bunch o' questions

[surferjon2]

finally! a place for us newbies!!!!

i have a couple of questions:

1) when importing sound into a movie (such as a background loop) if is best to have the music in a seperate swf file somewhere else on the page so that your main swf isnt huge in file size? is that hard to get both movies to stream properly on the web? what tactics are best to use?

2) can anyone give a general "going rate" for flash design?i know it varies from place to place and project to project, but i know that there has to be some base figure. like cold fusion programming (the stuff i do) varies anywhere from $50-150 an hour. but since im new to this game, i have no clue as what to charge clients that want flash incooperated into their design and havent really found much help on this subject. my only luck so far has been to contact OTHER web design firms and ask for their quote on the website and then adjust mine accordingly.. ;0 hehe

3) ive heard about sites that have multiple swf files but then just "load" them into the movie space that is already created on the webpage. is this a good design tactic, or is it better to have all the content in one swf? if one did split up a big flash movie, would say the intro movie be one swf, the main menu another and each of the sub-categories other swfs? how exactly would one go in doing something like this? if you had it in one big swf file...do you preload the whole thing, or do you have to "selectivly" preload? how do you "selectivly" preload...is there a tutorial for this somewhere on flash kit that i havent seen?

4) do most flash kit board members/people/whatever mind if you post the same thread again if your question doesnt get answered? like if my questions get lost in the stack, should i resubmit my question or just "bump" it to the top with a blank reply....or is this frowned upon here?

5) how does one gain ranks in the flash kit posting boards? there are the new members (thats us! yay! ), Members, Senior Members, Executive Members, Moderators, and probably many more i cant recall off the top of my head. is it by the number of posts you have that indicates your status? how does that all work? obviously you have to be *selected* to be a moderator, but how do "they" select you....just a random question that ive been wondering for a while.


well sorry for the long, boring questionaire....but hey, im a newbie so i can ask these long boring questions..right! :0 hehe. thanks for your time

peace, jon

[GMF ™]

Hi Surferjon2 and Happy welcome to Flashkit as a member.
I´ll try the best :
# 1 The best way to stream a sound on the web is to use the Stream sound settings for the loop. Dont think you can stream it with the load movie into action . How big is the loop/sound that you are useing ?
If its not that big , why not put it in the main movie ?
# 2 I have no answere for you on this one , cause i think the charge is different for the country we live in, where do you live by the way ? Maybe just ask other companyes what they charge .
# 3 Yes , think that is the best way of doing that if you have a big movie, split it up and load it into .
No sure about the preload .
# 4 You may try to repost but maybe define your problem in another way, know what i mean ,pal ?

Was that all ? hehe

[surferjon2]

GMF, thanks for the welcome!
blah blah blah here it goes...

#1
well what i meant by "streaming" is having the sound loop play so that its not choppy on the web....or is that what you answered? hehe :0

my sound file is like 1.38MB raw .wav format, but 90kb compressed in flash. overall the movie weighs in around 240k...and thats just for the intro thing!!! arrgh. does "streaming" the sound compress it further?

what techniques could i use to get the sound file smaller? just use smaller loops or what? what is the biggest that i would want a sound loop to be without it creating a lot of headaches?!

#2
i live in the tropical paradise of southern california, USA. hehe :) its not bad really, i take it for granted sometimes. i actually love it here...good waves (for the most part) for surfing, nice weather, beautiful women! in terms of surfing, it was sick here on the west coast a few years ago during el nino. ahh...now you've made me ramble on and ive gone off on a tangent....sorry. ;)

#3
you forgot my fifth question! the most important one too!!!! (hehe just kiddin)... but seriously, how do you go from being a member to a 'executive member' or 'senior member' who decides that stuff anyway?

[GMF ™]

Hehe. no problem .
# 1 think you must either preload the site with a preloader wich you can find here on Flashkit or load a external sound.loop into your main movie. Try the both out .
Hehe "Just" 240 k ? My logo is bigger To the real thing now hehe . Streaming sound does not compress it further , not that i know .
Do you have a soundedit prog ? Like Sound forge if not
visit http://www.soundforge.com This is a great one for optimizing and changing the sound.file .

# 2 Well i livi in the Tropical Norway , lol

# 3 I think you go from member to senior when you have posted 100 posts and exe. member 400, not sure anymore To become a Moderator you can read a thread in the Coffee Lounge somewhere , its not a thing you sign up for though. Just be nice and very helpfull to all Flashers and people on this board . By the way, im a "newbie" Mod
[Edited by GmF on 08-16-2000 at 05:04 AM]

[ManyMasters]

hey jon,

I am from southern cal also...del mar to be exact...

I run a design firm down here and we charge by the project....

simple stuff...small sites range from $700-1500 depending on animations

larger flash sites with alot of backend stuff can run anywhere from 4,000-15,000.

We also teach flash here so let me know if you want some local instruction....

hope that helps

Jason
jr@manymasters.com