HERRSCHMIDT ANIMATION

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Chapter II: Build your homebase

Every idea and each completed work needs a homebase. There are dozens of ways to create yourself a home base. Building a website with HTML takes the most effort. Less time consuming is a Wordpress blog. You will find numerous pre-assembled layouts, ready to be filled with your content. The least technically demanding is a profile on a social networking platform, such as Facebook, MySpace, Aniboom or on an animation forum like AWN.com.

But what if you presented your works only on MySpace and they changed the rules of interaction tomorrow, deleted your profile or went bankrupt? You wouldn't be able to connect with your fans anymore and had to start building up an audience from scratch again. Even if you are presenting your works on an external platform, in the long run your own website is the safest option.

Appearance and usability

A benefit of having your own website is a custom graphic design. Try to keep the navigation as simple as possible. It is very annoying to have to search for the menu items. Remove all intros, loading times and use Flash only for video playback. In any useless second of wandering about and with every additional click, you will loose a big part of your audience! You should ask yourself if the clever Flash-navigation with the menu coming out of a drawer, hiding in a treasure chest or popping up behind your couch is beneficial to the presentation of your work.

Online the attention span is very short anyway. To oblige the visitors of your website, make a clear separation in the layout, between navigation, header, content, newsletter etc. You can achieve this with HTML and CSS. An easy introduction can be found on www.html.net.

It is worthwhile to check your navigation with test viewers and to continually improve it. Google Analytics is a free service to help optimize your website. Amongst other options, you are able to track the paths of your visitors, check where they click and how long they stay on a page.

How to effectively structure your website

Your homepage is intended for visitors, who don't know you yet. They shall get to know you and your work in a short and attractive manner. Put up your best piece of work, a showreel or a trailer of your latest film. A short written description of your activities should also be found. What can visitors expect from your website?

A clearly laid out navigation bar refers to more content. This may be your work, background infos, tutorials, your blog and so on. It is important to create a web of links between your work pieces to extend the life span of older material. At the end of every article or beneath a video, put a couple of links to other works of yours. This way you may create paths for visitors to explore your website. They spend more time indulging and get to know you better.

There are millions of people on the internet, who may help you with your marketing. A person owning a high traffic blog, an internet-show or a relevant website may want to talk about you. Make it as easy as possible for him and put high resolution images, audio and video clips, your biography and background material on your website. A press kit is very important, reserve a prominent spot for it.