http://www.3dostudio.com/

This will be the home to my portfolio page with all my 3d works and anything else I can put up there.. what do you think? I have gone through many different design ideas, I guess I like this one.. I may be doing up another one though. Just wanted some suggestions.

You could drastically reduce the filesize of your HTML-code if you used CSS instead of JavaScript and tables. They are not necessary.

For this: you could use the text-indent style plus proper HTML-elements, like <h1> and <p>.

The design looks pretty cool. It sorta has this cheap plastic feeling though, instead of the solid metal one...

I don't think it looks doom3 at all.

It doesn't suck terribly. That banner with the menu is too obtrusive, though.

I think it would look better if "3DOSTUDIO" was within the space part of the banner instead of on the side. After doing that, I would make the width of the content page the same width of the banner. Other than that, use CSS and you're off to a good start. Oh, and you need a little more work on the content text (too plain).

This is what I was going to say.

[/useless post]

I don't get the point in CSS, it's not gonna make my page look any different.. and I'm not really worried about file size since this is the day in age when alot of people are on broadband connections.. so it's not priority.

I don't know, what if you got like lots of hits and only had like so and so much traffic in your hosting contract and more costs more?

And maybe if you want to change the look someday, wouldn't it be better to just change the css instead of the content, because that should stay unchanged?

Wouldn't it also be cool for (visually) impaired people to enjoy your site (ok, maybe not so much with a graphics artwork portfolio) as close as possible to how other people do?

I guess I could see that, but my index file is 9kb and the images are 215kb all together. My web host is generous so for me, this is not an issue.

I'm going to use PHP to make templates so it will be easy to just change the layout and not content.

Using CSS will make a site much easier to maintain, it'll be much easier to understand the source, it'll load much faster and above all else it's REALLY EASY. I cannot emphasise enough how easy CSS is.

Seriously, there are only a few reasons for not using CSS and none of them apply to your design. You are simply demonstrating that you're not willing to learn how to do things properly.

In fact, screw it, i've done it for you.

http://etc.andrewingram.net/test/3do-Studio.htm

There's probably loads of problems with the way I did it, but it was a rush job. But the html is now half the size, there are now only 6 images instead of dozens with a total image size of 61kb rather than 215kb. The entire site is a total of 67kb, about a quarter of the size without even trying. The markup is also much easier to read and degrades nicely if the styles are turned off, though I have used a crude method of image-replacement so it doesn't work too well if styles are on but images are off. The only real change I made is that I made the spacing above the footer is larger because I didn't want to add more presentational markup. Also, there's no javascript.

Nice work Detty. I'll have to review the code to check out how you did it. I've just used HTML for years. When I stoped for awhile, was when CSS started to be widely used in design. I'm not willingly doing things improperly just haven't gotten around to actually learning css.

Since Detty has you thinking about CSS (which you should use cause it rocks) Ill talk about the design!


To put it blatantly... it sucks. Especially if you want this to be a portfolio site.

Right off the bat the one thing that bothers me is the fake metal look. The website can look segmented, but the Banner / Logo / Navigation is so drastically different from the content section its just weird. I realize its meant to be a window or something, but its just inconvinient and wasting your space.

I kind of like how the logo is to the upper left, but its way too small and it doesnt stand out at all, especially considering how much that planet stands out. That entire section doesnt need to be entirely as tall as it is anyway. When i open up another page in a tab in firefox, it causes your website to scroll. Making the top banner shorter will prevent that from happening.

(Also- A forum for a portfolio?)

With that said, I hope you dont hate me! I like the concept, but it wasnt put out there well. Take advantage of more colors! Greys and blues are boring, they wont capture someones attention. ( [url]www.colourlovers.com[/url] is a good place to look )

If you lay out your page slightly differently, youd be able to work in a Global Navigation (which you have) as well as a Local navigation (For the gallery lets say) You might also want to add your contact information to the Global Navigation so the user can always see it.

I think a different lay out would really help the site.

Please for the love of all things holy, not such small fonts! Think of the myopic people!

Overall, I quite like it. Nice and tidy, nothing out of place.

In my opinion, it would look better if it were more compact, like this:

Im trashing this design and starting over

30 day at a time, no-removal-while-sleeping contacts FTW

I think ZHoH.