• Style Evolution • (Over 2 years in the making!!)

[jdub]

Hey guys, I finally did it! What started off as a portfolio site became a massive collaboration on different types of media merged into one ranging from graphics, animation, and a whole lot of programming. This is my baby, took over 2 years of research and development (I actually scrapped a complete interface at one point, throwing 3 months of work away )

I come here because I know the real critics are here. I know you guys will scruitinize and rip it apart technically but thats exactly what I want and thats what betas are for. Hope you guys like it!


http://www.styleevolution.com


ENJOY!

J-Dub

[slowpoke]

i couldn't even get in. flash detection is evil.
-s

[visualstylee]

the theme is cool as hell, but i think the layout and the final product didn't turn out so well, the flash parts are cool but the gradients of the metal parts look terrible, i like the detailed middle part with the thin lines of like "acordian/screw metal stuff" mabie incorporate more of that.. the video clip idea is sweet.. keep goin man looks good

check mine out its in the process...
www.visualstylee.com/new give me some feedbacks later

[cobo]

well... let me say that there are some really beautyful parts in your site, I´m talking about those lovely colored anims (as in the attached pic). I also like this display to show your personal details (blue with white glowing txt).

Why not giving the whole site this feeling, why is there this big black Background? I´m sure you will get it much better if you focus on the all over look of the site. You did some really good details - go and apply it to the whole site.

it would also be good to always load the first entry when entering a subsection...

cobo

[Abelius]

Awesome job! Except I didn't get to understand the Contact Form...

[avelives]

Ok first thing i notice is that the main launch page (first page) has a good piece of art on it (maybe a tad large but thats cool) and then you go to the flash detection page and its a totally different colour and style.
Theres nothing wrong with either but id try and marry the two intro pages more style wise if i were you as it sort of throws you seeing the orange and grey after the big photoshop style art piece on the main page.....

As for the main site well the individual section are great, good animations and the like BUT why have you left so much blank space and the chrome style holders id really do those in photoshop (or similar) you are obviously good at using such programs and i think the limitations of flashs gradients kinda detracts from all the good work on the page.

Other than that its great oh and out of interest have you used a pixel font on the site ?

[jdub]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I've already learned much of the issues from you people.

Seems the core issue is continuity and I do jump from a range of styles. My main focus was more on the technical part of things and in all honesty, I had to push this site out for an event so I kinda rushed some parts.

The main page is going to have a background eventually but still gotta work out the conceptuals. As for the interface, seems like people want something more... I'm not sure what to do with it so much... I kinda like the plain clean look but it contrasts with the movie content. I'm open to some suggestions so maybe you guys can help me out.

Once again, thanks for all the input and feel free to comment.

J-Dub

www.styleevolution.com

[jdub]

Abelius: By contact form, which do you mean?

The Dood (avelives): Hey the dude (good flick), yes I did go with a pixel font. It's actually called "hooge 05_53". It actually served as a great work-around to have the clip run on the "low" setting and not have a distorted font.

I actually did do the "style holders" in photoshop but it does seem somewhat weak. I tried adding textures to it but then it also detracted from the movies somewhat...

[avelives]

I actually did do the "style holders" in photoshop but it does seem somewhat weak. I tried adding textures to it but then it also detracted from the movies somewhat...

Maybe thats why the photoshop elements looked not so good cause your running the movie on low quality setting ?

Forgive me if you already know this but in case you dont you can get perfect non aliased pixel fonts at high quality as long as you make sure they are on exact _x/_y coordinates, like _x 50 NOT _x 50.3 and always in multiples of 8 (in terms of font size)

On a final note though the elements of your site are great !! its just a matter of you brigning all the styles youve used together more.

[jdub]

Originally Posted by avelives

Maybe thats why the photoshop elements looked not so good cause your running the movie on low quality setting ?

Forgive me if you already know this but in case you dont you can get perfect non aliased pixel fonts at high quality as long as you make sure they are on exact _x/_y coordinates, like _x 50 NOT _x 50.3 and always in multiples of 8 (in terms of font size)

On a final note though the elements of your site are great !! its just a matter of you brigning all the styles youve used together more.

The photoshop elements are actually separated from the movie, pieced together in html and are gif files (main reason for quality degradation). In a previous build, I had randomized backgrounds which were interesting but conflicted with the continuity even more. The gif interface allowed for the rounded corners to be transparent. I'll upload a temp background for now to see the effect.

As for the font and anti aliased fonts, I didn't know that and it's a very good note to remember. The reason I chose to go with low quality setting so that the animation of the grid would run smooth even on older computers. Thats what I meant, by being able to have a font in the low setting and being able to read it. It has to do with the fact that the font is made soley with squares/pixels so when it compresses, the font lines remain similar.

The problem with running on low setting is that fonts get real ugly. It looks like a drunk person writing. But with this font, I found a loop hole - I'm not sure if there are any other fonts that can do this but it would be interesting to see. I have a few other pixel fonts that look similar to the one I used but even they got a lil distorted...

One

j-dub