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feedback appreciated

Mr. Anderson

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
7
VA
www.gone3d.com


Ok, I've updated my site and added additional windows and transitions. The content is still yet to be coded in - dynamic loading of images, movies, etc. But the GUI is close - just need to tweak some of the graphics and minor transition issues.

I need to create couple 3D icons for the buttons and add them to the background transitions - right now I have 3 sets of animated blocks and a ship instead of 4 unique items. Also, I've set it up for a preloader, but the whole thing is 55k :D

Also, the news text is a simple text file read in at runtime. Updating doesn't require recompiling :D

D
 
You'd think someone would reply ...

With all the help you've given in this forum, you'd think someone would have responded by now.

So, here's my two cents:

My first impression was "wow, neat," but I did come up with a couple of suggestions.

First, the flash transitions are a bit slow and jerky on my machine. That could be a function of this old beast I'm working on, or it could be the actual flash content. If it's the content, might I suggest speeding up the transitions by about 50 to 75 percent. While the effects add to the neatness factor, the wait-time becomes obtrusive.

Secondly, the aspect ratio is odd. But, depending on your target audience, it could be OK (If you're targeting mainly Macs, with their increasingly wide-aspect displays, this is great.). Also, inside the container box, there is considerable trapped and under-utilized white space. One way to fix both issues would be to remove the blue container box and let the entire page float in elegant white space. Perhaps you could attach you're menu buttons to the footer/info bar at the bottom of the screen, as without the container, you're left without an anchor for them.

I like the feeling of interactivity the site provides. Once the content is in, it'll be a nice site whether or not you take these suggestions.

One more thing -- You've gotten away with something I typically hate: using a novelty type face for body copy. But you've done it well. Many designers will put up a boxy site and try to liven things up by putting in a hand-written-styled font. It doesn't work; instead, it looks incongruent. But because you've used very organic, hand-drawn-styled elements, the font pulls off nicely. ;)
 
I pretty much agree with superninjagoat. The site also ran slowly on my machine, a Ti400. Maybe not so many 3D objects in the background? I don't know if that would actually speed things up, though. My animation skills are pretty primitive.

My preference is for a little more color. I like the subtlety you've achieved with the site, though, so maybe just an accent color here and there, perhaps a deep red, to draw the eye.
 
Thanks for the responses :D

Yeah, the site runs slow as a dog on my home machine. That's an issue, of sorts, so I might make an option for the transition number to be dependent on the machine. Not sure how I'll do that yet :D

As for color, that will come as I get the content. And I'm not attached to any one thing yet. This is basically going to be a portfolio site when I'm finished and it will most likely go though a few changes.

As for the font, I'm not sold on that either. Sort of just what I went with considering it similarity to the logo. We'll see what happens.

I'll have more updates this week,

D
 
Quick follow-up

I say keep the color scheme. I'm big on monochrome. Especially with everything you have going on in the background, I think extra colors would be distracting. It could quickly cross the line from neat-o to gimmicky.

... I think I'm up to four cents now.
 
superninjagoat said:
I say keep the color scheme. I'm big on monochrome. Especially with everything you have going on in the background, I think extra colors would be distracting. It could quickly cross the line from neat-o to gimmicky.

... I think I'm up to four cents now.
Click to expand...

sorry, should have elaborated there....the content, photos, images, interactive thingies will have the color, the site will pretty much stay the same.

I will speed up the transitions a little, make them tighter. The only thing though, is that I haven't actually made any of the final windows/content holders for those sections. Sort do it all at the same time. Also, the portfolio button will be added as a separate link - I'll have more things there that won't really be something everyone wants to see.

Also, as for the size of the 'screen', I think I'll keep it close to what it is. I'll see how it goes once I get the content generated. Its only 800 pixels wide by 450 high - easily fit on most monitors. I like the aesthetics of the blank space around the edges, makes it more of a window/piece of art on the wall/canvas/etc....

D
 
another update with a few cosmetic changes and a preloader.

Anyone on a slow link to the net - I'd appreciate some feed back on the preloader - thanks.

D
 
Looking very nice, D!

Have you done any testing for animation smoothness based on the number of objects you have scrolling across in the background? I'm on a DP 1GHz G4 and Safari/FireFox can take up to 60-80% CPU - I also had an odd issue with the preloader and a message in FireFox that a script in the movie was causing Flash to hang, followed by all the section boxes flying on and off screen with the message box stuck at 97% loaded...might want to investigate that.
 
Rower_CPU said:
Have you done any testing for animation smoothness based on the number of objects you have scrolling across in the background? I'm on a DP 1GHz G4 and Safari/FireFox can take up to 60-80% CPU - I also had an odd issue with the preloader and a message in FireFox that a script in the movie was causing Flash to hang, followed by all the section boxes flying on and off screen with the message box stuck at 97% loaded...might want to investigate that.
Click to expand...

I have to optimize the animations - that's tomorrow. I can reduce the number of spinning things and it will really make a difference. Just making the buttons stop spinning will help, that's 4 going right there. And making each of them a little lighter in terms of size will help.

I might also go to lines and no fills - we'll see.

And the preloader is going to be adjusted - its not dynamic and I'd like to use the same one for all images/movies/etc.

The photo and movie samples work, but not as well as I'd like - I have a lot of modularization to go. But I'm really happy with the results so far.

Flash is friggin' great!

D
 
movie? picture? where?

I'm not getting the sample picture or movie? Did you remove them? Or is this a problem? I'm on my work PC, WinXP IE6.

Also, it could be my imagination, but I think the home animation is snappier, smoother on this machine that when I checked it out earlier this week. The other animations definately are not.
 
I'm redoing the small animations and the first one was the home one. So maybe it is a bit snappier.

Don't know why the images and movie aren't showing up - but I'm going to redo that whole section, make it more modular.

D
 
Seems a little snappier now. Transitions are still a little slow on my TiBook, but not bad for a 3D animation site. One small suggestion: the "interactive stuff" icon is cool, with the spaceship zipping off and coming back, but I think the ship is "gone" for too long--I glanced down there a couple times, saw nothing, and thought it was a mistake.
 
I agree that things seem to move a lot faster now from when I first saw this. May I suggest though, that instead of sending 5 or 6 objects across at the click of a button at the bottom, maybe intermittently send one or two across as long as the information is being displayed (for consistency sake).
 
mnkeybsness said:
I agree that things seem to move a lot faster now from when I first saw this. May I suggest though, that instead of sending 5 or 6 objects across at the click of a button at the bottom, maybe intermittently send one or two across as long as the information is being displayed (for consistency sake).
Click to expand...

I was toying with that, but I wanted to use the flying things as a type of transition. It needs to be tweeked, so I'll clean it up a bit and make it seem a little more like a transition (keep the difference in speeds a little less so there isn't one just floating along at the end) :D

And the length of time is a bit much, and I have a solution for that, but haven't implemented it yet. I'll be going through several more iterations soon.

Thanks all for the feedback - its a great help.

D
 
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