You are ready to go deeper, but don’t know how to swim…no prob. In a matter of a few of days, we can teach you the moves, and you will be a much better web architect because of it.

	You want to learn how to create, morph, and enslave graphics for your web site
	You want to learn a little coding
	You want to incorporate music in your site.
	You want to add video games to your site.
	You are not worried about getting out of your comfort zone
	You are totally radical about computers

Cool!

Hold on, how about an easier course? Maybe Hang10, or Boogie-Boarding

(links to HANG10 and BOOGIE)

Decide what your page will look like.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What kind of people do I want this site to appeal to?

What kind of an impression/message am I going to send?

How will the design of my site reflect my message or me?

Do I want a white, black, colored or pattern background?

What color will my text be?

Do I want a theme for my web site?

What kind of graphics will I display?

There are thousands of different programs to change (or optimize) graphics. It’s better to have a program more sophisticated then “paint”. On the other hand, you don’t have to go out and buy a $300 graphic program. In fact, I still use the old 1995 version of AdobePhotoDeluxe that came with my computer.

To download graphics from different web sites to disk, simply right click an image and choose “save image as…” You can then re-open the graphic in your graphics editor.

Can’t find the file after you save it? Try our help section on this topic.

There are few steps you can take when creating graphics for your site, here are some techniques to get you started.

Enslave Other People’s Objects

This is basically taking other people’s buttons and clipart, and changing it to fit your purposes.

For instance, I (Maegeek) was creating a spy site about one of the goofy teachers at school, I went to the Mission Impossible: 2 site, and saved the graphics to disk. Then, instead of having Tom Cruise on the movie poster, I stuck in my teacher, and painted way cool shades on him. I then cloned the fire over the “2”, and typed in “3”, and wrote “starring Mr. Howard”. The effect was awesome!

Morph Graphics

You copy several graphics from different sources, then fade one into another.

If you want an example of morph check out the Dave Mathew’s Band CD “Crash”, or the Live One Day project. You can also change the appearance of graphics individually to match the color or texture scheme of your site.

Copy Graphics

Copy various graphics, and paste each one on a button.

We did this with web architect. By simply cutting and pasting different graphics onto our buttons and headers, then adding our own text, we constructed a very original looking web site.

Torture Your Graphics

Pinch em, twirl em, change colors & backgrounds, stick different bodies with different heads…

I once did a “pop art gallery”. The Mona Lisa had cool sunglasses, a bright white smile-oh yeah, she was also a black-light purple; Monet’s bridge was over real water; and Munch’s screaming man was a little brighter shade of red. Phresh!

Using Your Own Photos

You can use your own photos to enslave / morph / copy / torture your graphics.

Starting From Scratch

We don’t really suggest this for a beginner, but do cover it in other courses.

Logo

Here's a list of our favorite logo creation tools:

WebGFX

Defiantly the best! Hundreds of different fonts, patterns and gradients. I use this all the time. HINT: Choose the format style "GIF", and make sure your background & shadow select is set on "None". This will allow for the image to match the background, and load faster.

http://www.webgfx.ch

Crecon

This popular site allows for you to choose from ready-made graphics, and simply display your text on top. If you want a creative looking image, go here. Eye catching yet not as many choices, and control features as WebGFX. It takes forever to load, but IMHO, is worth it.

http://www.crecon.com/banners/

Animated Banner Creator

Very low quality, but hey, the animation is defiantly worth it! It will allow for your text to spin, dissolve, flip, fry or explode. It also lets you choose the fonts and color of your text. Worth a try. It is kind of hard to use.

NOTE: The top of the page says it’s a 3D Text maker, which it is NOT, it’s an Animated Banner Creator.

http://www.3DtextMaker.com

Copyrights

Don’t forget to credit graphics/photos that you use. Read more about it here.

Click here to go to General Design Part II

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