With that mindset, businesses that have no “business” (punny isn’t it) offering web design services are doing so simply for the sake of marketing and search engine results. I know what you’re thinking, “Isn’t that what a website is for, to generate business?”.  Without a doubt, absolutely, positively yes. A website that doesn’t result in more business or public interest is not doing what it’s supposed to do.

But…

If you need a vehicle, and have the budget to purchase a brand new (insert model here), would it make any sense to purchase a raggedy rust bucket for the same price?  No!  That’s what is so silly about some of these advertising agencies that offer web pages.  For the same investment, a halfway competent web guy can put something together that not only looks professional, but features built in search engine optimization.

There are several easy to use platforms for web development out there. I use and recommend WordPress to all of my clients and colleagues for any type of web application. You can integrate nearly anything with it with a few clicks and it is so simple to use that you can give newbies (nubs) access to it to publish their own content.

This one will was the first I watched about the basic head-shot but you really get so much more out of it.

This one is absolutely essential for learning basic photoshop editing and retouching.

I had to take a few impromptu shots at work the other day and since I have not gotten any equipment other than the camera body and kit lens, I had to make the most of ambient light and really tweak the settings to get a usable shot.

Then I photoshop’d the crap out of it!

See if you can spot all the edits I made.

1. Removed electrical wires from above his head
2. Color correction for the ugly red shoplight in the background
3. extended the beam (on the right side of his face)
4. removed the camera lanyard hanging out of his shirt pocket
5. Adjusted exposure, Color Balance.
6. Darkened area between newly extended beam and duct to cover messy edits.

All in all, I still have plenty of things about this shot that annoy me but I made the best of a limited situation.

This shot was taken underneath a house we were testing, with the crawlspace door open and a shop light in the background. Just to get a usable image, I had to crank the shutter speed way down and turn the iso up.

He took advantage of the fact that my facebook account info is stored in the browser and posted one of those generic “Andy is the coolest guy” phrases. It’s obviously a hack so I’m not getting all bent out of shape about it… BUT… I am going to get him back.

To the hacker:

Andy, if you’re reading this… What possible thought process did you follow that lead you to believe that this would end well for you. You know I have a copy of photoshop. You know that I have access to picture after picture of you on facebook. A chess fanatic like yourself should have seen this coming.

I am impressed that you didn’t giggle when you posted it and you let me find out about it on my own. It must mean you take pranking/hacking seriously and I can respect that. However; I can not let this go with out a response.

I thought about hacking your account back and returning the favor but that’s just not my style. After much thought, I have come to the decision of blackmail. You have 72 hours to issue an apology on my facebook wall or I will post a link to this page and this lovely picture of you hanging out at a cross-dressers convention. I cropped your innocent wife out of the picture because she has the common sense not to hack a geek.

I’m not mad or anything. I’m laughing my head off at the picture as I’m sure the rest of facebook will do.  I have even written an example apology that you can copy and paste. (see how considerate I am)

A simple apology like this will do:

Will, I hacked your account and said that I was the coolest guy. I realize the error of my ways and that your photoshop and blackmailing skills trump my hacking skills. It is you who is the coolest guy. I apologize and humbly request that you hold up your end of the deal and remove that picture from your blog.

Upon receipt of said apology, this picture will be removed. and replaced with something less inflammatory.I will have 72 hours to remove it. that way we can discuss the event Monday morning at work.

Your move. (I believe this puts you in “check”)

Disclaimer:

Andy is not gay nor is he a cross-dresser. He is an aspiring young minister at my church, a friend, and recently a co-worker. The image above is completely fake. I am sending a link to our pastor so that he can censor it if he chooses. If this image is still up, either Andy has not apologized or our pastor has intervened.

UPDATE:

Our pastor laughed for 10 minutes solid… GAME ON!

I needed to add a little modesty to the guys backside though as his boxers were hanging out and he was showing some skin. It wasn’t really  offensive or anything, just not quite modest enough for a church setting.

I broke out my photoshop-fu and went to work. While I’ll never be completely satisfied with the end result (perfectionist at heart). It’s good enough that someone seeing this image for the first time won’t pick up on the edit.

Take a look at the final result and tell me what you think.

HealingPlaceAthens.org

Pretty straight forward wordpress site but as with any new design, I found new challenges and new solutions.

New plugins (new to me at least)

Google Doc Embedder

Lets you embed MS Office, PDF, TIFF, and many other file types in a web page using the Google Docs Viewer (no Flash or PDF browser plug-ins required).

Social Login

Allow your visitors to comment, login and register with 20+ social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hyves, Google or Yahoo.

These folks are doing a great work and I was glad to help. Stop by their site and give a +1 or a like if you don’t mind. It would really help spread the news.

The Best A Capella Videos List

This first one is the most recent that I have seen. Heather Traska is a rare talent and she’s not shy about it.  In this video she performs a medley of popular Disney songs and dresses in costume for each part. The video editing adds a cool touch as you can see her singing each part of a song. She does all of the sounds as far as I can tell.

One Woman A Cappella Disney Medley

This next one is similar in the fact that it is one person doing all the sound. The odd thing about it though is it is all Arabic. I never really payed attention to the way they sing but in this video you can hear the different way that he does all the fancy up and down pitchy thingy at the beginning of the word and not at the end like we do. It literally is backwards from the way we do it (just like the way they read from right to left). This guy does the instrumental parts really well. At any rate, it sounds really cool. Wish I knew what the lyrics were. My guess is he is talking about getting the perfect Arby’s roast beef sammich and putting just the right balance of Arby’s sauce on it.  It’s about 2 in the morning and I’m hungry…

Alaa Wardi – Ma3gool

The last one I want to mention is an oldie but a goody. A choir singing that “bless the rains down in Africa” song   They start by simulating a rain storm and lightning. Im listening to it in another tab on my browser as I type this. Totally realistic sounding  in my opinion. They have a few other popular songs but this one is the best. Watching the beatboxing white guy is especially fun.

Perpetuum Jazzile - Africa

Hope you enjoyed the video list. Send me links if you find another unique one that deserves to be listed.

Cheers!

After hearing him play it through the first time, I thought, “That was freaking AMAZING… and it almost makes up for the beard he’s sporting.” Then the video cuts out and comes back and he plays it through again, now that he is familiar with the piece. This time I thought, “He could be wearing a Members Only jacket, rockin a mullet, and sporting that beard and I’d overlook it all to hear him play that again.”

It looks like the video was shot with a cell phone so the quality is a bit grainy but the sound is great.

Air Platform Theme (Super Mario Brothers)

Here’s one of the same guy playing another from the same game.

World Ending Theme from Super Mario Brothers

Yoshi Valley / Moo Moo Farm (Mario Kart)

Made me get all nostalgic and stuff. Almost to the point where I want to go back and play some of those old games… Almost

I am a proud member of the best gaming syndicate in the world!  I love my SG family (Sturmgrenadier for ya’ll nubs that don’t know) and although I haven’t had much time for MMO’s lately, I still read the forums every day. One of the newer members posted a video intro showing off the SG logo and some After Effects goodness. I too have been learning AE and decided to give it a go.  Not that there was anything wrong with his video… I just wanted to make one for the fun of it.

I would love to hear some feedback. Criticize me, applaud me, spank me with a rubber hose… just let me know what you think and how it can be improved.

SG Video Intro

Not really much too it.  A little snow effect using trapcode particular (popular AE Plugin) and used a solid with a mask to overlay the lighting bolt. I animated the flash, gave it some epic background noise, and used an ever-so-slight camera zoom.

My philosophy for video intros varies with the type of video. For gaming intro’s, your audience is likely to be nerdy, a.d.d. types with short attention spans so go with a short intro. This is especially true if you plan on making multiple videos and using the same intro… youtube surfers will watch video after video after video after video… a long intro (even a cool one) will get stale.  I try to keep intro’s under 10 seconds unless I’m giving info like websites, names, and titles in them.

Download Section

Elvamerc, one of the fellas from the EVE portal, contacted me about using the intro. Needless to say, I am flattered and heck yes you can.  Right click and save the following link.  Here’s an updated one with the EVE online logo burning away. SG-EVE intro

I have been looking into the Canon t3i or t2i for video work and I still plan on purchasing one. The Canon is going to run over 1,ooo dollars after I get all the lenses I want so it will be a little while before I make that investment. Mrs. Nub and I are saving up for our first house purchase and as much fun as video production is…. priorities are priorities.

The GoPro cameras run about 300 dollars and can shoot up to full 1080p video. Insane as that is, they make water proof cases, car mounts, helmet mounts, chest mounts, anal mounts (just checking to see if your still reading) and tons of other accessories for it. I just checked the price of replacement lenses for the camera and they’re only 20 bucks… absolute redonkulicitisness.

I’m tempted to sell my Solid State Hard Drive and buy one of these to play around with until I can get a Canon. In the mean time, while I’m drooling into my keyboard, here’s wicked video of some GoPro footage.  Wish me luck in the sweepstakes.