Updates & News

Many of the photos in the galleries can now be seen on Flickr! There, you will be able to get a closer look at the artwork at better resolutions.

I’ve added a new Sketchbook/Fun gallery. It will highlight sketches, doodles, and other fun things. Right now, you can check out a funny Mother’s Day gift, featuring my Nephew.

Oh, eBay pirates are fun. I’ve been fighting them for years. They like to sell my paper models, and the photos that they use to promote their auctions are my own. They don’t take them from this website but from my Flickr photo album.

Most pirates leave the Disney Experience logo and copyright notice intact, but place their own logo or trademark on top. They’re typically unwilling to Photoshop anything out or, better yet, build the models themselves and take their own photos. But, today, I finally found one who not only Photoshopped my logo out, but placed their own logo, in a similar design, on top of the area to help mask any imperfections. It’s a nice try, but that doesn’t stop me from reporting the violation.

While I design a better watermark for all 174 of my Flickr photos, I’ve made them private, and I have temporarily closed the 3-D art gallery.

Four years ago, I partnered with a friend to design an interactive Web experience for Disneyana.com to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland®. Hence, the Disneyland® Memory Album was created. Until now, there was only a screenshot of the album. All but my own album entry and the bonus nostalgia have been deleted. Still, you can get a sense of what it was. There were a lot of nice Disneyland® stories and photos when it was whole.

The galleries have been updated to include Flash versions. The Flash galleries will allow you to see greater detail in a fun, interactive, 3-dimensional void. Watch the images fly in and out, then zoom in for a closer look. And best of all, you can switch to Fullscreen mode. Instructions are provided.

There are some inconsistencies between the standard and Flash galleries. One gallery may have images that the other does not, so it may be worth visiting both versions. My main concern was getting the new galleries up and running; I’ll begin synchronizing the two versions later.

Well, my hardback book came in today, and it’s really nice. I was expecting it to somewhat look like it was printed on a laser printer, but it does not. The pictures are clear and colorful, and the dust jacket is glossier than I expected (glossy is good).

The book, on the whole, is a bit stiff. I suppose that would be the result of the premium paper that I chose, which is thicker. Since this will mainly stay untouched on my book shelf, the stiffness really is not a problem.

The binding is a bit odd, though. The pages are not stitched to a piece of cloth like most books. Instead, they are simply inserted flush against the inside of the spine. Looking closer at the binding inside the pages, I think they may be lightly stitched together. There might also be glue there, but I’m not totally sure.

While there may be a few things odd about the book, there really are no flaws. After all, this is a print-on-demand book, which requires different assembly techniques to meet demands and keep costs down.

I don’t think I will release this to the public at this time mainly because it’s so expensive. I bought an 8×10 hardback book (108 pages) with premium paper and a dust cover. With tax and shipping, it cost me over $62 on Blurb. Yikes! But, considering that I now own my very own book, I think it’s worth the cost. When I work on Book Two, I’ll wait for a coupon to use.

The thing I like about Blurb is their book-making software. There are many template pages to choose from, so it’s very easy to create a professional-looking book. The program has a few glitches that are annoying, but that just meant that I had to constantly double-check everything. That turned out to be a good thing, since Blurb does not reprint or refund books if I make an error.

The Temple of the Forbidden Eye paper model has been added to the 3-Dimensional section.

The Disneyana.com Fall splash screen has been added to the Web Design section. The design was supposed to debut last Fall, but it was unused for some unexplainable reason. The owner usually has a good reason for delays like that. The design should debut this year.

For anyone interested, the Pirates of the Caribbean system icons were recently released. The 72-icon set can be downloaded from the Disney Experience.