LebGeeks

MSD

Member

Some design decisions for a new website

Hi guys,
I am in the process of planning for the development of a content focused website. This website would deliver media content to the users. I am not a person that has dealt with content oriented websites much in the past ( I have dealt with CMSs but only to a certain extent). I am thinking this website would require something cinematic, 3D, effects, animated, etc...

Now for the question, and please don't give any opinionated responses because I can find a lot of those already around:

Flash or HTML5

* Before you start jumping up and down in favor of one over the other, consider my requirements above. I am not going to develop a game, I am focused on delivering my content in an attractive and appealing manner.
* If I were to go with HTML5 what authoring tools are out there (we already know the standard for Flash)
* Performance?
* I am thinking of using a 3D setting with a camera that moves in the scene, something like what you can already do in After Effects (do you have similar features in Flash? is this doable in HTML5?)
* Audio will be central so I need best support for that
*SEO, will going one way or the other affect that?
* Browser support, this one is a bit of a problem, since Windows XP (with a max of IE 8) does not support HTML5 and Macs don't support Flash (or do they?)

Thanks for any ideas and tips

jsaade

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

Do you have more info about the content?
You are mentioning 3D and animations.
Did you consider Unity3D for web? or WebGL?

Macs support Flash. Browsers support HTML5 but as you know it is yet to be a standard so you will face a lot of problems in cross-browser compatibility.

For both Flash and HTML5, there isn't really a 3D Animation Tool (such as after effect), where you can visually put elements.
You would need to work with a 3D engine ontop of flash or HTML5.

Currently flash supports hardware acceleration via stage3D so performance is really good.

But again, it really depends on your end result if you can share more info.

Joe

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

It's a tradeoff.

Today's Flash stack is more complete, stable and thoroughly tested. HTML5 is highly unstable in comparison and both the standardization body and the developer communities are slowly solidifying its edge cases. However HTML5 is growing stronger and steadier by the day, and there's very little doubt in my mind that it will be far more omnipresent in the short upcoming years.

The cost of making a change is proportional to the time you wait to make it. If your app is still up and running in 5 years, I bet you'll regret not going the HTML5 way.

So I think only you can gauge the sense of urgency for your project. Just remember that long term survival is one of the factors to take into account as well.

MSD

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

Let me shed some more light on what I am after:
1. I am looking for rendering the scene in a photo-realistic way
2. The scene is just about a dynamic menu system where the camera changes angle/position/poi whenever a menu element is selected, like if you drill in, the camera might zoom into another element and so on
3. I might have some background effect like rain for example and the point of focus is a realistic leaf or branch from a tree
4. I am wondering if this can be accomplished without the need for a 3D engine by substituting it with video cut scenes

Edit:
5. An important point (if not obvious) that the menu text would be part of the scene, in other words I don't want it to look like something superimposed on the scene

Last edited by MSD (November 15 2012)

jsaade

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

You can actually accomplish the above by rendering the whole thing as a video (using your favorite Animation Tool).
Then import the video to flash as frames.
Put the menu buttons, and the job of the menu would be to move and play frames.
Here is an example:
http://www.gotmilk.com/
if you go to the first item (Find the real milk) after the huge loading time, you see it is switching between movies and frames.

another example:
http://scienceofimitationmilk.com/

This is something we did a few years ago (2 or 3)
http://www.fusiondigital.me/work/whatsonamansmind/
if you click on the icon to the right of the facebook on the bottom,all the menu items become video.

So in flash, you overlay video any way you want and you can put buttons on top of these videos.
The only challenge is to be creative enough in making the videos and the transitions.

MSD

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

The difference between what you are mentioning and what I am trying to do is that I want the menu text to be part of the scene not something superimposed, in the got milk examples, the hand cursor and the text and icons are obviously not part of the video. Also, the 3 milk packs that appear look realistic but how were they done? Are they separate videos on top of the background video?

jsaade

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

They can be seperate videos.
For the menus, you can animate Hit Area Rectangles, above the video frmaes so they seem to be moving with the video :)

rolf

Member

Re: Some design decisions for a new website

This is a decision that should be made after you have a precise idea of requirements, and with your developer / team.

Last edited by rolf (January 13 2013)