oh the illustrious history of the dark crewsader. man do i love thinking back about all the days and nights i would work so hard on a website and never finish it. finish in a sense that all the links really work, anyways. so if u are really interested in me, then this is the section to check out.
it is unfortunate that nothing remains of my real first website, or those that followed. maybe one day i can dig up some stuff.
the crewsader's anime and gaming website
version 1 and 2
oh the illustrious first versions. tools of the trade: MS Paint, Notepad, and later on, Microsoft FrontPage
version 1 and 2
oh the illustrious first versions. tools of the trade: MS Paint, Notepad, and later on, Microsoft FrontPage
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Splash Image: i made this with MSPaint. i spent a lot of time sitting there and trying to trim the evangelions from the original image. | |
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Main Index: i was going to use frames, but for some weird reason, i just didnt seem to have them work right. i guess because back then i didnt know how to set the specific sizes, i only did things by percents. pretty basic page i guess, cept for that broken picture. | |
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Other Splash: this is technically "Version 2" since i totally changed the design on this one. unfortunately, all that remains of this website is the splash page. then again, nothing really new, cept i used MSPaint. the website itself, i remember, was made with frames and was the first site i had that used image maps. | |
the dark crewsader
version 3
first version i decided to cut it down to "the dark crewsader." did a pretty big leap this time, no more MS Paint. i switched over to using Macromedia Fireworks, which i ended up using for quite some time afterward. still used FrontPage but i learned how to use image maps around this time.
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Splash Image 1: this was the very first work i did with fireworks. pretty basic and low tech- something i could still easily make with paint. but hey, i didnt know fireworks had that many effects and stuff until later. plus, i was pretty limited in my font choice. | |
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Splash Image 2: now after i found the final fantasy font...i went crazy with it. i used that font for....so many things...heck, i was just crazy. but still, it looked so cool, since it was "final fantasy-esque." | |
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Menu: the menu...what else can I say...well, same stuff as Splash Image 1. i guess u can say that the rest of the site was a lot like what u see here...just lots of...lines...pictures...and text..hey wait, most of my sites are like that anyways, right? | |
version 4
still using fireworks. the mechanics of my website at that time still involved heavy usage of image maps. another random fact is that version 4 is what got me into the commercial art class at my high school. originally i was required to take 1 year of an introductory class but thanks to this site, i impressed the teacher enough.
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Splash Image: hey not bad, thats a really big step from my original works with fireworks. if u notice the shape in the very back...i copied and pasted that rendered shape a lot, even into version 5. | |
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Menu: not bad either. i guess i was going for the "movie reel" effect. nothing much to say here, cept a pretty diverse usage of anime pictures, but the picture size was pretty big. | |
the dark crewsader
version 5
nothing too new here, just improvements on my techniques in fireworks. it was also around this time that i decided to work on a splinter project, but i will go into that later
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Splash Image: notice that big white shape? thats from the splash in version 4. anything else...hmm...i dunno. i guess i made things look more streamlined. nothing else really. | |
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Menu: now this is cool. i used a really big (and rather nice) picture of rei ayanami. and i guess i did a fair balance of both rendering stuff and text and images. nothing really new, but i really liked this menu. | |
version 6
quite a leap i took here. instead of remaking every page as a single image map, i started to use inline frames. also, started using tables to arrange the page. this is really the pre work to the page u see now.
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version 6.1 a: nothing big here, cept i think i really got into the "shape" phase of my design here. i guess its a big step from what i used to make. as for splash pages, i just used grayscale images. kinda lazy of me i guess. but this was the main page, and there was an inline frame in the middle of that big center gray box. |
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version 6.1 b: i labeled it as 6.1, but still, this is totally different from the og 6.1. its a lot better, and much more detailed. hell, it just looks a lot better. |
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version 6.2 a: the "Arthas version," if u had to give it a specific name. hm, a bit of different approach than the last one, i guess more simplified but with different shapes, different font too. i have to admit that the buttons for version 6.1b are some of the best i've made. |
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version 6.2 b, x-mas: x-mas special. i think its one of the last "flash" based things that have made, since originally, this splash image had flying...ah what are those called again....oh yeah, snowflakes. well, i didnt have much ingeniuity then, so all the snowflakes looked alike. ah whatever. |
version seven
again, improvements on the prior version, not much changed in terms of technology. definitely felt more artsy this time around and also i was applying more techniques that i learned from class.
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version seven splash 1: what can i say? it looks radically different from the stuff i did before i guess. i have to thank commercial art for this. if u notice, i gave up on color since the first few works i did. i think its easier to work in grayscale. |
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version seven splash 2: whoa a SPLASH page, literally. i just blew up the original splash page and added in my "revolutionary picture." and yes, that is me. i guess i was feeling pretty destructive, so i just cut apart the original splash, and played around with transparencies and textures. |
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version seven main page: main page, big white box was where the inline frame was supposed to be. what else to say...uh, lots of filters, especially drop shadows and what not. |
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version seven about page: same stuff as above, just arranged differently. |
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version seven link page: same stuff as above, just arranged differently- again. |
version 8
i let this page languish for a while, but its like version 6 in that it changed a lot of things. simply put, a lot of the technologies in that website was experimental and really get finalized in this current version. its also the first version iused Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
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version 8 splash: nothing new here, cept some blending here and there. i think i still used fireworks for the image, but illustrator/photoshop for the logo. |
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version 8 main page: as you can see, defintely a lot of design cues carried over to this website. still, not a flawless page as u can see in the table gaps. the last update was 2004..damn. |