The crew at WDDG has declared "Technological & Creative Warfare" on lame online portforlios, kicking out the retro jams with their new company site. Besides being a great Flash showcase, it represents a great integration of Flash & After Effects. Company founder James Baker says he was inspired by seeing Dr. Woohoo’s AE->Flash tools, which he then used to link the apps. He writes, "The jitter is motion-captured from some old footage and looped throughout the site. I threw a 2-pixel blur on it and a loop of crap over the top, and suddenly crappy JPEGs looked like newsreel footage." And of course the site makes heavy use of color-treated & modified film stock, exported as Flash video (FLV). Killer all around. [Update: Drew has interviewed James & shares more info about the project.]
(Oh, and don’t forget to take a look behind the scenes at their advanced design process.)
Okay, I have to disagree with you on the “killer all around” John. While the overall effect was very cool, the site is a usability nightmare. I watched it for perhaps five minutes, trying in vain to skip the splash screen.
It was only when I was just about to give up and close the tab did I discover that the site doesn’t fit in my web browser even when maximized to 1024 x 768 (on my laptop), and because the page centers on the Y, that meant that the navigation menu at the top of the page was not visible. No scroll bars appear either. Because of that, even if I loved their site and wanted to hire them, there was no way for me to contact them. I only discovered this by killing off tabs in my web browser and shrinking my task bar; is that what they expect everyone to do?
I didn’t know sites were designed like that anymore.
[Fair points, Hanford. Even so, I’m really taken with attention to detail (original sound design, etc.). And when it comes to personal/portfolio sites, I’m generally a lot more forgiving of dicier navigation choices. –J.]
>And when it comes to personal/portfolio sites, I’m generally a lot more forgiving of dicier navigation choices.
I agree with you there; except when it’s a portfolio for web design.
Thanks for the post about their new site. I just checked it out and must say that it’s defintely a good change of pace in terms of style and direction from most design-oriented sites today. Hats off to WDDG for such a great job and cool experience.
when are we going to see AE 7.5
Hanford, valid point on the 1024 scaling. We heard that from a couple of people and changed the nav around a little so that people on smaller monitors would be able to see the full nav.
flv is so frindly our, we can make easy worlk with video on flash.