Mock-up Gallery for Displaying Wallpaper

Here’s what I have so far.

Most of the wallpaper I make is in widescreen format, so the vertical menu would not work as well as a horizontal menu.  The question is which technology shall I use.  I can make effects easier with Flash, but if I use Javascript, then I can make it more extendable and automated.  I think in this case, I will try the javascript approach and have some fun playing with visibility.  For selection, I will do a simple border.  It should be a nice exercise.  I will start planning the code tomorrow.

Flash for Web Design Gallery Done

I finished the basic flash gallery with scrolling menu.  I had to play some trickery to prevent the user from being able to access the menu until the swfs are loaded.  I tried to externally load all of the swfs, only to discover that it would be a pain to access the buttons within the menu swf.   So I took the cheese-mo approach and “hide” the menu using the alpha filter until the screen shots are loaded.  Heheh … boneheaded, but effective.  I haven’t made a load screen yet, so bear with it as it loads.  Here’s a link to the swf.

Link

I learned a lot about the limitations of ActionScript doing this little project.  The main limitation is that there is no “evaluate” function in ActionScript 3.0.  I guess this has to do with ActionScript compiling to something like an executable.  It just can’t make stuff and run it at runtime.  Therefore, I couldn’t use loops and arrays to automate the creation of the buttons and event handlers.  I’ve decided to make a basic JavaScript version of this for greater flexibility.  To be honest ~6 is my threshold before I want to automate the process.  It’s also a pain in the butt trying to access elements from swf to swf.  Anyhow, I’m glad I did this, so now in the future I just have plug images and swfs into it and I can change the appearence of the gallery within the Flash IDE.

Striking a Balance

Thinking about my porfolio, it’s tough to strike a balance between utility and “Flash.”  I would like to show off some of my abilities, but at the same time I want it look natural and not forced.  This is tough, though, because if I don’t highlight the technology will folks looking at my portfolio notice?  In the end it should not be strictly about the technology, but rather does it get the job done and look nice doing it.  There are ways of strictly showing skills through demonstration and I think that’s what I would like to do.  It looked to me to be a good way to show skills when a designer hasn’t had any customers.  Still, though, I think many people get hung up on the technology without considering whether the technology is best tool to do what needs to be done.  There are several ways to “skin” the same “cat” in web design.

Porfolio Mock-Up: Version 6 — A Gradient

It’s subtle.  I’m not sure about this yet.  It does seem to help the to bottom balance more.

Portfolio Mock-Ups: Version 3

I’m back to designing my portfolio again.  I’ve learned some new Flash/ActionScript tricks and I’m going to apply them.  I’ve decided to stay with my colorful style, and use my portfolio work to show I can do subdued also.   I will reuse the Flash gallery I made for my paintings and drawings.  I have yet to come up with basic layout for the wallpaper and vector art galleries.  Those pages will have downloadable content.  Here’s what I’ve got for the home page and the basic layout for the Web Design and Flash galleries.

ZHD Info Interactive Site

Here is the interactive portion of the ZHD Info site.  Tomorrow I will get to the task of stringing the three SWFs into one file.  Heheh … sigh … well, at least I finished before midnight .  I put in some temporary links so visitors can have a close to real experience with the website.

Link

ZHD Info Site v2

I thought the original concept for the info pages looked too much like Power Point Slides, so I redesigned the basic look to something like a fancy picture frame and I made the main page look more dramatic.

ZHD Info Site Story Board

Here’s the first go at the ZHD Info site board boards.  Updated the main character page.  It’s getting better, but it still needs work.  It may be easier to do this in flash so I can experience the interactive elements.

ZHD Info Site Version 1

Here’s version 1.  I decided the first background wasn’t interesting enough and didn’t represent the motifs in the manga.  So I changed the backgound to a pattern that is somewhat Arabic.

Portfolio Web Design Page Mock-Up

I decided to put the portfolio in the second Omari’s Sister layout format.   I think it fits well and it keeps a running look to all of my websites.  Here’s the home page again and the layout for the web design page.

I put in a horizontal menu bar under the title.  I worked a lot on the effects on the navigation highlight.  with a combination of shadows, highlights, and a very subtle gradient, I was able to make the highlight look like a soft rubbery piece of candy.  It’s hard to see in this small screen shot, so you’ll just have to wait.  Again, the pages look very textured and hand-crafted like they are made from craft paper.