Ruined by optimisation :)

[Shockwave]

Coding in Freebasic has been a bit of a strange experience to me, the first things I made were not particularly optimised, but as is the case when you use something a lot, I learned some of the areas where I could speed up my routines and got to the point where I could have a reasonable amount of stuff happening at once.

So I went from having a starfield and an object so having several things. It went on like this, always adding more stuff to the display up until I released Dutch Colourz. I look at that now and I realise I got the balance right, but I remember at the time that I was quite happy that I had a lot of stuff happening at once.

After that intro I've filled the screen with more and more stuff and now the things I turn out are cluttered.

I am messing around with some stuff at the moment, I had a chessfield, fire and a texture rotator going on at once. A friend told me there was too much happening. And I disagreed with him, in fact I had even intended to add even more effects.

Today I removed all but one effect and I am starting to realise that less is more in a lot of cases. I've just gone so over the top in a lot of what I've done, adding things just because I can.

I was wondering if anyone else had the same problems? What do you think of hectic screen displays as opposed to displays that actuially have some blank space?

[benny!]

Guess this is the point where we talk about design. Having some blank space
might be a good idea concerning the design. In addition, there are some fx
that doesnt really match with each other - so the viewer might find it a bit strange.

I think it is a good way to ask somebody around about what he/she thinks about
your work. Being the creator - you maybe too involved into your project and
might get blind on certain things. In that case it is always good to have some-
body external judging your work.

IMHO it is also good if that person isn't really into the whole dmoscene stuff. This
also can help you. If the external person would be another geek - he might look
at the production like yourself - so this wouldnt be of any help.

I think a well designed demo is very cool and in the same way very hard to make.
Guess anyone of us did create a website already e.g. You can make it look so much
better just by having some space (margin / paddings) here and there. Remember
old amiga groups like melon!dezign who also released some demos with a clean
but minimalistic design. They choose the right colors, one nice effect and maybe
a little graphic symbol. And the result looked very professional.

Nevertheless, IMHIO it is still possible for having several fx going on at the same
time and still having a good designed demo. For example, your last production, the
"Dark Wave Intro" was several fx but it was, at least in my eyes, very well done
and looked very stylish and well designed.

[Shockwave]

I agree with you Benny, you know though that intro "Dark Wave" was critiqued by two people who are very experienced cracktro writers dating back to the amiga, one of them said that "the effects in the intro looked like they had been put into a bottle, shaken up and the coder was happy with the result". I didn't agree at first, but the more I look at that intro now, the more I think I ruined it. If I'd had more empty space in the intro it might have been better..

[benny!]

..., one of them said that "the effects in the intro looked like they had been put into a bottle,
shaken up and the coder was happy with the result". ...

Well, that comment is in my eyes definately exaggerated in the case of your intro. But taste
is different I guess. Of course you had lots of fx squeezed in the screen but I think they fit
together nicely. Of course, there are cracktros with less fx with can look as good as yours -
but again - that's a matter of taste.

Anyway, looking forward to see your next release with less fx and some stylish and well
placed blank space

[Jim]

This post intentionally left blank.

[Jim]

This is one reason my demos look a bit clunky.  I'm not much of a designer and so in the past I've always let those people with the artistic talents decide on the design, and they've relied on me to do the technical wizardry.

Jim

[zawran]

Its much easier to create the effects than combining them with a good design. This is something I have always had problems with and yes I also think that you can have too much going on at the same time, it becomes confusing as to where you are supposed to be looking. But as a coder and not a designer, I can surely agree that sometimes you get caught in the coding part that you forget to take a step back and see the bigger picture, especially how things relate and goes together.

I guess this is why a lot of the big name groups have people who doesn't code or do graphics but who only looks at the design aspect of things. But I still feel that even as a lone coder, using coders graphics you can still get it right. And since it all boils down to personal taste, its really hard to satisfy everyone and in the end it has to be whether you yourself is happy with the end result or not.

[p01]

Less is (usually) more. But it shouldn't prevent anyone from optimizing. Well optimized fx ease the transitions. The extra cycles will allow you to morph an fx to another, blend them, project one onto the other ... in short : improve the flow.

Also, as other said before some fx don't go together.
Having an external opinion is good ... if it is critical. If it is to hear to how good you are, it's only good for your ego, not for your demo.

After a night/WE of coding, I like to check again the result with a fresh look the next day. It helps spoting design pitfalls.


just my 2 NOK.

[rdc]

Being a writer, I tend to like demos that either stick to a central idea or follow a recognizable theme through out the demo. I don't mind a lot of stuff going on, but it should relate to he whole, otherwise it is a distraction rather than an enhancement.

[mike_g]

@Shockwave: Dude I wouldent let one persons opinion get you down. Before I said the s!p demo you done was one of my favorites, and I meant it. At the end of the day that if anyone wants any influence on voting scores then they are going to vote either 1 or 10. As for the bubbles, I liked em. Made things feel kind of underwater, which went well with the liquidy stuff in the middle of the screen, and the wavy background. Well thats what I think anyway.

[.:] Druid [:.]

It's all a matter of taste guys!  Your latest intro was great and I agree the colors were not the ones I would have choosen....but it's all about taste!

I like clean stuff..maybe too clean   So, keep it up, it's always good to have feedbacks from others....but at the end, let's think about yourself: do you have fun coding?  Yes?  So, focus on your pleasure! If some people are not happy, they just can code that themselve! 

You'll never have 100% of the audience happy

[benny!]

...
You'll never have 100% of the audience happy

So true !

[Shockwave]

Thanks for the great replies, they have given me a lot to think about. I do code to make myself happy of course, but I want my stuff to have a broader appeal, I'll use your comments to try and improve. I think I will be trying some stuff with less happening, and having some free space.