Flash Work

The clock continues to tick. And occasionally tock. I've been making a bit of progress. I have been doing a lot with flash over the past couple of weeks. My interface, for all intents and purposes, is complete and I have managed to allow the user to apply effects to a video. I now need to focus on programming the logon and gallery pages as well as working on the functionality for uploading and saving a video. I have a fair idea of how I'll do it, just need to look into making flash and java talk to one another. Here's a few snaps of the other pages.

Quote of the day:

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." - Groucho Marx.

My last post was December 1st ... Shocking Stuff!

Am I a contender for most neglected blog of the year? Hopefully things will improve.

Here, check this out:

http://www.mostneglectedsite.com/

Thought some of you fellow internet nerds might appreciate it.

So, here's a bit of a progress report:

> Design presentation and Christmas exams are over. I'm fairly happy with how they both went.

>That 20% java assignment (which took over the last month of my life) has been signed off. I managed to listen to a load of new music while I was coding though, which was nice. Anyway, hopefully the next assignment won't be for another couple of months.

>I've illustrated my design (good ol' pen tool did the trick) and imported it to flash, so it's ready to go.

>I've been researching code and a have a bit of an idea of how I'm going to do it. Fingers crossed.

Today I'm going to do the Flash Video Chapter of my "Friends Of Ed - Flash CS3 for designers" book.

If anybody wants to borrow it just drop me a line.

Hopefully it'll refresh my memory a bit. It's been a while since I've done any flash work.

So that's the craic, as they say. Feel free to leave a comment if you're passing by. I'll let ye know how the video tutorials go. And a belated happy Christmas/New Year to all..

Quote of the day:
The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.
---Terence Mckenna

All my worries are gone. I found this foolproof model for my site. Feel free to use it, it'll probably save you loads of time and you'll definately get an A+.

Quote of the day:
"If at first you don't succeed; call it version 1.0"
- T-Shirt

Here's the sketch I promised. Just took a snap of it with my webcam. This is what I started out with for my latest layout. Check out Tuesday's post to see how it progressed from this (the last two images). Sorry if the order of my image uploads is a bit messed up. This is what happens when you're working from two different counties!

I've been trying to upload an animated GIF but have been having difficulty with it for some reason. I'll try get it working soon. It basically portrays an idea have for a rollover state on the TV screens. When you hover the curser over the telly, the image on screen distorts and the background flickers (Kind of like static on a TV).

I still kind of feel like my design is missing something but can't figure out what. I don't want to spoil the simplicity of it with too many extra graphics, but I feel like it's a bit lifeless and doesn't really indicate thet the site is for Music Videos. Maybe it needs some guitars and turntables, etc. I'll play around with it when I get a chance, but there's a a great big wall of JAVA between now and my next design session.

Oh ya, I've also been thinking of adding sound effects to the site to make it a bit more dynamic. I'll check it out and see if it's feasible.

Quote of the day:
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
- John Lennon

The Creative Phase

So, its been a while but I've been busy doing up some designs.



This was my first concept. It was inspired by some tutorials I was doing over the summer from the website http://www.psdtuts.com/. The image seen in the logo here was not my own. It was borrowed from an image I found while searching for inspiration for the purpose of getting an initial concept.



Having run out of ideas to get my first concept the way I wanted it I decided to move on rather than run it into the ground. I was quite happy with my second layout, but my supervisor encouraged me to opt for something a bit more challenging and innovative.



This was my first attempt at coming up with something slightly different to the normal website layout. I wasn't exactly delighted with it but felt that it was a step in the right direction.



Having taken a break from designing for a few days this concept popped into my head. I immediately grabbed a pen and paper and sketched it down. This was the first draft I made up from my sketch (which I'll post as soon as I scan it in).



I developed my original "TV's Interface" concept and am finally at the stage where I'm quite happy with it. I intend to develop it a little more but I am currently ok with using this concept for my project (unless I change my mind again in the next few weeks). My intention is to have it as a dynamic flash interface. When you click on a TV it will expand to fill the screen and display the contents of the page. I was kind of banking on using my current HTML and CSS knowledge, but this route will mean I'll have to use flash and actionscript heavily.

Quote of the day:
Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.'
---Homer Simpson.