Sometimes you can simply take an idea and set out to produce it with whatever knowledge you have in your mind at the time. For example. I have an existing piece of artwork that I want to use on my website for visitors to click on to take them to another website. Of course, I want there to be some kind of mouse over effect or what is commonly known as, "rollover" artwork. So in this case, the original artwork has tones of blue, so I will create a copy of the graphic and apply a tone of pink to it. This second, "rollover" image will be the image you see as you, "mouse over" the clickable graphic. There are many ways to create rollover artwork, but I must confess that XaraXtremePro and Macromedia Fireworks makes this job child's play.
So the same as using Xara or Fireworks to quickly create high quality rollover artwork, I must choose which applications I am going to use to assemble all of the various multimedia elements that will be used on several different websites that I will be constructing in the coming months. With this in mind, I find that it helps to write these things down. Not because you forget which program or its name, but rather, to design your workflow. Designing your workflow in advance is not only a time saver, but you will be giving your nerves a rest and be saving a ton of braincells as well. Not having to sort out design workflow while you are constructing animations, graphics and websites is a major plus. Your production times will decrease. You can do MOST of your work on a scratch pad. Constructing the idea that is sketched on your legal pad is simply a matter of choosing the appropriate application(s) that will be needed to achieve the end result. Nevertheless, if you don't [in advance] know which apps you will use to produce your design, you can bet your production time will increase.
Earlier tonite, I spent probably an hour or so going over three websites and two flash projects. Making notes here and there, but mostly I mark up the design much as I would mark up a typography job. I use my own symbology to describe to myself which program I'll use for a given task and sometimes I will jot down the steps for a specific feature to be applied.
Although music is not my focus right now, I am spending daily time working on new songs. Today I spent only 45 minutes fiddling with 2 measures of music. I spent more time listening to different instrument sounds and choosing which sounds would be appropriate. Still, even though this song is a, "back burner" project, I dabble with it along side my other projects. This is the beauty of digital production. You can work in bits and pieces across a non-specified amount of time, and at some later date you can glue it all together as if you were constructing a model airplane. My digital audio mixer is very much the same. It has hundreds of settings, motorized faders and rotary encoders; that's really fancy words for, "knobs". But the point is, if a morbid screaming headache wrestles me off my feet, when I return to the mixing board two weeks later, just one touch of the button and, "bingo" all of the settings, rotory encoders and fader positions are restored. Years ago I had created, "tracking sheets" that I used just for this purpose. To write down all of the settings, the knob positions, and anything that had to do with that, "moment in time" so when I returned to the project a week later, I could refer to the tracking sheet and adjust the equipment to match the settings written down on paper. I am grateful to the digital revolution.
Jeeze, where does the time go? Well, it simply ticks along. I hope you have enjoyed my little rant because I plan to continue my blogging and do LQQK forward to some visitors to appreciate me talking.
;;cheers;;
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