Flash Site Design - Another Newbie Needs Your Help!

Author

Another Newbie Needs Your Help!

DNC2112

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

I'm going to try to make this quick, but there is an important backstory to my
problem.
I grew up living in Fullerton, California, until about 10 months ago. I still
call Fullerton my home and take pride in it.
About 4 years ago, I started playing guitar; about 2 years ago, I started
lusting over a Fender Stratocaster. Fender Musical Instruments was started by
Leo Fender, a radio repairman who created the first mass-produced electric
guitar in his workshop in Fullerton (coincidentally I went to the same high
school he did as well).
Health problems made him sell Fender to CBS; when he got better, he got with
some friends and started the Music Man company. A falling-out with said
friends resulted in him dissolving ties with the company. But then he got
together with his long-time friend and descendent of the founders of his
hometown, George Fullerton, and started G&L (George & Leo) Guitars. G&L still
builds guitars in Fender's own factory, the original factory of Fender guitars,
in Fullerton, even though Leo passed away in 1991.
A couple months ago I heard about G&L and, looking at the website, I realized
that these were the exact guitars I'd been looking for--sooo much more than a
normal Fender guitar (CBS has since taken Fender in different directions than
Leo would have, even moving production to Corona, California) and still made in
my hometown. The website, unfortunately, lacked pictures of the exact color
and model of guitar I wanted, a similar problem I experienced on Fender's
website. Having built upon my 12 years of experience and know-how with
photoshop, I had taken a high-resolution photo of a Fender Stratocaster and had
made custom shapes out of every piece of the guitar so that I could customize
and colorize the thing to my heart's desire. But the shapes changed to G&L
shapes once I heard of G&L.
Well, after a little tinkering, I had my dream guitar, and posted pictures in
the forum of G&L. Two days later the CEO of G&L contacted me with the offer of
swapping a guitar for some webwork. I'm ecstatic! A $2000 guitar just for
something I do as a hobby? Plus bitchin' resume material...
Anyway, the Photoshop work is easy; but I don't want static pictures of my
artwork on any website. Optimally, I wanted to figure out how to build a
guitar customizer using Flash, and Mr. CEO is more than happy to follow my
train of thought. Problem is, I've taken one college-level beginning Flash
class but still feel I know nothing aside from being able to animate something,
which I do using a USB pen-and-tablet to make mini-cartoons.
So I've been google-searching macromedia flash tutorials looking for someone
that can help me build a customizer.
I know of a couple examples:
http://dubmodder.com
http://miniusa.com
Now I'm not afraid to work hard, and I have a great sense of an artistic,
streamlined, and web-friendly style, as I've done web work with photoshop
before. I also catch on with any computer program very quick; I took an 8-week
college class in 3DS Max and completed it with the highest grade in the class
and left my instructor with no doubt that I was one of the very few who didn't
need to take the course over to pick up anything better.
These are the two examples I have on Photobucket of my guitars; they're the
same model, the only difference is body and headstock color. These are the two
options I'm considering, though of late I've leaned towards the green:
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h...sGreenburst.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h...rPlusOrange.jpg
Every individual component of the guitars is its own custom shape; so styling
and coloring is a breeze, plus getting them up on the screen individually is a
breeze as well. I just need to know how to get it so that through a series of
menu bars, radio buttons, and checkboxes, I can include all the options
available to someone who would be purchasing a guitar and have a realtime,
interactive picture of the guitar displayed either below or to the right of the
options bar.
Oh, and another note: each of my pictures above is scaled to 25% original size
but uncompressed. Being vector graphics, everyone here knows how high they can
be scaled without loss of detail.
Thanks in advance, and if I get significant help, mention will not be
forgotten to this forum and the significant helpers.

Mickey Mouse

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

I got no idea what your problem is. I got part way through your post but
sorry, I fell asleep! Jerkwad

Mickey

P.s You must be very lonely!!!!!!!!!!!11

Chris Georgenes

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

Welcome,
but if you want help, you really must avoid the thesis-style posts - not too many here have time to
read a life biography as interesting as it may be - and after reading most of it I am still not sure
what your question is - there's nothing specific in your post other than what brought you to this
point in your career/hobby.
I would suggest keeping your question very direct and to the point and in as few words as possible -
many of us have clients and deadlines and not a lot of time to devote to answering questions. Take
this as constructive critism only please - i read your post and still don't know what answer(s) you
are looking for.

(also helps to provide a descriptive subject sso when we scan the posts we can see the topic
involved and know ahead of time if we can answer them - subjects that are general and vague like
"Nebie needs help" tend to get skipped over by the majority).

hope this helps.

-c

******************************************
--> **Adobe Certified Expert**
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com

DNC2112 wrote:
> I'm going to try to make this quick, but there is an important backstory to my
> problem.
> I grew up living in Fullerton, California, until about 10 months ago. I still
> call Fullerton my home and take pride in it.
> About 4 years ago, I started playing guitar; about 2 years ago, I started
> lusting over a Fender Stratocaster. Fender Musical Instruments was started by
> Leo Fender, a radio repairman who created the first mass-produced electric
> guitar in his workshop in Fullerton (coincidentally I went to the same high
> school he did as well).
> Health problems made him sell Fender to CBS; when he got better, he got with
> some friends and started the Music Man company. A falling-out with said
> friends resulted in him dissolving ties with the company. But then he got
> together with his long-time friend and descendent of the founders of his
> hometown, George Fullerton, and started G&L (George & Leo) Guitars. G&L still
> builds guitars in Fender's own factory, the original factory of Fender guitars,
> in Fullerton, even though Leo passed away in 1991.
> A couple months ago I heard about G&L and, looking at the website, I realized
> that these were the exact guitars I'd been looking for--sooo much more than a
> normal Fender guitar (CBS has since taken Fender in different directions than
> Leo would have, even moving production to Corona, California) and still made in
> my hometown. The website, unfortunately, lacked pictures of the exact color
> and model of guitar I wanted, a similar problem I experienced on Fender's
> website. Having built upon my 12 years of experience and know-how with
> photoshop, I had taken a high-resolution photo of a Fender Stratocaster and had
> made custom shapes out of every piece of the guitar so that I could customize
> and colorize the thing to my heart's desire. But the shapes changed to G&L
> shapes once I heard of G&L.
> Well, after a little tinkering, I had my dream guitar, and posted pictures in
> the forum of G&L. Two days later the CEO of G&L contacted me with the offer of
> swapping a guitar for some webwork. I'm ecstatic! A $2000 guitar just for
> something I do as a hobby? Plus bitchin' resume material...
> Anyway, the Photoshop work is easy; but I don't want static pictures of my
> artwork on any website. Optimally, I wanted to figure out how to build a
> guitar customizer using Flash, and Mr. CEO is more than happy to follow my
> train of thought. Problem is, I've taken one college-level beginning Flash
> class but still feel I know nothing aside from being able to animate something,
> which I do using a USB pen-and-tablet to make mini-cartoons.
> So I've been google-searching macromedia flash tutorials looking for someone
> that can help me build a customizer.
> I know of a couple examples:
> http://dubmodder.com
> http://miniusa.com
> Now I'm not afraid to work hard, and I have a great sense of an artistic,
> streamlined, and web-friendly style, as I've done web work with photoshop
> before. I also catch on with any computer program very quick; I took an 8-week
> college class in 3DS Max and completed it with the highest grade in the class
> and left my instructor with no doubt that I was one of the very few who didn't
> need to take the course over to pick up anything better.
> These are the two examples I have on Photobucket of my guitars; they're the
> same model, the only difference is body and headstock color. These are the two
> options I'm considering, though of late I've leaned towards the green:
> http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h...sGreenburst.jpg
> http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h...rPlusOrange.jpg
> Every individual component of the guitars is its own custom shape; so styling
> and coloring is a breeze, plus getting them up on the screen individually is a
> breeze as well. I just need to know how to get it so that through a series of
> menu bars, radio buttons, and checkboxes, I can include all the options
> available to someone who would be purchasing a guitar and have a realtime,
> interactive picture of the guitar displayed either below or to the right of the
> options bar.
> Oh, and another note: each of my pictures above is scaled to 25% original size
> but uncompressed. Being vector graphics, everyone here knows how high they can
> be scaled without loss of detail.
> Thanks in advance, and if I get significant help, mention will not be
> forgotten to this forum and the significant helpers.
>

The Feldkircher

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

Ask a simple question, get a simple answer!

Post War and Peace, get ignored!

Try again.........

DNC2112

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

i need to know how to make an interactive "customizer" flash app, such as can
be found at the first two links i posted, by using the photoshop documents that
i have jpeg'd, photobucketed, and linked as the second two links on the list.
every piece is its own individual bezier-traced custom shape.
so how do i make a customizer using pull-downs, menus, bars, checkboxes, radio
buttons etc.

DNC2112

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

(bump)
well, it seems everyone was pretty quick to criticize me for putting up a long
post with a bit of an exciting personal story that i hoped maybe somebody else
would get a kick out of, but the second that i paraphrase for the convenience
of people with such busy schedules that they can't be bothered to give a rat's
XXX about anybody's life but their own, the world goes silent.
Now I hate to be the jerk of the forum here, but I am understandably miffed.
I came here looking for a little help, offering to give full credit to this
forum and individual posters as due if I were to get sufficient help, but I've
gotten nothing. I still know next to nothing with regards to Flash, so I will
still be checking this board in the hopes that somebody is kind enough to take
a little of their time, patience, and knowledge, and help me out.
There isn't just a guitar at stake here. What I'm looking at in the long run,
if I'm able to get help and get this project done, is another very important
skill, and some critical resume material. I've still got another 40 years at
least to live and work, and I'm sorry, but if you can't take maybe 15 minutes
out of yours and help somebody out who genuinely needs it, you're pathetic.
I'm not flaming anyone, I'm not pointing fingers, and I'm not retaliating for
being criticized before. I'm just saying, I've been around the internet and
Flash trying to figure out how to do this, and I only recently came across this
board and was hopeful because this is the OFFICIAL Adobe/Macromedia Flash users
forum!
So if you DO take some of your free time and your wisdom, please accept my
thanks.

Moca

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

hhhmmm yeah no need for all this here man... we are all here to help
each other and you might have taken the note a bit too personally.
Honestly I was not able to read your past full post for the same
reasons... and I still don't know what is it that you need help with.

I think the criticism was valid and I would rather a feedback like that
than no feedback or help at all. I think he was trying to help you to
get help ;)
So... I think we are all more than glad to spend 15 min or as much as we
can to help.

What exactly is the issue you are having with Flash , straight to the
point please :)

DNC2112 wrote:
> (bump)
> well, it seems everyone was pretty quick to criticize me for putting up a long
> post with a bit of an exciting personal story that i hoped maybe somebody else
> would get a kick out of, but the second that i paraphrase for the convenience
> of people with such busy schedules that they can't be bothered to give a rat's
> XXX about anybody's life but their own, the world goes silent.
> Now I hate to be the jerk of the forum here, but I am understandably miffed.
> I came here looking for a little help, offering to give full credit to this
> forum and individual posters as due if I were to get sufficient help, but I've
> gotten nothing. I still know next to nothing with regards to Flash, so I will
> still be checking this board in the hopes that somebody is kind enough to take
> a little of their time, patience, and knowledge, and help me out.
> There isn't just a guitar at stake here. What I'm looking at in the long run,
> if I'm able to get help and get this project done, is another very important
> skill, and some critical resume material. I've still got another 40 years at
> least to live and work, and I'm sorry, but if you can't take maybe 15 minutes
> out of yours and help somebody out who genuinely needs it, you're pathetic.
> I'm not flaming anyone, I'm not pointing fingers, and I'm not retaliating for
> being criticized before. I'm just saying, I've been around the internet and
> Flash trying to figure out how to do this, and I only recently came across this
> board and was hopeful because this is the OFFICIAL Adobe/Macromedia Flash users
> forum!
> So if you DO take some of your free time and your wisdom, please accept my
> thanks.
>
>

AwesomeDigital

2006-09-12, 10:32 pm

Here is a good book to get you started on how to build a site in Flash

http://www.amazon.com/Macromedia-Pr...ng/dp/032129387
8/sr=8-1/qid=1158063239/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5779086-5728857?ie=UTF8&s=books

From what you say, I understand that you have only basic flash experience?

Building a "Customizer" could be a very simple project depending on what you
want to do. Or it could be very complex requiring expert skills and thousands
of hours of work. Most likely if it is very complex, that would involve
learning ActionScript.

I don't think there is a standard for a customizer site. Take some time to
figure out and write down ALL of the things that you want your site to do.

You might then attack only one item on the list and start asking questions
here.

Mathias

DNC2112

2006-09-15, 6:29 pm

good advice.
I'm not afraid of actionscript, and if there's any math involved, while i hate
it, i'm actually quite good at it.
so i should, say, work on figuring out how to get different images to come on
screen depending upon which option is selected out of a pull-down menu...
huh. come to think of it, that's great advice. after all, building a car
begins with the chassis...i think.
any more advice you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

Chris Georgenes

2006-09-24, 6:24 pm

well, most of us have jobs and clients and our own problems and lives to deal with - i myself (as
one who requested you to shorten your post) was away speaking at the Flash Forward Conference and
helping people in person all week.

your question was:
"...how do i make a customizer using pull-downs, menus, bars, checkboxes, radio
buttons etc..."

Too much to type out here to be honest - the answer would be 10x longer than your original post -
most of us simply do not have the time to write the equivalent of several chapters that exist in
help docs and various books that have been published.

I seriously recommend consulting the help docs and visiting the local book store or amazon for some
books on flash that talk about everything you want to make. you need to use some back-end as well -
and you'll probably want to hire a programmer for that. It's a ton of work what you want to do - no
easy/quick answer for you - which limits the chances somebody will spend the few hours to type it
all out.

Maybe we should take some baby steps - ask very specific questions based on yoyur flash skills -
show is a flash file you have started instead of some static images that give us very little to go on.

sorry i cant be of any more help than that at this point.

******************************************
--> **Adobe Certified Expert**
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com

DNC2112 wrote:
> (bump)
> well, it seems everyone was pretty quick to criticize me for putting up a long
> post with a bit of an exciting personal story that i hoped maybe somebody else
> would get a kick out of, but the second that i paraphrase for the convenience
> of people with such busy schedules that they can't be bothered to give a rat's
> XXX about anybody's life but their own, the world goes silent.
> Now I hate to be the jerk of the forum here, but I am understandably miffed.
> I came here looking for a little help, offering to give full credit to this
> forum and individual posters as due if I were to get sufficient help, but I've
> gotten nothing. I still know next to nothing with regards to Flash, so I will
> still be checking this board in the hopes that somebody is kind enough to take
> a little of their time, patience, and knowledge, and help me out.
> There isn't just a guitar at stake here. What I'm looking at in the long run,
> if I'm able to get help and get this project done, is another very important
> skill, and some critical resume material. I've still got another 40 years at
> least to live and work, and I'm sorry, but if you can't take maybe 15 minutes
> out of yours and help somebody out who genuinely needs it, you're pathetic.
> I'm not flaming anyone, I'm not pointing fingers, and I'm not retaliating for
> being criticized before. I'm just saying, I've been around the internet and
> Flash trying to figure out how to do this, and I only recently came across this
> board and was hopeful because this is the OFFICIAL Adobe/Macromedia Flash users
> forum!
> So if you DO take some of your free time and your wisdom, please accept my
> thanks.
>

Chris Georgenes

2006-09-24, 6:24 pm

you mention radio buttons and pull downs etc...and having been all over the web - but have you hit
F1 (in flash) and consulted the help docs? there are pre-built components for almost everything you
mentioned.
hope this helps.

******************************************
--> **Adobe Certified Expert**
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com

DNC2112 wrote:
> (bump)
> well, it seems everyone was pretty quick to criticize me for putting up a long
> post with a bit of an exciting personal story that i hoped maybe somebody else
> would get a kick out of, but the second that i paraphrase for the convenience
> of people with such busy schedules that they can't be bothered to give a rat's
> XXX about anybody's life but their own, the world goes silent.
> Now I hate to be the jerk of the forum here, but I am understandably miffed.
> I came here looking for a little help, offering to give full credit to this
> forum and individual posters as due if I were to get sufficient help, but I've
> gotten nothing. I still know next to nothing with regards to Flash, so I will
> still be checking this board in the hopes that somebody is kind enough to take
> a little of their time, patience, and knowledge, and help me out.
> There isn't just a guitar at stake here. What I'm looking at in the long run,
> if I'm able to get help and get this project done, is another very important
> skill, and some critical resume material. I've still got another 40 years at
> least to live and work, and I'm sorry, but if you can't take maybe 15 minutes
> out of yours and help somebody out who genuinely needs it, you're pathetic.
> I'm not flaming anyone, I'm not pointing fingers, and I'm not retaliating for
> being criticized before. I'm just saying, I've been around the internet and
> Flash trying to figure out how to do this, and I only recently came across this
> board and was hopeful because this is the OFFICIAL Adobe/Macromedia Flash users
> forum!
> So if you DO take some of your free time and your wisdom, please accept my
> thanks.
>

DNC2112

2006-09-24, 6:24 pm

i noticed that there were pre-built menus, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc.
That's why I'm asking for help on how to use them
For instance:
I haven't begun to build a Flash file yet, because I don't know where to
start. I guess I would save .jpegs of all the different colored guitar bodies
to start with, and then import each of them into the library.
My problem begins with building, say, a pull down menu, which would allow you
to select which color you want. Once a color is selected, I need to know how
to get Flash to display that color body image from the library.
Also: In order to have transparency around the outside of each piece (body,
screws, knobs etc.), do I need to save as .gifs or do .tiffs work as well in
Flash?

Chris Georgenes

2006-09-24, 6:24 pm

A flash document is a blank canvas and there are infinite ways to build a specific application like
yours. But the problem is, if you don't know how flash works, then we would have to start from
scratch and type out all the basics of timelines, movie clips, actionscript first - because you
wouldn't even understand the terminology we would use explaining everything.
So, I suggest you learn the basics of flash by starting a document and consulting the help docs. But
then the issue will be learning how flash talks to the back-end database part of it all - that part
you will need to learn or at least understand.
Your project is huge and requires a lot of skill and knowledge - you don't understand basic stuff
like what format supports alpha yet which is fine (we've all been nthere) but makes it hard to
expect someone on a volunteer-based forum to walk you through what takes many months and years to
accomplish.
Removing backgrounds from images and retaining transparency has been discussed to death on these
forums - you should use a graphics editor (Photoshop) to erase the unwanted ares and export as
PNG-24 format (Save for Web).
Bookmark this URL:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_g...=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

then use it and search for keywords that pertain to your questions - read through the countless
threads that cover what you want and what you will need to know for this project.
Start learning flash from the ground up and browse the web for similar sites for design/layout ideas.

hope this helps.

******************************************
--> **Adobe Certified Expert**
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com

DNC2112 wrote:
> i noticed that there were pre-built menus, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc.
> That's why I'm asking for help on how to use them
> For instance:
> I haven't begun to build a Flash file yet, because I don't know where to
> start. I guess I would save .jpegs of all the different colored guitar bodies
> to start with, and then import each of them into the library.
> My problem begins with building, say, a pull down menu, which would allow you
> to select which color you want. Once a color is selected, I need to know how
> to get Flash to display that color body image from the library.
> Also: In order to have transparency around the outside of each piece (body,
> screws, knobs etc.), do I need to save as .gifs or do .tiffs work as well in
> Flash?
>