[IceEnclosure]

I want to collect some of mine and my partner's work(mostly print work, illustrations, etc) on CD as a sort of portfolio.. I want it to have an interface though.. how would I go about doing this? Can I use something like Flash to do this? If not Flash, something similar? Basically, like a slide show, that the viewer could control, w/ music, etc..

Thanks!

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G4 533, iMac 333

[MikeM32]

I wish I knew as-well. I'd have to give it some thought as I've never gotten around to really assembling a true portfolio, even though I work in the Print field.

A co-worker of mine showed me his and he did have something set-up like this, but it was more like a "movie" where the slides just kept changing versus a real interactive "tour" where the viewer could control it.

As I'd guess right off the bat, it'd probably be essential to make it viewable in a simple cross-platform format. The people in charge of hiring at a potential employer may not have access to a Macintosh or specific software.

If I could do something like this with software I already have that would be a big plus. If you weren't looking to put music into it, it may be a good idea to consider making it into an Acrobat PDF format. This would require making all your'e artwork into PDF, in whichever way you wanted it shown. Most people have the simple Acrobat Reader, so it wouldn't require a huge "learning curve" on the potential employers end, plus Acrobat is fairly prelavent in the printing industry now, and it would show your'e ability to work with such a format.

This is likely how I will handle my own, considering I'm intending on staying in the print related graphics field.

Mike

[This message has been edited by MikeM32 (edited 06-01-2001).]

[MM-o4]

'Power piont' heheheh

I would use Director myself.

Two fingers.

MM-o4

[bluehz]

I create these types of things all the time for the company I work for. In a nutshell - yes you can use Flash and/or Director to create such works, BUT IMHO the best all-around cross-platform format is going to be a web browser. EVERYONE has a web browser and with a little care in designing your web pages it should be FULLY cross-platform. The other option being - a Director front-end. Problem is you have to compile your Director movie into a standalone app for both the PC and the Mac and create a hybrid Mac/PC disk. To compile the standalone for each platform you need a copy of EACH Director for Mac and one for PC.

The usual route I take is something like this. I create individual modules with Flash. For example say you have a collection of drawings - you could put those all together in one Flash slideshow (easy), then maybe another module of paintings, etc. After I have all the individual modules created and working to my liking I then link them into a Director front-end. The Director front-end is basically the facade for the individual modules. It provides the navigation and pretty UI for the project. The Flash modules are loaded into the Director front-end as needed. And yes - you could just make the front-end in Flash also, BUT I have found that Director does a much better job of rendering bitmap type images at full screen without distorting, etc. Also - for some reason the more you enlarge to full-screen movies, the more jerky and slow the Flash movie gets. So for the smoothest playback with the best images - use Director for the front-end. Now that you have your presentation ready to go - simply create a web page that loads the presentation - voila!

Now for the really professional touch I like to create what is called an autorun.inf file that auto-launches whatever you tell it to on the PC whenever the CD is inserted into a machine (only works on PC). You can auto-launch anything - a web page, a standalone app, etc.

The problem with running it within a browser is you still have the menu bar, window, etc. With a Director standalone you can have full-screen (no menu bar or window borders, etc.

Here is where I learned most of my techniques - also tells you how to create a PC autorun.inf file (for us non-PC'ers)

<http://www.were-here.com/forum/tutorials/cd_burn/index.html>

[mac freak]

Actually, if you use the "Flash Player" app included with Flash, you can run movies full screen (make sure the movies are of a compatible size -- i.e. a multiple of 800x600, either larger or smaller).

View menu --> Run Full Screen

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Be Happy.

[jeffhot]

Yeas, I would definately go for maximum compatibility. Therefore, an HTML based interface is the best way to go. You can easily enough put some flash in your pages too.

There are other ways to do a nice presentation, even with Quicktime and others, but I think HTML is easier and more compatible.

[D_D]

Hi there
For making Flash Slideshow from jpeg I prefer to use Flash SlideVidshow,that records images and photoes to swf Flash.Its easy to manage.
http://geovid.com/Flash_SlideVidShow/

[Westbo]

Originally Posted by MM-o4

'Power piont' heheheh

I would use Director myself.

Two fingers.

MM-o4

Director is very good, but don't discount Powerpoint. It may not have Director's bells and whistles. However, it's simple to use, works quite well and is cross platform. Easy dissolves and builds can be created. Make all images as RGB JPGs to full screen at minimum 100-150dpi. Save the presentation as a Powerpoint show (PPS). and you're good to go.

W2

[Philip J. Fry]

Man, this thread is old!

[Westbo]

Originally Posted by Philip J. Fry

Man, this thread is old!

I just noticed... it sure is I sure hope "IceEnclosure" got his answer!

[production_coordinator]

As silly as this may sound... I would consider using HTML. It's the only way to quasi-guarantee that they will be able to see the information. The nice thing about having it on CD is you could have VERY large graphics.