Articles and Advice from Artistic Geek, Adam McFadyen

Centering divs in Internet Explorer: the browser zoom issue

This is a brief tutorial on how to center a div in internet explorer. Set the margins to auto, on left and right? Close, but don't forget about the browser zoom. Go ahead, zoom right out on your margin auto left and right, center aligned tableless website in ie... If you would like that div to stay centered and not stray over to the left of the page, here's a way around that problem.
All the best!
-AM

Recent Movie Reviews

I have recently been passing through a bout of videocy... That is to say, I have been watching far too many movies latey. I thought that I should post a blog entry. These two things in mind, I will be writing some movie reviews...

The Road :

Excellent movie! It is a little dark, so you may want to leave your kids at home for this one. As far as movie adaptations of books go... This movie adaptation is very well done. On that note, Wanted, with what's-his-name and Jolie... That movie was pretty far off the original graphic novel. While watching this movie I had to wonder if the director was even aware that he was making a movie adaptation. Back to the topic, The Road was an excellent watch. This movie was able to take Cormac McCarthys masterpiece and translate it very nicely in to a screen play... The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic future. This setting seems somewhat ironic when paralleled to the elegance of both the book and the movie.

Time Travellers Wife :

Wow, I had my doubts. But if you're looking for a Valentines Day night-in, then Time Travellers Wife is the movie for you. This movie is clever, inspiring and while it may be a tad sappy; it won't leave you building dinosaurs from popcorn and licorice while she sobs through a box of tissues.

Book of Eli :

This movie has Denzel. In this movie Mr.Washington plays a badass crusader in a post-apocalyptic, yet well populated environment. I will not tarnish this movies greatness with any attempt at a synopsis or review. Go and see Book of Eli.

Surrogates :

This one was great as well. Surrogates will hit you with action, intrigue and an iRobot-esque storyline. Bruce Willis is our protagonist and he proceeds to kick butt and take names as only Bruce Willis (and Chuck Norris) can.

Gamer :

It was nice to see a video game themed movie that did not make me ashamed to be a geek. Thank you! Gamer can be a little vulgar at times and the camera work in the war scenes has been criticized. I found both to be refreshing and well fitted to the movie.

That brings us to the end of this entry. I still have not seen Avatar and I hope that it stays in theatres for a while longer.
Take it easy,
-AM

Image optimization for the Web

There are several file types available for digital graphics. Each of these types has a different way of compressing the graphical data.
Tiff type files are non-lossy, they do not compress the files in any drastic. File compression that is lossy causes information to be lost, and non-lossy file compression does not.
For graphics where you have many colors and shades, try using jpegs. When .jpg files are compressed they save space by blending nearby colors together. Highly compressed jpg file often look blurry.
When a file is saved as a gif, the image is compressed by limiting the color palette that it uses. A highly compressed gif file will often look pixelated. By compressing a gif too much you run the risk of losing valuable colors.

Gif files also benefit by supporting transparency. To keep your transparencies looking great, try adjusting the web snap, or manually toggling certain colors to transparent. Oddities can often arise when saving transparent gifs. Practice will make perfect when you work with transparency in your gif files. Often, adding a contrasting color to the background of your work in progress gif will help you to see more accurately, what it will look like over any given background. Having a contrasting color in the background before saving can also help quite a bit when rendering your transparencies by toggling certain colors. But be aware, that when you do this, you also run the risk of toggling colors that are being used inside your main image. Try to use a color that is not being used in the main image when using a contrasting background to render transparencies. PNG24 files also use transparency; although, they are relatively large in file size and will download slowly on most connections.

Image optimization is very important for creating a website that will load quickly. You want to consider how and where you plan to use your images as well.

Are you taking up extra space with redundancy? For example, why would you have 5 different gradient images for different field dimensions, when you can have one small 20x1px gradient gif and use your css styling to repeat the region? Or, why bother with a bunch of black in the background of your gif image when the image is over an area that already has a black background? Using transparency, in this case, will not only help to optimize your site; but, it will also give you more flexibility when using that graphic again, down the road. A stitch in time will in fact save 9, or perhaps 10.

When saving your jpeg images, please also be aware, that you can adjust the quality; as well as, the blur of the image. Using these tools together can take a bit of practice. But once you know what you are doing you will have one more weapon in your arsenal to keep your images compact and looking great!
I hope that helped. Please send me your comments and feedback at the Dabzo Admin Mailbox

Best Wishes,
-AM

Up and Coming Features

So I am planning on using the blog section for a variety of things. I will keep the quick updates, blurbs and rants to the homepage. In the blog section I will be posting things such as, tutorials, book, movie and art reviews, short articles... and maybe an emotional diatribe once in a while.
I am looking forward to the articles in particular. During the past several months I have come to understand some very interesting things about html, css, browser compatibility and so on.
And, of course, as the wild and crazy digital artist that I am... I can likely point some of you towards a more in depth understanding of digital media.
Upcoming tutorials will include an analysis of css/html "9-slice scaling"... There's more to it than nine divs; and also, I will take a look at file optimization for the web and give some tips and techniques for keeping your images small in size and still looking sharp.
All the Best,
-AM

Believe and ye Shall Be

You need to believe. Believe in what you want to become. Believe that you are being what you want to become. It is as simple as self hypnosis.

Cheer up, chill-out, get fired-up... We can develop control over how we act at any given time. Why would we not control our actions in such a way that we achieve our desired destination?

You don't become a scientist by wishing you were one. Wishing you were a scientist and wanting to be a scientist, through becoming a scientist. This wishing and wanting and becoming will do your scientific career more good than any ammount of studying or experimentation. The wishing, wanting and becoming will be what drives you to study and experiment.

However nice the parts of your vehicle it will need the right fuel. You need to believe. Wish, want, and become.
All the Best,
-AM

Money for Nothing, Pix for Free

It has been a long haul. So to bring you up to speed, here's the story:
I have taken the last year off, or so I had meant to. The last 12 months of my life have been spent learning web design at Camosun College. I had no idea how fast I would progress and develop in this field. And I am impressed by; as well as, thankful for the progress that I have made.
I chose to study web design out of passion and curiosity. Crafting information was a new and interesting form of creative media. I hoped to gain business, and make a name for myself.
I then realized that 12,000,000,00... other people were doing the exact same thing. So, where do I go from here? It seems that every person out on the web, wants branding, writing, web design, seo, and other services for themseves or their organization.
The problem found, though, is that all of these services require time and money. With so few people willing to pay for time, it leaves the creator with a conflict. One can produce sub-standard work, in large volumes or one can starve. How are you supossed to invest the time it takes to make a great product for someone, without the sponsorship it takes to do so?
There is one rub, a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. If one can produce quality product, in large ammounts, in little time... There may be hope; however, to do this one needs skills beyond just that of graphic design or coding knowledge. An understanding of automation, organization and several other key concepts is needed.
How, in the world, can people take even a gram of pride, from mass producing graphics, copy and user interfaces that simply, don't make the cut?
The jury is still out, but the internet is looking much more like the inside of public restroom, than the utopia of information and culture that we had hoped it was to be.
All the Best,
-AM