23 replies to this topic

[premiermc]

I am interested to find out how one would make a full website in Flash having created the layout in Fireworks.

I look at a site like this http://www.wa007.com/ and wonder how one gets to that final product. What gets made in fireworks what gets made in Flash.

I know this is an open ended question but perhaps we could start a project from scratch and develop a site like this into a fully functioning example to learn all aspects.

What do guys think?

[Alan]

Without thinking about any Flash limitations, Id suggest creating a design for us to talk about.

[premiermc]

I am interested to find out how one would make a full website in Flash having created the layout in Fireworks.

What gets made in fireworks what gets made in Flash?

I was wondering how it gets done. I don't know how to do it.

I would like to learn how though so I don't have my own design, I found the site I posted and thought it was well made and wondered how it was done.

[MagdalenaH]

If you want to do websites like this be prepared for hours upon hours of hard work and learning. The link you posted is for a company which has Donald Trump on client list (probably only those with pockets as deep as his can afford to pay for all the hours of work that are put into a good Flash site).

The design is the easiest part here - the art is in disecting the design into little pieces for maximum performance, and use scripting a lot for the same purpose. There are lots of Flash tutorials out there. Download samples of what other people have done and analyse them (http://www.flashkit.com) - the best way to learn all the tricks. Also - start with smaller elements, and gradually work up to more complex stuff, like entire website. I suggest that you take time to learn things before you dig into a serious project.

I hope this is helpful

[premiermc]

Thanks Magdalena, that does help. I started working with Flash again this weekend to start learning it. I have tried once or twice in the past and it got confusing and I left it. I made a banner this weekend and remade it several times to fully understand the way to make it properly.

It has got me interested in it again and I will check out that link and move on from there. I found a cool hack to remove the click to activate this control issue in IE here it is.

http://www.mix-fx.com/flash-prompt.htm

[KendallOhio]

it's fuuny that you would mention that hack, as I was just looking at it this morning. I have run into an issue though where I put the javascript call right after my closing object tag and IE will not load the movie it just sits there spinning. ??

anyone ran into this issue

[KendallOhio]

I experimeted some more after lunch and did a little research. Fr me this worked better IE flash fix

[premiermc]

I saw that as well it seemed a longer route to follow so I looked for an easy way as I was just testing the header I built.

I found it interesting the story behind that piece of code though. I am sure you saw or maybe it was on another blog but adobe used that code to solve the problem on their homepages and content as well and they have started working with the developer to make it a more permanent solution for Flash

[KendallOhio]

Yes, I did see that and you are right it has had an interesting journey...

[Alan]

I was wondering how it gets done. I don't know how to do it.

I would like to learn how though so I don't have my own design, I found the site I posted and thought it was well made and wondered how it was done.

The trick to WA007 is they load various levels that contain SWFs and/or movie clips to display content. The first step to de-constructing a site like that is to think about all the assets. How do they get loaded? Are they apart of the same SWF or is there multiple?

Depends on the project and who is involved.

Generally, your preload hierarchy may look like:

Top Navigation - SWF (lvl 50)
Music Player - SWF (lvl 20)
Intro Content - SWF (lvl 10
Interface/Container - (lvl 0)
Modules or sections. Place each in different SWF, but load into same level (lvl 10)

Also depends on if you want the Sections to appear above the Interface or below it/within it.

It can go on and on...again it depends who you are working with or how you prefer working. The example above is very basic, but hopefully you can see how to de-construct works..

I've worked in environments where they prefer developers to place objects on the stage with ActionScript or environments where they prefer to have everything on the Stage in Movie Clips. Are you visual or more code centric. Whats your fancy?

[premiermc]

I would say visual as I basically jumped into Web design etc at the end of last year and I have tried to learn a bit of everything. I work well with CSS and I have progressed well in fireworks for design. So the answer at this stage is visual not code centric.

Trying to learn html, css, php, MySQL, Actionscript is mind boggling as I have no previous programming experience I have not even used a command line before. I am progressing but I have learnt all I know online I havent had a book or a course so sometimes it is frustrating to solve even the most basic of question as it is common sense to most others.

But despite all of that I love it I cannot get enough I have to tear myself away from the PC. I live in Africa and we don't have access to as many resources like libraries etc. I think this forum is brilliant though and I have learnt 90% of my fireworks knowledge here.

Alan your pointers in the last post have given me ample topics to read up on so thanks for the open environment your forum has created for the fans of the art form and to a great community. Here is to the next ten years at it.

[abeall]

I would say visual as I basically jumped into Web design etc at the end of last year and I have tried to learn a bit of everything. I work well with CSS and I have progressed well in fireworks for design. So the answer at this stage is visual not code centric.

Trying to learn html, css, php, MySQL, Actionscript is mind boggling as I have no previous programming experience I have not even used a command line before. I am progressing but I have learnt all I know online I havent had a book or a course so sometimes it is frustrating to solve even the most basic of question as it is common sense to most others.

But despite all of that I love it I cannot get enough I have to tear myself away from the PC. I live in Africa and we don't have access to as many resources like libraries etc. I think this forum is brilliant though and I have learnt 90% of my fireworks knowledge here.

Alan your pointers in the last post have given me ample topics to read up on so thanks for the open environment your forum has created for the fans of the art form and to a great community. Here is to the next ten years at it.

WA007 is one of the leading Flash motion designers(he's one of the designers for the legendary 2advanced.com), so as MagdalenaH said, it will take a lot of work and time to get those kind of results!

The WA007 website uses a lot of progressive build animation. The basic trick here is to take your final design, and take it bit by bit, starting from the 'bottommost' base layers and objects, and animate them in. The topmost objects and assets will appear last. WA007 uses a lot of animated masking, and some fading/advanced color tweening.

[Jedi]

I do my website now in Flash...
That becomes the first version completely in Flash...
today or tomorrow will come online...

Jedi

[kelton]

Hi Guys,

I have a question for ya (duh lol) I am new to the world of web design, graphic design. Like another poster in this thread, i have had no previous programming knowledge. I have never attended any courses on any of these as well. In Feb of this year, i toyed with the idea of becoming a web designer and i have gathered most of the required (most popular) softwares. I have since taught myself and still in the process of learning CSS, HTML, Fireworks and to some extent Photoshop. In addition i have taught myself the basics of Joomla CMS. I also plan to include PHP and MY SQL so that i may better master Joomla.... with all that said (whew!!!) Do you guys think as an upcoming, "want to be" web designer, that i should add Flash design as well??. I dont think i would have a problem creating simple things like flash headers or banners, but do u recomend i go as deep as in creating a whole website from flash?? Is it really needed as a standard requirement for web designers?

ps personally besides flash banners/flash photo galleries.. Some flash websites i have been have been very annoying as they are over animated and sometimes i really jus want to get to the content and info with out all these animations bugging me

[abeall]

You should definitely learn Flash basics as a web designer.

As far as your website, don't make it in all Flash, and really you don't need to use any Flash. Sites like WA007 have all Flash websites because Flash motion graphics is the main thing they do. If the main thing you do is CSS/HTML/static design, then you don't want an all Flash website because people will assume that's the main thing you do.

[kelton]

thanks abe,

I most definitely will not be creating any full web pages in flash. Static XHTML with Joomla CMS only.. ofcourse including flash banners/buttons/photo galleries were needed. I was jus wondering if not creating websites fully in flash will take away from my credability as a web designer.

Has any web designer ever meet a client who wants a flash website, but they were not able to do it and sucesfully convinced them to use a static site?

[stompwampa]

I'm in the process of designing my first full flash website. In fact, the only other Flash work I've done before this was a few banner ads. I upgraded to Flash CS3 and I dove right into learning ActionScript 3.0 as well. AS 3.0 is well worth learning in my opinion...though I only really knew how to make a link with AS 2.0...but I think AS 3.0 is much easier to use.

My biggest struggle has been with how detail oriented Flash is. It took a lot of trial and error to get where I am now. The site is almost done and it should be online withing a couple of weeks.
I'll post the link when it's done.
All in all, the site will have about 10 different swf files, each representing a different page of the site.

I've really learned a lot about the whole process, and I still consider myself a newb at Flash (i'm probably more like an intermediate user...but I feel like a newb still!) So if you have any questions, feel free to ask me...since I probably ran into the same issue just a short while ago!

Also, as far as the design goes, I did the whole site design in Fireworks. I found that importing the Fireworks Shapes into Flash was one of the most frustrating parts, because flash puts everything into display containers within containers within containers. I ended up breaking my design down into the individual shapes and pasting them into flash, and then changing how Flash imported it. Once it was all imported though, the site started coming together very nicely.

[Alan]

Flash just rocks

[abeall]

Oh yes he does!


PS - I didn't know The Flash was associated with a Silver Age -- somewhat ironic considering the Flash vs Silverlight battle.

[Gualicho]

I am interested to find out how one would make a full website in Flash having created the layout in Fireworks.

I look at a site like this http://www.wa007.com/ and wonder how one gets to that final product. What gets made in fireworks what gets made in Flash.

I know this is an open ended question but perhaps we could start a project from scratch and develop a site like this into a fully functioning example to learn all aspects.

What do guys think?

Well, this kind of projects are, like MagdalenaH said, very big and usually includes not only a lot lot of hours in front of the pc, but a complete theme (designer, senior programmer, senior animator, mkt adviser, and some times a project leader to), working together. Sometimes this is impossible to do without a specific idea of what do you want to get at the final of the development, "to what is oriented" (the objectives behind the site).
My advice is that you take some "Family" project and create something real with a real objectives, and when you get stuck with some part of the project just try to get the solution in forums (like this one je) ore some resources page. But know that it´s common that a project like this take a lot lot of time (months), Knowing this from the beginning allows you to don´t become crazy in the middle of the development.

[phpmaestro]

I think flash website is not good for seo it face Manny problem. How can we use it in our site so-that it is suitable for seo ? Feel free to make comment

[Mike Gray]

Personally i don't like flash website because these are too heavy and took some time to open. I like php.

[MichelleBenavidez1]

yes you are doing great.try for it all the best.

[topherkhon]

Flash website design is really good for creating highly interactive websites with lots of multimedia features involved in them. It has the benefit of making unusual fonts uniform in virtually all browsers. But flash websites are not particularly well suited to navigation and seo. It looks cool the have an animated home page or a little cartoon explaining a particular feature of your product, for most graphic images, Javascript can actually deliver the functionality that you want without compromising SEO.