Down to Business......... cards

Well here are the business cards, i had another look at it today and wasn't really happy with it, so i made a few mods. These will be printed on a gloss paper so it will "complement" the reflections in the design.
PLEASE COMMENT and let me know what you think.
Cheers

Oh My

Here is a fantastic flash site that i just found. Is a little hard to navigate but it looks fantastic and works very well.

Formshape

*UPDATE*

Well the navigation for my portfolio is finished. I feel that i have added all the pretty things that make it look that much better. So all that i need now is my dynamic gallery and the portfolio will be complete. Hopefully between 2-4 weeks ill have my own domain name and hosting and the rest of that Jaz. Im a little worried about the funds required but if i cant get my own my presentation, ill put it on my brothers site, then my the expo i should have my own.
Im in the process of gathering some content for my portfolio and feel that i have enough for design, and animation, put photography im a little short on so we will have to remedy that.
Im also thinking about the physical portfolio, and i have eliminated the need for professional printing as i have access to a high quality printer so i am able to print everything for minimal amounts.
So if all goes well my portfolio should be finished by this time next week, if not by then, soon after.

I Heart Productivity!

Well, ive been working solidly on the layout of this portfolio, getting the buttons sorted out (which im super happy with) and getting the menu area sorted also. Now that these are done i can start to worry about the important stuff, which really is the dynamic gallery code!
So here are some updated screen shots:




So from here i want to also add some cool rollOver and rollOut stuff over the trees, like birds flying out, growing leaves, dropping twigs, or blowing in the breeze. These are just some options that i may choose to go with.
But right now im tired, and going to bed.

In The Making.....

I thought it was about time for another post to the blog with some updates on the portfolio. The introduction is next to complete, there are a few fine edges that need to be fixed but that is not my priority at this point in time.
I have been working on my actual portfolio, and am getting closer to a final design that i like... The only thing that is bugging me now is the buttons. The ones shown are modified from the mock-up post below and the one showed in presentation. Although these buttons are not as thin and irritating to click on, i think that they still do not quite fit in to the overall layout, its like pancakes with tomato sauce, something just isn't right.
Here are some screen prints for your eyes to feast on:




If you have not already guessed, these are progressive screen shots, first being the initial page, second the rollover, third the click.
As you can see there is no menu as yet, but it is being worked on before and after this entry. But you may have noticed the birds in the background, these are the same birds from the intro animation and they fly continuously and randomly in the background thanks to a basic partical system. i have limited the birds to 4 on the screen at one time so it does not get too chaotic, but just enough to please the eye.
There are a few bugs in the code still that involve the rollovers and the button titles but nothing to drastic for the time being.. im sure when content is added i will start to sweet blood.
So yeah, please comment on this and give your opinion on what i should do about the buttons. its hard for me to make new stuff coz im looking at it all the time.. Some fresh eyes on this would be greatly appreciated.

First Mock Up....

This is a really really basic mock-up of my layout i have sketched out about 20 different ideas and this one is the one that i like the most because it make the most use out of all the space and continues the theme in my intro. As the text suggests, the animation will consist of smooth slides and (not mentioned) fades. Tomorrow i plan to continue working on this layout on and off. hopefully a working mock-up will result from it.
Basically what im aiming for is:
- Clean in appearance (but not boring)
- Straight lines
- Smooth animation (motion and fades)
- Gradient colours (not plain)
- Simple Navigation
- Unique Thumbnails (thin rectangles)
- Well Alligned
- Faint Shadows?
- Rounded Corners?
- Moving backgroud (birds from intro flying randomly across screen)

Some feed back and criticism on this would be greatly appreciated.

Introduction Completion

Finally the introduction to my portfolio is complete... with this out of the way i can put all my focus into making the actual layout of the portfolio and ideas are already coming after my revelation last night, and the completion of the intro today.
The introduction runs for approx 30-35 sec, the music was done by a|A with permission to use. The final project will give the user the option to skip the intro also.
Here are some more screen shots continuing from the previous ones:

Portfolio Layout Revelation

I was looking at the iso50 portfolio hoping that my favorite designer could offer some portfolio layout / design ideas. Since the start i have planned to have pages for Design, Animation, Photography, and 3d Models.
I thought that because i had a few different headings, i thought that i would have to have a lot of room for the images + text... then the revelation, because its not a 'reflective portfolio' that we are required to do in some subjects, i wont need to have a heap of text, leaving me more room for images and more 'real estate' to design with.
Hoping that this revelation will open my eyes to more 'solid' ideas for our presentation on Monday.

Introduction.....

Since i am still looking and nutting out ideas for a portfolio layout, i thought i better do something else towards my portfolio, an introduction animation. I think that if i did an introduction animation, it might give me some more ideas for a layout (i hope it does) So far i have about 10-15 seconds made and i have been told that it looks similar to The Knife - we share our mothers health video clip, which is funny becuase i watched it not too long before i started working on it, and i watch it now and am shocked to see how similar the ideas are. Although i had the colour scheme befor i watched it. Although i hope it will not be as creepy. I want the introduction to pave the way for my portfolio, so at the same time, i want to create a 'wicked-sick' intro animation, but i dont not want it to be the 'be all and end all' of the portfolio, meaning i dont not want it to be the highlight of it.
Here are some screen shots of what i have done so far:









Obviously there is a bit more to the animation than what these images portray these are just samples of what the theme looks like. Stay posted from some more in the future and possibly a sample version....of you can do that
I would also like to thank a|A for providing the song to be used in this animation...

Some Thought

So far i have been looking at some different ideas for the layout of my digital portfolio... I have decided that i would like something a little more modern with clean lines and animations. I have drawn up some layout and have been working on some possibilities but all i have seemed to come up with are the normal generic layout ideas and i dont want my portfolio to be limited by the standard layout... so the search on the world wide web continues for inspiration for layout ideas. SO far i have looked at:


Andy Foulds Design
This portfolio is awesome and have goven me some ideas for button animation. His clean and interesting rollover and rollout animations are something that i think any portfolio could use.

Template Kit
This site contains a few premade flash sites that are good at giving multiple ideas from the one site, some of the stuff is usefull, majority is something that you have already seen.

Howie Green Design
What not to do...

What i am doing

After much thought and judgment, i have decided to do a digital portfolio containing all my work that i think would benefit me in a job/client environment.
I think this final assignment would be a great opportunity to make it as i will have the motivation and because it for uni, the time to do it.
I plan on using flash to make it and hope to do the majority of the portfolio animation (not the intro) using actionscript.
This portfolio will contain the work that i think is best suited for this portfolio including Graphic Design, Animation, 3D models, Photography and much much more... not really. These four areas should give me enough material to fill my portfolio giving it a suitable amount of material to browse through.