[F8] Flash Portfolio

[Evaman]

This is my new portfolio that I just recently finished up to use as a reference on showing people some possibilities with Flash and to describe the effect of when completed and to simply use it to show schools all my finished work that I've done.




*Layout*

This was the starting layout for what I had in consideration for the final render. Of course, the concept did change a little bit over time which you might find by scrolling.



*Working Version*

This right here as you can see is my front layout of my portfolio. It was almost practicality designed to look and act like an operating system just for some type of amusement. It has a background, mp3 player, movie player, slideshow presenter, a notepad to right down notices, and a window to show my current work. All of these are operated in different windows that I use to keep them all organized and easy to maintain.



The video player here doesn't really support a window as much as it just supports a selection of videos within its scroll bar at the bottom center, and a video screen in the center which can be adjusted to full screen by pressing the enlarge video button on the remote.



This notepad would be used to keep down maybe valuable notes while at the moment having my work judged or something of that sort. It can be fully dragged around by holding the top of the window and simply dragging it around the screen.



This window shows my current work that has been completed or not (still should make note on that). Most of my current projects revolve around my Zelda game that I've been struggling to complete for awhile now.



This is the about myself blurb that would give a little background of myself. It's not really complete because I haven't spent much time on it. I've just blurred out the unimportant details about that =) .




And That's about it. I'm gonna have this piece of work hosted somewhere soon enough for any of you guys that would just like to check it out or such. I would also find it useful for it to hold its own url so that way people for who I really would to see it from a distance could just check it out on the web.

P.S. ALL OF MY THANKS GOES TO RENDERHJS FOR HELPING THROUGH MOST OF ALL OF THIS. YOUR THE MAN RENDER!

[RUSHVision]

I've got some bad news for you, my friend. Unfortunately I have to say none of that is working for me. If I thought being extra nice and blowing smoke up your butt would help you then that's what I would do, but I don't think it would.

Basically everything is a confusing jumble of mismatched parts and lacks any kind of cohesive theme. The navigation is also completely unintuitive. How would one possibly know that those two little arrows change the background color, for instance? The slideshow and close window buttons both look like stop buttons to me, and the shrink/enlarge buttons do nothing to convey their purpose visually.

Probably the first thing I would change is the fonts. The sizing of the text is way too large and in my mind the fonts neither tie into the site or each other. You say you are trying to replicate some type of amusement console, but I can't remember too many of those that used copperplate gothic and army stencil variants for fonts unless it was specifically for an army game or something.

I really think you need to work on the consistency of all your visual elements. As it stands now the only thing that remains consistent is the mp3 player, and even that jumps around on the page lacking any kind of proper home or integration with the rest of the site/design. The remote is another thing that keeps moving around and changing it's appearance. Instead of clumsy and cluttered afterthoughts, these elements should be seamlessly integrated into the framework of your site in both a visually pleasing and functional manner. And to be honest, I really think you can do a better job on that remote. I'm going to guess that mp3 player is a component that someone else made, right? If you don't want to reskin that then I would at least make an attempt to match the remote to the player.

This 'notepad to write down notices' of yours...what exactly is it's purpose? Does it save the notes for you? Is this a way for users to provide you with feedback or is it just a widget for them to play with? I guess I'm having trouble finding a reason to include this feature at all. If you do decide to keep it however, again I would recommend that you keep the design consistent with the rest of the site.

Just my 2c...do with it what you will.

[renderhjs]

did I miss the link?,- where is it?

[Evaman]

did I miss the link?,- where is it?

A link to accessing my portfolio? Well I have to get to class in a short period of time. After the mean time, I'll host something for people to take a look at.

*Also to maybe solve one question for Rush, I forgot to mention in my hideous
blurb about this that you can drag the remote and MP3 player anywhere you want on the portfolio. To simply clear the both of them off the screen for a full screen shot of a photo or whatever you wish to see, press the CTRL key on your keyboard and they will fade out of the portfolio. And by pressing CTRL again will bring them back.

[RUSHVision]

That's all good functionality, but what I'm saying that is that I think you should have a more comprehensive design scheme that is more intuitive to navigate. That's just my opinion, though.

[sandyrivers]

A lot of the pics are dead for me, so I didn't get to see everything, but unfortunately I agree with Rush. The best thing about the shots I was able to see was your bio pic. The rest of it just doesn't look great. The color scheme is too dark IMO, and the font and other elements just don't pop. If you're going to use a really dark and gloomy background, you should spend some time on your other elements so they stand out and look fresh. Your remote is too basic looking. I'd add some highlights and shadows to it and make it look more metallic than just a flat dark grey against a dark background. I also agree that none of it is real cohearant. That Mp3 player is pretty popular... in fact I'm using the same one on a site I'm working on...

I'm a new designer myself, so I know how difficult it can be to layout a site when you don't have a lot of experience doing so. I'm finding that there is a lot of preplanning involved before you even open flash. Rush and the rest of the gang here are great at giving constructive feedback, so keep at it. You've got a start, just need to think it through a bit.

-Sandy

[RUSHVision]

You make a good point Sandy, and I thank you for providing that additional perspective. When I give a critique that is largely negative I try to expound a bit more on the fact that my comments are only offered in attempt to help improve someone's work, not to put them down in any way. I failed to do that this time so I appreciate your input.

As for that mp3 player, if it's as popular as Sandy says you might want to consider giving that a new look then matching the remote to that. You don't need to change it much, just give it a little personal flavor.

[phacker]

Shouldn't this be in the member sites section. What sort of work are you trying to present in your portfolio? I have no idea? If you are professing to be a web designer, you have a long road ahead of you. What I see has nothing to do with art or animation.

[Jujumon]

i think he asks specifically for the design and layout point of view before he actually constructs the site.

the 'players' are all in the draft stage so im not sure how to comment on it.

But as far as i can see, all your backgrounds kill it simply because they are too busy and dominant. The use of darkish blue and black background make me feel depress to look at the site.

The layouts of the pages with players are kinda all over the place. how about making all the controllers fixed or more standard through out the website.

it also looks too empty for me, need to put more 'design' into it. (not just players and background)

-juju

[Evaman]

Well I would like to thank your guys opinions with your talented perspectives. Sounds like re skinning should be in consideration? Of course as of now, I'm busy with the Zelda project and website for this band. But in the future when I look back on this, I will put some deligent effort into creating something a little more hue wise "interesting".