Assignment4: more web research

i have been doing more research to get inspiration for the style i can use for my website and for clever ideas i can adapt to fit my website. i have been looking at the websites for Pixar and Dreamworks, the two largest 3D animation production companies.

i was shocked about how differently they have approached there websites, although i should not have been as there websites do very clearly show the difference that there films have in my opinion; pixar clever and sophisticated, Dreamworks childish and over the top.

Pixar

http://www.pixar.com/index.html

• this is a very clean website with a white background simple grey text.
• the navigation is in an unobtrusive layout at the top of the page.
• the logo takes is clearly visible on every page, being placed in the top left on a line by its self means its the first thing we see. *note* this is a conversion that all western websites have, i just looked for one which was in a language that reads right to left but could not find a counter example. (edit, i just found a counter example which confirms that right to left language websites would have the reverse layout http://www.unlimit-tech.com/blog/?p=8167)
• a image is used as the main information with text written upon that.
• limited use of flash
• clever use of gifs http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/index.html i do not no much about web design but from the looks of this the gifs are set to play on hover over and not loop. this would be a very good way for me to incorporate some animation into my website without using flash or creating large load times
• clever use of on click, like above they use on click to add simple animation into the website which allows one simple page to hold a large amount of information. http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html the simple slide viewer has a click button which when clicked makes it look as if you are rotating the slide round. to do this they have set the link to change the image when the mouse is clicked down. because of the speed of it our eyes to the rest of the work and make it look as if its moving. as above i could really use this well in my project.
• clean simple fonts
• navigational arrows on pages. like the on click content this allows large amounts of information to be displayed in a small space.

*IDEA* while looking at the Pixar website then have a section of images than change the image while they are hoverd over. i could use this to create a thaumatrope. having a white background on both images would also mean that i could do with with instructions displayed over the image. providing its displayed on both images.

Dreamworks

http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/

• logo in top left
• flash bashed website, with long load times
• full colour complicated layout
• lots of moving elements
• aimed at children
• lots of pop out elements
• heavy use of animation when a new part opens
• heavy use of sound

i really don't like this website and it has not been designed for my target audience. so i do not think i will use much from it. one thing i think it dose well is having pop out elements that go pasts there bounding boxes this is one thing that i think i could use well.