for review

[Arkved]

Hello,

ive posted here once before asking a question and was greeted quite nicely, and would like to thank Jofta for that.

Now, for the main reason im here, i have posted somewhat of a temp. web site, and would like to see what the people who know what they are doing with SWiSH think of it. its pretty basic i guess, but i want to make sure its working.

the sight is: http://members.aol.com/anialator/

i know, i know, EWWW AOL, but ive been on it forever, and everyone knows my email addy there. also, does anyone know of a free web hosting service that doesnt put banners/pop-ups on your page, and is bigger than 10 megs in size, and no restriction on file size, with unlimited(or close to)bandwidth(i know, im hard to please*blink**blink*)

thanks for all the help,

[fredman73]

Hi, Arkved,

Well, most of my suggestions come from a professional point of view and since you have a personal site and are just beginning your Swish adventure, I'll just point out a couple of things that should help without giving you too must to digest (sorry if that sounds condescending...not my intent):

1. Make your frame rate quicker. If you use 25-30 fps, you'll have more of the smoothness that Flash offers. Right now your intro is especially slower than it could be.

2. As you experiment with building text in Swish movies, you'll discover how far a few font changes can go. Try some different fonts but stick with 2-3 that you like. Having Times Roman/Arial is ok ins some cases, but in your case it might add some extra pizzaz.

3. Keep your text effects to a minimum. It's easy to get excited about all the fx you can do in Swish, but it's generally believed at this point that text fx for the sake of themselves are a big no-no. Unless it's crucial to the flow or atmosphere of your movie. In yoru case, I'd say maybe play with your intro a bit and come up with a theme, then build your text fx around that theme. Even storyboarding first can help. Text effects like 'blur' can also increase your swf file size dramatically.

4. Don't go to overboard with sprites of animated gifs. Not saying you do, necessarily. This, too, can increase file size a lot. Depends on the gif.

Good job so far.

Oh yeah...as for web hosts that are free AND don't require banners/popups, there are nearly none available anymore. http://www.f2s.com still does but their 'free site' feature ends in February to an all-paid system. If you're looking for something usable, try http://www.freeservers.com. They do have a banner & popup requirement, but it's still an ok service. Very Flash-friendly. You can get rid of the advertisements for as little as $5-6 USD a month.

Cheers,

Fred

[Arkved]

Thanks Fred,

I appriciate your insight greatly, especially from a professional point of view. I hope to one day get good enough at this to make alittle money on it, possibly. I've copied all you wrote down and will review and revamp my site and see what i think will work taking out ETC., im still like a baby giraffe, learning how to use its new legs, hehe.

Thanks again Fred,