not to bash on the site but... the sidebars dont blend with the top graphc. anything we can do about this?
Though I wouldn't have done the mascot in the menu like that. Makes some of the links hard to read. Not a biggy...then again, I kinda do the design stuff for a living. >< Perhaps make the mascot a little opaque or do a two tone thing to make it blend into the background a little more so it doesn't compete with the text?
Indeed, this is only the first version, and I admit the sidebars and text are not quite right. Evaldas, if you'd like to make a mockup, we will definitely consider using it. We can use help with graphic design in lots of areas in Publicity, actually, if you're interested.
This is the new version of the site, I'm sure they'll be improving it and tweaking things here and there as time goes on.
Like turning the graphic at the top into an animated gif so the elevators go up and down. 
Tom, you and I think alike.
Just having the building makes it look like an AutoCAD model and not a banner.
The base for the building was indeed a 3D model done in Rhino. From that, the simple shapes were drawn in Illustrator, as were the window/balcony grids, and then the reflections, trees, and other effects were done in Photoshop.
Keep the suggestions coming because I definitely want to have a version 2 which is far more complete and doesn't have the blank walls and stuff like that. We have all the source components for this so can relatively easily pump out new versions without starting all over. Even changing the viewing angle would only require restarting from the Illustrator stage, because we have the 3D model.
This might be used on the posters and flyers so we have to make it higher resolution anyway.
Unlikely unless the image is broken down in to a very small section that has the animated portion. The reason I state this, is that a rough sample that's definitely within the bounds of the actual source image contains 77642 unique colors according to the GIMP. This is most likely due to the large number of gradiants, as well as the chibi logo. Though now (as I recall) finally patent-free, gif files may only contain 256 colors of indexed pallet. There are alternatives (embedding video, flash, or .mng files (the PNG version of animated GIFs, though practically no one supports that format)), however their either high bandwidth/client side load, or not commonly supported. Also, I personally feel it kind of tacky to use a video or flash Just for moving elevators. It would be sort of like walking up to a fast food counter, moments before the lunch rush has arrived, and expect to break a 100 dollar bill.
The site is heavily based on transparent PNGs so there's actually quite a lot we can do. Best of all, this still works with IE6 (which we need to support or at minimum gracefully fall back on) because there's a hack for transparent PNG support in IE6. I think it's pretty easy to use JavaScript, DHTML, and preloads to make PNG animations. After all, that's how the sidebar button mouseovers work! The site already has several JavaScripts on it:
The four boxes re-arrange and change height based on the browser window size (resize it if you have a wide monitor and see!)
The calendar has mouseover popups on days where there is an event.
The sidebar buttons glow when hovered over.
The countdown timer (hidden except right before the con but you can see it in the page source).
There's actually a lot we can do with reasonable bandwidth consumption. A really cool front page will get our con extra attention, notice, and memorability, and is fun for our fans.
One point for GIFs: Most programs still save them with a "restricted" palette. But by using "adaptive", they look very good and not grainy, for small images. (I think I got the terms right; not certain). Like my avatar. It seems to work in the browsers I've tested, including even IE6.
