Media Focused Development for Professionals and Amateurs, The new Semiomantics EVO for WordPress sets new standards for beauty and excellent publishing paired with eCommerce.
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Dog Beer Nothing like a Dog Beer on a hot South African day! Dog Beer Dog Beer beats social networks anytime: here’s Mojo, the ‘puppy’ from next-door, instantly at the door with that special look in his eyes! Only 6 months old… Too late…. Holly is flat under the table having a dog dream and wishing everybody a happy dog day! Here’s to Web Design with Passion – and a difference! Continue reading
Video Dimensions Once again, video dimensions and aspect ratios are becoming an issue for me in the editing process on Adobe Premiere Pro… and I am searching for solutions. Here’s an original image in 1600 x 900 px (16:9) – in fact, for the first time I am not working in frame aspect ratio 3 : 4 but 16 : 9 ! Therefor, all images of the movie have been edited in that aspect ratio (original size attached) to prepare for optimal HD format – at least so I thought: Video Dimensions I set the video dimensions to 720p (aspect 1280 x 720 = 16 x 9) – but this is the ‘excerpt’ I get (measured dimension 1298 x 730) – yet significantly cut-off on all sides: In some pictures – like close-ups – I have no problems… In others like this one with a carefully designed logo – it really matters. And besides… it’s something I need to understand and know … even without being a numbers’ person. But it gets even better… I copied/pasted the whole movie (pictures and music) to a new sequence after changing the settings to 1080 (instead of 720… )… and ticking that Default [...] Continue reading
Wedding Video Design As part of the Wedding Website I am currently preparing – and while waiting for my new system to have more punch to edit and render video material – I have just finished a short movie based on Wedding Photography and custom Wedding Video Design. Here is my Logo Design based on the song “One Love” by Bob Marley – a request by the newly weds for this part of their wedding story on their (future) website. Wedding Video Design Since this Wedding Lunch took place in another part of South Africa, the challenge for me was to create something out of what I got: in this case a CD of professional photos by Andrew Elliott Photography, in different shapes and sizes, using different filters, and no corrections etc. While overwhelming in the beginning to say the least… it’s in looking through the material again and again to get a feeling for the photography, the style, the flow, finding those little gems and excerpts and – finally – discover the message one wants to focus on and translate in the video. ADOBE Premiere Pro ADOBE Premiere Pro is my preferred editing tool, although [...] Continue reading
Website Tutorial 1 Website Tutorial 1 addresses the following situation: Some of our valued website customers are completely new to the technicalities and operation of websites and blogs and what they demand in the future, once setup and completed. The fact is, that it is the dynamic content of the blog – meaning regular, original posts and articles vamped up with photos, images and videos etc – that keep the website alive, that keep the hungry search engine spyders coming back again and again for more (… fresh, delicious content that is)… and sending us flowers in form of top rankings on Google. Facit: work on a website and/or blog is never complete once the website has been constructed and delivered; work continues in many different ways, including also maintenance and regular upgrades just to name a few… Basically, the website owner has two options: to do the work him- or herself (which demands time, patience, knowledge and skills as the case may be… ) or to outsource – which is a continuing cost factor that definitely pays. Website Tutorial 1 For the time being, Monkey Valley Resort has allocated a person to get acquainted with the new website [...] Continue reading
Enjoy your Valentine!
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Happy Valentine Gals and Guys
Happy New Year After Effects
How to Customize your W… Continue reading
Happy Valentine It’s the 14th February 2012 – time to wish everybody a loving “Happy Valentine” from a rather cool yet dynamic Cape Town, South Africa! Happy Valentine While “Happy Valentine” is obviously of value under commercial aspects for those who have something to sell… meaning it is one of those many occasions where products can be pushed, it’s nice for young and old couples in love to spend a special evening together and celebrate their intimate bond. In that sense, Thorfynn’s Restaurant at Monkey Valley Resort has prepared a special dinner CLICK HERE that you may want to enjoy while watching the sunset over Noordhoek Beach… Wedding Website Developments Meanwhile, and after my environmental journey to the North, I continue Wedding Website Developments focusing on a special lunch with the motto “Let’s get together and feel alright” – the newly wed’s favorite by Bob Marley! Continue reading
Basic CSS3 to Customize your WordPress Theme With the increasing browser compatibility of CSS3, additional customization of websites is in the reach of most anyone (Even a Monkey can do it, according to Nikos Advertizopoulos …). Tonight we will start with a series of calls to become familiar with the possibilities arising from the use of CSS3 on WordPress to improve typography and font styles. You may follow the progress of the work at the Ycademy Demo Site which features the Semiomantics XO Theme. Looking forward to seeing you on YorgoLive tonight. Incoming search terms:custom typography wordpressRelated posts: How to Customize WordPress 2 How to Customize WordPress Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts Customize WordPress with Semiomantics XO XO Photo Press WordPress Theme
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Portraits of Africa 2012 on Google Time again to monitor and check the performance of our new WP based Semiomantics XO 2012 Script on search engines. Here’s a screenshot of yesterday’s post “Portraits of Africa 2012″ on Google – have a look! Positions 1, 2, 3 and 6 ahead of 10,800,000 search returns – YEBO GOGO! Portraits of Africa 2012 on Google When looking up “Portraits of Africa 2012″ on Google, I also checked how the images in my article were ranked – here’s the detail of the screenshot showing the Image of a “Young African Girl” on position one, followed by the Image of a “Young African Boy” on position 4… and a small ad I created ages ago peeking at us on position 2. All of them ahead of our South African presidents… just too funny! The young generation is on the move! Portrait of Africa Images It becomes even more intrigueing when we look up “Portrait of Africa Images” on Google and find these young faces of Africa featuring amongst some really classy photography! And again… the random positioning is just too weird… for those who read this and understand what I mean! Welcome to [...] Continue reading
Hakamela Conferencing We are pleased to announce that the Conference Services website “Hakamela Conferencing & Event Management” will soon be under construction on Semiomantics XO 2012. Hakamela Conferencing Hakamela Conferencing & Event Management will open its doors in Pretoria, South Africa. This high-demand Service Company will be run by professional Conference Management Expert Lynn Sakuinje. Web Design South Africa will be designing a simple, practical and user-friendly website that will target top 10 positions on Google under the relevant keywords and focuses on high visibility on the mobile web. Continue reading
Bianca Gubalke Mobile Bianca Gubalke Mobile – a first pre-seminar sketch for a mobile version! The little icons stand for Social Network icons like Facebook, Twitter etc, which I would design myself to fit into the overall picture I have in mind. Bianca Gubalke Mobile We are living in times of rapid change and the explosion of the mobile market. People use their mobile phones to search the net, to find what they want, to compare it and – to buy it. Sales figures triggered via the mobile net are staggering – and as web designers we have to adapt – which means also to focus on new technologies and learn new languages. Over the past years, Semiomantics has always evolved along with WordPress Developments. Remarkably, the latest WP update allows for much more creativity. While our Semiomantics based author blogs display perfectly on smartphones through integration of the right plugins and settings, there’s much more scope that we will be looking into at this weekend’s Ycademy Seminar 2012 – which is also a testing ground for the new Semiomantics XO 2012 – to be released soon. In that sense, I am looking forward to the evolution of [...] Continue reading
Web Design Trends 2012 The upcoming first Ycademy Seminar 2012 will focus on Web Design Trends 2012 in terms of what they mean for our brand-new WordPress based Semiomantics XO 2012. Web Design Trends 2012 In order to follow and implement Web Design Trends 2012, learning new languages like CSS3 and html5 has become crucial – especially also due to the unfortunate conflicts around Flash which cannot be seen on the exploding mobile market. Accordingly, this weekend’s fully online YCADEMY Seminar will need focused attention and strong nerves! That’s the price to pay to be and remain a qualified Semiomantics expert! MadMax is ready – are YOU?! Continue reading
Monkey Valley Resort on Mobile I just got some screenshots directly from the iPhone in Europe to demonstrate how the new Monkey Valley Resort Website actually looks on the Mobile web – and I’m absolutely thrilled! The quality and resolution are just outstanding and I left the image big so you can appreciate it here even though the picture may take a moment to load. This is soooo sexy! Above, you see the Frontpage of the Monkey Valley Resort Website, which features a large elegant slider displaying the various chapters and attractions of the hotel resort 30 kms out of Cape Town, South Africa. What is remarkable here is how beautifully the slider displays – all based on new technology as, sadly, Flash does not display on mobile phones and this forced us to adapt in our Semiomantics Website Development, learning new languages like CSS3 and HTML5. Monkey Valley Resort on Mobile Much if not most of today’s business on the Internet is piped in one way or another through the mobile web… a reason why Monkey Valley Resort had to be visible on mobile. Here is a horizontal version (probably 1 : 1) … and of course you [...] Continue reading
Animation for Beginners with After Effects Since Disney’s hand-drawn animation, nothing has changed when it comes to the basic principles of animation. The success of Disney was not just in the design of Mickey and friends but in the way the characters were put into motion. At Saturday’s Ycademy Seminar we will explain the 12 Principles of Animation and see, how to apply them with After Effects. 1. Slow in — slow out Acceleration and deceleration is created with Easy Ease in and out functions is AE. The effect creates fluid motion. 2. Anticipation Anticipation designs the action leading to the actual movement, like the backwards swing before hitting a ball with a golf club. Anticipation prepares the viewer for the action which will occur. Surprise actions can be more effective without anticipation. 3. Squash and Stretch Squashing and stretching blows life into a volume. The rule is, not to change the volume while designing the effect: a vertical squash goes with a horizontal stretch. 4. Arc Objects tend to move along an arc, rather than along straight lines. In After Effects we animate along a path. 5. Straight Ahead Action vs. Pose to Pose Straight Ahead Action refers to [...]
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Christmas Card 2011 As the Festive Season is rapidly approaching, it’s time to think of how to wish “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy New Year 2011″ . Here’s a first Christmas Card 2011 for YOU – I just loaded the tiny video clip on YouTube! Christmas Card 2011 The above Christmas Card 2011 was created using Adobe After Effects in preparation of this year’s final Ycademy Seminar 2011, taking place in the form of an online Workshop this coming Saturday. We will focus on creating Christmas Greetings using Adobe After Effects. This spiffy program is at the base of so many beautiful animations we see on TV or any film related stuff. Time to learn how it all functions and then to get good at it! Watch this space! PS: I can only create a small version as I am in desperate need of more RAM and not only that as my dear old machine is concerned… This will happen in the near future! Can’t wait myself 
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After Effects Happy New Year Tonight at YorgoLive we will focus on editing Inkman’s Christmas After Effect Template. This is a first simple adaptation; in fact the project can be further transformed namely by changing colors and backgrounds. The goal is to become familiar with simple changes of an existing After Effects project.Of course we will show participants how to embed the movie into a Facebook page for sharing with friends and fans. Happy New Year by Semiomantics Incoming search terms:Happy New Year after effectsnew year after effectsafter effects new yearhappy new year after effectnew year after effects projectnew year after effecthappy new year after effects projectproject after effect happy new yearafter effect new yearhappy new year effectsNo related posts.
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Cape Town Christmas on Google Loyal to our regular monitoring of the SEO performance of our WordPress based Semiomantics websites and blogs – our own as well as those of our valued customers – , I am extremely pleased to see an excellent Google ranking of my article “Cape Town Christmas Gift Fair 2011″ right on the brand-new Monkey Valley Resort Website! The website was basically released today! Click on the screenshot to see it bigger… Cape Town Christmas on Google You will see that “Cape Town Gift Fair 2011″ ranks on positions 4, 5 and 6 on Google Top 10 – the place everybody interested in that keyword area is competing for… here on 2,300,000 search returns! Save Money with a Semiomantics Website How does this demonstrate how you can save money with a Semiomantics Website? Well, the fight on the Internet highway is for a Google Top 10 position – either on the left side (see screenshot above), where there are 10 positions for super sexy websites and blogs that make it to the top – or on top (yellow area) and to the right where people spend continuously increasing daily budgets for Google Ads… simply [...] Continue reading
Christmas Media Design at Ycademy The Ycademy Seminar in December will focus on Christmas Media, namely on working with Adobe After Effects.In stead of producing static Christmas cards participants will be able to add motion, sound and other effects to produce a stunning customized Christmas Clip. The above draft for a UVUYO video is a typical example for what After Effects can do for you. Schedule The Christmas Media Design Seminar will take place on December 17, 201, starting at 1 pm London time and closing at 9 pm London time. As we have only one day available for the December Seminar, we will use all Daily Call sessions for an introduction into the secrets of After Effects. All pre-seminar calls will be recorded as well and video tutorials will be made available to seminar participants. Goals Acquire enough After Effects related knowledge to be able to work with After Effects templates and to customize, adapt or modify them. All participants will create a customized Christmas Clip. Materials Participants need Adobe’s After Effects, preferably CS 5.5 64 bit version, however CS4 running on 32 bit will do. For Customization, you may want to use some of your family photos or, [...]
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Personalized Wedding Websites on Google While our positioning on Google is certainly not a main priority when it comes to designing Personalized Wedding Websites, I am working on Semiomantics XO and it’s just in my virtual blood – and part of my daily routine – to observe and monitor my results on Google. Personalized Wedding Websites on Google And again – and this within minutes – a smashing result of being ranked on positions 5 and 6 on Google Top 10 – ahead of 20,5 million search returns: Click on the screenshot above and you see it in the enlarged version for better reading. Wedding Websites Ranking Obviously, and as you can see from the amount of Google ads being placed on top and on the side of the Google Top 10 page and beyond, there is strong competition on the Wedding Websites ranking – and this means constant movement as new posts come in and join the race to the top of Google. I am pleased to see that – even though this was sort of my first article in this particular project – the article is still ranked on spot 5! Brilliant performance on Google! [...] Continue reading
Personalized Wedding Website I am thrilled and honoured to do a Personalized Wedding Website – that’s one of the reasons why you won’t see much of me right now as I am out and about taking photos and/or concentrating on my graphic web design work in Photoshop! Personalized Wedding Website Besides the website design, we will be doing all the Wedding Photography here in Cape Town, South Africa, that will then be integrated into the personalized Wedding Website itself. From Wedding Album to Family Album In a way, we are starting out as a Wedding Album – however, this will only mark the beginning of the newly wed couple – it’s a promising beginning. Eventually, the website will develop into a Family Album documenting the couple’s evolution over time. This website will be a private affair accessible to family and friends only – and as in this case we have family members distributed all over the globe, it’s the perfect vehicle to show and share in a private space that’s not controlled by any Social Network, eg Facebook – but only and exclusively by the website owner. While nothing on the Internet is 100% private – that’s just in [...] Continue reading
