Alex Hardy

At the risk of seeming horribly behind the times (because it isn’t new), I thought I’d link to an animation that I was sent today. Hey, it’s Friday afternoon!

Animator vs. Animation by Alan Becker.

Somewhat reminiscent of the Xiao Xiao cartoons, here’s the artist’s description:

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself. A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor … Who will win? You can find out yourself. This took three long months.. i think it’s worth it.

It really was.

Capcom have announced development of Streetfighter 4. No consoles have been confirmed (PS3 and Xbox 360 no doubt), but the animated concept trailer below was shown at an event in London this week.

Unless my eyes deceive me, some of Okami’s artists are working on the project…

I loved Streetfighter 2. My best friend Jon and I spent more hours playing it on the SNES than I dare to contemplate. After years of updates and spin-offs (SF3 was a fine game but not a worthy sequel), a true successor is an exciting prospect.

I thought I’d take a moment to observe the first birthday of my website. A year ago today I went live with a basic WordPress install. So far the site has undergone:

• One WordPress upgrade
• A theme of my design
• The addition of a portfolio
• The release of simpleContact (now at version 1.1)
• A new, permanent domain (the move is in progress)

On blogging…

It’s still very early days for me on this score. I’ve been slowly narrowing my focus and finding my style. I think the quality of my writing has come a long way this last year, but still leaves a great deal to be desired. I want this blog to have worth (rather than just an account of my activities), so I am thinking about fleshing out some previous posts into articles and tutorials. I am open to suggestions in this matter.

On design…

I don’t feel an urgent need to change the basic design of the website, since this look-and-feel is only eight months old anyway. It has held up under additions without any signs of creaking, so I think it will be good for another year.

When I come to redesign the site I’ll be paying close attention to my statistics. I’ve gained some interesting insights into how this site is used (ie: what is popular and what is not) and these factors will be taken into account. One result is likely to be a blog that is more visual, with less categorisation.

On projects…

I have lots of ideas going forward. I plan to release simpleContact 1.2 in November, and version 1.3 is pencilled in for February. I’ve made no secret of my intention to release a commercial product next year, which will exist alongside the free version and offer more sophisticated functionality (custom fields, for starters).

I’ll start work on simpleContact 2.0 “Pro” in the new year. Watch this space…

This period of focusing solely on a free version is proving immensely valuable, because it allows me to gauge people’s opinions. I can get a feel for what people need, how much active support I will have to perform and respond to bug reports or compatibility issues (which I’m pleased to say have been very few).

As always, I am open for feedback and support. I have a roadmap in place for the application, but will give requests due consideration. Contact me with yours…

Back to work!

I mentioned in a previous post that I registered alex-hardy.co.uk with the intention that it should become my new (and permanent) home. Well I’ve poked with this and prodded with that, and now I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I’m going to sit myself down in front of the computer tonight and move things over.

That means this site will be down / intermittently available later on, but hopefully the move shouldn’t take too long. There may be some glitches over the next couple of days, which I will do my best to sweep up as quickly as possible.

Thanks to redirection magic, existing links and bookmarks should continue to work.

See you on the other side

I got a bit of a buzz this morning when I noticed that one of my iPhone wallpapers was accepted to Pixelgirl Presents. It’s currently basking in the brief glow of front page status.

I’ve been a fan of that website for a couple of years now, and get many of my icons and wallpapers from there.

I don’t consider myself a hotshot photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have my moments. This makes me feel like making more of an effort

One of these days I’ll convince Jo to get a dedicated website for her illustration work. She’d kick ass.