Good to see you again DB!
1. I think it kind of depends on the site. I still do see the "created by..." buttons on almost every band site I visit. Especially if it's a big fancy flash/shockwave thing (which most are these days). Corporate sites are probably different, though, cuz they're trying to keep a uniformity and blah like that to their corporate presence, and "created by blargh" works against that principal.
2. Depends on what kind of 3D look you mean. If you're talking about bevelling text and lines and stuff, yeah, that's kind of "out", and flat is in. Note how a lot of sites now use either CSS or the same method as UBB to make table borders that are a single flat pixel, instead of the bevelled one that browsers make automatically. But a whole different look - the combination of flat elements and nice rendered 3d work - is "in" and looks very nice. Deviantart has a lot of this type of stuff, especially in the wallpaper sections. A lot of other art groups are using this style as well. I'm trying to teach myself how to do 3d model work like that so I can do some stuff in that style, cuz it's a really pretty form of art imho.
---Skorpion
