Recommendations for aspiring Web Designer

talk random
1

I have a real interest in web design. I self taught HTML to myself, and recently learned the macromedia products last year, which I love. Iā€™m still learning, but I absolutely love designing sites! I start college in the fall. Is there any suggestions anyone would recommend to me to help me reach my goal? ā€¦as far as what to learn and such? Iā€™ve toured a lot of flash sites people have posted here, and theyā€™re awesome! Theyā€™re are so many talented people on this board. Itā€™s amazing! If you have any suggestions, Iā€™d greatly appreciate it. thanks

maria-

2

practice a LOT!

3

Yup, that about covers it. :thumb:

Practice and learn as much as you can, well, without it getting in the way of your studies of course.

Edit: Youā€™re already off to a good start - Kirupaforums.com

4

a girl!! :beam:

:love:

5

Yeah, Iā€™ve been practicing a lot. I wish I would have known about macromedia a long time ago! Iā€™ve been buying books this summer to learn a lot more. Iā€™ve taken a full year of web design. In the fall Iā€™m taking Digital imaging and a basic design course. There are only a few computer courses that transfer over to my next college. Thereā€™s so many things I want to learn, but it seems like I have so little time to learn it! lol

maria-

6

Believe me, I also wished I had discovered Flash sooner than I did.

7

I used to feel the same, so much to learn, but no time! I recommend u to learn one thing at a time, and learn it good, then pass to another thing :slight_smile:

8

yeah, it seems to work best doing one thing at a time. Sometimes Iā€™m tempted to skip the beginning of a book and just go to the end where all the cool advance stuff is. Then I stop myself and sayā€¦youā€™ve gotta know the basics to get the advanced. lol.

I made my first flash site for a comic book store as a school project in the early spring. He loves the site, but hasnā€™t been able to put it on the web yet. I have the site on a file. Is there a way, I could post it and see what you all think of it, or do I have to put it on the web?

this is a little off-subject. But all the sites Iā€™ve seen so far have really cool sound effects when you mouse-over something or when it transitions. I was wondering, where do you get them from? lol. dumb question probably.

maria-

9

Itā€™s not a dumb question, if you do a search (Google) for sound bytes youā€™ll get plenty of hits.

And as far as posting the site, you could upload it to a free web hosting service (freewebs.com) and post that in the Showcase & Critiques section of the forums.

10

I make my own sounds with a keyboard.

works well

with google it is hard to find a ā€œcustomā€ sounds
I think there are programs like sound forge also to make sounds

11

yea, sound forge is a good option, I have it but dont know how to use it

Looking forward to see ur site flashback (that reminded me a snes game)

:slight_smile:

12

Sound Forge is good.

If you wanted to make music out of those sounds, or even if you didnā€™t make your own sounds, FL Studio is good.

13

nononono flashkit is the best for free website soundFX. all categorised :smiley:

14

Hmmm, I donā€™t know about thatā€¦

15

> Dont ever forget the basics.
> Keep Learning.
> Dont cheat but create.
> Never Give Up.
> Always keep Your Feet on Ground.
> Be Active in D & D Forum.
> Better if u experiment and learn stuff online, rather then being a book worm.

I also taught myself html, dhtml, flash, Dw, Swift 3d, Adobe, Learning & Experimenting at maya and 3d max rightnowā€¦all by myselfā€¦so

> DONT STOP

:slight_smile:

16

How I come up with a design is to decide on images Iā€™d like to use. Thinking about the clients and the style of site Iā€™m trying to acheive Iā€™ll come up with the images Iā€™d like to use and then from the images a colour scheme. If youā€™ve got 3 out of 5 images with a blue tone then a green site does kind of seem odd.

Iā€™d also recommend looking at other sites, writing down what you liked about the site and what you didnā€™t. Once youā€™ve looked at a few add notes about what youn think would improve their designs and from there youā€™ll begin to have your own ideas.

And you said youā€™d learned the Macromedia projects, Iā€™d recommend learning Adobe Photoshop. I highly recommend it :thumb:

edit: Also I recommend books, Iā€™ve got one of Hillman Curtisā€™s and I canā€™t recommend it enough.

17

I start college next week, and it doesnā€™t look like Iā€™ll be able to finish my fan site before then. Sorry it took so long to respond on this thread. Iā€™ve been working a LOT! I suppose I could post my current layout of my site. Itā€™s strictly html that I fiddled around with over the years.

I made my introduction with flash and my index page recently. I didnā€™t link any buttons because I didnā€™t finish the site. But if you type /index3.html after /jessicaandrewsdirect/ (deleting everything after that) you will come to my old layout with the html. I made the graphic at the top with paintshop pro. Iā€™m taking a photoshop class this fall, which I look forward to.

My old layout is simple because I donā€™t know all the advanced scripting and things that flash could do or something. I like my forms under ā€˜the fansā€™ links. Thatā€™s one problem Iā€™m having now with flashā€¦I canā€™t get the forms to send to my e-mail address. Let me know what you all think of my old layout. As soon as my new layout with flash is done, Iā€™ll be sure to put it up.

I wish I had more time to experiment with flash and its cool entries, motion tweens, and soundsā€¦but now summer is practically over, and school starts! I didnā€™t even finish the flash book I was working on. I appreciate everyoneā€™s suggestions and I hope to slowly improve as I learn more. Thanks again.