I've intention of creating an own website where I can kinda dedicate it to all my interest on anime and manga. The only problem is, I need to find a suitable host, and as you can guess, I had been quite unsuccessful in the past few attempts. I tried Geocities once, but I kinda got annoyed with the advertisements on the right-hand side.

I tried to preview some of the sites owned by the members of the alien9 fanlisting site. I saw one which kinda got my attention, but the only problem is, the site seems to be down. Oh, Sai...

I talekd a little about hosts in this thread: http://alien9.crossrealms.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33
Hopefully it is of help to you

When you said "the site is down". I thought you meant one of the member's site's that you were looking through so when you finished with "Oh Sai" I was like huh? But then I looked and was like "Agh! " Haha
Umm I hope it hasn't been like that for too long
It's fixed now

Just noticed my guestbook isn't emailing me when someone makes an entry either

Anyway thanks for letting me know! I appreciate it

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

What I would actually want is something like a blog site and also something like a site where I can put information for all my anime and manga stuff (which is rather the main purpose of my wanting of creating the site). Unfortuantely, most sites I've seen is either for blogging only or for image hosting only, so I'm rather torn there. =P Geocities is nice, but irritating.

Well if you're willing to pay for hosting, then try to get a host with Cpanel and Fantastico (or a similar script-installation thingy). It'll be able to install a blog script for you in a few clicks.
For free blog places there's pitas.com, livejournal.com and others.

You could probably get an image hosting account and a blog separately and then just have a simple page on geocities that links to those other places perhaps.

If you need any help with making a webpage then let me know. I could even design one for you if you wanted me to... (it is part of the career I'm studying towards, web design)
Do you know HTML etc. or are you planning on using the "template" thingies that places like geocities offer?
If I designed it for you it would probably mean you'd need to edit it at a later date... Although you could use a program like Frontpage or others.
(Or maybe I could use PHP but you'd need a paid hosting account and stuff ideally)

It's been sometime since I bothered with free hosts.... Last one I used was Brinkster before they started forcing banner ads. Not too sure where's good anymore

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

Thanks for the help. I'm currently going to need some help extracting images and making the edges of the pictures blur out (it's called feathering, i guess). But for now, the only thing I need to do is to know how to feather in the first place. I keep blurring the images like crazy!

In Photoshop, use one of the selection tools e.g. Polygonal Lasso, Lasso or the Marquee ones e.g. Circle, Rectangle etc. Double-click on the tool button to make sure the properties/options window is open. On the properties there should be an option called Feather. Just enter a value for how much you want it to fade (distance).

By the way if you're gonna have it as a transparent GIF with the faded edges etc. it might look a little messy due to the limited colours that GIF allows but with some tweaking it might come out OK.
PNG is better but Internet Explorer probably doesn't support transparent PNGs still (unless thats changed)

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I tried the Feathering, but I noticed that I have to highlight an area on the image before the option 'Feather' is made availabled. But even after that, there's the pixels thingy, which I've no idea what it is in the first place. After joking around with it (which means typing all sorts of funny numbers), the highlighted area doesn't even show any sign of fading or whatsoever. Jeez... this is getting tough, but it's kinda fun too. =D Looks like more work ahead.

Btw, since we're here already, mind if I ask you about copyrights? I notice that on all sorts of fansites, there are the usual 'all rights reserved' and 'this site is in no way affiliated with...' kind of statements. On my site, would I be required to type anything about copyrights regarding the anime/manga in question?

Hmm you mean you're unable to type any numbers in the "Feather" box before you make a selection (e.g. dragging the Lasso tool about). I don't think that's right because you'll need to set the amount to Feather by before you make the selection.
Double-clicking on the tool should bring up the Options window with the Feather option in then just type a number in there.... Is it greyed out?

After you've typed a number in there. Make your selection.
The tool that gives you the most control is the Polygonal Lasso tool, you use that by clicking (many clicks) gradually around the thing you want to isolate in the picture, then double-click to finish or finish by clicking on the point at which you started.
If you just want a circle or something though then clicking and dragging out the Circle Marquee tool should do.

After you're happy with your selection, then press Ctrl + I on your keyboard.
What that does is Inverse the selection (its basically a shortcut). Which means instead of e.g. you selecting the character Yuri, you instead are now selecting all the area *around* Yuri.
Then press Delete on your keyboard.
It should remove the area around Yuri and slightly eat into the image of Yuri which results in a fade/feathering.

If the surrounding area is now White instead of the checkered/transparent Photoshop background, then make sure that the layer is not called Background (which is the default base thingy in Photoshop). If it it is, double-click the Layer in the Layers window and name it something else. Then delete the area around Yuri again.

Copyrights - Well it can't hurt really to put a line in about who originally created so and so manga etc. e.g. crediting Tomizawa for Alien 9 if you're going to host a site about Alien 9 etc. I think Japan is very good about 'fanstuff' though, they do afterall allow a *certain* amount (I heard they limit it) of 'doujinshi' on the market which basically is people selling fan comics for *profit*. But I think it's a different case in the West... I know someone who made a fansite for Snoopy and got told to take down all official artwork. Disney has been known to protect their official artwork too I think? But Disney's fanbase is probably so vast due to the history of the company I doubt they bother everyone on the internet if they do make an issue out of it, but I've heard stories before about buildings having to take down Disney artwork due to copyright issues. And I bet fan comics probably aren't allowed, due to them earning a profit... which is probably why we don't have such a community as 'doujinshi'. In Japan every now and again they seem to hold special conventions where everyone gets together and sells their fan comics too. But I think if there is no profit gained, then to a certain extent it is OK (as long as you don't claim you originally made it) even for Western stuff. Of course these are generalised statements, so it can vary. Depends on the company I guess and how strongly they feel about others not using their stuff.
As I said though, I really think Japanese animation companies are more lenient and wouldn't care if a fansite promotes their stuff by displaying artwork etc. But some credit just so people can find more by them, would probably be good for their business.

Oh and if the 'thing' you are promoting is not made by a big company etc. it's probably more important to credit them. As they probably don't have *any* kind of promotional stuff as it is. A company has a whole marketing department to advertsie them. Not that that means of course, that a company shouldn't be credited

The "no affiliation" business in my opinion is more for the benefit of the visitors. If at any point your website becomes extensive someone might make the mistake of thinking you're part of the creators of the show and start to ask questions or make assumptions. There are cases where 'fansites' have been mistaken for being the official thing. I remember instances of that... when I was on a huge fansite for an online game and sometimes people would come along and post on the forum telling the owners of the fansite to hurry and get the game server back up, even though of course, they have nothing to do with the official server, which got a laugh from the other forum people

Anyway just a little note at the bottom of your pages should do it.

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of Jinshen. (Yay my e started to work again). I have no experience in wb development. I'm getting a program that may be useful though. Soft Image (over $9000 ) but it's the best 3D imaging software out there and since I'm going into mutlimedia i'm gonna get it. I've played with it at school and they are looking into a student discount for it. I hope there is one. And what brand of scanner should i get that won't loose details that are really small? Sorry about so many questions.

For 3D stuff, what about Maya?. I usually hear people using that on 3D courses/professionally. But I don't know much with regard to 3D. What would you be thinking of getting into?

For web stuff:
Dreamweaver - for webpages
Flash - for animation/flashy interaction

For multimedia:
Director - for CD/kiosk software (offline mostly), although Flash can do a lot of what Director does

Others:
Adobe Photoshop - for image manipulation
Fireworks - for optomising web graphics, haven't used this one much

If you need any help/advice with web stuff/multimedia then feel free to ask.

As for scanners.... I have an A4 CanoScan N640P that I've had for 4 years that has served me perfectly To get small details scanned, you would just need to set it to scan at a very high resolution (the DPI setting).

(I notice further up I offer to actually make some webpages if asked but just to publicly clarify: Unfortunately I can't do that anymore, no time )

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I don't want anyone to make my website. I would of course ask those that I trust for help and suggestions. Hopefully you'll be a member of my site. I'll have to wait and see. I know more about anime than I let on. I've worked to bring it to America even more than it was coming. I know people inside of Pioneer, Viz, Manga, US Manga Corps, etc. I was actually going to open my own store dedicated to anime and manga. I had to work closely with the companies for a while and I did demographics for them. In the end funding fell short (due to my age ! ) I guess 21 was too young in there eyes to run a bussiness, but the same companies turned around and used my research for major profits. Ehh. What could I do. So now I like to see how much more popular it has become around where I live. Inu Yasha was one that me and a lot of other people worked on getting more of.
Oh yeah before I go. Soft Image is used more for major productions like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and the likes. You can create realistic scenes. Most software packages that you described are lesser forms of its engine. My teacher call me and it's $290 with my student discount with a perpetual lisence. When I get it I may lend you a copy to try for a while. A couple of companies owe their life to its abilities on special effects using humans.

Sorry, I wasn't saying that stuff about not being able to make a website directly to you, just updating on something I said earlier in the thread Since I got asked a couple times since to do things for people, but unfortunately can't help as much anymore. No need to apologise!

Hopefully you can set up your own business sometime then if that's still what you'd like to do. The webhost accounts (with Cpanel ) that I've bought always included a nice shopping cart script that you can enable which would basically allow a person to run their own online store. But of course you've still got the trouble of getting the goods...

That's great that you got to work with those people. Shame that it backfired in a way though... but I'm sure many are greatful for your hard and kind work!

Ah I see. I know nothing really about 3D software (the only one there I suggested that was 3D related was Maya, the others aren't related to 3D at all), so I was just going off what I'd heard. I hadn't heard of Soft Image before, sounds great then. I'm very glad then that you can get it at an affordable price. I need to buy various software too to work on webpages etc. actually but I will have to pay full price since I'll be working commercially, but thankfully professional web development stuff like Macromedia Dreamweaver are nowhere near as expensive as professional 3D animation software.

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I remeber you saying something one a sit somewhere that you were in college. If you can prove that you used it in your projects and don't use any software that you get this way as the backbone of your site you can legally enhance the site with said software. (Related to state police . It can be a bother sometimes but it does have its advantages about questions relating to laws) Use the same software that you used to make this site to get the base running. The blogs, panels, etc. Then use one of the said programs to do some of the pretty work as I call it. Make sure though that you don't over use one particular program. Th program used as a foundation has to remain thd larger of the codes. After a few newer versions come out (a couple of years) they normally become lax on watching the older programs. Some like Light Wave and Max Studio actually stop watching them completely and give out shareware vrsions for almost nothing that for a drastically reduced price ($5-$50) that can be upgraded to the full versions for $200. Those two programs togethr are worth almost $10,000. See if they offer things like that for yours. Soft Image actually gives free upgrades on their last realease to the new ones hitting the streets.

I'm at University. Doing a multimedia course so they have all the software there that I need (Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop etc.).
This site is a non-profit website though, non-commercial (I meant projects outside of educational purposes or non-profit personal things like this site). And yeah they also have student discounts versions available on all the software The blogs and other scripts are free scripts anyhow Technically though I can make sites with Notepad but software is for convenience/flashy stuff.

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I know this seems like a weird question but what university do you go to. I go to ITT and its a joke. I'm looking for a school outside of the us with good feedback. There's not much of a job market in the us for multimedia. I looked a bit in japan but the catch is that you have to learn japaneese to attend. Plus the price (which i would need to know) would put me over the limit for my loans. If you don't wish to post this stuff pm me. If you know of other good schools in multimedia over there please give a short summary (name and website). That is if its not to much trouble.

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"Without a great mind the hand can not create buety, and that which it does create will lack soul."