I am in way over my head!!! Can someone please help!?

I graduated with an BS in Studio Art and now I'm working for a company doing an entry level position and trying to start up their marketing department. I am working on a website but have had no formal training and honestly just can't figure really easy things out. Like.....

1. What program do I create effects in (examples: bubble look on buttons, beveling look on borders, and drop shadowing). I tried doing this in freehand and then importing it into flash but the effects wouldn't stay. And I can't figure out how to get the same results in flash.

2. How the heck do I make something cohesive and interesting. I really like websites with black backgrounds but can't seem to come up with anything worth showing. I've looked at the free templates out there and they are horrible and I can't seem to create one on my own. I see things that I like and could draw up in minutes but getting it to look good on the computer is a whole other thing.

I've created some beautiful illustration for the company which keeps them happy but I really want to get a grasp on what the website is going to look like before I continue because I want it to look cohesive.


THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP!

hi and welcome to webforumz
Photoshop is the proffesional standard as they say, and you be sure that anything you need to do graphically can most prob be done in ps. however for the budget option paintshop pro is good.

lol, a golden question in web design. firstly its going to be your content, somthing that makes the vistors want to come back. and as for cohesion, making the site look the same throughout is key. use stylsheets to control your layout, make the text the same thorughut, (for example dont keep switching fonts and colours just for the sake of it)and links should be clear, navagation should be easy to find and eay to use. you could also consider using a search system for your site if it is big. keep the colour the same. for example take a look at webfourmz. the colours dont clash, they mix nicely and are pleasing to the eye. sure, you can mix opposite colours, tastfully though. an example of what not to do can be seen on the worst websites achive, but you obv would not use a bright pink backgroun colour with white text. contrast is key. pastel colours are allways good to go for. just play about.

why not post a link to your design work so we can see it and suggest some ideas?

Thanks so much for the help. Can I use macromedia tools instead of adobe? I have been using freehad and fireworks. Also, if I use fireworks (Which I'm pretty sure is the exivalent on photoshop) it shows up pixelated. How do I prevent that? Lastly, what is a stylesheet? and how do I get to one?
lol, thank you for the offer to look at the website but it's not onto the web yet, never the less at any type of viewable state but I will keep that in mind before I finish it. I'll definitly look into your critiques before I post it.

thanks again!

well, fireworks isnt like photoshop. its like imageready i suppose (which is bundled in the package)

photoshop is more for bitmap images, and is without doubt the best on the market.

what do you mean it shows up pixelated? what are you doing?

and a stylesheet or css is basicly a file which contains information about the style of the page. and you dont get one as such, you make one. dreamweaver will actually export you a css file if you desire with the setting you have on a webpage. but thats another topic lol

good into on a css here http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style

I'm sure I'll have a few questions about the CSS stuff once I get a chance to read the information that you gave me but for now.....

I don't think I'm going to have access to photoshop any time soon so i'm going to have to make due with the macromedia stuff. I tried to make some basic effects in fireworks using the properties tools but only the transparency and gradient would import to flash. I can't get the bevel or any textures to work. Any suggestions?

First CSS question...
what is W3C? is that like dream weaver? and if so, does the information work in dreamweaver? if it doesn't, where can I find information to create these CSS in dreamweaver?

THANKS!

The W3C is the World Wide Web (W3) Consortium.

It is a focus group that drives forward web standards and is responsible for syntax in markup languages such as (X)HTML, CSS, VRML, XML, etc.

For CSS using dreamweaver, please start a new thread in the CSS forum.

[EDIT]I split your other question from this thread.... you'll find it in the graphics forum.

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Jeex Rob, just mangle the thread why don't you?

Well, it was getting rather off-topic.

Design, graphics and development questions should really go in the appropriate place on the forum or else the server will blow up causing an internet wide knock on effect and before you know it, the world wide web would just crash and then where would we be, huh?

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I really like Fireworks for interface design. I think it works better than photoshop for creating and slicing designs because I like vector aspecs more. I don't do the much of the HTML (like linking) in either image editing software, I use Dreaweaver. I create the image of the software and slice it then export it as an HTML file. Then I make that into a template and do all my linking etc. A good way to learn great web design is to download sites you like, images and all, you can do this with Netscape pretty easily. Then open them up in Dreamweaver or what ever WYSIWYG you choose. Then you can see how the designer constructed the site, imbedded tables etc. Also there are some great books out there. I like the books from Peach Pit Press. They are to the point and cost less than O'reily and others. I hope this helps.

Hi blh9901
I'm not sure how I stand with posting offsite links.
I don't think I would be breaking any rules but, as I'm new here myself, if you would like to 'PM' me I can link you to a really good tutorial for the effect you're looking to achieve.
It's designed for Photoshop (which I like using) but I used to use Fireworks too and you would be able to achieve the same bubble effects by using these techniques.
It's very quick, simple, and helpful and there's a number of other tricks you can pick up at the same time. The site's nothing to do with me but I use it all the time for pointers.

SITE ADMIN; If this is not allowed, apologies in advance and please correct me.

im not a site admin, but it is allowed.

Thx Benbramz,
Just read the rest of the thread... guess I shoulda gone looking first, huh?

In fact it's encouraged! The more useful information you can gather on a specific problem, the more people find us through the search engines for that specific problem and the more we grow.

kewl!
should I post the link to the site instead then?
Probably everyone who uses Photoshop knows it anyway but as a n00b I found the tutorials there invaluable and they certainly got me started.