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Thread: A tale of two (sucky) logos...

  1. #21
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Thought I'd bump this up with an update.

    I have the home page mostly done. I haven't done any of the animating or transitioning though.

    What do you guys think?

    link

    Too many condensation drops? not enough? is the font readable?

    For animation, I haven't quite decided how I want to bring the cup in yet, but once in, I thought it'd be cool to have the pool mask out and maybe have the lemon fall from top and splash it a bit. I'd also have condensation drops that randomly slide down the cup...

    c/c welcome!

    Thanks to all!

    -Sandy

  2. #22
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
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    The drops look good. They'll look even better when you get a few of them sliding down. I think the font works well. Nice job on getting the subtle curve to match that of the cup. I also like your ideas for the lemon and the pool. That logo also has some nice weight and pop to it now.

    Everything's coming along nicely.
    mrush


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  3. #23
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Thanks, bruh!

    That cup was originally white, but I thought it needed some punch (and like 150 layers or so ).

    It's funny... I did the cup as a larf because in his original text he was talking about a lemonade stand... really more just to amuse myself... and he loved the concept.

    Crazy where inspiration comes from, huh?

    -Sandy

  4. #24
    He has risen! lefteyewilly's Avatar
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    i love addition of the cup...

    however, i think the text is a bit hard to read. the thin scripty font against the pattern of the cup loses it's impact.

  5. #25
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Thanks lefty...

    In your opinion, do you think I should change the font or ditch the pattern of the cup?

    I'm still on the fence about the font myself. It's the same font that is being used on the buttons and the contact page. The logo font doesn't work in that space. I like the font on the buttons, and therefore want to keep it, but I'm afraid that if I use a third font for the cup text it'll come off looking messy, and not in the good way.

    Thanks for the crit.. I'll mess with it some and see if I can make it work..

    -Sandy

  6. #26
    He has risen! lefteyewilly's Avatar
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    can you fade the pattern just where the text area will appear? I think that will solve it no matter what font you use.

  7. #27
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the suggestion!

    -Sandy

  8. #28
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Meh... I'm not liking the result all that well. It looks very fake the way I'm doing it. Maybe your vision was different than mine, and the way you pictured it looked cool, but it ain't working for me.

    I'm gonna change the scale of the pattern so that it's smaller and then create a white band where the text is and see what that looks like. Failing that, I'll just reduce the opacity of the pattern a bit so the whole thing fades a touch.

    I've got to set it aside for a bit to work on some other stuff... but I'll get something together soon.

    -Sandy

  9. #29
    He has risen! lefteyewilly's Avatar
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    what i had in mind was adding a layer, use a soft white brush just where your text will be and then hit it with gaussian blur ...clean it up a bit with a layer mask so it doesn't expand past the edges of the cup...i assume you're working with photoshop...dunno if that'd work, that's just what was in my head

  10. #30
    He has risen! lefteyewilly's Avatar
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    something like htis:

  11. #31
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Ahh cool. Yeah that's not what I was doing at all.

    I'll play with it later. Nice one!

    -Sandy

  12. #32
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    What do you think about this? I'm on the fence. It does make the text pop a bit, but I think it loses some of page's overall sharpness...




    It's very subtle though, so it may just be...

    -Sandy

    EDIT: I know you may not be able to tell that much of a difference with the way the pic is cropped. If you pull up the site and look at it side by side you can see a diference.

  13. #33
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
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    I think it looks okay, but that's just me. One minor improvement I might suggest is that you might want to get rid of the condensation behind the text and just add a few select drops on top and kind of inbetween the text. Right now they all look just a touch on the blurry side, but the ones behind the text seem even more so, so I think that will make both the text and drops pop a little more.

    For me though, the texture on the cup is working. You could conceivably make the entire texture a little more transparent so it becomes slightly more subtle if you wanted to give the text some more visual precedence.
    mrush


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  14. #34
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Yeah those drops do look a little blurry thoughout, which is weird becuase when I did the first one it looked great, adn the rest are all rescaled duplicates. I'm gonna mess with the drop shadow that's on them. I think that's what's causing it. Also, all of the drops are above the text, but you're right for some reason they look like they're behind it. I'll pull some of em out. The effect that I wanted to achieve was that the text was printed on the cup, like at a fast food chain (Chipotle comes to mind if you have those in your area).

    The more I look at that blur the more I don't think it's gonna work... it just makes the cup less crisp than the stuff around it. Of course that may all change once I get the drops crispier, but in the rush to get out of work today I forgot to take my psd with me, so it'll have to wait until next week.

    I'm gonna pull that pattern's opacity down a bit more too I think. It's set at 20% now, I think I may play somewhere between 10 and 15...

    Freakin' scripty font... if he played industrial music none of this would be a problem!

    -Sandy

  15. #35
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Hey gang, I updated the cup. Can you take a look? I reduced the drop shadow on everything, and got rid of about 15 drops in strategic areas. I also dropped the opacity on the pattern by 5%.

    Working better now?

    link

    -Sandy

  16. #36
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
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    Looks good to me.
    mrush


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  17. #37
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Sweet. Thanks, yo!

    On to animation...


    -Sandy

  18. #38
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Animation's in (for the most part)...

    Could I beg of you to take a look and let me know what you think? I'd love a crit.

    link

    Many thanks!

    -Sandy

    PS: I'll be on vacation next week, so if anyone misses me I'll be back on June 4th!

  19. #39
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
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    I'd say things look good for the most part. I was thinking it might be cool to have the cup fall down and do a bit of a wobble when it hits, but now that I've seen it a few times the fade is working for me. I do believe the timing could be improved a little, though. Take this for what it's worth, but I think the cup could fade in a tad faster. After that I think you could improve the overall flow if you overlapped your animations a little bit. By this I mean that there is a noticable pause after the cup fades in and before the liquid spills out on the bottom. In my mind this should start right as the cup bottom is just coming into full view, this might end up being a frame or two before it's completely done. The lemon too, could stand to come in a hare quicker. (sorry, couldn't resist the quick bunny reference) What that should do is provide you with a smoother, cleaner motion with a more fluid overall flow. I'm also noticing that the leading edge of the puddle flashes what looks like one or two frames right before it stops. It's a small thing, but fixing this would be good.

    Those condensation drops look pretty good. Initially I was going to say that you maybe didn't need the trails that they were leaving behind, then I saw that they faded out after a short time and it made everything better again. Nice touch, I like the effect. After refreshing multiple times I notice that they appear to be randomly scripted so the movement isn't the same in subsequent views, which just plain rocks.

    So how did you manage that transparent gradient mask on the cup? I'm still using Flash MX so I'm a bit behind the times in that regard. Does Flash allow for transparency in masks now or did you use another method?
    mrush


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  20. #40
    yeah yeah yeah sandyrivers's Avatar
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    Thanks, Rush. I appreciate you taking the time to write up another thoughtful crit.

    I'd been looking at the file almost all day long (slow day at work) and was trying to get the file uploaded and the bump posted before I left. I knew I still had fine tuning to do, but had been too close too it for too long to see what it needed.

    Quote Originally Posted by RUSHVision
    I'd say things look good for the most part. I was thinking it might be cool to have the cup fall down and do a bit of a wobble when it hits, but now that I've seen it a few times the fade is working for me.
    Initially I had the cup falling in a bit from the top, but to me it looked weird because of the way it was cutting off. If the stage completely fit the window it would look good, but since I don't want to have to resize everything I'm not going there. Part of me still wants to toy with the idea of having a hand holding the cup bring it in fast, like cartoon blurry fast, and then bring it out the same way. I have to find the right stock for that and haven't started looking. When I get back from my trip I'm planning on exploring it.

    The fade sorta sprang from the desperation of wanting something that wasn't a standard boring _alpha fade, especially since that kind of fade noticibly causes the site to lag. If I can't get my hand Idea to work, I'll prolly stick with it, but as you said the timing is still off.

    After that I think you could improve the overall flow if you overlapped your animations a little bit.
    Thanks for that. It is looking very wooden at the moment. My problem stems from having the world's slowest pc at the house at the moment, so I literally have no idea how fast things look on a normal pc. That's all about to change though thanks in part to the good folks in the Coffee Lounge who came through big time. I made a few tweaks here and there, but as soon as I get back I'll be purchasing every thing needed to put together my own dream pc. All for $1,493.17 shipped!

    I'm also noticing that the leading edge of the puddle flashes what looks like one or two frames right before it stops. It's a small thing, but fixing this would be good.
    That leading edge is completely funny to me cuz it's a vector shape tween sitting on top of the png that is being masked. I was hoping that no one would notice the jump from when the puddle is under the cup to when it is over it (to make it look like it's beaded up at the base). I'll be sure to fine tune that as well.

    Those condensation drops look pretty good. Initially I was going to say that you maybe didn't need the trails that they were leaving behind, then I saw that they faded out after a short time and it made everything better again. Nice touch, I like the effect. After refreshing multiple times I notice that they appear to be randomly scripted so the movement isn't the same in subsequent views, which just plain rocks.
    Those damn drops.... that is what I did pretty much all day today. I completely suck at loops, so that was a very frustrating crash course with a bunch of help from some of the folks in the AS forums. I'm very pleased with the result... they prolly could stand a bit more tweaking, but for the most part everything is dynamic like I wanted. Every 14 to 25 seconds (I think) 1 to 4 drops are randomly generated, randomly sized, randomly placed, and told to randomly start playing their tweens at random times. When they get to the bottom of the cup, they are told through AS to stop playing, fade out, and delete themselves to get ready to do it all over again. It was exhausting, but I came away with a much better understanding of how loops work, and for that I'm grateful (or greatful - I never can remember how to spell that).


    So how did you manage that transparent gradient mask on the cup? I'm still using Flash MX so I'm a bit behind the times in that regard. Does Flash allow for transparency in masks now or did you use another method?
    Everything you see is built in MX04. That effect is a series of duplicated images, each set with a slightly lower tansparency, that are all almost completely masked except for a little strip. They are all individually masked and tweened at the same time as the others... I wanna say something like 11 masks and 22 layers or something... I wish I could take credit for it, but I found a tute for it on the web. Pretty nifty effect though!

    Thanks again for the crit, Rush. After I get back from my trip and have a chance to step away from it for a week, and after I've built my bad-mamma-jamma machine, I'll put your suggestions to good use!

    -Sandy

    PS: I sincerely hope I'm not bugging everyone by posting every little update. I'm not insecure or a showboat or anything (at least I don't think I am )... I just want to make sure my work can be the best that it can be and I don't have a lot of creative-types that I hang out with that I can bounce ideas off of and get feedback from. Please tell me to sod off if I get too puppy dog for ya!

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