..time for me to update my way-out-of-date website and make it more cohesive. Over the years I had simply added to it in the old center-everything approach. And it looked like a hodgepode evolution of learn-as-you-go HTML coding. So today, it's officially implemented and there are two ways to get there-- http://www.jptoonist.com and the forward-to-there from http://www.jackpittman.net .

First off, I made most everything 800x600 pages for simplicity, and figuring the worst monitor user wouldn't have to scroll. Well, except for my portfolio, which requires larger images in some instances. Then I coded some mouseovers to change b&w icons to color as a device to let you know they're clickable. I changed my tone from the old comic fonts on my previous site to serious typefonts for that kind of institutional-integrity look. I figure that's the "straight man" to my humorous illustration. And the charcoal gray background adds a neutral color-impacting background to my art, same as the white background does to the portfolio art. For transition to the portfolio's white background, I did an open-curtain code to make the webpage slide open from dark to light. Now, admittedly, these effects are currently only Internet Explorer friendly, but I figure they will capture the majority. For Firefox and other browsers, the page transitions will simply be "next page, please." And in the portfolio navigation bar at the top, you can select thumbnails, indexes, or cycle through categories, or cycle within a category, in a very intuitive way. If you select "Contact Jack," I included a fade-webpage-into-the-next-page code to get back to the dark background. I'll also include a Flash version of the portfolio navigator, with sliding filmstrip, and offer it as an alternative later.

For the Features section, I simply have a "Coming Attractions" page for now, but it will include my Enviroglyphics panel, animations, and free stuff to download. I will eventually include a Flash intro, shorter than this one, http://www.jptoonist.com/animation/animation-intro.html , and including the version of me as Porky Pig from the icon on the homepage. I also want to use real sampled instruments in Soundfonts instead of General MIDI for the music soundtrack, as General MIDI can sound so 80's-Atari. Good for a retro-feel but I want to be very now-tro, as they say in "A Mighty Wind."

That's about it. And now I have to go rehearse with my blues band for a Saturday night gig. Greg Cravens, my well-paid publicist from the last blog entry, will answer any questions...