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val-lanto · 7 years ago

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Lanto Talks: #2 Frustrations, Minimalism and Backlogs (And another PSD)

A mixed bag of thoughts to shift through this time around. Won a challenge, didn’t place in the other for two pieces that I consider on the other sides of the spectrum of each other. We’ll cover that and my thoughts technically between two pieces themed around the same thing. And my eternal frustration when dealing with minimalism.

I’m not really good at being a humble winner nor a humble loser, so when I say I’m both bitter and surprised at the contest results, I do mean it. The two pieces in question are two Cioccolata pieces: MON WED FRI that documents just after his death and The Pinnacle Of Curiosity that focuses on Cioccolata’s background and story. Both based on panels, both expanding out, both relatively the same. Both filled with little details: Cioccolata’s earring appears in both; The flip phone to Secco appears in both; and both pieces have a hidden message in you’ll only see if you really zoom in or watch the speed art. Little details are my favourite thing to put in, all the little hidden things and Easter eggs. So, you’ll forgive me when the results of the competition had flipped the opposite way I had expected. The earlier piece, I believe is the best I’ve one in my newer art, and probably one of my favourites of all time. Enflamed by malice about something, I struck my heart and passion into painting every little detail. The level of touching up and painting to do within the piece was rather extreme. Blending the trash textures, making sure to take small bits of paper fold over each other. There was delicate attention to the detail like the licks of flames and under blurring for the layers of rubbish. The details and time it takes to layer flat textures with depth is something I never want do ever again. In turn, the other piece the number of corners I cut in the piece I won with was immense. A rushed piece sketched out just before the deadline to a friend over discord. The arm in the background is incorrect, the shadowing is wrong on the coat and the perspective on the able is laughable. The reflection on table is actually wrong too, the arm on both the tablet and the background mirror were done at different parts therefore inconsistent. upon retrospect, even the depth is lazy. It doesn’t have the finishing touches, those extra brushes that separate the former piece out. Then that moves me to a different angle, the difference between concept and technical ability.

There is always the “defence of concept”. It’s something I am always in two minds about. Every contest has a theme and thematic the judges are looking for. To do something as precise as that, even with the speed art makes it harder to notice or see. Further on, while I miss disagree with the winner of both contests, More so the former, there is always the different n concept. For a theme like “The More You See” there’s going to be a much more heavier weight on the concept. When I first stated signature making about 6 to 7 odd years ago now at Platinum Graphics, I used to be much more vehemently involved on this discussion and all in for concept over tech. Going against the nature of fifty same looking c4d and render sigs in favour of creative ones. The admin himself who I won in a battle to prove my voice about creativity over technical ability would always disagree with me. Coming full circle now, I seem too much to be on the other hand, vying for my technical ability and a balance rather than two pieces of stock blended with an essay. If we go way back there was a time where I thought many of my pieces that were boring, same and unmoving from the crowd, they are all technically competent at the least. Several dozen girls in long dresses doing things with nature, blah blah. Everywhere all I saw the same angels, vampires and fairies, I made explicit pieces in a fairy competition of a piece “killing” theories. There is a balance though between concept and technical ability. I made a series of manips taking a stab at the constant same 3 or 4 things I saw maniped. The “Jimmie series” of these four pieces, where taking the “boring” concepts like mermaids and that fisherman statue, but done under the story of a long hair wearing tentacle monster. They are technically, visually good with and interesting concept to marry with a story. I think this is where I peaked between balancing concept vs the technical side. I think where that balance lines comes back to where you personally sit on the sliding scale of personal taste.

That brings us to my two recent minimalism pieces for the Stewed Tomatoes contests I tried to test this a little but making two pieces I think were on the other side of the scale. One more technically profound, clean and playing with depth to create a jarring minimal piece but has no meaning and was strictly made with anything that could lead to a concept. It’s nonsense. The second piece, not so technically profound and filled with broken clip, incorrect perspective. Yet it’s endeared with a concept at every point. The blue and red. The black and white. The cross and the purposeful little description added onto it. All this is filled together to make a piece with a story deep with hidden meaning, symbolism but not as technically profound. I purposely crafted it alongside how I felt more what looked the best and placed a story alongside it. Of course, it means very little when it’s so personal, but having this outlook created two different pieces, with different flavours. One very cold, even down to the no humans or anything that’s “live in it” vs the very organic piece with the hands. It’s interesting making both with a set theme and a goal how I felt making them. I often found myself very stuck making the the rock one and you call tell in its speed art the indesciveness that lingers all around it. While conversely the more emotions ne gave a different type of frustrating about it not being fully what I had wanted. Originally I wanted a straight cross with hands crumbling into blackness with light at the top. Very late piece. But my heart was swayed by a different stock and such is the mess I went with. Perhaps it would have been more fitting and simpler, but not my style. Maybe I am just wholly incompatible with the concept of less is more. Perhaps I will see after the detail which one got more attention and get back to you. Personally, I prefer neither of them and wish the contest theme was something else. But if you never test your curiosity, how can you evolve, hm?

Taking a break from the challenges and endless backlog of things, for jjbararepairweek was also a mistake. I’m really far behind and my work has gained no other attention, nor care for it. This brings me to my feeling about continuing to make Jojo or fanart manips in general. It’s a struggle balance because none of the people who fanart is made for actually like and vice versa the photmanipers don’t seem to “Get” them unless I write down long explanations of what are they relate too. I suppose that is a balance most people face, but it’s annoying. Returning to just random photosmanips would be a good idea, but I fall utterly uninspired without the framework of a challenge or a goal. Nor the image and base to work off with trying to make things real like with my Jojo manips. When the odd thing comes up like Mad-Max-Kun from Jojolion appear then sure I might indulge into it but staying follow on it I a mistake. It’s tough to do both sides and the frustrations from rarepairweek unable to do the draw or edit the things I want.to is painful. Alongside the tutorials and PSDs seem to have fallen flat. Not to say my confidence has been knocked or I’m moaning that much, it just seems like misplaced effort if nobody cares or wants to indulge with it. I would rather the Tutorials on DA but because of dumb roundabout rules, I can’t. So the audience that would appreciate them simply can’t get to them, and vice versa. This is all very frustrating, no? But to sit on monthly challenges to carry my workflow seems useless. Anyway, to celebrate Mad Max Kun, here’s the PSD of the piece I made of him.

There’s some interesting contests coming up, I’ve sketched for an idea for the Dandelion Wishes contest that I am super hyped about….even if I doubt my skills to go through with it. The Doppleganger contest I’ve managed to push in a Cioccolata reference with. Although it will be one of those simple manips which requires to me to actually pay attention. I don’t have a lot of faith in myself but with both my Dolomite and Mad Max piece I pushed through it and got to the other end. So maybe I might surprise myself. Again, I just hope it doesn’t fall apart qt the concept. I suppose it’s worth it just to get more into and t least exist within the “Community”. No the irony is not lost on me the fact that I may complain about not much feedback when I spent almost a month forgetting to add my things to the proper groups outside of the Jojo one. Burned the bridge so hard with the only person who would care about Cioccolata I set pluto on fire. Advertising is always a pain and all my years of photomaniping I don’t know what my audience is.

I suppose, we can only march forward.

#Lanto Talks

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websitedevelopmenttoronto · 6 years ago

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Theme Development Process in Wordpress

In the 1st a part of this series concerning my WordPress theme style method, I lined, however, I am going concerning the idea and style part.

This post covers my method for developing a WordPress theme. That is, when the PSD mockup is complete, this can be however I am going concerning writing and making ready to unharness it as a business theme on Theme.

NOTE: this can be not meant to be a tutorial, however rather Pine Tree State sharing my personal vogue and method. I mention several technical aspects of new development here. If you’re unclear or curious about the additional detail on something mentioned here, let Pine Tree State apprehend within the comments and perhaps I’ll post Associate in a Nursing in-depth post concerning it!

First, the markup.

The panic finale has been my writing application of selection for the past two years some. a couple of months back I gave java an attempt, however, it didn’t follow Pine Tree State. The finale has everything I need: A clean interface, user-defined keyboard shortcuts & snippets, and an intrinsic seamless FTP consumer.

I begin by writing the most templates in valid XHTML and CSS. I’ve ne'er been one to use a CSS framework or pre-built example created by others (like the 960.gs). I favor creating each line of code my very own to confirm that each bit is optimized for this specific theme, with nothing leftover that I don’t would like.

That said, I even have crafted my very own “new theme” example, or set of files/folders if you'll. I’ve been tweaking and raising this set of templates over time. It to hurry up the method at the terribly starting by covering all the things that I invariably place in each theme. My starter example consists of:

Index.html – blank-slate hypertext mark-up language doc, as well as the doc kind, basic hypertext mark-up language page structure, and a decision to the style sheet.

reset.css – Created by Eric Meyer, with a couple of my very own tweaks. I haven’t invariably used this within the past, however recently I do. It’s sensible for creating things consistent across all browsers from the terribly starting.

style.css – This has all of the essential components of a typical WordPress theme style sheet, as well as the theme information declaration at the highest. It includes the clear fix technique, basic designs, and margins assail the common components like P, H1-h6, UL, OL, etc. It conjointly incorporates a few WordPress-specific designs that I do know I’ll like later like some basic comments designs, .align left, .align right, .align center, block quote, and a couple of alternative things.

Scripts folder – I invariably embrace jQuery here. I understand that WordPress has jQuery in-built, however, I’m 1st beginning with the static hypertext mark-up language templates, and thus I’ll like my very own copy of it. I even have the jQuery cycle script here as a result of I take advantage of it thus typically.

With my starter example dismissed up in the finale, and my finished mockup open in Photoshop, I purchase to figure on slicing and writing up the static hypertext mark-up language example. My goal here is to induce the maximum amount of the positioning structure and details coded as I will. The items I would like to possess coded at this stage are:

Overall structure and layout.

Typography, as well as the implementation of Cufon (my selection for font-replacement in business themes. For alternative sites, I am going with Type Kit).

jQuery enhancements. This includes dropdown menus, featured posts sliders (though I take advantage of static content for now), etc.

Widget styling. Again, mistreatment static content currently, however styling the markup to be used later in WordPress.

Most of the time, I’ll do a home page (index.html) and generic interior page (page.html). typically I’ll produce a further journal page if journal posts can have a singular layout or one thing. sometimes in website development, I'd implement a system of includes, sort of a world header and footer. However, since WordPress can have its own include/template system, I don’t trouble to make includes for the static hypertext mark-up language templates.

Browser Testing & Validation

When it involves browser testing, I invariably say check early and check typically. Some people don’t even consider id est. till they’re done writing everything. This can be a nasty plan, as a result of additional typically than not, id est. needs you to re-think your (perfectly logical) code and you’ll find yourself dalliance to travel back and re-code.

I favor checking all browsers as I am going on, particularly as every major piece is enforced. for instance, I’ll get my featured posts slider operating absolutely across all browsers before moving onto the remainder of the positioning.

To finish off the static hypertext mark-up language part, I place my pages through the W3C validator till that refreshing inexperienced lightweight seems.

Alternate colors

Most of the time I implement alternate color style sheets when doing the static hypertext mark-up language templates, however before group action WordPress. I do that in order that I will unharnessed the static hypertext mark-up language templates as their own product, with multiple color choices in-built.

The method I do that is solely by making further style sheets, that override specific designs and colors found within the main style sheet. Basically, I commit the most style sheet to be the “default” combination and use further style sheets for the opposite choices. I take terribly special care in selecting alternate colors. typically I’ll go to this point on choose and implement a combination, solely to trash it later as a result of I feel it’s not ok for unharnessed.

Time to integrate WordPress

Finally, the important fun begins…

I produce a contemporary installation of the most recent version of WordPress among the Theme demo section (this specific demo isn't live yet). Then I import some basic journal content. WPCandy incorporates a nice “test content” import file you'll transfer and use to quickly kindle a brand new demo web site. I even have created my very own version of this, that I feel works higher to showcase my themes on Theme.

Then I begin making the theme. For this, I even have created my very own personal starter example, that I even have named “Frame” (Framework + Theme, get it?). It’s not meant to be a WordPress Framework within the sense of the word. very simply a place to begin for my very own personal use. enclosed area unit a couple of things I favor to possess across all my themes:

The Theme choices panel – with basic choices enclosed. I’ll add additional choices specific to the current theme a small amount later.

Various SEO markup and example tag enhancements.

Some PHP functions I invariably use – like pictures and fingernail handling, registering widgets, a custom gizmo example, custom comments markup, custom excerpts, etc.

I duplicate Frame and rename it to the new theme name. Then I write the complete vogue.css file with the one I created earlier for the static hypertext mark-up language templates. currently we've got basic styling, however, the markup isn’t along, however.

I go line-by-line group action WordPress tags and functions with the markup I already created earlier. It’s simply a matter of pasting chunks of markup from the static hypertext mark-up language templates into the WordPress templates. I begin this method by putting in header.php, index.php, and footer.php as these three templates can essentially produce a page from prime to bottom. Then I’ll fill within the remainder of the example files.

Now is an honest time to re-test everything across all browsers.

The last part of WordPress integration is to implement all of the theme choices. This adds a further layer of example tweaks, turning static things into variables, adding inputs and sets of inputs to the Theme choices page, and curiosity.

Then, in fact, there's testing, testing, and additional testing. TIP: check at the hours of darkness, however, checks once more in the morning once you’ve had an honest night’s sleep. You’d be stunned what percentage belongings you miss once you’re bleary ox-eyed. Their area unit such a big amount of very little things that go in a WordPress theme development , it will take a full week simply to traffic all the loose ends.

That wraps up the WordPress development part. If you have got any queries on behalf of me, or if you have got a distinct approach you’d wish to share, please leave your thoughts within the comments.

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webdevelopmentcanada · 6 years ago

Text

Theme Development Process in Wordpress

In the 1st a part of this series concerning my WordPress theme style method, I lined, however, I am going concerning the idea and style part.

First, the markup.

Index.html – blank-slate hypertext mark-up language doc, as well as the doc kind, basic hypertext mark-up language page structure, and a decision to the style sheet.

Overall structure and layout.

Typography, as well as the implementation of Cufon (my selection for font-replacement in business themes. For alternative sites, I am going with Type Kit).

jQuery enhancements. This includes dropdown menus, featured posts sliders (though I take advantage of static content for now), etc.

Widget styling. Again, mistreatment static content currently, however styling the markup to be used later in WordPress.

Browser Testing & Validation

To finish off the static hypertext mark-up language part, I place my pages through the W3C validator till that refreshing inexperienced lightweight seems.

Alternate colors

Time to integrate WordPress

Finally, the important fun begins…

The Theme choices panel – with basic choices enclosed. I’ll add additional choices specific to the current theme a small amount later.

Various SEO markup and example tag enhancements.

Some PHP functions I invariably use – like pictures and fingernail handling, registering widgets, a custom gizmo example, custom comments markup, custom excerpts, etc.

Now is an honest time to re-test everything across all browsers.

0 notes

webdevelopmentcanad · 6 years ago

Text

Theme Development Process in Wordpress

In the 1st a part of this series concerning my WordPress theme style method, I lined, however, I am going concerning the idea and style part.

First, the markup.

Index.html – blank-slate hypertext mark-up language doc, as well as the doc kind, basic hypertext mark-up language page structure, and a decision to the style sheet.

Overall structure and layout.

Typography, as well as the implementation of Cufon (my selection for font-replacement in business themes. For alternative sites, I am going with Type Kit).

jQuery enhancements. This includes dropdown menus, featured posts sliders (though I take advantage of static content for now), etc.

Widget styling. Again, mistreatment static content currently, however styling the markup to be used later in WordPress.

Browser Testing & Validation

To finish off the static hypertext mark-up language part, I place my pages through the W3C validator till that refreshing inexperienced lightweight seems.

Alternate colors

Time to integrate WordPress

Finally, the important fun begins…

The Theme choices panel – with basic choices enclosed. I’ll add additional choices specific to the current theme a small amount later.

Various SEO markup and example tag enhancements.

Some PHP functions I invariably use – like pictures and fingernail handling, registering widgets, a custom gizmo example, custom comments markup, custom excerpts, etc.

Now is an honest time to re-test everything across all browsers.

0 notes