WebDesign/Animation/Multimedia (2 Viewers)

[lorigan85]

Listen guys,

Im into webdesigning and animation.
Im currently doing a course Multimedia Certificate II , im working to get my diploma after my HSC, through TAFE then hopefully find a job with that qualification.

If there are any other people looking for employment in my field. How are you going to the qualifications? What qualifications are you going to get, what kind of job are you looking for?

Cheers,
Lorigan85 (i been a lorigan since 1985)

 

[saladsurgery]

i thought about it, for a while. if you're considering uni courses at all, b digital media @ college of fine arts (UNSW) looked allright. big focus on new media, animation and cgi stuff from what i could gather. the course i ended up doing (b. design (visual communication) at UTS) is geared towards more traditional type stuff i think, but there's room for new media stuff as well. it's a long course though, 4 years, and you get trained in all sorts of stuff, typography, design history, etc etc.

i'm still not sure what area of design i want to work in though...

 

[johnson]

Originally posted by saladsurgery
i'm still not sure what area of design i want to work in though...

hmm, I think that's the good thing about your course, it doesn't limit you to just a specific area of design like mine does

 

[lorigan85]

saladsurgery: im not sure about that 4 years course..
what kind of things do you cover in your b. design (visual communication) at UTS?? so what kind of job are you after? graphics designer?

 

[Benovista]

I have been designing and making websites as a hobby for a few years and I am going to apply for IT web development diploma at Tafe next year. (goes for 2 years full time, 4 years part time)

Im looking to become a webdeveloper for anyone that will have me. But in this industry it is so easy to get work and start your own business. And you are not resticted to one area. You can do freelance work for client all around the world from the comfort of your own home.

 

[underthesun]

If you're into webdesigning, go learn back-end. Much more money there than just plain "designing". You'll be valued more in your workplace as well.

As for qualification.. they're expensive, take time, and the industry is relatively new. I mean, even most teachers wouldn't have more experience compared to courses in other field of employment eh? (e.g I got 10 years experience on flash etc.)

Freelancing, is a way to go, but it depends on your networking. How networked are you? Word of mouth advertisement would be the way to go if you decide to go that way.

 

[lorigan85]

yeah thanks alot, but isnt their alot of freelance and small businesses in the web development, area? would i make a living out of it..with competition, and so on? i say design because im also interested in advertising too!

 

[underthesun]

That, you gotta ask yourself.. are you competitive? Do you think you can be "the one" ?

You know, you wouldn't exactly compete, because if a person knows a web-designer that he heard from a friend, he'd more likely go to that person than go to a web-design firm on yellow page, or search on the net etc. Hence, competition, is really scarce on the freelancing level, as much as it seems to me.

However good you are in flash, or in php, no-one will ask you to do a job for them, if you aren't connected.

Btw this is what the experts have been saying at the flashkit forums, but you can trust them

 

[lorigan85]

 

[lorigan85]

just a quick Q. whats the standard dimensions for a website?

 

[del]

u talking as in resolution stuff?
i prefer to use tables with percentages such that the website will display properly from 800x600 and higher......

 

[lorigan85]

so 800 by 600 is standard , yea i know about the tables..thanks
just you know when you make the site to view for different browsers and at the start you go "best viewed" i need that.

 

[Fosweb]

make the move to css lorigan...
css is soo cool - you can do so much with it.
every browser will be able to 'properly' display it soon.
most can already - except for damn ie < 5 which has some annoying issues with the cooler facets of css... and mozilla plays up with some table border/spacing things, but that is probably because mozilla is right, and everyone else is wrong.

Use relative tables, that are a percentage width of the screen. Place everything inside another table and then you have centred content too.

Buy Dreamweaver MX. Hurry up while you are still a student. (Alternatively - steal it from somewhere...)
Or win it

Press the WWW button just down there too.

 

[lorigan85]

yeah i got dreamweaver. yeah i know about tables, i needed the dimensions because i was planning graphics like the banner, links bar, etc hey your page is damn fast. you got some good work too! good work.

 

[lorigan85]

dude: could you check out http://members.optusnet.com.au/lorigan/index1.htm and comment. im yet to put up my digital pics and other multimedia 'work' ive done. Also im trying to work out cgi scripts. So im pretty amateur as you can tell..but i like to learn different stuff. Do you know how you can have your own scroll bars? is it Java or html? its not hard, is it >

 

[del]

own coloured scroll bars? CSS

 

[Fosweb]

if you mean your 'own' scroll bars (like - not just different coloured ones) - you probably shouldnt. Changing the way people normally do things like scrolling is not good interface design.

There would probably be a JScript workaround, but it's not as nice as sticking to convention.

You can always use a layer in Dreamweaver, set its overflow to Auto, then position it where you want. But that uses standard scroll bars.

 

[Fosweb]

On cgi scripts... optusnet's hosting wont let you serve them anyway. I dont know of any free hosting places that do?

 

[underthesun]

Originally posted by Fosweb
if you mean your 'own' scroll bars (like - not just different coloured ones) - you probably shouldnt. Changing the way people normally do things like scrolling is not good interface design.

There would probably be a JScript workaround, but it's not as nice as sticking to convention.

You can always use a layer in Dreamweaver, set its overflow to Auto, then position it where you want. But that uses standard scroll bars.

Yep, stick with standards. Jakob Nielsen recommends it

If you're going to learn something new, why not flash? Flash 7 is coming out soon, as the beta player is already available.

 

[lorigan85]

man im still getting use to Flash MX. CSS arnt they the style sheets you get in Dreamweaver? hmm yeah probably to complex just sometimes they are effective with the color scheme. Optusnet doesnt allow cgi scripts?! what? how do u know that..damn!