RE: FLASH: your advice

[Rob Marreel]

Christian,


The site looks pretty good but the text buttons were kind of annoying. I

would suggest making the hit area cover all of the space between the

letters. I was struggling to line up the mouse cursor with the little areas

of that script font just so I could click to the next section. Then again

maybe it won't be so bad for other users that are not running in freaky high

resolutions. :)


Rob Marreel

-------------------------------------------

Sight & Sound Software, Inc.


Need a way to talk to an MS Access database

from Director or Authorware over the internet?


http://www.datagrip.com/



Rob Marreel

robmsight-n-sound [dot] com

503.274.0938 x238

503.274.0939 (fax)

-------------------------------------------


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

>

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

>Young

>Sent: Monday, May 10, 1999 12:25 PM

>

To: flashershocker [dot] com

>Subject: FLASH: your advice

>

>

>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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