Yes, I know.. with a name like Darlin, how can you possibly go wrong. Cool short hair? Check. Great glasses? Check. A Quicktime video that automatically segues into an HTML page? Whoa, what? Could that be true? Well, see for yourself at Darlin Gray’s site.

Yes.. it’s true. Let me back up here for a second. I am a big fan of the people at Seattle-based creativetechs (if you haven’t already done so, check them out.. you’ll always learn something). I checked on their site today and they were running an article on Darlin Gray, and how she was able to use Quicktime scripts to kick off a redirect after a video played. Naturally – this was the reason I was hooked in.

So I clicked on the video. It turns out that she’s pretty funny, and she kept me wondering what the heck she was going to do next. Smiles, and cats, and squirrels – in one minute, it was over, and I was at her site. After being successfully entertained, I felt it an absolute necessity to check out her work, as well as forward her along to a couple of people… and well.. write about her here.

What do I like about this? Why is this important? What does this have to do with a cool column on Infrared photography? Well, nothing.. but you definitely want to check out how she did it and a couple of other things.. after the jump.

Why does this Darlin page work?
The reason I like this piece is because it’s so simple. They were able to use a piece of Quicktime technology to do something very simple – a redirect. Tack on to that a little bit of humor, and now you have something that is so much more compelling than the walk up video that says “Hi.. my name is RC, and there are great things that await you here.. [insert boring marketing blurb]. In the past few years, the splash page has become something that is completely misused and overdone – it was very nice to see someone go in a different direction. With just a bit of humor, she made a bit of loyalty – and made herself sticky. We could all learn a thing or two about this. Much thanks to Creativetechs for pointing this one out. Click on this link to see the full tutorial:

Setting up a Quicktime Video Landing Page

Let’s check out some other stuff.

PhotoshopUser TV – With RC Reporting from the Floor
OK, so not literally the floor, but I was at the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando this past week, and sat in with Scott, Dave, and Matt for their taping of PhotoshopUser TV. That’s always a fun thing to do because it is different from what Corey and I do on the Layers TV side of things. In Layers TV, Corey and I just want to get right down to business – no chatter, just the trick. We’ve really spent some time focusing on trying to get everything down to 15 minutes. You can watch an episode on a coffee break, and that’s what we try to provide (obviously if you want to go over it in more detail, you can pause it and rewind and stuff). PhotoshopUser TV is a “savor” episode, and the humor carries the show along.. which is a neat difference. Make sure you check them out at the PhotoshopUser TV page or on Fox Business Channel.

Adventures in Infrared Imaging
Rick Sammon is just an amazing guy to listen to. To be able to check out his column on Infrared Imaging on the website is a real treat for me. Be sure to click on the link to get right to it.

Rick Sammon – Adventures in Infrared Imaging.

That’s it for today, ladies and gents… be sure to stop in on Wednesday for our Layers TV episode!