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Recently I was given the opportunity to create
part of a Web site for the Ruffled Feathers golf course in Illinois.
This is the home course for the IPGA (Illinois PGA). The owner
wished to scan in their golf yardage book onto the site. A golf
yardage book is simply a visual plan of each hole (with yardage
marks) of a golf course. The golfer can find key distances and
locations for any hazards hopefully improving his game. I suggested
a different approach. Why not use Shockwave to provide visitors
a multimedia yardage guide, one that combines animation and audio.
The owner was intrigued and I went about creating a sample hole.
This is the project.
Preplanning
It was said Alfred Hitchcock did so much pre-production planning that he had
already shot the movie in his head before he exposed one frame of film. Preplanning
is the key to completing any project on time and on budget. Most projects
go awry because there was poor preproduction. Ask yourself what is it you
want to accomplish. What resources will I need? What will it cost? Can this
be done in the allotted time and stay within my budget. Develop a simple,
cookie cutter approach if possible. Create a list of objectives and steps.
One key element of my project was keeping careful track of the time spent
on this one test hole. If I got the green light I would have 17 more holes
to create. Creating storyboards is another way to manage a Shockwave project.
Design simple sketches blocking out every key point in the animation. Here
is an example:
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Sample of a storyboard
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The List
Here is the list of things I needed for this particular project based on my
storyboard. Of course this list could change later but its a good starting
point.
1) My computer/scanner - Obviously (no hardware upgrade for this project)
2) Programs - Adobe Live Motion, Sound Forge, Adobe Photoshop
3) An original golf yardage guide for the Golf Course (provided by the Golf
Course)
4) A script for my audio file - basically advice on how to play the hole
5) Storyboard
It's a fairly simple list. Some projects will be
larger depending on their complexity. Try to keep all your paper
work, storyboards, lists, scripts, .etc in one folder for easy
reference.
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