3D Flashsite

[papafee]

check it out

http://www.hofsaesstennis.com

[kkbbcute]

If you ask me, the site takes a 'lil too long to load, and the loading screen (which happens to be what I'm looking at right now while writing this) could use a lot of improvement.

So what is it that makes this site cool again? I think the thing we should be applauding is the 3D animator that does all the animation and modelling rather than the overall web design, which is above average at best if you ask me, I've seen better web pages.

Actually the only reason why I'm saying this is because the 3D isn't actually part of the site, but rather like a gimmicky movie. If you want to see other examples of gimmicky 3D movies, look at the first place winner from Thinkquest 2008, the 3D is gimmicky, but the site is admitting good (that's why it won first, duh.)

Case in point, unless your content and other forms of design is excellent, having such a 3D movie doesn't make a site excellent. If you call this a 3D site, even the launch website for WALL-E is in 3D! (and that admittedly is a better site than this)

[FormerSwinger]

Gimmicky or not I kind of like it.
All the visual elements fit nicely into the overall styling.

A couple of thing that stood out:

The tab texts in the habitat section are too small. I can barely make out what they say. The gray color does'nt help with that either.

The back button keeps moving around and I have to find it again on every section. Maybe you should keep it in one place or add an additional navigation element that takes back to the main menu.

Add a mute button for the sound effects as well.

[kkbbcute]

I never said that it sucked, what I was saying is that we should not just be crediting the web designer, who did an average job, but also the animator and exporter, who managed to do a 3D render of everything and yet keep the file size manageable for web deployment.

[cjx3711]

Well, I had a little trouble finding the enter site buton. (I was clicking on the big words "Enter Site" without actually noticing the smaller english website button beside it.

Loading time almost put me off.

The 3D-ness of it is quite cool but when i clicked on a link it still needed to load the content. If that is so, then what was it loading during the amazingly long time I was waiting?

The buttons are quite small so they could be wrongly clicked. Like what I did :)

The music is also quite nice.

[kkbbcute]

Well, that's the trade off you get if you wanna do 3D. ;)

[ASWC]

Loading time is a killer, we all know that by now. Either you have people not knowing Flash and they'll close the browser thinking it's not working, or you have people knowing Flash closing the browser because they don't want to wait 1 or 2 minutes for the site to load, finally the third case which is "I really want to see it" so they wait ....

[kkbbcute]

Loading time is a killer, we all know that by now. Either you have people not knowing Flash and they'll close the browser thinking it's not working, or you have people knowing Flash closing the browser because they don't want to wait 1 or 2 minutes for the site to load, finally the third case which is "I really want to see it" so they wait ....

Like us... The testers :(

[FormerSwinger]

the third case which is "I really want to see it" so they wait ....

You'd be surprised how short this list is compared to the other two.
I'm 100% sure that the loading time (both the actual time taken and the time user thinks it takes to load) can be improved on your site.

[maskedMan]

From a graphical standpoint, it's wonderful. It even has a nice soundtrack, though I personally hate hearing a soundtrack when I enter a page.

I can't help but feel that the overall experience is too busy and confusing, though. The buttons are quite small and everything is very cramped. I wasn't sure until I'd viewed several pages what this site was even supposed to be about.

[vks87]

I don't have the proper information that which things are done by 3d flash...



Web design (http://www.webdesigningcompany.net/) / Entertainment forum (http://forum.edogo.com) / Website design (http://www.webdesigningcompany.net/)

[kkbbcute]

I don't have the proper information that which things are done by 3d flash...


What? Sorry I didn't get that, care to clarify? :)

[cjx3711]

He could mean that he doesn't know which things are done in 3D and which things are done in flash.

[kkbbcute]

Well, for one thing, the 2D site elements such as the header, nav bar, content, etc are all done in Flash. ;)