AnJoe Lite:Web Designers’ log

A new project was handed to us to come up with an invitation idea for a destination wedding for a friend of ours. We made the Save the Date card for them few months ago. They are having their wedding at Dreams Cancun, a wonderfully decorated resort in Cancun, Mexico. I’ve heard some other couple have done a unique destination wedding invitation where they created an invitation that looks like Airline ticket. The invitation resembled an airline ticket and was enclosed in airline folder which you get when you check in. Very cool idea!

For them we decided to go one step further. We are going to create invitation that specifically represents their fun loving personality as well as their wedding destination.  NO, we are not sending “PinYaTa” with invitaiton inside… although that would make an interesting invitation.

This invitation will be a Message in the Bottle. The message being the invitation. Pretty cool uh?
The invitations will be printed in high qulaity papers and we’ll burn the edges to make it more authentic.  Sands and empty sea shells will be stored in side along with beach scent.

We are in the process of purchasing the materials for this project. The final product will definately be unqiue to them. 

Stay tuned for the update on this project and yes folks, you’ve heard it here first, at AnJoeDesign~

It’s been a long journey but I’ve finally deployed the first version of Dave & Ginas’ wedding website. 

Dave & Gina

I’ve taken a different approach to this website during development. I wanted to try new way of displaying information with Flash. I’ve gotten comfortable using normal Flash usage so with this version, I’ve used external component and integrated music player. This is the first time I tried scene based flash movie.

External Component:

I’ve spent about two to three weeks trying to figure out book flip animation. I’ve gotten the basics from different sites but couldn’t get the actual thing to work. Finally I ran out of time so I ended up purchasing a book flip component from Flipping Book. These guys have really done their homework and created extremely flexible and useful flash component. If you are familiar with Flash, it’s very easy to implement.  I would highly recomment this site for anyone who wishes to add book flip animation to their website.

I’ve used this component as Photo scrap book and story book. It fits the context very well.

Music Player:

I’ve done previous Flash with background music but never adding a player with user selectable music player.  Tiago wrote a very informative blog about creating XML driven flash music player. If anyone is interested in adding fancy music player, I’d highly recommend this blog.

Dave & Gina selected five songs that represents them. The music player loads the music real time. It’s a slick implementation.

I still have lot of work left but it’s slowing down. I can’t say I’m proud of this site but I’m happy with it. The layout design could have used some work and inspiration.  Perhaps on my next release, I may play around with integrating Video. That’d be interesting.

Hope you guys would use these resources. I cerntainly found them extremely useful.

Oh man, I am running out of time. I think I’ll hold off on this until I can figure it out. Since I do have a deadline to meet, I’ve decided to go with Flipping Book. It cost $25 for one website use and it comes with pretty good documentation.  I’d definately recommend this Flash Component if you need to use it.

It’s not over yet! I will figure this book flip out and share it with the world!!!!

The coveted page turn effect. I’ve always wanted to try it and my current project is going to allow me to do so. On my previous post, Bride, Groom and Website~!, I mentioned the O’Reilly website describing the page turn effect. I’ve been following the post and here is what I have so far.

Page Turn Practice sample 1

There are few things I had to twick around for this example

• When you work on this, you will come across a state where page movie clips’ text layer will prematurely show while the page is turning. 
  If this happens to you, simply right click on the text panel and make sure your font isn’t using device font as anti alias option.
• Understand the action script being used. (I am certainly trying to understand it myself so that I can manipulate it.
• The original tutorial apparently only goes up to 5 pages and you can’t flip back page unless you are at the last page. (I am still trying to find the solution for this)
• The auto turn is not part of the tutorial but the discussion board on the site seem to have a work around (I am still trying to find the solution to this as well)

On my next post, I will have something more advanced then the sample above and share the flash file for everyone to use.

Next year is going to be busy year. Dave & Gina’s wedding comes first and Chris & JoJo’s wedding is next. First off, congrats to both!

Chris & JoJo would like to send out Save the Date card to all the guests using email. Very much like designing an email campaign. So let’s get started!

Their wedding stands out compared to any other weddings I’ve been to. It will be held in Cancun, Mexico! It will be an outdoor wedding facing the beautiful ocean. How romantic is that!
So, for our first layout, We’ve decided to go with tropical theme with lighter pastel colors.

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The palm trees and big Sun in the background brings out the tropical flavor.

Layout 2 is some what out of theme. Traditionally, wedding is a formal event. So with this layout, we decided to go formal as well. 

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Layout 3 is expanding on our first layout. The theme is more playful. We’ve taken “Save the Date” message literally and created a pin board layout with invitation, photo and a calendar pinned on it.

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No this post will not be about my opinion on marriage. =)

One of my best friend and my girlfriend’s younger sister is getting married.  Yes, two weeks ago, at the center of New York’s beautiful central park, he got down on his knee and proposed.

Annie and I have been asked by the newly engaged to build their wedding website.  At first I was a bit hesitant to take on the job. Building friends’ or familys’ website always comes with higher pressure and expectation.  However, this project will be something new for Anjoe Design. 

We gladly excepted the request and began brain storming designs. So far, we’ve come up with two layouts:

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This design was to show their fun personality and their modern relationship.  This didn’t work out too well for them because they wanted something more elegant. I do like the layout. I may use it on other projects. We did invest our time in coming up with the design.

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This layout is still in works. We are thinking that the layout will be in flash and behave as invitation.

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This is my thrid layout. I found a really cool brush trick on Photoshop to create flowered border. Once you select the color, photoshop will use different shade of your selected color to create the pattern.  The main navigation will be the colored folders on the right. It will slide to left or right showing/hiding the contents.

Out of the three layouts, they liked the second one the best. They wanted the functionality of sliding menu incorporated into the second design as book pages.  Basically, it will be animated to imitate page turning.  The theme of the site will be wedding guest book with the design elements shown on layout two. 

I found a great tutorial on page turning effect on O’Reilly Web DevCenter.  Hope this tutorial will be useful to everyone. Thank you O’Reilly!! I know I certainly will take advantage of it.

Ok! now that I have basic design elements figured, it’s time to open Flash and begin developing different elements of the site.