Which direction to take for my new portfolio site?

Hi all (first post!),

This is one of those beginner's posts, the answers to which are probably around on this website somewhere - but after a having a look, I couldn't find the specific answers that I'm after. If anyone wants to redirect me, feel free.

I am an artist and designer, and am about to set up a portfolio website. I've made websites in the past, but without really knowing what I was doing. I essentially bumbled through dreamweaver until I got the result I wanted, but to the trained eye - the stuff I made was horribly clumsy. I want to be taken seriously as a designer in general, and so want to improve my web design smarts. To this end, I would also like a slick site which reflects my ability as a designer and does it justice.

Now, assume I know nothing!

I have a fairly simple idea of how I want the site to look, and would like some advice on how to develop it.

1) Firstly, I am weighing up HTML Vs Flash. I would like some features like nice soft animations on my planned website (such as buttons that gently enlarge when you hover over them, then shrink back when you roll the mouse away, and drop down menus that appear in a similar fashion). Does this mean that flash would be the way to go? I told someone I know that I might use flash and they rolled their eyes and said "HTML 5 is going to make Flash obsolete, there's no point".

I had no idea what they meant. Should I be considering HTML Vs. Flash Vs. HTML 5 in my decision?

2) With the above in mind, is it considered professional to have an introductory page that reads the option "HTML version of site, click here // Flash version of site click here".

3) Lastly, just to put you in the picture; the general idea of my site is to have a central (probably ~16:9 aspect ratio) viewing box where portfolio pieces can be shown, the transitions between which, in my opinion, should be animated. Beneath this window, will be the links that control what you are viewing. Something along the lines of:

About ~ Portfolio ~ Contact

Clicking on any one of these will bring further options down to the line below, so clicking something like "Contact" would give you:

About ~ Portfolio ~ Contact
name@address.co.uk ~ Blog ~ 0123456789

Hopefully, when it dropped down, it would also do so in a smooth, animated way - instead of just appearing clumsily. Would these preferences lean towards using Flash for my site, or is this possible in HTML?

Any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

Red Eye.

As much as I love to disagree with mlsiem, he is absolutely correct if you are in a time crunch. Presentation is important, you need to look the part even if you are not at the moment. Learning how to design and develop websites the right way mostly depends on you and how quickly you adapt. An amateurish website might hinder your progress even for the work that has nothing to do with web design.

One more thing you need to always keep in mind before you begin this long trek on the digital plain - FLASH is gone like Elvis, Tupac or whatever you can relate to that is no longer with us.

To be honest, web design (in a very broad sense) is a skill that I would like to develop as a string to my bow. As a designer, I feel that I really ought to hone it as skill in order to compete realistically in my industry anyway.