Who on DVinfo has the coolest website?

[Neil Fisher]

I built this about two months ago, it's simple has little flash and is somewhat original.

my site

I'm trying to make it something '.com' , but have no idea how to go about doing so.

[K. Forman]

Dan- I remember being proud of the fact I could fit 2-3 decent sites on a floppy. That was in the old days, when 33-56 k modems were it. My current site will still fit on a floppy... except for the two wmv files.

Speaking of which... This being a VIDEO site, and us talking about our video websites, how large and how long are the clips on y'all's sites? Which formats do you have the best luck with?

[Aaron Rosen]

I just posted a new video on the Fire Academy site I built (www.pixel-mesh.com/131st).

It is about 60 seconds, 9.5 mb and a QuickTime Movie.

[George Brackett III]

Here's mine:

www.crimsonbutterfly.com

[David Hurdon]

Keith, my longer clips run 12 - 20 minutes in wmv format, and feedback on the way they run has been good, including my own experience generally. I started out posting 3-5 minute pieces, partly b/c of web viewer attention span for video (survey results), and my web stats tell me that instructional video has the best chance of being watched through. Many visitors to longer pieces bail out before the end. Can't be the content, can it? ;-)

David Hurdon

[K. Forman]

I have a whopping 20 meg of space on my web server. The actual site itself only takes up about 1.5 meg, and I have 30 cd's worth of videos. I picked a couple of the best, and trimmed them down to around 3 minutes. I then squeezed them down to around 9 meg each. I did get them smaller, but they wouldn't play acceptably. I tried quicktime, avi, and finally settled on windows media.

Since this thread is about our websites, I would appreciate any feedback on mine. The address is below this-

[Mark Moore]

My site is pretty simple. I'm not an HTML guru, so I need a WYSIWYG program! Most sites I've seen from this thread are a lot better than mine!

www.mdmoore.org

(BTW, ignore the little soccer video posted. It was a little "training" throw-together video I did for my recreation soccer team!) :o)

[Matt Gettemeier]

Guys thanks for posting your sites. All of 'em are pretty darn good. So good in fact that I took a high-8-us (spelling?) from working on mine!

Barry G? Yeah, your site kicks ass. The more I play around on it the better I like it. I wish we were close friends 'cause I'd pressure you into teaching me a little Flash... Your site is damn near perfect in it's message and clean, professional look.

So does anybody use FrontPage or does everybody use Flash? Is FP a joke for designing websites?

[Barry Gribble]

Matt,

Thanks so much for your kind words about the Integral Arts site... it is nice to see that our effort is reflected in the result...

As far as learning Flash, I did it mostly by taking apart stuff that was out there... there are a bunch of sites that post examples and code... it is not so tough if you have a linear mind.

For Learning check out:
www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/
www.flashkit.com

(I used to have more links, but a re-install changed all that)

For inspiration check out:
www.2advanced.com {amazing high-end design - check the portfolio}
www.ZeFrank.com {endless fun flash do-dads}
www.hoogerbrugge.com/ml.html {amazing - make sure your sound is on}


Just remember that Flash is fun, but unless you are creating art for art's sake then you have to stick to using it to support your message not distract from it.

I have not worked with Front Page, so I can't really speak for it. Dreamweaver is pretty much the standard in my circles. It comes in the MX package deal with Flash also. I like it a lot.

Good luck, and keep us posted on the progress.

Barry

[John Locke]

Barry,

I came across your site some time ago and loved it immediately. The shift in focus idea is brilliant. I used something similar on a photographer's site I made once, where you focus in on the picture... but using it to highlight the menu is a really great idea. Wish I'd thought to do that when I made that site. ;) I also love how clean, colorful, and well-organized your site is. Really top notch work.

Matt... I learned Flash with the $20 a month access to Lynda.com tutorials. If you really hoof it, you can get through all basic and intermediate tutorials in two weeks to a month (allowing time for you to let the stuff sink in experiment a bit between steps).

[Matt Gettemeier]

Damn Barry! Those sites you listed "for inspiration" are NO joke... that's some impressive stuff.

The thing that's really amazing is how instantly they load and play... I never had to wait for anything.

The two sites you said are amazing... ARE amazing.

Now I've got some stuff to chew on... THIS is what I was hoping for when I started this thread. From your own site and a couple others listed here I've found almost TOO much inspiration!

I'm sure you have moments with certain software where there is such an unlimited array of choices that it's almost hard to choose? (When I first started with certain audio/video software I couldn't believe how unlimited everything was.)

Anyway, NOW I've seen so much quality that my mind is feeling numb.

BTW Barry it looks like you and your guys are having the life I dream of... now THAT'S what I call inspiration.

John... I already started perusing the Lynda site and THANKS for pointing me in a good direction! Being an incapable perfectionist has been driving me nuts.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I took a look at 2advanced. The news and the features consume a small fraction of the screen. You can't take a look at all the news without choppily scrolling down through it. What good's a Flash site if it doesn't put more content at your fingertips?

[John Locke]

Oh, no... you're gonna hate what I'm working on now. It's Flash gone berserk. I'm remaking my entire site for one thing... still under construction and is incomplete. I posted it as is just because I always like watching buildings go up, to see the progress, so I figured I'd do the same thing with my site. It will be all Flash.

Plus, I'm making two sister sites... all Flash... to be linked to it. Then, also making two new all Flash homes for two old films. What can I say... I'm going through a Flash stage. I hope not too many people are put off by the heavy use of Flash and, in some cases, long download times.

[Alfred Okocha]

For a great looking (sounding) page go to this one.
www.mosquito.tv

Not my page but A page.. Since you wanted ideas to build a good site don't forget that it's cool if it sounds good too!

Good luck.

[Matt Gettemeier]

I love Flash... I like the fact that it requires a practical working knowledge to combine fast loading and playing effects while trying to "fool" the site viewer into seeing animations smoothly play as if they were video.

Trying to make cool stuff and keep it physically small (kb) adds a new dimension to the challenge.

My first assumption was to use all the tricks I use for video and apply them to a site, but using 3D font files, complete with shading and 3D light effects... makes a larger page. My next instict was modding JumpBack stills and laying text over them. Then when you add other graphic effects you start to get a significantly sized (kb) page... I still may "finish" my site in that way just to have a presentable place to pop up video samples, stills, and sound files... but it's clear to me that Flash says "professional"... at least from a graphic artist's standpoint.

RKS... I think the 2advanced site is mainly wanting to promote graphics/design ability rather then offer news and content. The thing that REALLY impressed me about 2advanced is the way Flash interacts with EVERYTHING you do, but in an almost subtle way. The whole site is Flashy (pun intended) but the choices are pure class and that makes it an experience to visit their site. That main page is on the level of a polished VST synth or some other good software control panel. That's pretty impressive. I wish more of my software had such a good interface.

One thing I'd like to point out that's a personal pet peeve of mine is misspellings in the artistic parts of a site. I hate to see 'em in the body of a paragraph, but it's weird to see a spelling error in a flashy title/sub-title... you'd be surprised how many times I've seen that now.

John... I debated making a very fast loading and simple site... which compared to you guys mine will be baby-sh*t (one of my hoosier terms)... but I decided to make my site as visually unusual as my humble skills will allow because I want it to be a video/audio site and unless the viewer has broadband/dsl then they won't like it anyway.

I say make your site as cool as you can with reasonable dsl download times and dial-up be damned!