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[Font Master Flex]

Tony David Cray is one of the amazing speakers we have lined up for the Flash Kit Singapore 2001 conference. He will be speaking about his work on the Sydney Opera House project. Don't miss this unique opportunity to journey inside the Sydney Opera House Virtual Tour and discover how this mutli-award winning interactive site was created completely in Flash.

We are giving you the chance to post any questions that you may have about this session, or anything else you might want a God of Flash to answer for you. Tony will be checking the site regularly to post replies to questions, so if you have any questions at all for him, just post them here!

Check out his profile at: http://www.flashkit.com/fk01/singapo...avidcray.shtml

[jdeery]

Hi,

I checked out the Sydney Opera House site that you did and thought it was great! I especially liked how the image of the dancer animates so that a slightly scaled up version of itself moves across it. How did you do it? Did you use keyframing or actionscript to create the effect? Also did you use Flash 4 or Flash 5? I still have to use 4 because many of the sites that I make need to be compatible with older browsers.

take care,
Janet

[Tony David Cray]

hi janet,

from your message, you seem to have your way to another area of the opera house site. the site in question is: http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/virt...ur/vrtour.html

i do know that the dancer you mention was created in Flash 5 and was keyframed. But as you mentioned, version 4 could have been used for this.

hope that helps,

tdc

[jdeery]

I followed the link from the home page of FlashKit (www.flashkit.com) which took me to http://www.soh.nsw.gov.au/h/home_fl.html, that's not what you worked on?

[Tony David Cray]

:-) thats the root directory of the Sydney Opera House site. The virtual tour on that site is what we are focusing on at Flash Kit Singapore.

[davidmasterson]

I have no problem accepting that your site is a great considering you said; last time when you when nominated as an exceptional site that this is your first attempt. However how you are a GOD OF FLASH, although this shows you have a good grasp of both your topic and of the mechanics of flash.

To be a God you need to be able to use your skills on a variety of projects……?

[Font Master Flex]

Originally posted by davidmasterson
I have no problem accepting that your site is a great considering you said; last time when you when nominated as an exceptional site that this is your first attempt. However how you are a GOD OF FLASH, although this shows you have a good grasp of both your topic and of the mechanics of flash.

To be a God you need to be able to use your skills on a variety of projects……?

God of Flash is the promotional term we are using for all the speakers at the Flash Kit conferences. It is just to say that they have alot to offer other users and in no way is supposed to say that they are the definitive source on Flash. They have above average knowledge and are willing to share it with the community via the Flash Kit conferences.

[Tony David Cray]

hello david,

yes, you are indeed correct. the opera house site was my first major web site, created almost a year ago. most flash gurus would agree that a year is a very long time in flash. in that year i have been very busy on many projects, none of which have the profile of the opera house.

at the singapore flash kit conference, attendee's will get the chance to see how the opera house site was created, both from a technical flash perspective and from a design/project management perspective.

what did douglas adams say about god :-)

Originally posted by davidmasterson
I have no problem accepting that your site is a great considering you said; last time when you when nominated as an exceptional site that this is your first attempt. However how you are a GOD OF FLASH, although this shows you have a good grasp of both your topic and of the mechanics of flash.

To be a God you need to be able to use your skills on a variety of projects……?

[nadiahaque]

Hey Tony,
Congrats to you and your team on a huge success on your first venture and very rightly so. What i found different on your website was the way a preloader brings up all the objects in the movie. And also the whole concept of telling ppl where they are when they view the Quicktime VR by that cute little arrow and the three D model of the opera house.
i have two questions for you a)were all the preloaders and objects that load one after the other part of one movie or were they separate movies triggered by action scripting.
b) is it possible to create a virtual reality tour of a point without using Quicktime as a plugin. i mean to say can it alll be done in flash and stiched together in Photoshop?
thanks
Nadia

[Tony David Cray]

hello nadia,

the preloads, as you rightly suggested, are individual .swf's that are loaded as the user requests them. there are over 500 individual swf's in this tour. this really speeds up the flow of content, so its easy on modem users.

the quicktime plugin in the opera house tour is only used if you call up the quicktime vr movies (accessed via the blue Q top right of the main panorama). everything else in the tour runs only in flash.

to actually create the panoramas is a different discussion. but quickly, we took 12 shots in a sequence to cover the 360 degrees, then using a stitching application these formed a full 360 degree panorama. There are many applications that can do this for you. Check out http://www.panoguide.com for some insight into this.

regards,

tdc

[belteshazzar]

i was about to ask tony how did he minimize the download time of that huge 3D opera house and that other lil thing like preloaders... it is really indeed runs smoothly on modem users(that's including myself)... actually, the first time i viewed the opera house vitual tour was in a mac platform with 33.6Kbps connection.. but i didnt face any problems about it... btw, did u really designed that particular project to run cross platform? not much of clientside scripting huh? but perhaps lots of action scripting..

one more thing.. what can u suggest about this interface.. i want it to be as small as possible. so it can run smoothly..

[swf width="550" height="400"]http://www.zajilmedia.com/cubeface.swf[/swf]


cheers!

[jdeery]

What a great interface. I love how the arrow in the diagram turns as you zoom around the QTVR. And, the animated shere really helps to let you know where you are in the map. I've worked on a lot of sites and know how challenging it is to create something with so much information in it and have it be so user friendly and easy to navigate. You did a great job.

I've never brought a QTVR file into Flash. Did you have difficulty getting it to interact so well with Flash? I won't be able to go to Singapore, do you have any tips to share?

thank you

Janet

[Tony David Cray]

hello belteshazzar,

i am glad you mentioned that streaming speed of the site as i put a huge amount of time and care into that. I designed the site with modem users in mind.

as there is a large amount of bitmap graphics in the tour i had to optimise them in an attempt to reduce the file sizes. the main method i used was to compress each object seperately, squeezing the most out of every image. for example, the main backdrop of the interface, is actually made up of around 6 different images, each seperated in photoshop then imported into flash, positioned together like a jigsaw to again make up the final graphic. each component can then be compressed according to its content and importance. a plain blue low contrast background can be compressed at a very low setting before there are visual artifacts, whereas a fine detailed icon and text logo, requires delicate compression. this approach does take a little time to do, but is ultimately worth it.

the other technique i used to speed the site up was a trick. the preloaders that appear as soon as you click a new link or load a new screen are all secretly loaded in the background an sit there waiting to be called by the user. as soon as they initiate an action they spring into action. this rapid and informative display give a feel of speed.

i tried your .swf, but it would load?

regards

tdc

[Tony David Cray]

hello again janet,

quicktime vr movies are not able to brought into flash. the images that are in the opera house tour are simply uncorrected panoramas, simple jpeg files.

i created a simple engine that scrolls the images left or right based on the mouse position. the negative of using this method of panorama is that we cant easily removed the spherical distortions like quicktimeVR can.

but the interactivity that flash offers more than makes up for this i feel,

regards

tdc

[belteshazzar]

hello there tony!

thanks for the tips! ill put that in mind.. what then i must do is to master how to compress images before importing it to flash.. i thought that all images may it be bmp, gif, jpg, tiff, etc loads the same when imported to flash... that's why i dont try to optimised it before loading to flash... but anyway, im learning.. thanks!

and about that trick for preloaders that's also preloaded and it just waits for a call is cool idea... i menna try that one on my future projects..

sorry about my swf file.. i did that one on mac... and i wonder why it doesnt load sometimes... anyway ill fix it and ill post it again.. just did it to show our fellow flasher in Swift3D forum about the cube interface he wants... maybe tomorrow ill come up with its v1.a ill let u know guys.. for the meantime, Keep FLASHing!

[jmacgregor]

Originally posted by davidmasterson
I have no problem accepting that your site is a great considering you said; last time when you when nominated as an exceptional site that this is your first attempt. However how you are a GOD OF FLASH, although this shows you have a good grasp of both your topic and of the mechanics of flash.

To be a God you need to be able to use your skills on a variety of projects……?

To be a GOD OF FLASH you need to have shown exceptional talent in the flash industry. This covers all aspects from design, sound, and animation to business.
Tony has more than proven his title!
Come and see for yourself in Singapore.

James.

[Paul Burnett]

Of course tony is a GOD OF FLASH... He owns a La Pavoni coffee machine ;-)

[Tony David Cray]

A minor deity with a mild caffine addiction, and a penchant for actionscripting.

Originally posted by Paul Burnett
Of course tony is a GOD OF FLASH... He owns a La Pavoni coffee machine ;-)

[Tony David Cray]

I was wondering how people are responding to the new Large Flash ad banners that have appeared on Flashkit? The Absolute Vodka campaign.

I am fan of the style of advertising, and am quite impressed with the approach they have taken with these few ads. This new layout and size of banners may actually restart the internet ad industry. I get thirsty when I see the ad.

What do you flashers reckon?

[xxcell1]

Originally posted by Tony David Cray
I was wondering how people are responding to the new Large Flash ad banners that have appeared on Flashkit? The Absolute Vodka campaign.

I am fan of the style of advertising, and am quite impressed with the approach they have taken with these few ads. This new layout and size of banners may actually restart the internet ad industry. I get thirsty when I see the ad.

What do you flashers reckon?

I agree, the add banners are great especially when they involve some interactivity. but they throw off the rest of the page, FK should definitely make changes accordingly to make important content accessible when the default page is opened and the banner takes up half of the screen.