Directiondesign, Making of

introduction
concept
structure
video/photos
design

implementation
resources

Here are some technical notes and tips that explain how I implemented the site in Flash. I have limited knowledge of programming, most of it I learned by reading tutorials on the web.

1) I used 25 frames per second in Flash. If you keep the animation simple and set your movie to a fixed size you ensure very fluid movement.

2) Most of the interaction is done by the 'tell target' actionscript command in Flash. By adressing multiple movieclips running at the same time you can achieve a nice navigation without using a lot of actionscript.

3) Use selectable HTML text in Flash when fonts need to be displayed small. Flash is quite an anti-alias fanatic and small fonts usually look blurred. Sometimes I import PNGs or GIFs from Photoshop to ensure pixelperfect spacing and anti-aliasing.

4) Load external Flash movies in your main movie. This means you can have a preloader for every bit of content and the user doesn't have to wait untill the entire website is loaded.

5) Make sure you compress all the images well, using either the Photoshop or Flash JPEG settings (just check in which program the picture is smaller or better-looking).

6) Masking is very effective for animation and requires little extra kilobytes. It can be heavy for the processor though.

7) Designing in Flash is pretty difficult, so I always use Illustrator or Photoshop and import the graphics later. This also avoides the typical Flash 'flying gradient balls' look.