Website update v1.08878608606808070

Time for another update.
From the beginning the original plan was to add in some faint background animations in order to give the website some depth.
After initially creating the link animations the first feeling was obvious and which was a "too much" feeling of lots of different elements that was to distracting.
At this point the idea for faint animations in the background was scrapped temporarily, yet this didn't mean the idea was lost for good.
After observing the site for some time and dulling down the link animations the website became very static and was missing some life.
The original reason for wanting background animations was to create depth yet not to be fully distracting.
And so the idea has come into full swing and has been implemented with success from my point of view.
As of know the main layout feels quite complete with no need of touching up for the time being.

Sound
I have also place in some sound pieces on the main buttons and the first two sections.
The sound is subject to change and is a work in progress.

Another problem, well annoyance that keeps coming around is the background and the negative space around the actual swf file.
Underneath the continuous on going updating of the website i have been playing around with different possiblities and have came across one solution.
The second link is a different variation of the background layout and possible solution apart from better programming to which i lack the knowledge of so far.

Update link
www.andrewmoorhead.com/website.html

Background variation
www.andrewmoorhead.com/website02.html

Posters

I decided to post these next two images because i really like how they have turned out. These are for a GPI103 assessment where we have to create a poster for a local event. The process for creating the poster required you to do some research on a famous designer and from 3 of their works you where to create a poster that was influenced due to 3 elements from the 3 works selected. The goal wasn't to mimic but to find inspiration and learn about different techniques, styles and methods. Once a poster had to be created, you had ot create a final poster that didn't resemble what you had done before or the works from the artist you selected, yet you still had to maintain some inspiration from the artist. For MPI304, i explored David Carson and decided to carry on with David as my choice for this assessment aswell. Here is the first poster that revolves around ideas and is heavily influenced by Carson.




And here is the final poster that i created.
For this poster, the common demographic was disregarding being children while the main focus was around teengaes and up.
The idea for this came from the fact that most children really don't care for such posters like these events and you are targeting the parents while relying on them to tell the children for you.
So with that in mind the approach was to try and focus at a more mature audience in order to allow myself to be more creative and abstract.
I also plan to use this image as content on the print sectoin for the website for MPI303.

New Image

Here is an image that i have been working on between my essay for vis com and doing work for a client.
The idea came from some work that i did for a recent client and i decided to carry over some elements and expand on them.
The goal was to try and create something futuristic and alittle bit rough yet clean at the same time.
The use of the scribble in this image plus the thick line around the lady make this abit more cartoonish and less serious.

MPI303 Website update.

The website is getting very close to completion.
I have finalized the look for each section and almost all the animation sequences for when you travel to and from a section.
The only animation sequences left are in the photo and illustration section. All that remains is to add in buttons and the animation sequence for the preparation of the image display.
After this has been done, i will (and already have) fully devote the rest of my time to collecting sound for the website.
I have made a small foley list for sounds and loops that i want :

- Subtle atmosphere background music (this will be made up of 2 secs loops)

- Roll Over sound effects for each button. ( the main buttons will be different from the image buttons and back button which will be seperate from the rest aswell.

- sound effects from the animation sequences. (these will be simple little sound effects like a woosh sound for example.

I have also contemplated using piano keys for my sound effects. The piano is my favourite instrument and i have used this before for a website and it was very effect in creating a sombre and dark atmosphere due to the sound manipulation that was done.

Now back to the website, i have increased the overall speed of the animations and have made the website smaller.
Instead of 1280x1024 it is now 1024x768.
I have 2 problems that i plan to work on after all the content and sound has been done for the website.
The first and i have a feeling there is nothing i can do about this is when i set the publishing settings to "showall."
This resizes the website to fit the browers accordingly and is perfectly fine if all you use is vector images, yet the xml images that are called in are all pixel based so they lose quality.

The 2nd is adding feedback to the buttons. I am basicly having trouble adding feedback to the buttons.

So here is the link to the most recent updated version of the website
www.andrewmoorhead.com/website.html

MPI303 Illustrations for Illustration.

Time for an update. I just recently finished off 4 drawings that will be used in the illustration section of the website. I do plan to create digital versions of these through either illustrator or photoshop and to which some will be used in the print section aswell.
I have yet to fully decide for i would like to finish off another 2-3 drawings for the illustration section making around 8 in total (another has been done and posted previously with rough sketches).
Some of these really deserve colour; whether or not they all get done now i plan to digitalize them all in the future.

BHAM!

With the seminar presentation out of the way, i had more time on my hands to work on the website for MPI303.

This week i have been able to complete all the page layout designs followed by taking them into flash and animating everything.

I spent about 3 days fiddling around with different methods and ideas before i settled with the result found in the bottom link of this post.

This evening i added in what i have completed so far of the promo animation to give it a test toast.

Still pondering whether i should make it xml based or not.

I also added in one xml image database with 4 working thumbs and images plus a preloader for the start of the site and image loaders.

After some testings on IE7, Mozilla and Safari i found that the site best works in safari due to it slightly resizing the website automatically.

The resizing wasn't much yet you could see more of the website which is a plus but nothing to worry about.

So far the website has a good feel to it and i it's very comfortable for the time being.

In the following week i plan to work on the opening splash page animation while adding more of the xml databases to the rest of the sections.

Just a word of warning, the website is 1280x1024.

The reason being my target audience is mainly designers and my screen resolution is 1280x1024.

Plus the whole purpose of this website is to show my work off, with that said, since the resolution is at this size, i don't have to worry about shrinking images for viewing.

It is not the actual size of the images that i worried about, it's the lose quality and when it comes to fine detail it is hard for the viewer to see.

here is the link to the updated site.

http://www.andrewmoorhead.com/website.html