A tiny taste...

[andersj]

Hi there

Hi there

I am new here at DVX, and junior when it comes to the concept of videomaking. However i am learning and love it. I am also a proud owner of a HVX 200, and i love it.

My backgroung is in web, and i have worked for many years as a designer/developer. My spaciality is Flash.

I have a few pointers on Your website, as some things on it could be improved.

Video/bitmaps

The fist thing to consider is the fact that as You are aiming for a "full screen" website, You should consider using the "no scale" mode in Flash. The main reason for this is that your videos get down/upscaled depending on the size of the actual browser window. This results in a bad quality video and bitmap result. Notice the outline of objects in videos and bitmaps at different resolutions/browser size. At very high resolutions the video & bitmaps get very upscaled, resulting in a overall bad quality. You can actually control in Flash what objects to upscale, and what not. This would let You upscale Your menu and background, leaving the video at a static size.

Fonts

Depending on what font, and what kind of fonts You use in Flash, the difference in the final result can be huge. A good tip is to use bitmap fonts, giving absoulte crisp and sharp fonts.

Other

There seems to be a margin in the HTML page that is hosting Your flash file/files, maybe You sholud get rid of it

The framerat of You Flash seems to be a bit low, resulting in transitions & tweens that "hack". I would recommend a framerate of at least 35 FPS. Remember, framerates in video is not the same as framerates in Flash. A higher framerate would give You smoother tweening & transitions. If You leave Your video files outside flash (without embedding them) You can run Flash in a framerate that is totally independent of the framerate of Your video files. You would then load them at runtime on demand. This also gives You a much faster loading time for the actual pages in flash, as the size of them will dramatically decrease.

I must say i loved the quality of the video of the "santas"....very nice crisp contrast & colours.

I hope You find these sugestions helpful


Good luck!

Anders

 

[Michael T]

Matt what a fun site, I like it. Ok a little of the wall but thats what your going for, some of this stuff is hilarious it was refreshing.

 

[mattadamsapple]

My backgroung is in web, and i have worked for many years as a designer/developer. My speciality is Flash.

Awesome news for me.

I have a few pointers on Your website, as some things on it could be improved.

The fist thing to consider is the fact that as You are aiming for a "full screen" website, You should consider using the "no scale" mode in Flash. The main reason for this is that your videos get down/upscaled depending on the size of the actual browser window. This results in a bad quality video and bitmap result. Notice the outline of objects in videos and bitmaps at different resolutions/browser size. At very high resolutions the video & bitmaps get very upscaled, resulting in a overall bad quality. You can actually control in Flash what objects to upscale, and what not. This would let You upscale Your menu and background, leaving the video at a static size.

That is exactly what I want but my designer said that it would be best to have it be different on other peoples computers depending on their screen size. I however feel that it's best to appear at a certain size on everyone's computer. After much confusion and many hours of explanation I abandoned it. Basically, I created all the concepts/content buttons/collages/videos/ graphics and he put it all online. I have no website knowledge. Most of what I know is in video. Is it extremely difficult to turn my site into "no scale" mode??

Depending on what font, and what kind of fonts You use in Flash, the difference in the final result can be huge. A good tip is to use bitmap fonts, giving absoulte crisp and sharp fonts.

Thankyou. I will keep that in mind for future projects.

There seems to be a margin in the HTML page that is hosting Your flash file/files, maybe You sholud get rid of it

I hate that margin!!! I tried to explain it to him....even with screengrabs and he said he doesn't notice it. I would LOVE to get rid of that annoyance.

The framerat of You Flash seems to be a bit low, resulting in transitions & tweens that "hack". I would recommend a framerate of at least 35 FPS. Remember, framerates in video is not the same as framerates in Flash. A higher framerate would give You smoother tweening & transitions. If You leave Your video files outside flash (without embedding them) You can run Flash in a framerate that is totally independent of the framerate of Your video files. You would then load them at runtime on demand. This also gives You a much faster loading time for the actual pages in flash, as the size of them will dramatically decrease.

That's another thing that I was unhappy with regarding my site, especially with the quality of the intro "subway" videos. I felt they could have been a much higher quality. The only videos I rendered myself were the Santas videos and I too was extremely happy with the way that they came out. I decided to render them myself after I saw his renders and knew that they had to be better than he was making them.

I must say I loved the quality of the video of the "santas"....very nice crisp contrast & colours.

Thankyou so much. The Santas video was my first HD shoot. I will never go back to tape.

I hope You find these sugestions helpful

I found them extremely helpful. Thank you so much. I would love to hire you to optimize my site but because of your knowledge and expertise, I do not know if I could afford you. Please email me your rates for optimization if you would be willing to take on the project. If you are too busy, perhaps I could pay you a consultation fee to speak with my designer about the necessary changes. He has been trying to figure out how to add a loader to the page for the past few days and I know he would really benefit from your knowledge.

-Matt

http://www.mattadamsapple.com

 

[Hurley]

Sorry Matt, but I didn't get to watch the santa clip. I got busy watching the other stuff on your site.
Brilliant site and great work. Too bad you have to do a wedding on the day Woody Allen wanted you to co-direct a film. Sometimes, however it happens, I see myself mixed up to that degree, just not with a "Woody Allen" type of opportunity knockin at the door!

 

[mattadamsapple]

Matt what a fun site, I like it. Ok a little of the wall but thats what your going for, some of this stuff is hilarious it was refreshing.

Thanks! Have any of you guys seen Helvetica?? a lot of it was quite boring but some was insanely funny and it was an eye opening experince as to how personal work is viewed. It made me want to change the opening page to my site. I feel that it is much too busy and want just my opening page to much simpler. I'm looking for a new designer. I have the ideas. I just need to find someone that can make my ideas tangible.

http://www.mattadamsapple.com

 

[mattadamsapple]

If anyone has any designers they feel could optimize my site, please let me know. I'm open to ideas. I want to set up an RSS feed, a mailing list, a contact form and a custom preloader. Anyone with these skills please respond to me at mattadamsapple@gmail.com with a link to your work. Thanks.

 

[andersj]

Hi again

Hi again

Sorry for not getting back to You sooner, but i have been saturated with work.

I would be glad to help You as much as i can

So, first is first. The absloute EASIEST way to analyze the content of Your website would be if i got access to the webserver hosting Your website trough FTP.

The white margin around the page is the most simple thing to get rid of probably, it´s just a setting in the HTML file hosting the flash files. and don´t worry, i wont charge You anything for that.

In order to change the framerate of the Flash homepage itself, i would need access to the original flashfiles (.fla). Your designer/producer of the website have those. The only problem is (wich is probably the case), that if Your video files are embedded in the flash movies themselves, the framerate of those videos would also be increased, wich is not what we want. Then the filmclips would have to reside outside ov the flash wedbsite itsel, allowing one to have different framerates for the website, and the videoclips.

For that reason i never build websites in this way. i alwasys put them outside the flash website, and link to them trough a database or XML file. In that way, You can also, as owner of the webpage, add, remove or change the content of Your website at will, without being dependent on the creator of the webpage.

The same problem goes for the "fullscreen" mode it would probably require a rebuild of the architecture of the website so that all the content is centered on the background as you resize the browser window or access it with computers running different screen resolutions.

Why don´t You drop me an e-mail, and we can take it from there: info@128bits.net

Best regards
Anders