Doc

Well, here I go again...I have a page at my website that is an office. Here's the link: http://www.glewis.net/S2%20Office.htm

What I'd like to do is to 'darken' the room except for the windows...and add a rollover effect for the desk lamp. When the lamp is clicked, it appears as though the light turns on...and the room gets bright again.

So, what would be the best way to darken the room? I know it should be on a seperate layer...perhaps in 'overlay' blend mode? I'd need to have the windows deselected so they don't darken.

What would you suggest to give the desk lamp the appearance of 'turning on'?

Thanks for your input in advance...and, if you visit my jukebox page, WWII cartoon page or ???...how about dropping a line at my guest page.

Thanks

Doc

Doc

Well, here's my first attempt. Not bad...once it all LOADS...wow, with a dialup, the page really loads slooowly. Once loaded though, it works the way I hoped.

The 'hotspots' for my other links on the page won't work in the 'old' way...I'll have to create more slices and use them as 'hotspots'...if I decide to go this route.

http://www.glewis.net/test/S2-Office.html#

Doc

Sanby

hey, not bad i like thta. The loading time is up there though.

Sanby

pdog182

What about giving the impression off light shining onto the table? Kind of like the spot light you have shining on the light switch, except with some noise added to the beam of light.

P.S. I really like the office feel of your navigation page, but it's a bit large. I'm having to scroll with a 19" monitor at 1024x768 resolution. As you add more slices, it's just going to take longer to download.

gymmie

Hmmm...you want the room darkened, and at the same time have the lamp light? It'll be easier to do (and save file size) to have the lamp lightend and have the room at the same ambience. Lemme work on this and I'll show you what I mean. Since you have an image map, you have a choice: putting these on separate layers with a remote rollover, or keeping it an image map. In this case, I think the image map is the way to go. But gimme a day or so to experiment with it

Love the idea, as long as you give people some clue as to where they're going.

jpfitness

Ouch..........

oops...........

[size=9px]darn[/size]...........

bang..........

[size=18px]argggggggghhhhhh [/size]

[size=24px]who moved the light switch?[/size]

grrrrrrrrrrrr

oh thanks Doc....... wonderful trip yeah thanks........ banged my elbow, knocked the books of the table........ triped over the chair....... and walked into the filing cabinet which ....... by the way who left it open! ha ha ha [bustagut] [bustagut] [bustagut]

nice idea Doc but I knew I had to switch a light on in order to see..... now what if I didn't ........ perhaps a preloaded message in it's own box? who knows but your going to have to let the viewer know what you want them to do ............... oh and Doc put an on click restore image...... cause when I saw the mess the office was in I wanted to switch the light off ha ha ha
sfm

Blinky2004

These types of visual effects are normally done with Flash... just so ya know that. That allows for a full-screen effect without the heavy download. And either way, this effect is not suitable for dial-up connections. But that's something you, the designer, will have to decide on yourself. Just think about who your target audience will be, and design accordingly. That's the general rule for this case.

The photo you're using right now Doc is 1/2 a meg. That's extremely large. Try a few optimization tests and see if you can get the image(s) down a bit further.

My thoughts to your idea would be to simply create 2 images -- one lit, the other darkened. A mouseOver would switch the 2 images real-time.

The download time though would make the effect not be quick enough to be appreciated. You'd have to "perLoad" the lightened image for the user. But to do that effectively, you'd have to distract them in some way so that the lightened image can be downloaded and ready to swicth immediately.

IDEA: put a flashlight on the desk and have that turned on, and pointing indirectly at the light switch. That would be more appropriate then just having a 'phantom' light shining in from some unknown source.
Or... use light from the windows perhaps...

As for the design measurements...
Designers MUST know that no matter what screen res they design for, they will always have to subtract at least 30-40 pixels from the width of their design. Browsers have 'chrome' (i.e. borders & scrollbar) that have to be taken into consideration.

Doc

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions...excellent as usual.

This is just a test page to see how it looks...and works. On a very preliminary design. Obviously, the first problem...and one that may not be surmountable for dial-up users is the slow load time the first time the page is accessed.

When I added the second layer to give the darkened effect, it struck me that I needed some way to show how to turn on the lights. That's when I hit on the idea of having what I hoped would appear to be the beam of a flashlight from the perspective of the visitor illuminating the switch.

If I pursue this any further, I would definitely have a roll over effect to turn the lights back off.

As you may have noticed from the original page (the first link I posted above), I have several 'hotspots' and links on the page which I want to keep if I change the design...does Flash Movies allow links to be added to images?

Thanks again,

Doc

p.s. Haven't seen Marine 0311 lately but if he's around...thought he'd like this link: http://www.rleeermey.com/

Blinky2004

Ya Flash can do it all Doc, no problem.

And i see now what your original idea was for the flashlight... perhaps then, it might good to have a hand coming up from the bottom of the image, holding the flashlight...?

Stick with it Doc. This is the type of project that will elevate one's creativity.