Blues Bar layout - first try with KoolMoves

[evolbeagle]

This doesn't have any functionality yet, but I had to get feedback from you guys. I'm really pleased with how it looks, but then - as I always say - I'm coming from a non-artistic background. Everything was drawn in KoolMoves. (I would never be able to do this on paper.) Anyway, let me know what you think of it, both as a drawing and as a possible layout idea for the flash version of a blues bar website. (You'll need an 800 x 600 screen or bigger to see this version well.)

http://demo.voikos.com/animation/almahall/guitarbig97.html


Thanks,

Matt

[johnie]

looks good to me.

[Richard W]

Matt, It Rocks! Clean layout, nice airbrush look and moody venue ambiance.

[BradBradleySL]

All its needs is some nice foot tapping music in the background and some string animation...then poof:)

[evolbeagle]

I knew Brad would want to see those strings move. :) Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I do have one question in relation to this layout:

Yesterday I was visiting my folks and showing off my KoolMoves stuff on their computer. (It's a HUGE credit to KoolMoves that my parents are now beginning to think of me as someone who can draw. Too funny.) Anyway, when we looked at this particular layout on their brand new computer, the html background color was a few shades darker than the movie's background color, giving it a bordered look I hadn't intended. I thought this was strange since both colors are coded to be the same. So my question is: Is anybody else seeing this two-tone effect, and, if so, what can I do about it?

[Bob Hartzell]

I have seen this effect before. I believe it is browser dependent. The only solution I know is to make the wmode transparent in the html but that may also be browser dependent. Others may have better advice.

[johnie]

WMode only works in IE and is browser dependant. What you can do is instead of defining your SWF in Pixels (In the object and embed tags) is to set its Height and Width to 99% (Some versions of NS don't like 100% for some reason) or 100%. If you do that your SWF will fill all available space in the browser and you won't have to wory about color matching.

[evolbeagle]

I wasn't happy with the results of stretching the movie to fit the screen. In this case, I have elements beyond the edge of the movie that are really just the continuation of the images I've drawn. The problem when I stretch to fit is that some of these elements become visible and I don't want that in this movie.

I did solve the problem, though -- at least sort of. I found that in this case, my parents' computer was not set to true(24 bit) color, but was set to high (16 bit). Once I set it to true, the border problem disappeared.

But that got me thinking about all of those other people out there with less than true color. So I tried an experiment.

The original background color in the layout is #300060. It turns out that this is not on the web safe pallette. So I changed the color to a websafe one fairly close to what I wanted, in this case #000066. With this setting, I cannot see the border effect on my parents' computer (or on mine for that matter) even if the setting is high color instead of true. So maybe one solution is to use websafe colors for backgrounds when you're worried about this border effect. But before I get too excited, I thought I would post this version for others to view at high color settings and see if in fact it really does solve the problem.

http://demo.voikos.com/animation/almahall/guitarsafe.html

For those of you still with me and wondering why I didn't try #330066, actually I did. I did it, though, before actually checking the websafe pallette and -- if I'm not missing something -- this value isn't on there. But this color does cause less of a border effect at high settings, I guess because it's closer to being websafe than the original color. Here's the url for that one for anyone who wants to compare:

http://demo.voikos.com/animation/almahall/guitarbig97b.html

I'm interested in hearing from anybody who has time to see if the websafe approach to background colors really does work. Though it presents a limited palette, it does (assuming that it works) open up some design and layout freedom, so it might be a good trade.

Matt

[FATBRAIN]

I am not sure this is correct but there are 256 colors in the websafe pallete, you parents either have a video card/monitor that only supports 256 colors or have the color settings to 256 or lower rather than higher color settings. Many people do not know how to set their color settings. Your blue is obviously not one of the 256. If you find a blue you like thats in the 256 I would advise using that for maximum viewability. Very few people in this day in age would not be able to view more than 256, how many I do not know.

[FATBRAIN]

Originally posted by FATBRAIN
I am not sure this is correct but there are 256 colors in the websafe pallete, you parents either have a video card/monitor that only supports 256 colors or have the color settings to 256 or lower rather than higher color settings. Many people do not know how to set their color settings. Your blue is obviously not one of the 256. If you find a blue you like thats in the 256 I would advise using that for maximum viewability. Very few people in this day in age would not be able to view more than 256, how many I do not know.

Try changing their color settings.......start>settings>display>settings>color>settings for windows