Fire Studios

Happy birthday day everybody! It's Fire Studios' sixth birthday and we're celebrating with a brand spanking new design! But that's not all! We're also redirecting our content focus to a more teaching view! Granted, that last part doesn't sound too exciting, but I promise it will mean much more interesting content coming from FS from now on!

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As a web developer, I've gone through my fair share of programs for me to do my work in, and not all Apps are made the same. So here's a list of the best software and tools that help you get the job done, and get it done right.

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Last week I gave my self the challenge to create a motion typography video (sometimes called kinetic typography). I decided to go with the song "No Handlebars by the Flobots" since I quite enjoy the song (I think it's the trumpet). My original goal was to do the whole song over the course of 4 days, but I soon discovered that was impossible, so I decided to just do the first half (maybe later in the summer I'll finish the rest). So without further antagonizing, here's the finished version of my video!

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Wordpress was developed to be extremely user friendly on both the front-end and the back-end, but also allow for some complex functions and features to be implemented for the more advanced and code knowledge of us. FS-2009 (the name of the theme released to FS at the start of the 2009 year) takes advantage of the many functions that WP has to offer, so I've created a screencast that covers all the PHP involved with creating this theme.

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Just like Writers and Writer’s Block, Designers can get much the same. I find myself lost for ideas sometimes, and I am sure that many of the other designers out there that find this happening too!There are some simple and effective ways to bring these ideas to your head. These are just some of the things I like to do when I’m stuck, but I am sure that I’d share my techniques with some other fellow designers.

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It's officially 2009 folks! And with the new year ushers in a new dawn in FS history!

As you can see we updated the design! It's quite a massive overhaul compared to the last one, but it's better in every way I guarantee it. Go ahead, browse around, you'll find FS now looks leaps and bounds smoother and cleaner (not to mention more user-friendly no?).

There's a reason behind the updated design though, we've gone network! FS is now owned and operated under the label of Fire Interactive (site not active yet)! FI (as I'll be referring to it as) is the parent site for the whole family of sites that FS belongs to such as: FS-Air (our official podcast), Fire-G.com (not-active yet), Burning Stone Cold (Andrew's site), James' Blogs (James' site), and a few more topic centralized websites further down the road.

Everyone here at FI hopes you like the new design (especially Fire G since he designed and coded it) and we love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Have an amazing 2009!

We all know the saying Don't Judge a book by it's cover, but in the big virtual space we call the internet, the first look is vitally important.

It's those first few seconds where a user will scan your page and look at the design and a little content, i know i find myself doing this all the time. To me, i feel that if a website is going to have good quality content, then the author will at least try and put some effort into a quality design.

Below i've got some great examples of great design and some examples of horrible design. I'll be explaining how each appeals to me, and how it can also appeal to users. This is a show case and also a way for designers, developers and webmasters to learn about how design affects how users perceive your website on first impression.
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We're all inspired by good web design no? So, as a bit of collective inspiration for us all, here's the first in a series of articles that will show you the latest and top notch web designs from all over the web. Also, we'll include a link if the design is available for download, why not share?

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This tutorial will teach you an awesome glow effect using some layer styles, the pen tool, and few blending options that most people overlook.

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This tutorial will you how to create a nice glow effect as well make it appear as if the glow is wrapping around an object.

Step 1

To begin this effect we'll need an object to wrap around, start by opening some image. I'll be using a picture of "The Cult" off of Deviant Art. Select your pen tool and have it set to "paths" (press "p" on the keyboard).

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