I like the new layout except for the white background. The white background washes out a bit of the detail in the pics, just as it did with the old layout. How about making the background grey instead?

When this site is done. Resources section and other goodies to add yet. And when I've optimized all the pages I intend to add a 'turn out the lights' feature which will turn both the forum and the main site darker.

My personal preference is for white I just find it easier to use. Can't stand black and dark grey sites. But I'll add the option to turn out the lights as its not about me (well a little bit about me lol)

Dave ;)

@THX1138 For the white backgrounds, it used to bother me but I don't mind them anymore. In firefox I changed all white backgrounds to a lighter gray going to Tools>Options>Contents Tab>Colors and adjusting the background color there, make sure to uncheck the "Allow pages to choose their own colors." Don't know if that's useful to you but figured I'd share just in case.

@Rhetoric Camel, Yeah I have already tried that a long time ago. The problem with that is when you go to another website......

The 'turn out the lights' feature sounds great david!

I didn't really believe this day would ever come, but it HAS! :inlove: loving the overall design and scheme of things, its definitely a fresh start to a new simplymaya :giggle:

My hat goes off to both David and Nilla... great job you too!

Hi Nilla,(miss nova)

What happens when we post a new thread regarding problems or posting our finished work.
Will it be shown on the home page and under what column. Under active site discussion i see some very old post from year 2006. Why is that?

with best regards
Mahesh

New posts go on the front page under active site discussions. If something is replied to it goes to the top of the list on the front page as it's active.

David

I got a bit confused about it this morning as well Mahesh but I've been following it during the day and it's actually quite funny to see what pops up. I think it makes for a more interesting site with the active discussions rather than the latest threads. The latest threads still get covered by "view new posts".

Nilla

To david and nilla,

May be i am too demanding. Sorry in advance if i make you feel so but cant there be a column for threads related to finished work like you got one for WIP.

I myself and every other for sure post their finished work for critics and comments. For me it really helps to bifurcate my good work from bad ones to help me compile my showreel on which i am working upon. Or can I post in under WIP?

regards,
Mahesh

We can not add another column of threads on our front page, and we feel that WIP should have front page space rather than finished work as you need the critique and help to progress through your project. I think most people who critique work on this site would view these forums specifically or through new posts rather than the front page as well so I don't think a finished work thread would not be seen because it didn't get front page space for as long.

However, as you're looking for critique and not to just showcase your work I don't see a problem with posting it in the WIP section if you want, so please feel free to post it up there instead.

Thanks Nilla for your reply.

I completely agree with your point

regards
Mahesh

text is much better now and easier on the eyes :)

Well i thought I'd stop in real fast on my way to Panama. I love the new site Dave and Nilla, looks sweet. Can't wait to get home so i have more time to explore it, and as Jay said up there, see it on my giant monitor's at home. ( stuck on a small 17 inch monitor here right now bah!).
G-man

Wow Mahesh - 'Bifurcate' Maya hasnt even loaded up (well actually it has now) and I've learnt something already...

David still love the site, noticing small errors here and there (typos mostly). Three at least just in the Lifetime Membership descrip. ('Libiary' with no full stop before 'It' your instead of you're) Would you prefer them pointed out here, by PM, or not at all?

Personally I miss the way New Threads were linked on the welcome page. I used to log in and find 3-4 new things to learn/think about - kind of got me in the zone for the hours ahead. Creature of habit I guess and now my routines changed :(

I'll get over it :D

@3dStudent you can point them out here I appreciate the heads up :)

As for the Active site discussions on the front page I'll be adding a button to let you switch between Active Discussions and Latest Posts. Same with the Members WIP box I'll let you change it to Finished work instead.

Thanks for supporting SimplyMaya

Dave :)

Thanks David

Mahesh

They've only been minor things... Sites working perfectly.

Noticed tonight when I download a tutorial piece the screen shows me as a Guest... Didnt stop me downloading though.

Just an update, SimplyMaya now has a basic Facebook page:happy: so you can come and like us. This page will become updated with videos and more images over the next few days

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simply...7201903?v=wall

Hey Dave/Nilla

Something was brought to my attention today regarding the download sections by one of the staff at work of all places. It seems that the text is overlapping making it all unreadable. Now Im not sure if its a browser error but Ive viewed it on both FF and IE and its the same.

Ramsay tute is one of them: http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-...=163&sub_cat=2

cheers for now

Jay

Cheers Jay, strange thing. I know Dave is always cursing over IE it causes a lot of problems when he builds a site. I noticed the same thing you mentioned for the GI on the test site, but there was a lot of problems back then and I know he tested the site for all browsers he's a fairly good programmer. I just ran all the site pages by IE and FF to check and it comes out fine for me.

Anyway it's a question for Dave I'm not clever enough for this so I'll mention it to him in the morning he's gone for a well deserved pint in the land of beer:) He uses chrome and he's trying to get me to do the same but I had enough trouble when he forced me away from IE so I will not abandon FF as well because he now thinks chrome's the best browser. I know there's a really annoying problem with the arrow keys that's FF specific he's trying to figure it out now. Basically you have to move in slow motion so I'm hoping he'll get it fixed.

Nilla

I went to the 'Video Credit' link and in the 3 images where it says 'Video Credits' there is a typo, it says "Fredom to download" instead of "Freedom to download".

Also, is there any way on tutorials, you can put down what the section consists of, for example, the yeti. Say I want it for just the fur section, how do I know which one the fur is without downloading multiple files and using a bunch of credits?

Maybe break it down into sections in the Individual Lesson Download Area
Ex.
Modeling
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
UV Layout
Part 4
Part 5
Texturing
Part 6
Part 7
Fur
Part 8
Part 9
Scenery
Part 10
Lighting
Part 11
.
.
and so on depending on what the tutorial consists of.

There are still typos on all the payment pages, it's because they're secure pages and difficult to edit. It will get fixed over the next few days though, we are still changing things on the whole site.

There is something already called "lesson breakdown" in the right hand site column under key features and tutorial details if you scroll down on the yeti page. Things that are theoretical and not project based like essential lighting will have a complete part by part breakdown. Just scroll down and you'll see it.
http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-...=127&sub_cat=1

Certain things in these breakdowns won't add up perfectly either for another few days.
Cheers,
Nilla

Oh wow, I must be blind, didn't even notice the breakdown. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

It was a just a few things I saw while looking around the new site, thought I'd share just in case.

Hi nilla,

Just a small thing that i want to bring to your notice.
Even if i am logged in it still shows log in on the home page. To log out i have to go to any of the forum links.

Regards,
Mahesh

Thanks for pointing it out, things do get missed sometimes so if you find something that doesn't work please just let us know. And I'm a bit blind sometimes too:) There are a lot of new things getting added to the site so its easy to miss.

@Mahesh: I'm not really sure what you mean, the login/logout on the main pages and the forums should work perfectly in all browsers. For the home page the login/out is located at the top right hand corner on a black bar and if you hit login the box will drop down to enter your user name and if you refresh the page it will say "Welcome Mahesh....etc", and display the option to logout (not login). If you hit logout and refresh the page you will be logged out, I just tested it again.

Hey Nilla,

I noticed the other day that when in USER CP / Edit Avatars, there seems to be not enough room for the thumbnail pictures provided which is then initially pushing the others beyond the border line. Didn't know if this was intentional or yeah...

Hi nilla,

This is what i had done.
Opened simplymaya.com. Instead of logging in on the home page i clicked on any of the WIP links with attachments in it. After clicking on the attachment link a new window tab is opened where i am asked to log in. After logging in and after viewing the content i close this second tab.

Now in the first tab when i refresh the page it still shows log in. Even if i click on links of video credits or video training. But when i click on the forum link it shows me the logout button.

Note: If i log in on the home page then everything is fine.

This is what i had noticed. I know its a small issue but thought should inform you. And yeah if it still works right at your end then the problem is definitely at my end :)

Mahesh

Nuther small issue or two.
 

Hi David,

The message above and THX's post about not having 'permission' to change his user status reminds me of another small issue I keep encountering.

From the download page I posted earlier in this thread, I've found I get stuck there. None of the links at the top of the page from 'home' to 'FAQ' do anything. Even my back button sometimes doesn't respond. Figured this might be linked to the whatever the other problem on that page is, so I havent mentioned it. I Just close that window and open a fresh one.

But when I got stuck there the first time I clicked on everything to get back to the Home Page or Forums, when I click on 'Video Tutorials' in the 'Useful links' I get the first ScreenShot I'm posting here.

When I click on that link from inside the forums I'm told simply3maya.com doesnt exist and then get sent to some searchassist ask site. And finally when I click on that same link from the home page it works fine.

@3dStudent Thanks I'm in the process of fixing that page now.

Thanks for the bug reports everyone.

Dave :)

Working the kinks out now, this was a big change for us. Vimeo videos now work inline, and I should have all the problems posted here sorted out by the end of the week.

We're also working on new training now. Expect some great looking stuff to come your way in the next couple of weeks.

Dave :)

Been awhile since I've really been on and I must say I really dig the new look. Just wanted to say good job on the site. I like it alot :D

Thanks nice to see people back here :)

Dave

I think there are still some Bugs!! For example, I am very sure I was buying "Haunted House" Tutorial... but if I go to my links>my downloads it is not listed anymore there !! So I think some other purchased downloads are also gone... maybe I check this next days...

Hi,

It should now be listed, sorry about that if you have any other downloads you think might be missing let me know and I will sort that out for you.

David

Congrats............. Simply Maya

Just a small complaint - I cant have my 3 trophies (for the challenges) in my sig no more - why ???
I have had them there for weeks after the site change, and months before with out any problems but when I went to update my blog site info it now tells me I have to remove two of them before I can edit.

Its just a little thing but I worked hard for them, I would like to be able to have them back (currently going for 4th)

I will sort it out for you on Monday mate :)

Dave

Thank you very much

PLz delete

Erm the problem is still here - Its because you can`t have more than one image in your sig anymore - I found a temp solution to the problem but its going to be a pain in they go up any more :-)