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.

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.

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!