Hey everyone,
This is my first post and I'm a tad unsure if this is even in the right section (it could be in the advanced web design, but to be honest, its prob best to put it in the beginners part)
Right, I have a project to build a 3D molecule design for a company. The basic idea for what they want is shown in the image below:
The idea for what they want is for the menu to be 3D and have quite a fluid style motion to it, with each of the icons being buttons which will expand into dialogue boxes for each of the icons. (for example the music icon may expand, change into a guitar picture when hovered over then when clicked will open a dialogue box explaining about the companies linked with music and instruments).
This is the kind of 3D Menu style that they want to crate (Example uses images, but my client requires that I use icons which are able to be clicked).
The latter part is totally doable (all be it a little jittery right now - secondary point to this post would be "does anyone know how to automate the process of zooming and scaling with AS code, rather than having to tween?" - see SWF file I've uploaded to see what I mean, below):
Rough idea of what they want is here.
The kind of style of expanding button would be ore like (but not exactly) like the photo's in this example(set to "bounce" and "medium").
Initially I was going to use flash (cs3 or cs4) but upon further thinking it might take a HUGE amount of time using flash given that the client is looking for potentially 10-15 icons, all animated and moving and having lots of items linked to them etc.
Also, given further thinking, the menu is doable, but the connecting lines will most likely require a full 3D package (not really universally viewable on all platforms - Flash not functional on iPhones or on iPads - this is a potential worry for my client.)
The question I am really getting at is: "What is the best way to achieve this website so that it works well, flows and will be visible on the most number of platforms"
I have pretty damn good FLASH knowledge (involving AS2 and AS3) but have no idea about XML coding. I was recommended to use CS5 or word-press, however, word-press seems a bit more like a "my-space" or blog-site layout as opposed to a fully animated website and CS5 would require a whole new package being purchased.
I have had a look at CS5 (adobe catalyst) but again, not really sure if its capable of what I'd want.
Sorry for the UBER long first post, its a lot I know, but any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Dan