Feb 19
Jigar PanchalWork
Here are my top 5 tips on recruiting the best talent for your production.
1.) Only hire A people.
If you start making compromises, B level people will start to hire C level people who will in turn bring on D Level staff.
2.) Only hire people who are smart.
You want to recruit and hire staff that have aptitude, not a particular skill set. You want to find those that are going to be able to learn any new technology rather than people who happen to know Maya version 6.0 this minute. You want those that understand the concepts, not the pixel-pushers who know the buttons.
3.) Only hire people who get things done.
Getting things done is crucial. Avoid those that are completely impractical, the ones that would rather mull over something academic about a problem rather than deliver the film on time (and budget). More
Feb 19
Jigar PanchalWork
l always aim to establish and create a cohesive team that feels like a family, so that people have a sense of loyalty and commitment to their colleagues and the studio. Another goal is to always keep the motivation of the team at a very high level. I feel that It is important to provide opportunities for group members to become acquainted. One method that I use is eating together. I’ve always made a point of eating lunch with my coworkers as often as possible. It is amazing how this one little thing can impact a team. I also believe it is necessary to indicate the importance and value of the individuals and team. The people need to know how they are important to the studio. I always make it a point to acknowledge achievements and identify progress, to the person, the team, and studio wide. More
Nov 24
Jigar Panchalfun
Instead of a good old office politics – try something fun and creative with the co-workers to disturb them! This will at least “keep things going” and yet will serve your purpose.
Here are 101 ways for you to slowly drive them crazy.
- Leave a stack of old applications and a note saying, “Install these”
- Staple your reports in the wrong corner
- Put tape over the mouse optics
- Unplug a co-worker’s monitor
- Talk to sick employees while wearing a dust mask
- Turn your earphones up all the way
- Burn popcorn in the microwave
- “Forget” to put your tuna sandwich in the fridge
- Turn up the beep volume of the copier
- Empty the paper out of the main printer/copier
- Empty the ink or toner out of the main printer/copier
- Practice beat boxing
- Sing show tunes
- Hang up the phone before they say, “good bye”
- Slurp hot coffee during meetings
- Walk around the office barefooted
- Empty out a co-workers office on a Friday afternoon
- Misplace peoples pens
- Insert a 3.5″ disk before they turn on their computer
- Glue their mouse to the desk More
Nov 23
Jigar PanchalFree Stuff, Mac OS X, Web Dev, Work
Professional web designers on the Mac platform rely on commercial heavy-hitters like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and InDesign for their graphic design needs. And when it’s time to slice and dice, some depend on the excellent Dreamweaver CS4 for WYSIWYG design/development; while many Mac code jockeys swear only by editors like Coda, BBEdit or TextMate. Others prefer to mix, match or blend.
Designers also rely on various supporting apps to accomplish every day jobs like FTP uploading, cross-browser testing (important if you’re designing/developing on a Mac platform only), screen-shot snapping, pixel measuring, and the like.
While many of these programs are slick, they also of course cost … money. Which brings us to free apps for the Mac crowd. Which are the best compared to their commercial counterparts? Or are simply great apps in a league all their own? Put away that credit card for now and let’s find out!
Free Photoshop alternative
GIMP (Mac)
In a nutshell, GIMP provides designers with the power to accomplish almost any task that Adobe Photoshop is used for. Mac users familiar with typical Cocoa apps will find GIMP’s interface and menu system very “un-Mac” like (requiring the X Window System, commonly called X11), but if you soldier through you’ll find a powerful image editing program with all the fixins – advanced multi-layering, text and image effects, pro-level image manipulation, and a full range of design tools. High quality plug-ins are freely available to extend the app, including the ability to use some native Photoshop ones.
Also check out:
Seashore
Based on GIMP, Seashore is a pure cocoa app which makes it very OS X friendly. A range of tools for gradients, textures, layers, and drawing are found in Seashore. However, the program lacks many of GIMPs more powerful features so it’s not exactly a GIMP replacement either.
LiveQuartz
Sporting a sleek Mac interface, LiveQuartz describes itself as a “simple and powerful free photo editor for Leopard.” It does two thing very well: layers and filters. Basic drawing tools are also included but, as with Seashore, it’s not billed as a Photoshop replacement either. In the hands of the right designer, however, fairly sophisticated designs can be created with this nice app, which is also fun to use.
Free Illustrator alternative
InkScape (Mac)
The open-source InkScape, another Mac application that requires X11, is a viable alternative to Adobe Illustrator with its ability to create and edit graphics in scalable vector format.
AI users will feel at home using InkScape with options like layer control, gradients, connector path control/manipulation, various brushes (including calligraphy), type effects, masking, EPS exporting, a 3-D shape tool, object tweaking/sculpting, and even a diagram connector tool useful for a variety of purposes, like creating site maps. Depending on the complexity of your design, files can be exported from InkScape and into Illustrator and vice-versa.
More
Oct 11
Jigar PanchalDesign, Web Dev, Work, Yahoo Store photoshop, quality in design, web design
Quality is a word that a lot of people like to use when describing their web design services. But what is quality, how do you know if a design is quality or not. Well, I think that there’s quite a few ways to spot quality within web designs. Once you can see just what goes into making a quality web design, you can use the techniques to perfect your own style.
I’ve put together a few pointers, and collected some examples to explain just how I look for quality within a website design.
01. Spacing
One of the main things that I look for within a good website design is clever use of spacing with design elements. Paying close attention to how certain things are spaced out and lined up can really make a difference to the overall appearance and sense of quality of your design.
I think the key to getting your spacing right is to look at all of the elements within your design. Looking at the bigger picture really can help you get a good idea of how best to space your elements. Sometimes zooming out and taking a different look at your designs can be a great help.
Examples of Excellent Spacing
Great Spacing on the Good.is Website
As you can see here, there is a very clean and open feel to the content here. This is completely down to the designer allowing a good amount of space around the text & images.
A very well spaced out Digital Mash Website
Having well spaced out elements can make them a lot more attractive, and a lot more clickable. Digital Mash is a great example of a very welcoming website.
More
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