Webesite machine

Lonewolf

Hey guys, long time no post...



Ok, few years ago i made my website and everything was done in 2d, u can view it here www.lonewolf3d.com (looks messed up if u use firefox)

now i decided to fix it and while im on it might as well redo it, so this time i was thinking to build it in max

and here it is, i would let to get your impression about it as a website and how it feels

would be nice if u have some ideas to add/change

anyway heres what i got now

Lonewolf

heres some more recent progress



I would love to get some C&C..

LEViATHAN

It's the Lone.

Always liked your site design, looks great, not too sure on the little side panel though.

Lonewolf

hey bro

yea im had some second thoughts about that side panel

maybe ill remove it and put another weird thingie there

heres another update...



Thanx to PexElroy@Cgtalk for helping me out with some smoke effect

Cheapjuevos

Look'n really cool man! I've been to your site a few times now and have always liked it also. I personally like the small chrome cylinder thing on the rightside more than the red version. It helps balance the chrome from left/right. Whatever you do, keep the thumb reader panel man. Its really cool!

Keep it coming man.

-cheap

Lonewolf

thanx dude, the chrome pipe is still there but its cover, im gonna try pop it out and see how it looks

Johan Carlsson

Looks nice. Not sure about the smoke though.

Aldo

yeah, unless the smoke will be animated...I'd say take it out.

Other than that...it's looking pretty cool.

Lonewolf

thanx guys, yea im working on getting the smoke animated (thanx to PexElroy@Cgtalk)

gonna see how big is the animated gif gonna be

hmm or..m how hard it it for a complete noob to learn flash? lol

anyone know some good basic (video even better) tuts?

Quickel

I personally like the side screen and how you integrated the wolf into it. I was initially turned off to the boosters 'cause I felt this was more of a control panel but once you added smoke I think it makes more sense.

Smoke is a cool feature but I'm not sure if it'll distract from your content.

Marine

it looks decent, but it's something you'd expect from the late 90's/early 00's

Jeremy Lindstrom

You have some nice stuff on your site, but the computer panel thingy seems like it's out of the late 90's web interface stuff, it's huge clunky, takes up way too much space to be showing off your work.

Just make sure you are making up something that shows off your work in it's best light, it maybe this terminal or just maybe something else entirely. Just seems nobody had said anything about this yet.

-edit marine beat me too it. lol

Wells

having spent the last two months [and probably the next two] looking at people's portfolio sites, my opinion is: more art, less website.

look how little of the screen is actual content. unless you're looking for a UI/web design job, all this does is clutter up your art.

Virdog

I would use it as a portfolio piece but as you sites interface, no way. All you need is something that gets your visitors directly to your assets and is dynamic enough to accommodate different browsers and window sizes.

Nice technical work though.

Cheers

shotgun

ahla yaron, very nice
i have to agree with marine that it looks like from 10 years ago, but hey everything gets to israel 10 years in delay

i also feel the actual content space is small, especially considering not everybody uses such high monitor res.

Lonewolf

thanx for the comments guys

the actual renders of my work gonna be opened in a new page\gallery, i wont let the viewer see it inside that panel, yea too much distraction

similar to my current site

the interface thingie is just for navigating between assets\sections



update..

EarthQuake

Sectaurs wrote: »

having spent the last two months [and probably the next two] looking at people's portfolio sites, my opinion is: more art, less website.

look how little of the screen is actual content. unless you're looking for a UI/web design job, all this does is clutter up your art.

Yeah dude, when looking at folios, looking for potential hires i want to see their art first and foremost. The website is but a vehicle to showcase the art, whereas your design seems to showcase the website itself.

Richard Kain

Well, here's how you handle this. The mouse overs for the buttons should bring up a synopsis in the screen below the buttons. Clicking on the buttons should pop-up a window over the screen that will load up a cycleable portfolio of images. I know that you can get a javascript application that does this, and supports custom styling, animated transitions, and images with different resolutions. That way you could make sure that the pop-up app is stylisticly consistent with the background website. I think the javascript app is called "Lightbox." It's fairly easy to use.

The balance between artistry in web-design and displaying content is a constant struggle. Sophisticated artistry does not an effective user interface make.

MM

hi there, i wanted to post my 2 cents here.

all this is really good work, shows skill and what not but i agree that this is distracting and making your site less efficient.

why not have a simple site and maximized viewable area? your current design looks too small too.

leilei

I'm not digging the Arial italic typeface. I think a script typeface would be cool instead (to give a more classic 50s feel) however that would throw some readability off if dealing with employers less familiar with script

dabu

I created a really slick flash based site back in 2005... and everyone I showed it to asked me to do their websites... not my intended result. The design of your site should ALWAYS take a back seat to your actual art... unless you want a job making websites, in which case, nice work.

lightbox has really revolutionized portfolio sites, and I can't see not using it now. Its the very definition of clean and simple...

Lonewolf

thanx for all the comments guys, i agree about everything said here but i like the way it looks, so im gonna use it but im gonna have to do something to make it better for the viewer

im trying to make it in flash now,

http://www.lonewolf3d.com/Files/Flashtest/LW2009Flash.html

heres a test

but i need an idea of how to make it work


i was thinking about something like that

maybe when u go to a gallery, the screen will zoom in, so all u see is the red screen with some of the border

that way you will be focusing the art

how does it sound?


or even use what i have for an "enter" screen with "enter" botton at the middle and everything after that will be just the red screen?


need some advice..

Lonewolf

http://www.lonewolf3d.com/Files/Flashtest/Lw2009FlashZoom.html

Here

Do u think its better?

Illusions

While I like the design of it, as a device, but I don't think having it in Flash and with a Splash Screen (The button press to activate), is going to help it. This is just my opinion though, I'm part of the "less is more" crowd when it comes to portfolio websites.

Lonewolf

Ok guys new attempt

This should be very friendly for the viewer, pretty simple and html, ill use lightbox too







here it is on the browser

http://www.lonewolf3d.com/Files/LO2/Site2_2.html

Wells

infinitely better.

now get your real name up on that page so people know who to hire.

don't care for the cursive font, though. seems at odds with the industrial design.

EarthQuake

Sectaurs wrote: »

infinitely better.

now get your real name up on that page so people know who to hire.

don't care for the cursive font, though. seems at odds with the industrial design.

Yeah i would get rid of the LoneWolf(c) for sure. I mean do you even own a copyright on that name?

This is looking a lot better now tho, i think the hexagons are a bit much, and will just be in the way/take up space when you put some actual content up there.

renderhjs

Your 3d skills are very nice but typo seems to be your weak spot (not a beaty in all designs so far and somewhat clumsy imo.). Some general tips regarding fonts:

- dont use more than 2 font faces (the first design has about 5 different). It makes the design looks cluttered and unprofessional
- try to find fonts that actually deliver the message in design you want to send. Using a techno or sci-fi design with a handwriting looks just bad. Maybe have a look at dafont.com for a better suiting one:
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=304
- never stretch fonts - I dont know if you picked a bad font or you commited the crime but in the last design the text '2d / 3d artist' looks stretched. Font designers designed the font with a reason like readability or contrast - if you start toying with it (stretching, skewing,...) you might consider finding a propper font type instead one that comes as spaced, italic or what you want.

as for the first designs I am not sure about the general size. I know that doing such things in a 3d application instead of Photoshop and alike is different but I have the feeling that with the first design the fonts would appear rather big on screen 32 pix. on lineHeight and more. Half of the font size would do enough for text elements that appear a few times.
If its just a Headline for the overal design it doesn´t matter that much but anything else might appear to big for the reader. This could look even more odd if you add your regular text or font which will propably much much smaler and then you have such a big contrast.


about the 3d:
I really like the lighting and shading of the first one. I also think that keeping the overal site design rather general (first one) as specific (last one) is a better approach. What happens if you keep the site for a longer time but are unsatisfied at that time with the models you merged in the design- it would be to much hassle the to change it- having somethign more general however would guide the viewers eye more the the actual content instead of the frame.

just my 2 cents- keep it up

Lonewolf

Sectaurs wrote: »

infinitely better.

now get your real name up on that page so people know who to hire.

don't care for the cursive font, though. seems at odds with the industrial design.

EarthQuake wrote: »

Yeah i would get rid of the LoneWolf(c) for sure. I mean do you even own a copyright on that name?

This is looking a lot better now tho, i think the hexagons are a bit much, and will just be in the way/take up space when you put some actual content up there.

ill get my real name up there but the Lonewolf gonna have to stay, for the last few years, for every studio and fellow artists im known as lonewolf, im gonna copyright it with that logo when ill finish the site too

(i even have it as a tattoo, its a personal thingie too )

Lonewolf

renderhjs wrote: »

Your 3d skills are very nice but typo seems to be your weak spot (not a beaty in all designs so far and somewhat clumsy imo.). Some general tips regarding fonts:

- dont use more than 2 font faces (the first design has about 5 different). It makes the design looks cluttered and unprofessional
- try to find fonts that actually deliver the message in design you want to send. Using a techno or sci-fi design with a handwriting looks just bad. Maybe have a look at dafont.com for a better suiting one:
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=304
- never stretch fonts - I dont know if you picked a bad font or you commited the crime but in the last design the text '2d / 3d artist' looks stretched. Font designers designed the font with a reason like readability or contrast - if you start toying with it (stretching, skewing,...) you might consider finding a propper font type instead one that comes as spaced, italic or what you want.

as for the first designs I am not sure about the general size. I know that doing such things in a 3d application instead of Photoshop and alike is different but I have the feeling that with the first design the fonts would appear rather big on screen 32 pix. on lineHeight and more. Half of the font size would do enough for text elements that appear a few times.
If its just a Headline for the overal design it doesn´t matter that much but anything else might appear to big for the reader. This could look even more odd if you add your regular text or font which will propably much much smaler and then you have such a big contrast.


about the 3d:
I really like the lighting and shading of the first one. I also think that keeping the overal site design rather general (first one) as specific (last one) is a better approach. What happens if you keep the site for a longer time but are unsatisfied at that time with the models you merged in the design- it would be to much hassle the to change it- having somethign more general however would guide the viewers eye more the the actual content instead of the frame.

just my 2 cents- keep it up

thanx bro, yea i do need to change the font, not sure with one to use, i like how the handwrite look there

maybe use handwrite for everything?

need some help with that..