Finally Back!

Haven't been to this page in a little while...been pretty busy! After rebuilding the Art Studio and then the Web Studio and then the Art Studio again, I've put the art up on a couple of gallery sites and I'm going to do the same for the website templates as soon as I do a little bit of research and find some decent places to go. Someone left a comment on this blog about one a while back...I guess I'll check that out first. In the meantime, I also updated all my local "advertising".

That being said, once the web templates are up somewhere, I'm going to turn my attention to the Tech Studio. I've been kicking an idea around for quite a while now and I think it's time to try and make it happen. Well, a couple of ideas, actually. But I have to get some business cards (my wife laughs at me...she knows nothing)...and do up a little brochure. I'm hoping that if I can supply the paper she can print them up at work.

This has been a test to see if the wife is actually reading my blog.

Anyway, ya, I've got to get that happening. But I've got to remember...one thing at a time! And I still have a logo design to finish for an actual client...

Moving Forward!

So I have half of the new template videos done now...sometimes life cooperates, and sometimes not...but I decided to do all the videos at once and then post them all together, instead of one at a time. It will help me to maintain focus and stay in the zone, and get them all out faster in the end anyway, I'm sure. But don't ask...no more peaking until then!

I have to add some new links to the Infodesk too...give some love to Paul Irish and Jason Shaw...but it's too late and I'm too tired to do it properly now. I hope they don't mind waiting a few days.

After that, I hope to be able to slow down the frantic pace...once all the updating is done I can relax a bit and spread things out a little more...there's always something for me to finish....at least I have a nice new workroom now! Pics will come of the new setup once I clean up a bit in here...I get complacent in the winter—hibernation mode.

Anyway, on a completely unrelated topic...I'm on this job; client wants a logo done. OK, no problem. My go-to sketch artist is awesome. Trying to get together with him for the first two weeks was a nightmare...both of us have two kids and other jobs...and neither of us drive. I wanted to give him an extra scanner I had so we wouldn't run into this problem anymore. FINALLY we get together and the scanner is good to go...I get my first rough sketch....them boom, nothing for a week. I'm not too worried, but... Turns out he and his family were brutally ill. Sh*t happens. Anyway, client has kids, he knows; besides, he seems in no big hurry—he has some licencing research to do, I think...:) Hopefully I'll get something to work on soon!

This has been a small update. I am going to bed now.

Version 5.4 Coming Soon!

After the last big update to the Art Studio, the obvious choice was to turn my attention back to the Web Studio for a while. So I updated all the templates, created a new page on the blog to provide more information, and am dropping the purchase option and going strictly to licencing. Now I just have to revamp the text, do new videos, and I should be good to go.

I also whipped up another new offering in the genealogy series. Here's a preview for you.

    

It's a mash-up of the Family Tree (obviously) and a version of ASAW that I did years ago. Like version 3 of the Family Tree template, the grab-and-drag window is compatible with touch screen devices.

Current upgrades still include Legacy IE support for XP users, and Username/Password Protection for creating private sites. The next planned upgrade is full compatibility for mobile devices through responsive design via conditional stylesheets.

I started the mobile platform for the main site late last year before doing that Secret Santa piece for the pub xmas party that got me spending the next two months painting and redoing the Art Studio. It was kind of slow going...then I did the update for my Curriculum Vitae template and since it seemed like an obvious necessity, I designed it that way and everything just clicked for me...so I'll be using the same approach when I do the main site, and then the upgrade for the templates.

Well, on to the update!

New Artworks Coming soon to C2Kstudios!

Happy New Year Everyone! Things have been pretty hectic around here lately...now, I know I'm not the most prolific blogger; but with three jobs, and two kids, I would hope that you could hardly blame me...and you can always be sure that I'll keep you updated on all the BIG events happening here at C2Kstudios!

I also tend to hyper-focus on projects; sometimes certain things just have to sit and wait while other things are getting done...it's the only way I can really accomplish anything...otherwise, I try to do too much at once and have a bunch of projects on the go at the same time and then nothing gets done. That was a big problem for me for a while, until I got to ver.3 of the website and started getting into coding the HTML5 templates...after doing nothing but that for a few months back in the middle of last year, I just ran with it and now I'm at version 5 and soon, I will be going on to mobify the main site and the offer the option for the templates.

But as does often happen, I get distracted or sidetracked or something comes up and then I go on a completely different tangent for a while...that's what's happening now.

Now, I need a creative outlet; doesn't really matter what it is; as long as I'm creating and I enjoy doing it. Well, one of the things I really enjoy doing is cooking; as such I maintain a position as a cook at a pub around the corner from 24 Sussex, where the PM comes to eat sometimes. Anyway, for this past Christmas I got a bunch of new art supplies; so for our Christmas party, I did a piece for one of my colleagues as a secret Santa gift, and that got me the painting bug again.

Play On ©2013

So I built myself a workspace and since then I've gone back and finished a few works that had been sitting around for a while:

Vortex ©2014

Eddy ©2014

Then I went and reduxed a couple pieces that I thought were done, but that really needed something more...

At Right Angles ©2014(final)

Not A Perfect Circle ©2014(final)

...and started experimenting with different techniques:

A Painting of Ice and Fire ©2014

...all this is leading up to a major update coming soon to the Art Studio; I'm also going to scrap the Flash powered artwall in anticipation of the more responsive mobile design...I can't really believe I let myself use Flash in the first place...that was pretty dumb. So ya, once I get a few more pieces under the belt and I go back to updating the site, I'll probably jump back into the coding again. I want to do some more genealogy website templates...they're the ones that are generating the most interest right now.

5.1 Online Already and more Mobile Friendly

So let me preface this post by making a confession: I do not have a cell phone. Never really needed one. I've been home with the kids for 7 years, I have other interests (expenses), and, I live in Canada...so I simply cannot justify the cost.

My wife was issued a cell phone for her job but it was a POS Blackberry and because of security she couldn't really access the internet on it anyway.

So I guess I never really though about it. Well this week she started a new job and got a better phone...and before we see what kind of new rules are going to kick in about using the thing I got on it and had a look at the site...holy crap(!) I should have known about the fixed nav. If I had been more concerned about mobile viewing I suppose I would have. Responsive design just isn't something I've been able to take a hard look at yet, and I thought just offering the scalable viewport would be enough. Oops.

And so now C2Kstudios 5.1 is more mobile friendly. I scraped the fixed nav and added a more complete footer nav. At this point, the idea of making a separate mobile site just seems like overkill. Although at some point, it would be good to learn how to do it.

C2Kstudios 5.0 Online Two Months Early!

I was planning to relaunch the new site in January. I gave myself a month to do the rebuild; it took me about 10 days. I really didn't see any reason to wait, so she's now online. I realized that redoing all the graphics was foolish...you don't want to change too much and lose your brand familiarity (ha!) but I knew that I wanted to go dark with the new site and I knew that certain elements were being overused. Playing around too much with the structure and interface of the site is not a good idea either; it's better to implement changes like that more slowly.

Yet I feel justified in calling this a major version update. Not only has the styling changed markedly, but the update also included quite the back end rebuild. Every time I come back to a project I have learned more and more, and there was a lot of valid, but redundant or otherwise unnecessary code in the html and the css that was cleaned up considerably. Also, all the social media and merchant graphics were updated, as well.

Next up? I'm not sure yet...but I'll let you know!

C2Kstudios Media Design Factory v5.0

New Update Online for Winter 2014

So after re-vamping some of my older templates, I decided to move ahead with an idea I've been kicking around for a while...formatting and hosting online CVs for people. Here's the basic spiel:


Why fight the hassle of registering and searching giant conglomerate job sites that are rife with Cutco jobs, fly-by-nighters and scam artists?

Why offer a potential employer the chance to look at your CV alongside hundreds or thousands of others?

Why spend your precious time and money printing and handing out paper resumes?

Give your target audience a direct link to a clean, professional looking CV that is JUST YOU. Show your initiative, and spend your time researching potential employers to email directly; don't waste it digging through convoluted job sites for a diamond in the rough.

Just provide your info, and C2Kstudios will provide the format and a month of hosting for your digital resume. Supply your own domain name or use C2Kstudios.com/yourpage and start emailing potential employers right away.

Be the diamond. Get your CV hosted with C2Kstudios today, and start contacting those potential employers directly...today!

For more details, please visit:

C2Kstudios.com/web#cvs

I replaced the Fiverr aside in the Web Studio...I haven't completely dropped it yet, but it's definitely been more trouble than it's worth. If you don't visit your account at least once a week they suspend your gigs until you reactivate them and then half the time it doesn't work properly so you have to contact them to fix it. I don't have time for that kind of nonsense. I'm thinking of taking my three basic Fiverr templates and turning them into a 3-pack for the main site. After that, Fiverr is dead to me.

In the meantime, I'll be reduxing the rest of my older templates, and finding some more places to advertise...most of the local online business directories here leave much to be desired. Besides, I need to start making a broader reach. Once all the updating is finally done I'll be able to spend some time and do some quality research.

Fresh Videos and a New Template Online Now!

Inspired by the number of views the Family Tree Template was receiving over all the other offerings, I decided to start making more genealogy inspired websites. My latest creation is the Family Albums Template, featuring a JQuery booklet plugin for making albums with grab-and-drag capability.

I had originally placed the albums directly in the index file, but soon realized that that would soon make it very LARGE so I opted for iframes instead. 

The booklet plug-in is pretty versatile, though it does have some issues. Nothing that I couldn't work around or do without, but still, it would be nice to figure out how to put a border-radius on the inner pages, or offer multiple album covers, or get the custom cursor to work through the script like it says it can...but that's why I offer free lifetime updates...a lot of that stuff gets solved eventually, the more I play around with it.

Well, here it is—the Family Albums Template!

I'm going to have to go back and take a closer look at that Google+ account... it still has not unlinked itself from the YouTube channel.

Introducing the Family Cloud Template

The next family site template is online: The Family Cloud Template features an interactive tagcloud window, the Harmony Background Canvas, and photo lightbox. Despite the two very vexing issues with Chrome, I still chose it for the video demo. Chrome on Vista (and I think 7 and 8 too) will not render rounded corners on the canvas element...I spent half an afternoon trying to solve that problem before I realized it was a bug that couldn't be solved (not by me, anyway)...it's also the only browser that I cannot make show the forward/back buttons in the infocloud (popup) windows through the JS string parameters...I'd have to install a bunch of extra code that is a headache I just don't need. Anyway, that's why it's a template, right? Well, here is the video...looks like my attempt to remove Google+ without having to completely delete my channel and start over didn't take... you can also see it here in the Video Studio.

     

Family Tree Website Template version 2.0 now online!

So last week, I sold a Family Tree Website Template. I had an update that was not yet posted, and after a bit of correspondence I whipped up a short demo vid and posted it to the Video Studio to show the client—which I think sealed the deal. Anyway, going back to delete the demo vid I took a closer look at the viewer stats...and discovered that the Family Tree template had about EIGHT TIMES as many views as anything else...so I though hey...maybe I should start pumping out the family tree templates.

So that's going to be the next project. Genealogy is so hot right now. Well, here is the new demo video...Enjoy!

Hmm...So a while back YouTube One Channel forced me to make the switch and then Google+ rolled in and screwed everything up...and now apparently because the videos on the YouTube Channel are associated with the new account they won't connect to here...grrr. Well, I'm dropping that piece of garbage, but they say it might take a couple of days. In the meantime, here's a direct upload.

Summer's over AGAIN...and C2Kstudios is back fresh for Autumn!

It's hard to believe summer is almost over again for another year...and it isn't. It didn't really seem like it at the time but it did go by pretty fast. I'm working a couple of jobs, and taking care of the kids, and trying to have a modest social life...we went camping a few times, which was really nice. It's good for everyone to get back to nature once in a while.

I got some hardware upgraded—a new video card—and, as always happens around here, someone left a completely mint piece of equipment out for recycling...so now I have another widescreen monitor, too. How apropos was that? You'd be surprised how often that happens around here...at least to me. Just one more thing to love about this neighbourhood!

Oh, and I picked up a discarded computer from another neighbour, fixed 'er up, upgraded my modem and now we've got a nice little home network going! Sweet!

So, now that the oldest is back in school, and work has slowed a bit as the weather has not been so agreeable to patio sitting lately, I've turned my attention to updating the main site. She's still in Version 4; I won't be rolling out a major redux until after the new year, but 4.2 offers some interesting improvements.

First, and most significantly, I've dumped all Google services from the site. The first, being Google Analytics, was an easy sale. It stopped working suddenly on August 1st after a major update and after doing a bit of research I realized two things: a) mine was not the type of site that was going to get a lot of priority in terms of prompt service, and b) people are becoming more aware and concerned about how their online data is being mined and utilized by huge conglomerates like Google. So I went with Piwik.org. Holy cr*p it's awesome! Too bad I didn't find it sooner. And for those that are concerned about their privacy, there is also now an opt-out option located at the Infodesk.

I also removed Chrome Frame, created conditional stylesheets for IE 8 and 7, and provided a section on Legacy Support.

I added a Flash photo gallery to the Art Studio in the hopes of perhaps, this winter, having the chance to add to my portfolio. The little one is still a year away from kindergarten and it would be fun on those cold days to do some art together!

So the fall roll-out will happen in the next week or so...I just want to make sure all the graphics are updated across the C2Knetwork and that all the other little adjustments are taken care of. So ya...off I go!

Fiverr Gigs Online Now!

Oops! I started this post but never finished it...better late than never I suppose!

Fiverr gigs are online now at Fiverr.com/C2Kstudios. Currently I am offering seven different web templates, and some graphics packages. They were already there just waiting to be adapted to aid in the strategy that is why I put C2Kstudios on Fiverr in the first place: for some more exposure outside the Ottawa area.

Now, granted...most of my research indicates that there are a LOT of scammers on there...and that the site's admin team may or may not be the most capable...but then again, the auto-filters are tuned pretty high, so if you are doing shady things chances are you're going to get pinched...and then kicked off and those are the people who are going to complain the loudest, right? That's usually how it is. So you can't believe everything you read on the internet. Go figure. 

Anyway, all I do know is that I'm not a scammer, and as such I try to run as legit-looking an operation as possible. So when someone asks me if I'm able to convert a bunch of copyrighted images to icons, I say no.

The demo videos are online now on the C2Kstudios YouTube Channel!

Phase Two is Almost Complete...

So once the new site was up and running it was right on to Phase Two of the new marketing strategy... expanding into the global marketplace. I've been dabbling here and there with different things but now is the time to implement an actual plan. So the plan is to release a series of very simple website templates for sale on fiverr.com. If you've never heard of it, it's a site where you can offer or solicit goods and services for $5. The idea is to drive traffic to the main site where I will offer the more elaborate templates for licence or purchase.

My hope is to attract programmers who may not be as good at design....there are a lot of "needs improvement" type sites out there. I've always described myself as a designer who can do basic programming. It's the programmers who can do basic design that I'm trying to target.

The Fiverr Templates video is now showing on the C2Kstudios YouTube Channel!

The Fiverr release update is coming soon to C2Kstudios.com!

The Spring Update is Live Now!

The Spring 2013 update is online at C2Kstudios.com! About a month behind schedule, but with two kids and four jobs, "schedule" for me is really a state of mind... technically I should have started a month earlier?...

Anyway, it's all there now. Enjoy.

The New Videos

So as I was updating the main site it came to the point where I had to think about my videos...not just doing the new template demos, but because I had used website services to create my ads and video intros, I knew I'd need to secure commercial usage rights before I made a real push beyond just local advertising.

So I went to Xtranormal and Animoto and not only are the prices they are asking completely ridonkulous, but some of the wording in the TOS was pretty sketch...so I had to find another solution.

What I found was a plug-in for Windows Movie Maker, of all things...$15 and I got a sh*tload of extra effects and transitions right off the bat, and access to loads more when I want to go through the list...and, if you're comfortable with XML (which, eahhhhhh....) you can make changes to add colors and photo backgrounds and things like that. Anyway, if you use WMM 6 it's worth a look: www.rehanfx.org/shader.htm.

I was running my videos through 3 different programs because I wanted different things for the titles, the effects, and the overlays...they're all nice programs, but alas, not the fancy (expensive) all-in-one suite that I wish I had...well, I do have one, but it's like, 10 years old, and cannot do 16:9; but now that I have this plug-in, she's dead to me.

So, problem one: solved. But that still left me with my second obstacle—music. I needed some cheap (free) commercial-use audio tracks...and I found some of those, too. Partners In Rhyme has a small collection of royalty-free, completely free, music loops that I was able to parlay into soundtracks for my first run of videos. They also have a deal where if you give them a shout-out on your website or blog (like this one!) they will send you a link to to a more extensive sound library...so check out www.partnersinrhyme.com and tell them C2Kstudios sent you...ha ha! Anyway, they'll be going on the new Links page for sure. Oh, and a special thanks to Mark Lyford, who seems to have written at least some of the tracks that I used.

So after all of that, here's the first (again!) promo video from C2Kstudios:

Check out the rest of the new videos on the C2Kstudios YouTube Channel!

Spring Update Coming Soon!

So once again, winter has been reasonably productive; no brutal illnesses this year, but the general malaise was pretty constant. I truly despise the winters here. It's March 21 and it feels like February 12. Meanwhile, back home Mom is out in the yard getting her gardens ready for planting...sucks, dude.

But the new site update is going well. Again, just a little slowly. The actually paying jobs have to take priority, right? But here is a teaser shot:

Recently I've run into a couple of major snags. I've been playing around on Xtranormal.com for a while, but now, since things are starting to come together and I plan to really reach out globally soon as opposed to just sort of locally, I have to really be cognizant of the legal issues regarding what content I can use.

Turns out Xtranormal.com charges $50/month for commercial usage...that's too rich for my blood right now, but even if it weren't, when you read the TOS the whole thing starts to sound not worth it so much. I guess to a corporation what's $50 a month but to someone like me...so I've had to retire Joe Robot (for now) and come up with a new marketing strategy. I have one, but now I just have to spend time and energy on it that I have to find somehow. There isn't much of either to go around right now.

Animoto.com was another gem that I would have liked to incorporate but at $25/month that too is still too much for me right now.

So ya, it looks like I'm going to have to redo ALL of my videos. Poo.

SO...is there anyone out there who wants to be in a commercial for C2Kstudios.com? I want to do an ad campaign that asks the question, "What is C2Kstudios.com? With random people on camera saying things like: "it is the dream you were having that night when you woke up the next morning and knew that, if only you could remember what it was, it would change your life forever"... really silly and grandiose things like that. Or if you don't want to be on video just send your ideas to webmaster@c2kstudios.com and I'll put them on cards and just walk around and ask random people to read them out. Should be hilarious.

Oops!

Wednesday, January 23

I've been plugging away at the HTML5 templates as of late...working on marking up some template chassis that I can use to make my templates with quickly. I was doing all my testing on the server and until now that hasn't been a problem, but my one master page is getting pretty big, with lots of 'modules' like photo galleries and videos, and when I'm doing testing I have up to 8 browsers open on my two main machines so I can see it like 90% of people out there are going to see it.

I guess the server didn't like that...I got suspended for the day for high CPU usage...the first time I thought it was all the browsers so the next day I stuck just to Chrome but it happened again...d'oh!

So I pulled the template vault off of the server and now I'll be doing all my back-end development off-line. I'll just upload each template for final testing....they'll be much smaller than the big master files.

Along with the new roll-out will come the next version of C2Kstudios.com...so there's something else to look forward to! I wanted to be done by the end of January, but these days, with the kids, this is just proving to be a horrible time of year. I wish I could take some solace in the knowledge that everything that we'll be exposed to over the next couple of decades will leave us with iron-clad immune systems for our later years...but sadly, I think those days are long gone....

Saturday, January 26

So late Tuesday night a friend of mine asked me a question on FB about his power supply...and the next day, mine started making a very unnerving noise. Right when I stopped writing this post on Wednesday, in fact.  Such is my life. Anyone who's read the Celestine Prophecy will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I pulled it out, (gave the whole chassis a good cleaning while I was in there of course), and sure enough, the fan was now settling against the base of the shaft...i could hear it moving in there when I'd turn it over...So that night after dinner it was a bus-ride down to good old Canada Computers for a new one...thankfully, it wasn't too cold outside that night. Thursday I spent re-wiring everything; I made a couple of minor improvements to some connections and the position of my subwoofer but otherwise everything is pretty much the back to the way it was. I had thought about putting my second machine up off the floor, but that would mean putting it out of reach. On Friday the Bean had a PD day from school so I took the girls out for breakfast and hot chocolate at the pub where I work weekends. And now, it's on to the templates!

I'm pretty happy now with the "template chassis" I've been working on the last couple of weeks...the ones that were giving me trouble with the server... I've built them like frameworks with modules that I can take and create a template out of pretty quickly. They're colour-coded too, so it's easy to see across all browsers how margins are behaving and things like that. The main one is especially large; these are shots from Chrome at max zoom-out:

The rest are for different formats, menus, borders, things like that. So guess what I'm off to work on right now?

Ho Ho HoTML5 Templates!

So for the last few weeks I've been slowly working my way back through my current selection of HTML5 templates...updating them and getting them ready for the new roll-out. Doing some end of year maintenance and gearing up for the holidays...so I won't really be doing anything major again now until after the new year.

Here are a couple of template preview pics...I'll be redoing the demo videos and posting them to YouTube.

  

I had to go through my graphics inventory and make sure (as sure as is reasonable, anyway) that all the fonts and images and other media I'm using is all legit for commercial use and resale....I think I'm pretty much set now.

Also started a new ad campaign for the social mediaverse...this is just the first tiny sampler:

Have a Merry Christmas and we'll meet again after the holidays!

C2Kstudios

Going to Get There Soon!

So I have this idea about a new marketing strategy that entails me pumping out these HTML5 templates. I'm wondering how it will play if I advertise them as hand-made (they're all hand-coded now, no Wordpress or other builder software used), uniquely tailored sites that are almost like works of art...my plan is to make really basic ones available through sites like Fiverr and then offer more elaborate ones on C2Kstudios.com. I'm also going to look into sites like Odesk; I can also offer extra services like hosting, PHP security and basic SEO setup - making sure that the meta tags are up to par. Building quality backlinks is a lot of legwork - that's how SEO companies make their money, is through their networks and affiliates - you're basically paying for access to already well-established lists of sites. Building backlinks is not what I want to be spending my time doing. I think I might know someone with access to that kind of thing...it could prove to be a great partnership if that's the case. I need to ask a few more pointed questions, though.

Right now I'm working on a rebuild of my family history website, and once that's done I'll be able to throw all my effort into getting some templates up and putting the word out. I've got years of inspiration to fall back on, as I intend to go back and rebuild some of the old ASAW sites into templates, too.

I intend on updating the main site alongside as well to emphasize the hand-coded aspect. You're not going to get something that looks like another Wordpress blog. Keeping in mind that I am completely self-taught - as I get more and more fluent with the code the designs are flowing easier.

The Fall 2012 Update is now Online at C2Kstudios!

So for the past few months I've been coding like mad...first building the family site, then it was on to recoding the three main sites into templates for use in my upcoming marketing strategy...now I'm in the updating phase...main site, kids' site, family site....all the while cultivating my battle plan for advertising...I haven't really done much of that this year...but I definitely want to focus my attention on the templates and basic coding jobs that i might be able to garner from sites like Fiverr and ODesk...but I want to have all this other stuff out of the way first before I start on that...I'm going to want to put all my efforts into it. Right now, between having the kid during the day and the job at the pub, time management is the only thing making any of this possible, and the only way for me to so that right now is one thing at a time.

So, obviously, I'm updating all the social media stuff right now, too. So here are some updated images for you!

C2Kstudios.com