LARVALBUG BYTES started off in July, 1999, as a 4-page Word document that we created then e-mailed to family members (printing, photocopying, and sending to people without computers). As I was just learning to use our new computer, the graphics remained rather primitive for the first few months. I got the idea to manipulate clip-art images with the programs on our computer, like Microsoft Photo Editor and MS Paint. One of my earliest creations was "Valentine Grubs."
From the beginning, I always gave my designs titles, even if they were not labeled as such in the newsletter. This graphic was made from one image of a beetle grub. The central heart shape was created by cutting the tail off, flipping it upside down, and pasting it back on, adding a bit of detail to blend it in.
The Word document issues also included graphics within the text after I had figured out how to place them. "Cactus Christmas Tree" was included in the only December issue before we went online.
Due to the problem of some of our readers not being able to open the Word document, as well as the limited format, we wanted to put our newsletter online, where it could be easily accessed. Our internet service provider, AT&T, included a large amount of web space along with the internet connection and e-mail services, so we had the blank slate just waiting to be used. After a couple months of prodding by Larry, as well as my own curiosity finally getting the better of me, I worked through a series of free HTML lessons that had been thoughtfully recommended by our friend, Don. When I had earlier asked him specifics about creating a web site, his answer was always, "Just do the lessons and it will answer all your questions." He was absolutely right. In one week, working through the lessons in my spare time after work, I was able to put up a rudimentary home page and also create our first online issue of the newsletter.
With the April, 2000, issue, LARVALBUG BYTES was on the World Wide Web. Although I hadn't even figured out how to make text wrap around the graphics yet, the new format was a big improvement over our previous struggles with the unwieldy Word program.
Of course, one of the most entertaining aspects of the web format was that we could now use animation. I've always loved cartoons so the inclusion of animated graphics was a natural. When I started, I didn't know how to create the animated GIFs but could cut and paste them from clip-art sources.
"Worm to Hole" is simply a juxtaposition of two separate animations, but it creates the exact mood of our oppressively hot summer weather.
Another way to use animation is in the background. For "Starry Caterpillars," a static clip-art image is superimposed over a tiled animated background.
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A combination of two different clip-art pictures and an animation were used to create "Halloween Caterpillar with Fossils."
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The main graphic in "Caterpillar Tree" was created simply with various clip-art images and MS Paint (especially using the "resize" feature). The blinking lights are just another clip-art animation.
After a very short time, I discovered a wonderful free little program called Ulead GIF Animator Lite Edition. I was now able to edit animations and also learn how they worked. My first creation, "Caterpillar Feast," started with a clip-art picture of the food. The extremely simple caterpillars were drawn with MS Paint.
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At first, the animations I designed were much too bandwidth-gobbling, but I learned the usefulness of GIF optimizing programs and also how to pare down palette, size, and the number of frames, in order to keep the whole image from taking too long to load.
For one of our Valentine's Day issues, I couldn't resist creating "Heartworms Dance" even though it is in questionable taste (as if all the others are completely sophisticated). With a name like LARVALBUG, humor just comes naturally.
The center image is an original animation that started with a clip-art valentine. The surrounding beating hearts are all the same clip-art image repeated.
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