Not to disrespect the post below, but I have a finished/half finished thing to put up.
As none of you know, I'm currently working on a webpage:
http://www.drewswinburne.net
It is very much under construction, though this Death Star is fully operational. Erin made the samples page, so I can't take credit for it, though feedback on the works on display would be appreciated. Some tweaks made on "Super Dave" from the garbage shit version on MySpace (No more horrible compression to hold me back, though).
Aside from needing a real website because every jerk has a MySpace, I also need/want a website because I'm applying to work at EA, Activision, Sega, and Eidos and it's important that I look like an awesome genius or wizard. Help me be this wizard.
13 comments:
Again with the wizards...
Drew (and all y'all) - I wasn't saying that you shouldn't put half-finished projects an stuff up. That's what this site is all about. I'm specifically into notes and notebooks.
Now lemme go check out this site.
I like the page. I think it's smart to embed audio samples in flash (I can't figure out how to rip them off!) I like the rough edges around the samples list. I like the design. I was trying to think of something to suggest, and the first thing that comes to mind is that the inside of the box is the same color as the outside. I think it might be neat to distinguish the two (texture?) I don't know. Not really a great suggestion... oh, and maybe make the viewable part of the song list longer than two songs... three? It's hard to tell how many songs there are when it's like that (or something) HORN GHOST!
Wait, there's more than 2 songs? It's easy to get confused when the page doesn't look like most commercial pages. I like the colors and composition, but I don't like the We/Us thing -it's ambiguous because it is supposed to be the site of one person, but then there are more than one persons? I think that pages should say what they are, or else you are confused. Also, is it true that you can't download the songs? I would listen to the songs more than once probably if they were downloadable, and then I would probably want to hear more, cause I like the keyboard sounds and everything, but I probably won't return to listen to them if I have to go back to the site. Also, where is your blog?
These are just suggestions, in the end I think it's cool you are making a site and I hope that all goes well when you apply to those companies for awesome video game testing jobs or whatever techno mumbo-jumbo I don't come close to understanding...
I work at EA (Los Angeles). What kind of job are you looking for?
I like that the unicorn's facial expression is subtly changing. Looks great.
F-Gwaz:
These are important points to bring up. I've lately been torn between wanting to make a portfolio page, for composing gigs (for big guys) and a professional page for showing I'm great (to little guys). I think it's difficult to market to the public while also selling your time and dignity for commercial products. I'm devising a secret portfolio page. As it stands, my ambiguous design style makes for sparse content and explanation. I was somewhat inspired by the Squarepusher site for its elegant and simple design. Ideally, I'd want a site that could function as a player, and you could just leave it open and listen to (possibly) entire albums. Just having that option could put to bed any potential buyer's reluctance to purchase a cd.
Downloading would be good, as would some scroll button directions. The samples page was originally made by Erin for someone else and I just kept the We/Us button and redirected it to Standard Oil, but you're right, this really doesn't make sense from a site map point of view.
C-Gwaz: Yes, I totally want to make the scrolling list bigger, but I need to decide on more tunes.
G-reg: Ideally, I'd want something in the music/sfx department. I have some experience with sound effects for film. This film. Though I'm not sure how to get in, or if VG companies even do that stuff in house, or contract it out. I understand also that beta-testing is a good way to get your foot in the door.
But my point with making a site is to 1) host high-quality mp3s 2) look "real" and 3) demonstrate the depth and breadth of my slammin' jams. Even if I were to just nix the front page for now and just have the sample player it would probably look more real. My main concern is whether or not the jams slam hard enough - if there are technical issues (overlimiting, equalization), or compositional issues (internal structure within tracks, or for the player as a whole, etc).
I'm sorry about my breadth and width.
oh man...it doesnt load on dial up...my advice would if you are actually giving this out to people you should probably put a preloader...or at least have a lot of the content not preload when you open the page. ill tell you a secret...nothing pisses people on dial up off more than a page without a preloader...because there is no way to tell if its loading or just broken...and while i guess its safe to assume that most people have high speed...whatever...preloaders make the site run a lot smoother anyway.
Yea, nix the front page... or better yet, incorporate the two somehow. Flash isn't going to give you high-quality mp3s. Most producers are spending their time listening to sound coming out of dvd setups, so you probably would do better to nix the flash interface and just have links to the tracks. It can still look similar, but this way you can just link directly to high quality files and even offer AIFFs for those who'd like them.
The colors are great and I like the energy the design gives off.
And game testing is def. a foot in the door, but you might be qualified for something even cooler right off the bat. From what I gather, it's a mix of in house and contract/freelance composers who do the music. But I guess the easiest way to find out is to google a few titles and see who did the music.
Yea henry's right, pre-loaders are essential. Also, i didn't mean to suggest you scrap all the flash, maybe just the flash associated with the music player.
Y'all are nerds.
I don't know much about flash, but I'm setting the behavior of those buttons to load streaming mp3's at 192 kbps - which sound 100 times better than myspace, and are close enough in quality to the 44.1k/24-bit originals (even audiojerks seem cool with it.)
Here's links for people who want to hear/rip tracks:
1000 pounds
happy
I Am Unemployed
Paranoia
Super Dave
Drew. Maybe I am insane, but I checked out this page at work, and either it makes my eyes grow, or the unicorn player is funny small, like a joke on me. internet explorer whatever point whatever on a windows beast.
Whoops. Thanks for the tip. I'm still learning, and so is IE. Should be cool now.
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