Resources Exploration

kirupa.com

Kirupa is a website that has flash and actionscript tutorials among other tutorials such as HTML5. Flash tutorials are divided into different sections including basic tutorials such as animations and actionscript basics and more complicated ones such as game development. This website also has a forum with a lot of resourceful information.


gotoandlearn.com

gotoandlearn.com is a website that I particularly like mostly because the tutorials are instructional videos with step by step teachings. The tutorials are completely free. I also like the interface, I find easy and simple to navigate through all the videos. There is also a blog by the author Lee Brimelow that can be helpful at leebrimelow.com.


flashperfection.com/

This is a website with a very large collection of Flash tutorials and articles from various website. Anyone can submit tutorials once they register on the site. Tutorials are organized in a lot of different categories which is a nice feature to have as it makes the search easier and more efficient.

flashmagazine.com

Flash magazine is an online magazine and independent resource about flash news, reviews, resources and also tutorials.


entheosweb.com

This is a website with a large free collection of different tutorials for different programs including Flash, Dreamweaver and also CSS and Web design tutorials and plenty of resources. Each section is dedicated to a program. I also like the interface, I find it user-friendly and easy to navigate through.

Design Exploration

Edison Innovation Foundation

This website, in my opinion, has an excellent interactive interface design. This site animates its typography throughout the website in a very entertaining, consistent, and clean way. It captures the essence of the website which is mainly educational about Thomas Edison and his creations by giving the user the feeling of discovery and innovation, and that is well delivered through the spiral navigation and the background images.
The design is simple and clean, using deep colors, it focuses on typography. I thought the menu navigation was neat, especially the way it animates slightly differently, from one page to the other. The timeline, for example, forms into a list that expands and contrasts. The main navigation is user-friendly and easy to access from anywhere in the website.
There is no frame around any of the content and the navigation which gives the feeling of openness and creativity.
There are small tricks throughout that are also well done: the light bulb that can "light up" the website, the "e" which rearranges the background into a visible image, the launching of the website, the way his signature takes form...



Varywell Studio 

This is a website about a studio that specializes in website and application design, and interactive installations. The site showcases their work in a very cool and creative way which reflects their design ability. I liked how you have different cubes representing each project that change forms and speed depending on how fast your scroll up or down. It gives the user a feeling that it is a desktop application except that it was executed in flash.
The color scheme is very limited except for the project cubes and that creates a nice contrast especially when they are expanding. I liked how you explore one project at a time and how each image in every project you are looking at is highlighted while the others aren't. You can also minimize those images into small cubes themseleves.
I found it all to be very creative, my only issue was however, the navigation. I thought it was too small and not very intuitive. Although it didn't take me too long to figure it out I still didn't get it quickly enough.

Website Research - Britnee Sapp

http://www.openloops.net/#/music/changing/




http://blabla.nfb.ca/




I found this website (openloops) to be so so neat! I want to be able to use some of the features in this website into my online portfolio. I love the negative space and how clean it is. My favorite part about this site are the links. I love how everything is linked together. When you click on or even hover over one link, a bunch of other links branch out from that one link as sublinks. I found that to be so creative and clever! I want to be able to create these features in in my own website in Flash.

I also found another website (blabla) that is strictly created for interactivity. I love how you can play with the characters and how there are just so many features. I want to be able to create similar features in my own site using my own characters I've drawn myself!

Maurer Klimes - maurerklimes.hu

Maurer Klimes

http://maurerklimes.hu/

I wanted to look at a site that is doing something with Flash, and I stumbled upon this site while looking for icon and logo inspiration. This is an artist exploration more than a studio one. I was browsing through the collection of work that artists present on the behance.net network. This is, by the way, one of my favorite resources for inspiration and constantly makes me want to push myself farther.

The designer of the site and the company branding has some information about the project at this link http://www.behance.net/gallery/Maurer-Identity/2385026

The logo animates onto the top right corner of the screen as you enter a site made of clean lines and easy to identify symbols. The interface is a unique experience, a drag and drop interface that begs to be played with. All of the icons react to the presence of the mouse and move towards the users actions. 

When you combine different icons you get different results on the website. You make combinations of the icons and it gives you the result. This is all done with actionscript and it looks really cool.

The design reminds me of that swedish style of graphic design that seems to incorporate a lot of clean lines. It is definitely cool looking and has a modern design appeal to what it is showcasing. 

The person the website is about is mr. Ákos Maurer Klimes. I like his website work than the work that he does, his personal claim to fame is a a gravestone that fills with water like a bird bath. Its not really what I am into to say the least. I like his site more than his professional work. If he never had such a cool site I would never have seen his work though. I just like being exposed to design ideas and trends on an international scale. Other countries speak in different paradigms, with unusual semantics and peculiar syntax

GE Website - Toni Wiltsey

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/landing_page

In my exploration of flash websites i can across this one and was extremely impressed. The creators really enhanced some basic design elements to affectively interact with the visitor. On the home page it is basically a simple pie cart turned 3-demenssionl and by having the area you are rolling over start animating the viewer can't help from exploring more pages. Another element I was impressed by was once you clicked on a piece of the pie cart the information that is presented is a VERY VERY simple graph and by angling it, adding shadows and showing it grow it becomes intriguing rather than a boring graph. Then there is the menu, by having it on the bottom and kind of hidden forced you to interact with the page and while moving around you notice the other elements. The alternate energy page is one of my favorite pages, like the others it is an animated graph, but this graph the visitor controls the information by plugging in more or less turbines. But, the augmented reality page is awesome! On this page you can print out a piece of paper and control the animation through your computers video cam, what a totally cool feature. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this site and hope you do too.

Exploration: Mantherapy.org

Though mental health issues and suicide are not a topic generally associated with humor, I have found a site that takes a very different approach to a mans mental health. Mantherapy.org is exactly what it sound like, a website designed to help men who believe they are having any type of mental health issues. Normally one would think that a site dedicated to mental health would just be line upon line of text that the user would have to read through before making any progress or learning anything in general. This site, with the use of flash of course, has a very unique interface that resembles a therapist's office, but this therapist acts like he is employed by old spice. With a very "manly" sense of humor, this "doctor" guides the user through the sites many features and online resources, all geared toward promoting men mental health but without giving the vibe of a suicide hotline or actual doctors office. This is a very fascinating humorous approach to a subject that unfortunately plagues many men today.

Design Exploration: Looper offical site

I found an interesting site for the new movie "Looper", the movie basically revolves around the mob and how they use time travel to order hits on people. The site offers a very simple yet cool interactive game that can be played with just the mouse. In this game the user must eliminate the target when it appears by clicking on it, after the target is eliminated cut scenes from the actual movie play leading to the next level. After about three levels the user is surprised when their characters older self appears and actually avoids being shot, this takes the user to a new phase of the game where they must "close their loop". The game continues on for about two more phases, and it provides the user with a fun interactive way to find out more about the movie.
address:  http://www.loopermovie.com/game/

Design Exploration

I found a website I'd like to share with you all. Its pretty fun (and could be nauseating). Its called the "Infinite Oz". It is one of the leading web design sites for 2012. They start with a few (like 5-10) large images and just use the zoom tool with tweening I assume. Inside these images they nest videos for the little things, what gives the site more personality. If the whole zoom/spinning/animation doesn't blow your mind, check out the navigation. I am not 100% sure how they do this but I love how everything spins down. Theres two sets of navigation through this wheel though. There is the scrub (outer circle) for controlling the speed of the screens zoom between images, and the inner planks, which light up in the over state. The center of the wheel also has a different icon for each of the rollover states of the planks. If you dont like the zoom between the different stages of images you can click on the menu and select the scene you want to view without the animation.

Second Story: Design Studio Exploration

Second Story Design Studio

I chose to showcase the work of a design studio that I think is doing some really amazing things in the world of interactive media. They are constantly looking for new ways to pull the user into the experience that they are creating. To do this they are not only innovating techniques but pulling new and cutting edge technologies into their projects. 

They remind me of the way the future should be shaping up, not what we have to settle for. According to back to the future we should be driving around hovercars and living in houses that talk to us. Now the smart house of the future is not far off, but its only in the reach of those with pockets deep enough to reach far enough in to pony up the cash for the experience they desire. It is not an industry that everyone can interact with. 

The initial article that brought my attention to Second Story Design Studio was the way they are creating interactive advertising. The project was a mockup for the way things might work in the future. The article was “ Sightlines: Augmenting an object with Face-Tracking and Reactive Content” http://blog.secondstory.com/sightlines-augmenting-an-object-with-face-tra Users approach what appears to be a clear glass front box that has a plain old wooden clothespin inside, as the user approaches the display the real magic begins. The display recognizes where your face is in 3-d and the content displays in such a way that it does not overlap the object but enhances it. An example is brackets displaying around the object highlighting its 8 gauge steel spring for gripping strength and the durable hardwood construction. 

This is a very mediocre object but it has been augmented in such a way that provides a lot of room to grow for advertising in the future. As you move past the display the augmentations do not overlap the object, rather they react to where you are and display appropriately.  This is achieved by combining a see through lcd screen and a Kinect for windows sensor. This is truly innovative and groundbreaking.

Satellite: http://blog.secondstory.com/launching-satellite#!/ is the other project from this studio that caught my attention. It is an interactive music creation tool that lets users interact with a touch sensitive display and also manipulate sound creation in a 3-d space. Users pick up small Sifteo cubes with are touch sensitive, where the cube touches the screen it is picked up from dictates what chord of sound it will create. Users then touch tap and interact to create sounds and interact with the touch enabled table. This is interesting because it combines multiple technologies into one experience. 

Watch the video on Second Story’s site to get a better understanding of how these two technologies are combined to get users to interact in ways that were completely unfathomable until recent advances in technology. I look forward to seeing the new ways that the people at Second Story will create new innovations and push the envelope even further. 

Cool site: Machinarium

Machinarium is a highly styalized point and click adventure created by Amanita design. Though it may seem complex a lot of what is present in the game are things that we have already learned. These combined with the amazing art style have made this flash game an instant classic among many who love point and click adventure. You can try out a short demo here: http://machinarium.net/demo/

Studio/Artist exploration

Projector Inc is a Japanese agency that does digital, web, and interactive development. 

I chose this agency because I found it inspiring. I like the way they approach each project. The concepts they come up with are innovative, interesting, unique, and most importantly effective. Often times, their solutions are not directly related to the products they are showcasing, but yet they find a smart and witty way to link them together, thus achieving high product awareness and engaging people from all over the world. For example, in order to sell a navigation system by Sony, they came up with a "singing in the car" contest on YouTube.  The concept being that "singing is the most natural thing to do when you have fun driving". Connecting this idea to their product sale point "driving is much more fun"  when using the Sony navigation system.

While there isn't much information about the agency online or on their own website, (at least not in English!!), one thing I liked was the case studies they provided for their projects. They give enough information to let us understand their concepts and their way of approaching and resolving projects. They have two really good interactive websites, in my opinion, the first one being the one that made them famous.

The Uniqlock website:

Uniqlock is a website for the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo. They wanted to increase awareness internationally and promote their business expansion outside of Japan. The Uniqlock incorporates music and dance with a world clock. Random video clips of four Japanese girls dancing wearing Uniqlo clothing appear every five seconds. The clothing is updated with every season, and at midnight, the girls sleep for an hour.
It is a very engaging website.  Users can download and add the clock to their own sites and blogs.
The website was executed in flash. It is minimalistic yet very engaging. I loved how they animated every second using just one color, depending on the time of day, but changing its animation. It alternates coming down, up or from the sides.

The Intel's Museum of Me website:

This website is another example of coming up with an engaging and clever project that is not directly related to the product they are showcasing; an Intel new processor in this case.
Facebook users log in through the website, which will then pull all their information from Facebook and turn it into an online exhibit about themselves. The show starts with a title of the Facebook user's name describing the exhibit as, "a journey of visualization that explores who I am."  Then the exhibit continues with galleries of images, videos, and  text constructed from the user's wall on Facebook. The show ends with robot arms going through all the images of the Facebook user's friends.
This experience is pretty cool and it is worth trying it at least once. There is a disclaimer at the beginning explaining that the website does not store any of the user's information, nor share the exhibit unless the user wants it to.
This "visual experience links to the core value of Intel, which connects people through their digital lives". This statement, from the case study on the agency's website, clearly shows the relationship between the concept and the product.
This website was also executed in flash. I loved their use of typography, the layout and the depth of perception of the whole exhibit. Most of all, I enjoyed the visual experience of an actual museum about yourself, with museum goers present at the exhibit.

Pica-Pic

     This site is really awesome in my opinion. Not only did the creator of the site manage to get these old games in flash and put them into Pica-Pic but he also made all of them interactive and playable with more coming soon. How you explore the site is simple and fun. Once you open then site it shows you a library of retro handheld games so just pick one that looks interesting to you and play with it. The buttons from the game work well with the keys. Go to Pica-pic to check it out.

Design Exploration

This flash website is advertising Adobe Creative Suite 2.3 by using the program itself to make an advertisement. It's easy to navigate and shows some of the features of the program. Although it's small, it does the job well. It's simple and to the point about what Adobe CS 2.3 can do for people looking for Flash.

The Creative Mind

Design Exploration

I found a website that takes the idea of "this day in history" and adds a new spin on it using flash. Its clean, clear, and easy to navigate. The only problem I have with this site is that the user can not navigate to a different date to explore. There are multiple examples (or articles) for the specific day you choose to view this site, so the maker did do an awesome job.

What I like the most is how engaging it is when you first open the web page. How the date kind of turns with the hands of a clock into focus. Then slowly the start page gets revealed. How the clock and date change is also unique. You can either let it auto play for you or you can manually click through to see the different things in history that took place. This Day in History

Design Exploration

Design Exploration

www.photoseed.com

This Webby Award winning website caught my attention as a very good example of an interactive media website.  The sites subject is 19th and 20th century photography and it contains an impressive amount of photographs that are well organized with many having detailed descriptions of the medium used in shooting it, the photographer, the place and the date it was taken.  The site has a very easy navigation of mouse over images that lead you into other pages and photographs with what I assume to have been created in flash.   The sites design aesthetic is very clean and goes along with the style and theme of photography that is being presented.   The sight can be easily used by someone who may just be “cruising” the photos with only an interest in particularly eye catching photos, to an individual who knows exactly what they are looking for.  I think this is an excellent site to refer back to as an example that follows many of the “Rules” discussed in the “Game Web and Multimedia design Principles, Tips, and Good Habits” that is posted on the MAT 150 class website.

http://www.photoseed.com/uploads/2011/08/07/single-von-gloeden-angelina-medium-600-600.jpg

The Mind Lab

I found this pretty cool site that utilizes flash animation not as entertainment but for educational purposes. the site is produced by Japanese science and technology agency and Wonderful ltd. whats really cool is that it seems to use relatively simple flash techniques to make a vary professional learning experience. the material being taught is on our visual senses, in how simple tricks to the eye can go unnoticed. Click here to check it out.

Cheers,

Mike S

I've discovered this fun site called Hello Sour Sally (http://www.hellosoursally.com). Write about the design and why its compelling and interesting.

First Exploration Blog

http://demo.fb.se/e/stadium/running/

This is an interesting site. It has some cool functionality. At first, I thought I was some kind of advertisement site when you choose the different sets of clothes and shoes. But on the map selection, which shows 33 cities on Sweden, it had some locations where it shows you the weather for that day and gives you some tips and advise for if you decide to go out for a run in that area. It tells you about certain routes and the inclines.

Raoul Barre, Canadian animator

Raoul Barré, January 1874 – May 1932, Canadian animator –cartoonist  is one of the pioneer in the evolution of cartoon animation. He invented two processes that made animation simpler and faster without losing the quality of the motion.

·         The SLASH SYSTEM,  He cut a window in the paper used for “décor”  background and placed the window in such a way that only the picture to be animated will show. This process did not last long but was fairly popular at the time

·         La REGLE A TENONS, “PEG BAR”:  on a ruler he fixed two pegs, one at the top and one at the bottom where the pages will be fixed. The paper movement was restricted by the  two pegs , as the images moved on for the animation, to keep their drawings lined up. This process helped to guarantee the perfect movement of the images without losing any of the  background details.

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After working for a while with Edison, Barré, in 1914 decided to start his own studio. He wanted to  concentrate his time to animation and be independent of Edison.. With his partner Nolan he started a series for the Animated Grouch Chaser series, distributed by Edison.

http://youtu.be/ADy4NXvaDgI

► 2:07► 2:07

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yj_8OBnumc

► 11:27► 11:27

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADy4NXvaDgI

Studio Exploration: Big Spaceship Studios

Big Spaceship designs "connected experiences, products, and platforms." .....

A couple of their portfolio pieces that I liked include:

HBO Voyeur --  This piece uses interactive compelling way.

SIMON"S CAT

SIMON’S CAT 

Simon is an English animator who has a great interest in British wildlife, he started animating at a very young age by drawing on flip books trying to emulate the techniques he saw on screen. 

Simon has four cats who inspire him in his films. All the sounds in his films are real life sounds made by himself and his cats. The sound is edited by a friend of his called Scrooty.

He uses Flash and animates his films in a traditional manner, drawing frame by frame. It usually takes between 12 and 25 drawings to create 1 second of a Simon’s Cat film. He uses a Wacom tablet and stylus to draw.

Simon also publishes children’s books. Called Simon’t cat. 

He sells all sorts of accessories in the US and in UK with drawings of Simon’s cat. 

He also designed  apps  for iphone with a game called “cat chat app”  and one called “puurfect pitch”.

http://www.simonscat.com/

D Day

D-Day To Victory

Since my previous post of an interactive website was a bust I decided to resubmit a post in that category.

A TV series for History Television www.ddaytovictory.ca is an interactive website that follows real WWII stories and the events that led to D Day using 3D visualizations of key battles during the last year of the 2nd world war.

While exploring the websites there links that guide through a map like a general explaining the plan of attack. One can explore the scene and be informed of the event that is taking place. It is engaging and creatively done where you can hear the narration of veterans at each event and there are many links to tidbits of information about the war.

Ben Faragau Photography

Check it out HERE.

I like this page because it really utilizes creativity through flash to portray his photography in an artistic and fun manner. going from photo to photo you almost feel like youre in a gallery, all the way up to having a lady standing in your way. haha. I also really enjoy the sound switch. very cool.

 

Cyriak

Cyriak Harris is an artist who makes surreal animations using flash and after effects. His style caught my eye because i had never seen anything like it. He has many animations on the internet that are about 4 minutes average in length and has had tv spots on Shotime and Adult Swim, as well as commercials and music videos. His unique approach to animation inspired me to take this flash class to explore all the possibilities  of animation using real pictures (rather than cartoons) to create an eerie, trippy, experience for the viewer. His animations range from cute and playful to creepy and unsettling but always entertaining.

http://cyriak.co.uk/

Brave Movie

http://disney.go.com/brave/index.html

This website is a link to Disney Pixar's newest movie Brave. The setting for the movie is Scotland, and tells the story of young Princess Merida, and her quest to be free, and change her fate.

This website gives you a look at trailers, meet the characters of the film, go through a picture gallery, and download images from the film.

Disney Pixar's Brave opens in theaters every where this June.

Waterlife

http://waterlife.nfb.ca/

This website showcases information pertaining to a documentary called "Waterlife". The film itself is about the cycle of the Great Lakes and how the fresh water affects us as a species.

The use of Flash can be seen in the unique interactivity between your mouse and various graphics such as the wave-like bars of the load screen, which will follow your pointer, paper clip graphics that can be shuffled around by the nudging motion of the mouse, et cetera. Even the constantly shuffling  photo map will alter and tilt when you move the cursor.

Wheres Carlos, by danny

well, as a lot of others did i found my website in the Webby awards website. this particular website got best use of video animation, i found this site very interesting and addictive. its kind of a web show. track Carlos and see where he is now. http://carlos.canalplus.fr/index_en.html 

Art with code

 

This exploration will be dedicated to Joshua Davis who uses fractal-based software to create art. 

Born in San Diego in 1971 Davis was introduced to the internet in the mid 1990's by a design student friend at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he studied illustration and art history. Self tought he worked in illustrations by day and HTML by night. He began with Future Splash Animator then by Flash 4 they had added scripting. At this time he was already familiar with JavaScript and DHTML. During the dotcom era David was a major force in web design. Now he had a combination of vector based design tool and programming. 

Because Flash vector based work allows him to scale any size he can create work using illustrator  vectors and dump them into Flash and then output in Post Script. He uses patterns of motion based on natural, semi random process for his current programs.

" The most complex print I've done had 120,000 layers in illustrator. The printer called and said 'How did you do this? How long did it take? And I said 'Oh five minutes"

The complexity of his compositions creates problems for printers causing them to crash when they try to separate CMYK on a file with thousands of layers, which excites him.

His inspirations come from life observations. The relationship of things in life. He works in a free flowing consciousness where he does not sketch the idea but begins exploring right away. He can create many things making mistakes to come up with one good idea.

                              

Today Joshua Davis travels for conferences, has produced  work and collaborated with many companies like BMW, Kanye West, Motorola, AMP Energy, Nike, Sony, Volkswagen, Toyota...and much more. 

  His website http://www.joshuadavis.com

Interactive websites he has created like http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com/

other sites done by him http://glassislife.com/jointheconversation.aspx

www.endlessmural.comhttp://www.endlessmural.com/#26049

http://ps3.praystation.com/pound/v2/