FLASH: your advice

[Christian Young]

hey if anyone gets bored could they take a look at my site please


www.geocities.com/~c_young    it is my first full flash website


Thanks and I would appreciate any feedback positive or negative :)


> -----Original Message-----

>

From: ownershocker [dot] com [ownershocker [dot] com]On">mailto:ownershocker [dot] com]On Behalf Of Jefferis

> Sent: Monday, May 10, 1999 1:05 PM

> To: Flash MailList

> Subject: Re: FLASH: load url or movie better?

>

>

>

>

>From: Marc Hoffman <marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com>

>

>

> Thanks for the input Marc...

> >

> >

> >Hi Jeff,

> >I had to look  at the site to see what you were referring to. It is

> >confusing to talk about "pages in Flash" since Flash doesn't contain html

> >pages but rather is contained within html pages.

>

> Doyou think his suggestion of the last frame loading another html page

> then was legitimate or off?

>

> >  I think the

> >criticism you received is that when entering the Flash introduction page

> >for a repeat visit, the viewer must wait through the "ship arrival"

> >sequence, which is too slow even the first time through.

> >

> >I see you already have a preloader with an If Frame Is Loaded loop to

> >control it.  What you need is a second If Frame Is Loaded loop before the

> >existing one.  It would test to see if the movie has been loaded

> up to the

> >point where the menu has been presented ( or perhaps check to see if the

> >last frame of the movie has been loaded) -- if that condition is met, the

> >movie should go right to where the menu is visible.  If not, it should go

> >to the existing preload loop which will hold things up until

> enough of the

> >movie has loaded to show the "ship arrives" sequence smoothly.

>

> I currently have the up to the last scene loaded before the play command

> is given, so to do what your suggesting, If Frame Is Loaded #1 will only

> work if the entire movie has already been seen? Right now I have the ship

> and waves preloaded before the play begins, but it still doesn't seem to

> help the choppiness that is seen.

> >

> >On a 56k connection (in reality, 48k), the ship arrival sequence is not

> >smooth because you haven't preloaded enough frames.

>

> Right now I have the ship and waves preloaded before the play begins, but

> it still doesn't seem to help the choppiness that is seen. In other

> words, all the ship and wave motion should be preloaded!!

>

> >But I would not hold

> >up the preload longer if I were you -- instead, I would optimize

> the movie.

> > The water motion is very file size and processor intensive.

>

> I gotcha here...

> > I'm sure it's

> >lovely viewed locally on a fast machine, but it's deadly for web usage.

> >Make the water image a whole lot less detailed, and just have a little

> >movie clip with a few ripples of light that dance on the surface, instead

> >of varying the entire image.

> >

> >The ship could also be simplified to tween

> >faster. Then you can add more frames to the tween to reduce

> jerkiness.  As

> >it is,  the complexity of the tween (and the resulting processor demands)

> >is slowing things down as well as the fact that download isn't keeping up

> >with the frame rate.  A fast connection compensate for bandwidth problems

> >but not for the complexity of tween. That is, even if the whole

> thing were

> >loaded it would still be jerky on slower machines -- I viewed this on a

> >P166 and modest 2-meg video card.

>

> Okay, here is where I had the problem.  I found the only way I could get

> the sails to move independently of the ship and billow in the wind was to

> create 3 separate movie clips of the 3 mail sails. and then link them to

> the ship as another movie clip.... and then to tween the single resulting

> clip in scaling motion on the timeline... There seems to be no other way

> to do that.

>

> How can I simplify it to make it more acceptable?  Do I need to remove

> details from the ship itself? I tried to optimise the curves, but it

> seems to work only on the sea and sky, not on the ship or clips.

> >

> >If you can handle a bit more critiquing -- although the little toggle

> >switches on the menu are nifty, they don't relate to the

> nautical theme and

> >are not intuitive.  Usually I expect to click right on the text to make

> >something happen. Perhaps the items could be contained in a

> series of flags

> >or smaller sails, something to integrate it with the ship theme

> and also to

> >give a larger hit area.

>

> I was checking this out today, since he also mentioned the toggle

> switches. Right now, all the words were part of a single text box.  To do

> this, I need to create 5 different text boxes and make them button

> symbols?  Perhaps if I just use the words as links, I can dispense with

> the buttons all together... eh?

>

> >The frog, too, is cute but not relevant to your site or theme.  I think

> >your visitors will be better rewarded, and more inclined to wait, if you

> >give them some material that increases their knowledge of the company.

>

> Good idea,  I was just playing...and having some fun...

>

> >Text, if you limit the number of fonts used, consumes very little file

> >size.  If you stick with the frog, give the viewer a way to turn off the

> >sound, or have the sound fade and disappear after the first three or four

> >"boings."

>

> If you loop the sequence, the sounds auto restart... right? So if an IF

> Frame Is Loaded loop is taking place, how do you avoid the sound

> restating?

>

> >

> >Hope this helps.  What you are doing is complex and requires a

> lot of tools

> >and tricks, so keep at it.

> >

> Thanks again.

>

> Jeff

>

>

> Peterson Sales

> Web Design and Marketing

> 410 Woodland Ave.

> Grove City, PA 16127-1824

> http://www.PetersonSales.net

>

> Tel. 724-458-4160

> Fax. 724-458-7169

>

> ICQ 19112253

>

>

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