could it be so big because of the fact that it has motion tweened colour changes - does this take up a lot of extra space?
i will try and remove those but any tips would be greatly appreciated.
the other problem is that it reloads the entire thing on every page. does anyone know a way to avoid this (except having the menu in a separate frame - which i don’t want to do - i hate frames
Second, when you break apart text, file size goes up. When you use a gradient, file size goes up. When you shape/motion tween, file size goes up. Try using the text as a graphic, then change the tint without a tween… If you must have a smooth transition, then make one movie with a symbol with a block of color… then using your alpha and tint make a motion tween from 0%alpha to the new color tint and alpha, place on a layer underneath your text, in the OVER state, breaking apart your text and using that as a mask, only showing the movie below…
Third, if you use individual HTML pages, then you will have to load the nav every time.
i didn’t break apart any text - the text in the nav bar area is a gif (scanned from pen & ink) which has then been converted to vectors through trace bitmap. maybe it would be better to use text instead…???
your idea about masking sounds good though.
i will kill the motion-tweened transitions as they are not really necessary. currently they are made out of symbols with an ‘advanced’ effect from black to orange. i found that i needed two colour symbols (black text with some white space around) for each button as otherwise it could get a bit fiddly to actually click the text shape itself - i guess this is also bringing up the filesize.
on my work PC, 2mb/sec internet connection - the site works perfectly - the menu doesn’t disappear between page transitions but is there no way to stop the movie needing to be reloaded other than frames? i assumed that like a standard gif, once it was sat in your temporary internet files folder, it wouldn’t need load time after the first time you saw the menu. from a 512kb per sec connection there is still a delay before the menu loads.
glad you like the design… the technical stuff is of secondary importance to me
I like the monkey. The problem might be the trace bitmap. It causes a lot of little vectors to be drawing some times. This will increase the file size. Why not re create the text in flash then do a tint tween on the text. I’m sure that would make it smaller:)
been busy @ work today but found a few minutes to play with the nav bar.
size report told me that all the size is in the main graphics. basically, all animations of the monkey himself are redrawn as a whole new image. i think if i have 1 static image (gif) of the monkeys body & sign. a separate flash movie of just the head for blinks & ‘woos’, and recreate the button text in flash (i have a graphics tablet - which will help) then maybe i’ll be able to get the file size down.
so far i have taken out the fade transition on the buttons, changed the shape of the buttons to squares - removed a few frames of animation (doesn’t shake his head anymore) - file is still 180kb which is far too big… i’m hoping for under 50kb so back to the drawing board tonight methinks.
that’s what i’ll do when i get home tonight. i’ll draw the whole thing on the graphics tablet and keep static elements static. i.e. only load body & sign once - anim just on the head - maybe even anim just on the eyes a separate symbol.
Kick ass. I love your site man. I’m going to through a link to your site off mine. I loved that scream video, really funny. How did u build that link form? It updates instantly :q: Very nice site:)
