Web Media

What is web media?

Web media is the pretty stuff on web pages. You might not want any, and prefer a site devoid of images; or you might already have a lot of artwork prepared for your site. However, if you do require graphics on your web site, static or animated (or sound), we can provide a professional and affordable solution.

• NetInvent are experienced in creating media rich sites and preparing web media.
• We can put any kind of media on your site that you want.
• We can make or edit all kinds of media.
• We can obtain suitable stock photos etc for you.
• We provide a quota of time spent on artwork for a given package.
• If you want more artwork than usual, then unfortunately you need to pay extra.

Typical Media:

• Images (Jpegs or gifs really) or maybe fractal compression?
• Could be computer art, scanned art, photographs or maps.
• Audio (MP3, WMA, RealAudio, Ogg, and specialised video encodings such as FLAC).
• 2d animation rendered using a special plugin (like Flash).
• 3d models and animation rendered using a special plugin (look them up).
• Special format for mobile devices.
• Video (typically compressed).

We can distribute all of the above.

Web Art

We're talking about static images. Static images are an invaluable component of web sites. Text is the backbone of most sites, but some artwork is also necessary in almost every case.

We can create many kinds of original static image, and they will look great - just ask us.

Our work is of a professional standard, and if we think your site need it we will bring in specialist artwork, created by designers with specific experience in the field - e.g. record covers, fantasy illustrations, grafitti art, etc.

We can source any kind of stock photo - we will do the tedious work of searching through libraries of thousands of images for the one perfect killer image that will finish your site, and we will get a good price on it and pass the savings on to you. Experience means we know where to look and what to pay.

We can edit existing illustrations, graphs, tables, charts and photos to make them good for the web. This includes restoration of badly damaged, or poorly compressed photographic images, as well as editing.

The better the artwork you can provide yourself, the more artwork you will get for the same price.

Some Art Considerations:

• Don't put important text in images.
• Keep image size down for fast loading whenever possible.
• Keep the most essential images small no matter what.
• Google can't do much to index images, it only sees text.

Web animations

We're talking about moving images. We can create web animations of all kinds, but the longer the animation and the more complex, the more it will cost. Animations contains many frames, so it is many times more expensive than static images to create or to store.

We are very able to edit video that you already have and compress it for web use. This is not a problem, but you can save us time by sending the video clips already edited in the format we ask for.

We can even deliver full on GG animations, but remember this takes many many man hours. Be realistic. Creating even short sections of CG rendering will be expensive. Because of the sums involved you may want to have the movie creation performed by a different company so you can oversee the costs more careflly. We understand this, but we can do it all for you if you prefer.

Some Animation Considerations - there are many kinds of animation used on web sites:

• Some are just small anims used to replace a static graphic, such as an animated icon - these are a strong attention draw, use sparingly.
• Some are the core content of the site, such as when the site serves as a gallery of animated movies or video.
• In between we have sites that perform elaborate animation as part of their normal function, but that animation is not the 'point' of the site.
• Animations are often used to 'sell' a site. Best used when moving images is the KEY way to sell your product.
• Often animations are not necessary and just annoy users with slow load times, slow page navigation and intrusive delays.
• Sometimes animation is useful: e.g. on a kareoke site, or on a site that shows football play diagrams as part of sports commentary review.
• There are also entertainment sites where the navigation of the site is a kind of game.
• Remember that if the main thing you want to do is distribute large media files, then you will be using a lot of bandwidth if many people look at your site.
• If you want a lot of animated media, then we will quote but rendering CG animations is not our core business, so you are really paying for convenience and we don't mind if you go elsewhere for the animations and do not source them through us.

Web Audio

If you want your site to deliver audio, we can do that. We can do everything from a background tune to a page to a huge database of compressed works.

If you are a band trying to promote yourself, or self-publish your work on the web, we can sort you out (we can provide works by graphic designers who have a history of working with record covers and high quality illustration work). Or read more about web art.

We can source rights free music for your site if you think you need it. We can source original music compositions in a particular style if you think you need it. We are in contact with people that we trust to do top quality work.

We will do the rights negotiation for copyright music if you want us to. We may have to charge for the above.

We do not normally have an audio allowance in our web design packages as most sites do not want or need audio.

Other Media

There are various forms of specialist media formats available for web sites: such as 3d animations that are rendered in real-time by a special client plugin; mobile device formats etc.

We can deal with special formats as needed. We have plenty of experience in creating 3d models and animations. The main thing is that we can generate good original content in the first place. If you want a particular distribution format, then that's just another stage in the production process.