My NEW site now uploaded to web

[clummis]

www.uniq-id.us

Ok. Let me first sat that this is a hybrid design. The style I chose to design my site in was clean, simple, minimalistic.

When I have my sample work up, those are the aspects I intend to have standout.

I used SWiSHmax for everything except the opening movie-like intro. That small animation was created using Flash 8 (done through time-line animation only, no actionscript).

Here is the breakdown
90% SWiSHmax
10% Flash 8

All the graphical elements in both the Flash 8 animation and SWiSHmax site layout were created in Photoshop CS2

There is a pre-loader, but if you have a fast connection, you will not see it. Since I took great care to keep file size down. I wanted to provide a Flashsite that even dial-up users can view without much waiting.

Thanks for taking the time to view this website.

Chad

[tyheiss]

Hi, I like it alot, but I like minimism.
Could you tell me where you got the email form? I cant find one that works in swish only w/o using outlook.
inspiring
ty

[Chris_Seahorn]

I like minimalist these days. It's the fonts that screw the mix on most tries. I say if you can sacrifice the effects (and you don't have to sacrifice all...some effects still work) and switch to device fonts (not pixel), at least for the horizontal red menu items, it would be clean and crisp. Unfortunately the rotated text might take a hit.

Minimalist looks great if the scale of the fonts is correct to the proportions of the interface and is where device or pixel fonts shine....but these definitely take time and thought to place. If you decide to get into pixel fonts Frets has a great article about them that will save you some time.

Either way, my rambling aside...I like it. Nice job so far.

[pavin]

As a fairly new guy, I would just comment that the intro text was way too fast. I want not expecting to have to read stuff and it just seemed to fly by by the time I saw it.

Visually it looks cool.

[Gloo pot]

Yea that into is way to fast, I am on dialup and i usealy dont have only one page up at one time so i missed the into when it had finished so i refreshed :P. Other than that look nice and clean.

[clummis]

Thanks for the feedback on the intro animation speed and the fonts.

I changed the "fps" from 30 to 25. It seems to have slowed it enough to read the text, but not too much that the opening door sequence loses too much of its fluidity of motion.

Where can I find that article on device fonts that "Chris_Seahorn" mentions "Fret" wrote?

Its good to know the the dial-up user experienced no slow download issues. Instead, it was too fast.

Thanks.

Chad

[Chris_Seahorn]

As I recall it was either at the Swishzone forum or pinned there. He's also a mod there. I'm sure he'll post the url or maybe it's fresh in Lys's memory.

[Frets]

Three important rules when using pixel fonts

1 They only can be used in there specific pt size. eg if it's is designed for 8pt (like orgdot.com's) then don't change the pt size.
2 They are not intended to be scaled.
3 They must be set to anchor upper left (the default setting for all fonts in swishmax
4 They must be algined to integers not decimals eg 0,0 not 0.25 x 0.56
5 If they are set in a sprite the sprite must follow the same conditions.
(no scaling aligned to upper left no decimal points)


My personal favorite place for pixel fonts is http://www.orgdot.com/aliasfonts/
We have several fonts both pixel and non here at http://flashkit.com/fonts/

As well there is a quide to pixel and non pixel fonts here.
http://flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?t=491723

Frets

[Frets]

Device fonts...

Here is an article(rather dated ignore link to frets-files) I penned a long time back on the differences between Device and embed fonts http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?a...led&link_id=90

If you do a search at swishzone you'll find some great documentation on the limitations and usage of html.text in swishmax

[Chris_Seahorn]

Also, try not to base your decision on current standards regarding device fonts. Although you cannot use the majority of Swishmax's built in text effects with them, you will, when Swishmax exports as Flash 8, be able to apply filters to them. This may be a factor to take into consideration while building now.

For instance, I always liked the crisp qualities of device fonts and have better luck with them than pixel fonts for exactly the reasons Frets points out, mainly that you have to place them correctly. In a small movie...not a big deal. In a larger movie or website where you may be placing text into sprites nested 3 and 4 levels deep, placement is time consuming as you need to make sure every parent holder clip's x/y is placed in a non fractional way. I never sweated losing the mojority of the built in effects because I would rather have clean static text than animated blurry text. Trouble is for years they were just one dimensional textfields that get a bit boring. Now, with a filter applied using something like:

var myDropFilter = new flash.filters.DropShadowFilter(2, 45, 0x000000);

var myFilters1 = txt9.filters;
myFilters1.push(myDropFilter);
txt9.filters = myFilters1;

they are not only crisp , they have depth as well. In minimalist, miniature and clean are paramount for fonts or they stand out like sore thumbs if blurry.


Long story short, if you decide on device fonts now, they will be clean and still allow you to use SOME of the built in effects. Once Swishmax releases the new version that exports 8, it would be a simple matter of updating your movie to apply a filter after the fact.


I like the Uniq.id logo BTW....nice job.

[clummis]

Thanks "Frets" and "Chris_Seahorn."

First, I would like to thank you "Frets" for the pixel/device fonts information. And I appreciate the additional advice you provided as well "Chris_Seahorn."

Its seems a no-brainer to me, at least until SWiSHmax releases a new version that exports 8. Since I chose to use a minimalist, clean Flash site design, I need to convert my fonts to device fonts. Since any blurry text will stand out like a sore thumb the way I use the fonts in my design.

The nice thing is that I can keep all my animation as is. The text effect where you see the letters appear at random were not created using a text effect filter of any sort, thankfully.

How did I do it? It was a bit tedious, but it allows me to control the way each letter appears. I use "white square-shaped boxes" that sit over each individual letter and then they fade out (9 frames per letter).

Also, thanks for the compliment on my logo.

Well, I need to go make some edits this week and upload a version with device fonts for all fonts.

Chad
www.uniq-id.us

[clummis]

OK. I need to amend my desire to use only device fonts . When I converted all the navigational font to device fonts, everything went wrong.

I think I am going to play around with the other pixel font options in combination with fonts size and style. I believe that will be the better solution. Device fonts work fine in my input boxes and static informational text fields.

So now I need to go back and rework my swi file, because stupid me forgot to make a copy when I experiemented with the device fonts.

Thankfully I did not upload those changes. I realized my problem before making it worse by having the train wreck posted online.

Can anyone show me some website that use "Device fonts" well. I am visual, and seeing examples are the best way for me to see how it best works.

Thanks.

[clummis]

I decided to use the "vector" fonts at a size of 10. They were 9. It will do for now until I get my portfolio uploaded. Then I will probably increase the size to 11.

Otherwise it seems I did quite well this time out. Of course, as my skills improve, I will be updating and redesigning again.

[Frets]

Yes...

http://www.mikechrysler.com/p/rss2.html

It's all swishmax and device fonts.

btw two things to note...
Swishzone has released a beta that exports to swf8
Check the bugs forum at swishzone for the beta
http://forums.swishzone.com
If your having problems with mask and device fonts DPC came up with the solution first. Here is a quick reference though.
http://forums.swishzone.com/index.ph...opic=28530&hl=

[Chris_Seahorn]

Not a great example..but my site uses all device fonts. Some have version 8 filters applied. The RSS shows how it affects not only the text in a field, but also the inline images ( for the feeds that put out images that is). The Shoutbox shows the filters too. Click my name for link.

[Adobemedia]

Good Site.

[misanthropy26]

This site is... Uhhh... Boring. I know that's kinda what you were going for but I couldn't even finish looking at it. The fonts and everything were used well. And by "used well", I mean they arent blurry or out of place. And that's really all I can say about this site.

Sorry, I'm not into this kind of thing. If someone made a site for me that looked like this, I would be seriously looking for a new designer.