by Joel Hladecek

Redefine the “Standard” (or Excuse me, your “multimedia’s” showing! )

Make the concept, interface, art and animation support and drive the interactive experience- Don’t rely on the development programs to do it. Any fool can set a Director transition. Immerse the viewer in your world.

Also, don’t buy into industry interface conventions- most of them were developed by some data engineer named “Earl” with a pocket protector and bad hemorrhoids. Red Sky pushes harder than our competitors to raise the quality beyond what the rest of the industry settles for. In other words, as an artist working for Red Sky, don’t ever say “We did it that way at (my old company), it’s a standard”, or you will be tarred, feathered, cast out and publicly humiliated. SET the standard.

Example: Don’t settle for simple “up and down” button graphics just because it’s commonplace in most multimedia and/or easy to do. Consider creating smoother or more expressive buttons with more frames of animation to further support the metaphor. If memory is an issue- cut something else damn it.