Flash Website designer Wanted.

[rpiwireless]

We are looking for a Flash Web site built. No more than 10 pages, and a small data base. This is our current site, www.flybia.com and this www.flightworks.com is what we are aiming for. We will need it maintained as well.

[TVB]

I can't help with the work but have to say that even though uninvited audio usually means I close a site instantly--that was really well done, albeit simple use of sound to make an impression.

Betsy

[Joe]

First of all the disclaimer: I don't know this guy and I've never had any kind of contact with him whatsoever. I just found his site interesting.

That aside, you might like to take a look at http://www.pixelpharmacy.com/

Joe

[Andilinks]

Using the same disclaimer that Joe just gave, here are some flash designers, at the very least some surfin' eye-candy...

http://artatom.com/Web_Design_Artatom.html ... Artatom Multimedia
http://www.beatstream.com/ ... Beatstream
http://www.eye4u.com/ ... EYE4U
http://www.flash-style.com/ ... Flash Style
http://oxygen-productions.com/ ... Oxygen Productions
http://www.webcreator.com.ua/ ... Webcreator

Hopefully someone here will be able to give a first hand recommendation, but these links at least are the beginnings of a comparison.

Andi

[rpiwireless]

We are trying to find a firm who host with FQ so as to avoid any compatability issues. We'll see. Thanks for the post, we will check out all of the links that are posted..

[hobbes]

Just to point it out, the Web site is actually in HTML. It appears the intro is the only Flash part.

[squillo]

Hi Rob, I'm on FQ:

Etheric Arts (http://www.ethericarts.com)
(looks rather 20th century these days...)

Flash, Databases, HTML -- they're all good!

best,
squillo

[Andilinks]

looks rather 20th century these days... Some of the music is (literally) 18th century, but I like Etheric's intro best of all those posted.

Unsolicited opinion:

Flash provides more drama and whimsy but when I'm actually web surfing I always skip the intro--I have a mission. This is a good argument for business sites to keep the intro short and to the point, perhaps even integrated into the HTML. I've heard more extreme versions of this argument.

Andi

[squillo]

Since the heady days of 1999/2000, my philosophy has changed quite a bit towards the current leaner-is-better design consensus, and the next version of Etheric will have fewer bells and whistles to be sure. But in its current state, the intro is actually a preloader for the entire site to download into the browser's cache, so once a visitor arrives at the main page all sections of the site are loaded and ready to go (except possibly the background music). For most sites, unfortunately, the intro is simply an end unto itself that only adds more weight to the download.

best!
squillo

[Randall]

I've always liked your intro, Squillo. But like most web animations, the pacing is too linear: Everything that comes in has to go out, and all of the transitions get equal weight.

The three lines of text at the beginning come in one at a time, but there's no reason for them to go out individually. Better to peel the whole paragraph off at once (or at least overlap the transitions a lot more than they are) and move on to the next part.

Same for the three grid blocks toward the end. Once you've seen the first block slide offscreen, you don't need to sit through it again.

I know you didn't ask for a critique ;), but this is something that always bugs me. Blame it on my (brief) video editing career.

Randall

[squillo]

Ha! Don't worry, I knew that was the risk of posting a Flash site on a FQ forum. =)

I completely agree with your assessment though... Unfortunately it's hard to do the text effect that way! Each letter is actionscripted and occupies its own movie layer, so there are like a hundred little movies that need to be manipulated. I remember it was a real headache simply getting one text effect to follow another without stepping on the other's footsteps so I let it go, and of course, it would have cost more bandwidth to do non-scripted animation.

The next version will solve all these problems: no intro! :P

squillo

[Randall]

Originally posted by squillo:
Unfortunately it's hard to do the text effect that way! Each letter is actionscripted and occupies its own movie layer, so there are like a hundred little movies that need to be manipulated. God, that sounds tedious. Next time, I'll remember to think more charitable thoughts toward the animator. ;)

Randall