering on this one so that when the cursor runs over a portion of the building it will show characters from the movies that are shown in more detail when clicked on.

Second Critique

The last critique went well so I don't have to totally re-design which is always good. Dave had a good suggestion for me to use the background concept but keep the rough edges which I was planning on cutting out in the process. He also wants me to use the title graphic and Sweeney Todd image more like a constant on a page rather than a navigation so that it can be seen longer. I will also be keeping the tree but I am going to change the context. I will figure that out later. I need to have 3 different digital pages. I cannot think how to create the background and make it look right other than to just scan in my rendering so that is what I am going to do. I hope it doesn't look bad scanned. I am going to take several movies and use them for my various pages. Then hopefully I can get an idea for how to make the pages work like a template. We are supposed to show how the content will work on the page. I am struggling to work that out in my head. I have very little content shown on these pages but I plan to work on that next. In the mean time I have just left space for any content.

First Critique

I am nervous for the first critique. I know how we do ours but I have no idea how it will be over here and this time I am not running the critique (which definitely makes a difference). I am struggling to understand how websites work but I do know how to design so I will focus on my strength. I have so little time to make this all happen so I will be staying up most of the night to work on getting my ideas on paper and out of my head. We are supposed to bring 3 variations of a single page and a flow chart to show how everything is connected.

I was trying to find a way to start and was wondering around on the AIGA website for inspiration and I found a Modest Mouse music video that I watched/listened to over and over again all night long. I was totally inspired by the video. The concept is men having been at sea and them telling tales in a bar. The whole video is really cool but I focused my attention on a map that is used as a moving background. I loved the texture and how warn it looked. I also started thinking about how old movies used to have a more focused center of light that became darker on the edges. I started trying to render this idea and I was super happy when it actually looked right. It kind of looks mysterious. I want to focus on Sweeney Todd for my variations. I think that playing with the dark subject matter could prove interesting. I have never seen the movie so this will require some research.

I keep noticing that everything Tim Burton does has some sort of distorted tree. Actually if you look at his messy hair in an abstract way it too is kind of tree-like. I found some old illustrations that he had done and tried to do a tree in his style. I did a webpage that is completely white so that the color and images will pop. I had no idea for the last design so I designed a graphic last minute after I had seen some text turned at a 45 degree angle and thought that it might be interesting with various sized and directions. It turned out a lot better than I had planned. I wanted it to look distressed so I printed it out backwards and then ran a chartpak on the back side. I guess I will see what everyone says about it and then go back to work on it.

Where to start...

Assignment: Create a website with no less than 15 pages on any topic that can be comprehensively covered and that would be website worthy.

Me: So what I really care about other than the fact that I am building a website and learning the process, code and such is that I do something really visual. I am excited to create something from nothing. I kicked around a few ideas but I was not terribly exited about them until I came up with the idea of creating a website based on Tim Burton's work. Not only is his work interesting but it is very visual. I think I can get really creative ideas inspired by his work.