Hybrid Genius » Flash

AstraZeneca: Senior Games 2009 Flash

Dave Pellegrin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:01:53 +0000

Project Overview
As part of Aquent Talent (AT), Hybrid Genius created a Flash portal page for the 2009 National Senior Games (SG). In addition to the Flash file, Hybrid Genius hosted all creative files including 3 video files used to stream or download by the end users. The main video buffers within the Flash portal so end users don’t have to deal with pop-ups or confusion. The end result, to quote the client, “THIS LOOKS AWEEEEEEESSSSSSOMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEE!”.

Project Requirements
The portal page needed to follow the SG’s branding and original design very closely. The project had a 1 week completion date requirement. The portal page needed to be able to stream (within a buffer) a highlights video from the events. All files needed to be hosted on Hybrid Genius’s hosting server.

Click Here to view the Flash portal page for the 2009 National Senior Games.

Client Background
AstraZeneca (AZ) is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. According to their website, AZ is active in over 100 countries with a growing presence in important emerging markets including China; corporate office in London, UK; and major R&D sites in Sweden, the UK and the US. They employ over 65,000 people (51% in Europe, 32% in the Americas and 17% in Asia, Africa and Australasia).

Skills Used
Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, HTML

AstraZeneca: TSi FLASH

Dave Pellegrin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:20:05 +0000

Project Overview
As part of Aquent Talent (AT), Hybrid Genius worked on a Flash projected which files would run on a tablet PC carried by Physicians. These Flash files help show patients information on side effects and other visual guides regarding their illness or drugs they’re taking for their illness. Flash is a very flexible environment in terms of file sizes and speed. The original developer had each object split into small pieces which was both redundant and slow for the end user. We cleaned up the Action Script and simplified each section. The end result was smaller file sizes and less load time. The job was completed within a week of receiving the proposal.

Skills Used
FLASH, Action Script, Photoshop

Progress Report: MG Barnes

Dave Pellegrin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:38:37 +0000

There are more than a few challenges when designing for the web. Some of the more persistent ones are: object placement, object sizes, user’s screen resolution and which browser a user is using. There is a limited amount of width and height you can use depending the viewers screen resolution. Most people these days use 1024×768^[1] or a wide screen version of that. Technically, the designer only gets a “safe” width of 990 pixels since web browsers have a scroll bar and outer frame that take up some of that 1024 pixels wide . Not to mention each web browser is different in this respect and among others. With wide screen displays the height comes more into play because it’s narrower. Enter MG Barnes. I ran into a slight snag on this site. With the middle content area height being so narrow and wide, getting an image to look well cropped was near impossible. A good way around this was to use flash to pan a larger image but still stay the correct aspect. I normally try to stay away from doing too much flash these days because a) it’s costly and time consuming (which is why it’s costly) and b) javascript can normally handle much of what I needed flash to do. The end result is what matters though and I’m satisfied with it.

1. Browser Display Statistics — http://www.w3schools.com