3D & Web Design Help, Resources and Inspiration.

Stay hungry...Stay foolish. Amazing Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford

2016-05-31T23:54:00.003+05:00

Stay hungry...Stay foolish. Amazing Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford

2016-05-31T23:54:00.001+05:00

How to Improve Your Google Rankings Fast Using Analytics

2016-05-26T01:41:00.001+05:00

The SEO ranking factor you MUST master in 2016 (and beyond)

2016-05-17T20:14:00.001+05:00

Git Tutorial - 1 - How to Download and Install Git

2016-04-20T13:47:00.001+05:00

What else do you want? Git tutorials from beginner to expert level. This list of tutorials is for every developer who want their hands dirty on Git version control system.

Inspiring Story Of The Pakistani Boy Who Created Avada WordPress Theme

2016-04-04T12:18:00.001+05:00

Blacklisted Plugins on Godaddy WordPress Hosting

2016-03-23T13:47:00.003+05:00

https://www.godaddy.com/help/blacklisted-plugins-8964

Godaddy has blacklisted some plugins on their WordPress Managed Hosting because these plugins either take too much resources on the server or are in-appropriate :) Click above screen-shot to go to the list page.

New Project: X Auto World

2015-12-11T14:49:00.005+05:00

Hi,
I recently launched my own website for Car Enthusiasts. I am a passionate car enthusiast since childhood so I channelized my passion in this new website. X Auto contains free car wallpapers, videos, news and reviews from around the world. More sections will be launched later with time.

Iqtidar Ali.

Playlist on Youtube: WordPress Theme Development

2015-10-23T19:14:00.001+05:00

Click Here for the Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpcSpRrAaOaqMA4RdhSnnNcaqOVpX7qi5

Using Cache Manifest in HTML5 Apps - Beginner's Guide

2014-05-19T23:38:00.001+05:00

Hi, everyone,

When preparing for my HTML5 test today, I found the following tutorial to be a great resource for learning about Cache Manifest in HTML5 Apps. Cache Manifest enables HTML5 App users to use the application even offline when they cannot reach the network/internet. It's a great feature in many senses, this article takes you from the scratch on using this feature.

Article: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/appcache/beginner/

Want to change Dreamweaver's Code View in Dark Theme? Get it here....

2014-04-25T15:45:00.001+05:00

Hi,
sometimes you need to work late night and don't want to hurt your eyes with the brightness of the white background of Dreamweaver in code view,,,, so here's the solution, grab the Colors.xml file and follow the instructions on the following link and you'll be pleased with the new dark code view theme,, works for even Dreamweaver CC I just tried... :)

http://geryit.com/blog/cool-dark-color-schemes-for-eclipse-aptana-and-dreamweaver/

Thanks Goskel my friend....

Wamp Server not loading cURL extension for PHP

2014-04-15T15:34:00.000+05:00

Hi,
Today when I was trying to install Opencart on my localhost / WAMP server,,, it was by all means not loading the cURL extension from the WAMP manager or by manually editing the php.ini file... long story short, if you have have such a problem following links will come in handy to resolve the problem.

http://blog.nterms.com/2012/07/php-curl-issues-with-wamp-server-on.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13021536/how-to-enable-curl-in-wamp-server

http://www.anindya.com/php-5-4-3-and-php-5-3-13-x64-64-bit-for-windows/ from this link:

Go to "Fixed curl extensions" and download the extension that matches your PHP version.

Extract and copy "php_curl.dll" to the extension directory of your wamp installation.
(i.e. C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.13\ext)

Restart your WAMP Server,,,, It worked for me on Win 7 64 Bit and WAMP !

Have a nice day...

Thanks !

The 100 Greatest Free Fonts for 2014 by Awwwards Team

2014-03-10T13:41:00.002+05:00

AWwwards Team has gathered a list of 100 great fonts for the 2014 that were published or updated in late 2013,,, a great resource for designers... check it out.

http://www.awwwards.com/the-100-greatest-free-fonts-for-2014.html

FWA Article: Digital Pioneers, Then and Now... Eric Jordan (2advanced Studios)

2014-03-07T16:28:00.002+05:00

"One day while standing in the concrete driveway of our former workplace, with leaves swirling around us, we spoke its name…"2advanced Studios". It was perfect." Eric Jordan

Your name, plus your original "web name/handle"
Eric Jordan

Your first web encounter, year etc.
My first web encounter happened in a cramped, overly beige-colored computer lab in 1995 when I randomly signed up for a Pascal programming class.

I met an odd hacker-type who I befriended and whom introduced me to the old telephonic BBS boards that preceded the Web.

I began frequenting the shadowy world of BBS boards and later went on to sysop my own underground board called "The Federation".

Later, after the WWW took off and the browser had started becoming more advanced, my friend showed me EYE4U one evening (one of the earliest sites engineered in Flash) in around 1998 and suddenly I knew my life would never be the same. It was a very basic site, but deep down I knew this was going to change everything, and I wanted to be a part of it.

Many a late night would be spent by the glowing flicker of the screen learning and studying animation after that night.

Ironically, my first job at age 16 was performing customer service for an ISP, where I began to dabble with design in my spare time and was subsequently let-go for not focusing on the task at hand. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would later become the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

What our readers might recognise you most for, when you first hit the web.
I'm most recognized for my first personal release of 2Advanced.com.

(FWA: 2Advanced Studios v3 Expansions site from 2001 was voted "The Most Influential Flash Site Of The Decade")

At the time, I was on my own, doing low level web design for a company called Binus Group out of Laguna Niguel, CA. I had been experimenting with Flash for some time and decided to put up my first experimental portfolio page.

After normal work hours I would stay behind at the office, animating by the glow of the screen, working out all the keyframes for the intro and section animations. I had been DJing and producing electronic music for quite some time, so I was also able to structure all the audio for the site myself.

I happened to have all the skills necessary to pull off the site by myself, without needing a team to help me, which was a great advantage. It was actually somewhat embarrassing to release the site, because I had no idea how much attention it was going to get when I released it.

Little did I know that I would soon be contact by Friends of Ed, to participate in their New Masters of Flash book. Later would come the unexpected awards, and the rest is history.

Your digital journey since.
My digital journey since the release of the 1st version of 2advanced has been a complex series of twists and turns and ups and downs.

After my chapter in New Masters of Flash made it's way into the hands of small design studios, a company called Design Insites came knocking and brought me in as their lead flash designer.

I had a great time with the team there, working on cutting edge projects, just as the fire of the dot com boom was burning at it's hottest. That was my first real experience working with a team of other designers.

For the longest time I'd been doing my thing pretty much isolated, and working alongside others at Design Insites gave me the foundation I needed for what would come later.

When the dot com bust came around, a lot of things got shaken up and the world seemed upside down for quite some time. I was never sure things would ever be the same.

Sometimes, a good crisis is just what you need to change that inertia into something positive. The closest, most-dedicated people on the team decided that Design Insites was a sinking ship…it's allegiance to clients with the most money had become an albatross around it's neck. We wanted something with vision, something bigger.

As we disconnected from the studio, we could feel the new team being born, almost organically. All we needed was a name for it. We soon realized we already had the name, it had just been lying dormant.

One day while standing in the concrete driveway of our former workplace, with leaves swirling around us, we spoke its name…"2advanced Studios". It was perfect.

It wasn't long before we were office-less and working out of our bedrooms until we could get on our feet. But it didn't take long to forge the 2A logo by the glow of the monitor in my living room. The Expansions site came soon after, and everything was just flowing. It was effortless, which made it a special time in my life.

I look back on those days and remember how strong the muse was working for me at the time. There was a real creative fire burning beneath all of us, which helped build the energy we would need for the tsunami of work that was looming just offshore.

Once we were on our feet, the clients came easy…and quickly. The years that followed carried us through a series of cutting edge projects that tested all of our creative and problem-solving capacities. It was a somewhat stressful time because we pushed ourselves to the max, always striving harder…pushing ourselves to reach higher.

We quickly became known for our large-scale dynamic flash solutions that eventually steered us into the video game industry. It was here that I was able to build a bridge into video production, and 3D modeling.

I believe this is where we hit our stride, and it was where I felt we were doing the work we were born for…a lot of intense UI work and heavy animation/FX work. There was a lot of experimentation happening at this stage with new technologies and platforms like Combustion, Vue, and Cinema 4D.

We hit it hard and tried to push ourselves to make websites feel more like experiences. I think we hit our peak number of employees at this stage, more than I ever envisioned us having. With 20 people going full time in the studio, I felt we were a perfect size.

As I look back, I may have underestimated how large the team would have to get in order to help me retain some of my sanity. The hours we were pulling to meet the deadlines for some of the larger clients, such as Activision, had us sleeping under our desks and living off energy drinks and bad pizza.

Those clients really put us all to the test, especially when we found ourselves developing not only the large Flash experiences on the front end, but also rolling out these heavy-duty real-time statistics platforms that were tied directly into the online multiplayer systems.

I think the solutions we rolled out for projects like "Call of Duty" were some of the most challenging things we ever attempted, and looking back I think this was the period where the late nights and the grinding started to wear on my psyche. I could feel that I was losing control of my ability to manage the creativity and the rough deadlines.

My sense was that the quality may have been suffering because we were pushing so hard, with such a small team for that scale of project. This was a place that I could sense was on the horizon…I could feel it building, but I had kept pressing forward, thinking I could burn my way through the wall I felt coming toward me.

Alas, there are moments in a designers life when the creative spark can only burn so hot for so long…eventually it's going to run out of fuel if you aren't actively taking steps to replenish your vitality.

I had hit my moment…my burnout.

It's a tough thing to describe creative burnout, and even tougher to admit to yourself that it's happening to you. And perhaps yet even tougher, is trying to admit what is happening to a team that you're supposed to be leading and directing.

I don't think the team will ever really realize what was happening to me internally during my crisis point, and I didn't really know how to handle it gracefully. How do you reveal your human-ness, your fragility, to people you're suppose be guiding?

I felt like I had to be a rock for them, to always be there pushing forward no matter what, even with the deck of the ship on fire… breaking apart all around us.I so wished that I could have made it through the stormy seas of those times, but I was cracking and my creativity was suffering for it. I knew I needed a break…a big break. I needed a sabbatical of sorts, to regather myself, so that I could later return with more than which I had left.

When I was a child, I used to get intensely bored with my bedroom. Every month or so I would get this nagging desire to change the whole damned thing around. So I would put on some good music and set about the task of moving every piece of furniture, every item, every device to a different part of the room. I would immediately have this sort of visceral change in my mood and could literally feel the energy of my life shifting around me as I pushed desks and chairs around the room.

What I realized during my burnout is that I was going to have to rearrange my entire life, even if it was just temporary, so that I could rekindle the artistic flame and bring it back to bear on the rest of my life. I knew I was going to have to undertake something big, something larger than life…a journey, across the ocean, to lands unknown to me.

I knew it would be amazingly difficult, but would perhaps instill a kind of strength in me, something that I could look back on and treasure for whatever ways it would teach me to grow.

For some reason it came to me, like a light emerging from the darkness. It was the farthest place from me, an epic place of rolling green hills and blue-green water…like an impossible matte painting. It was a place I'd seen in cinema, a place that was so beautiful I knew it had the power to heal, and mend the creative part of me that had been wounded.

I would go to New Zealand.

After having a good talk with my partners, we all decided it was something I needed to do for myself. They were very supportive and we strategized how we could pull it off.

I wasn't sure how I would get my family there, but I knew it had to be done. I went about getting the paperwork in order and began packing the belongings we would need into a 10x10 shipping container.

One day in 2012, my wife and I found ourselves on a 747 with our young son Evan, high above the ocean on our way to the north island of New Zealand. We toasted a bit of champagne, and kept our hearts and minds open to whatever lay ahead.

I was ready to find the artistic flame again.

What are you up to now?
Today, I currently reside on the very north tip of the North Island of New Zealand, on a sprawling 4 acre homestead deep in the green subtropics.

I spend my days in many ways, sometimes focused on creativity, sometimes on spirituality, or sometimes just playing with my son in the green fields. If I'm not reading or working on art, I am often helping my wife Rachel out in the garden, planting vegetables and fruit trees.

I think the thing I love the most is walking barefoot on the grass, and working with my hands. Sometimes I spend time building things, learning new skills, or researching things I've always wanted to learn.

I actually plan to build an art studio on the property where I can get back to painting. I have some experimental films pieces I would like to film here, and at some point, I may even write a book. I'm keeping all my options open and just cherishing this time here. I've learned so much in New Zealand, it's really hard to describe how transformative this time has been for me.

Occasionally I've been working on projects for 2Advanced here and there when they need my help, but I am taking it at my own pace, and not overdoing it. I know the team is holding down the fort, and they've never let me down. I know they've got this.

When people ask me what I've been up to lately, it's hard to give them a kind of prepackaged answer, because this place is so different and I split my time so many different ways. I can't remember the last time I wore a watch on my wrist.I think what I've really been up to is reconnecting with nature…listening to the simple rhythms of the earth, away from all the tech and all the noise of big civilization.

I've turned down a lot of the noise of my life, so that I can get a clearer signal to come through. And deep down I can sometimes feel it returning…the creative flame…rising, building, and I can sense that someday soon the spark will ignite yet again.

Source: http://www.thefwa.com/digitalpioneers/eric-jordan

Completed my responsive design course...

2014-03-05T12:22:00.000+05:00

Hi,,,

Long time,,, :) Just completed my Responsive Design course from Lynda.com,,,, it was great and now I feel more confident and excited to put new things on the table in the coming weeks and months...

:D

Photography: Dart Board Game On Wall.... Hi-Res.

2013-07-21T22:34:00.002+05:00

Tutorial: Adding Images To Blogger Blogs For Better SEO

2013-04-24T14:16:00.001+05:00

Featured Project: Affordable Signs Website.

2012-12-14T12:52:00.005+05:00

Client: Affordable Signs, St. Louis MO. USA.
Project: Logo and Website design for a signs company located in MO, USA.
Tools & Technologies: Adobe Creative Suite, XHTML, JavaScript, Custom Coda-Slider
Live Link: www.signsstl.com
Launched: Dec 12, 2012 (12-12-12)

Excluding Directories From Open Cart - Edit .htaccess

2012-11-30T13:38:00.001+05:00

Hi, Everyone,

I am working with Open Cart now a days and there are many things needed be taken care of, for example I had an issue with Open Cart taking over my server :) and since I am using Friendly SEO URLs e.g. www.yourstylebazaar.com/women etc. this creates a situation when you have installed open cart on the root of your website "It does not let you access new sub-directories you create" so, the solution is to edit the .htaccess file on the root of your server and follow these steps;

1- Open your ".htaccess" file in a Text Editor or Dreamweaver
2- Find the line "RewriteBase /"
3- Just under this line add a new line of code "RewriteRule ^/directory-name [L]" Where "directory-name" is the name of your own directory you have already created on the server via FTP or File Manager etc.

Now when you access this newly created directory, it'll still show the Open Cart page with "Page Not Found" error, this is because open cart has put a custom 404 Page on your server, to get rid of this situation you'll have to upload an Index file (index.html, index.htm or index.php etc.) to access the directory.

I have created a custom directory on the client server to show this function; www.yourstylebazaar.com/iqtidar/ here it shows the index.html file free from the clutches of Open Cart, I believe the same solution can be applied to Word Press or other software that use .htaccess and URL Rewrite Module to present SEO Friendly or User Friendly URLs.

I applied this solution to Open Cart 1.5.4

Thanks & Enjoy !
I.Q !

How To Disable all Countries in Opencart

2012-11-20T21:03:00.001+05:00

While today working with OpenCart for a client, I found out that the back-office has many many countries and there is not an option to select multiple countries and disable them from appearing for users/customers in the front-office. I found the following tutorial to be the best solution, fast and easy. Click the following link for the tutorial.

How To Disable all Countries in Opencart – A guide for e-commerce starters:

'via Blog this'

Using HTML "Fieldsets & Legends"

2012-07-26T00:17:00.001+05:00

I had to use the "Legend" attribute of HTML in a project today, normally this is used in forms but I had to use it to post a Cautionary Statement on the home page of a project, you can take a live look at that here; http://samnelson.biz/jsr/ Also you can use the "View Source" option to check how I setup this stuff using aid from CSS. But there is one issue, I am still not able to find out a way to "center" the legend text i.e. "Cautionary Statement" here in IE. :) I am using IE 8 and it's showing it on the Left, both FireFox and Chrome are showing it in the center, for Chrome the css property "text-align:center;" works and for FireFox simple aligm="center" makes it in the middle of the top border, I also change the border style with CSS by using;

style="border: solid 1px #b9d9ed;"

You can find more help on this at this page: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutorials/forms/article.php/3479111/Fieldsets-and-Legends.htm

Cracking Open MacBook Air 13-inch (2012)

2012-07-25T23:55:00.001+05:00

Cracking Open MacBook Air 13-inch (2012)

In this post at TechRepublic, they have cracked-open the 2012 MacBook Air, to me the manufacturing is great of a MacBook. Looking inside an Apple will give you more idea about the quality of their products or if they are worth the prices they charge ? :)

'via Blog this'

Featured Artist: Ugur Sahin - 3D Automotive Design & Concepts

2012-06-25T12:51:00.003+05:00

Right-click Images and Open in New Tab to view full-size High Resolution Images.

A few days back I was squirming around Deviant Art and I found this guys page http://ugursahin1234.deviantart.com/ and whoaaaa... the Cars were made in 3D and they were so beautiful and exquisite I was immediately impressed. This man is living my dream life :) designing Cars in 3D both real-world ones and the concept cars as well.

Take a look at his company website http://www.ugursahindesign.com because pictures speak more than words do. Amazing artist and designer and from Turkey.... one of my favorite countries.

HTML Accent Entity Codes

2012-06-15T19:42:00.001+05:00

Ever wonder how to add the accent / dash / hyphen ( ' ) over "é" or other letters or many other variations of this type when working in HTML.... Your problem is solved :) here's a whole list of the HTML Accent Entity Codes (that's what they are called).

HTML Accent Entity Codes: "é"

I had to search these since a client had asked to add accent to a name in the article and I had no clue about this. :) but a live saver, the codes also worked in the Expression Engine Title field, so it was a great experience.

'via Blog this'

Featured Work: Customized Simple jQuery Dropdowns

2012-04-04T02:19:00.000+05:00

Hi. I just customized a good and simple jQuery drop-down menu which proved to be very good in a situation where I have a bit complex design layout. This jQuery menu is available for download at CSS Tricks: http://css-tricks.com/simple-jquery-dropdowns.

The basic menu looked like this:

And the customized version that I did looks like this:

You can view the live demo of customized version at: http://www.samnelson.biz/bli/