Topic: New to flash...Couple Questions (Read 159 times)

Seawed

#1 May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
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Not quite sure if this is in the right forum, if it isn't, please move it :( .

Well, I am very used to drawing out my individual frames in Inkscape and exporting them as PNGs. Then I put them together in Sony Vegas. This was always an easy job for me and was pretty easy to do. I could more or less produce a short film in a day if I really tried. However, as development on a certain film went on, I realised that the quality on Youtube and other common internet sites was pretty damn shitty when I uploaded it. My only real solution was to switch to Flash (where I am already seeing a huge quality boost by some tests). According to many people it is also easier to have a whole bunch of independent animations within flash.

So yeah, I just picked this up and I've basically got some of the basics down. However I have a few questions.

1. Most flash movies have multiple sets. By that I mean, one minute you're in the kitchen and the next you are outside. Now, my guess as how to do this is either to use Scenes (I haven't really tried them out yet), use movie clips, or somehow hide all the objects on the current timeline by not keyframing them or something, and them adding in your new layers on the current timeline. What exactly do most people do?

I figure most people use Scene/Movie clips, but how do you make those flow one after the other, and how do you transition between them (IE. Fade and play music).
The last idea seems pretty terrible to me, but again I don't know if people employ it. I figure managing all those layers would become irritating, however, by grouping them into folders and hiding them by not keyframing, might make it easier. Do people usually do this or what?

2. Animating characters... I hear alot of people use Frame by frame, however I'm not sure as why not just to use tweening. Do people usually just make a frame, move it slightly, then copy the frame, paste it, and move it slightly again? Wouldn't this take ages since the average 1 minute animation can be over 3000 frames long? Also, why exactly DON'T people like to use Tweening for character animation(IE. Its advantages and disadvantages).

3. Ok, so lets say I am making my character blink using a movie clip. Obviously, I'll need to change the eye shape sometimes or stop him from blinking. Would I really need to make a symbol for every single eye and "Swap Symbols" on the keyframe? Likewise, when I am lip Syncing, would I need to replace the mouth with an "open mouth" symbol on every word and then paste back? Is this an effective way of doing it?

4.  How the hell do you select an object that is under another. This is why I hate selection tools in Adobe Products...ARGH!

5. Lets say I make a long complex animation and I decide to tweak something in the beginning, for example, add in a walk cycle....would I need to start from scratch or something? How exactly do I move everything to the right so I can add more to the beginning.

6. Is there any way to work-out with seconds/minutes in the timelines instead of measuring in frames?

These are all the questions I have for now. Sorry if they seem a little stupid, but even with all the resources, some of these questions feel unanswered to me. I see alot of techniques for doing things, but I want to know usually what is the best for a semi-longish project. I've pretty much never worked in flash before and I'm really only used to bitmap-based animation.

(Sorry for an grammatical/spelling mistakes. I couldn't review thoroughly because I need to get back to studying for this literature exam)

Thanks again ^_^
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dada

#2 May 13, 2008, 09:56:01 pm
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Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
1. Most flash movies have multiple sets. By that I mean, one minute you're in the kitchen and the next you are outside. Now, my guess as how to do this is either to use Scenes (I haven't really tried them out yet), use movie clips, or somehow hide all the objects on the current timeline by not keyframing them or something, and them adding in your new layers on the current timeline. What exactly do most people do?
That last thing you mentioned is what you should do. Don't EVER use scenes. They're broken and only still exist for compatibility with very old files.
Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
I figure most people use Scene/Movie clips, but how do you make those flow one after the other, and how do you transition between them (IE. Fade and play music).
The last idea seems pretty terrible to me, but again I don't know if people employ it. I figure managing all those layers would become irritating, however, by grouping them into folders and hiding them by not keyframing, might make it easier. Do people usually do this or what?
Yes, just use folders and keyframes. Fades can be done by using a "motion tween". Look it up to see what it means, they're your bread and butter if you're going to be animating stuff.
Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
2. Animating characters... I hear alot of people use Frame by frame, however I'm not sure as why not just to use tweening. Do people usually just make a frame, move it slightly, then copy the frame, paste it, and move it slightly again? Wouldn't this take ages since the average 1 minute animation can be over 3000 frames long? Also, why exactly DON'T people like to use Tweening for character animation(IE. Its advantages and disadvantages).
You'll need to use motion tweens if you're ever going to finish your movie. Sure, keyframing everything is possible, but it's very time-consuming work and doesn't make it very portable. (For example, what if you wanted to use 30 FPS instead of 25 FPS at some point? With motion tweens, there would be no problem.)

What you can do, though, is optimize certain parts of the animation by using keyframes.

I once worked on animation for a dancing game in Flash for Heineken. Basically we shot photos of people dancing, then cut the photos up and used them as raw material for proper animations. What I did was basically first make a quick motion tween version, and then I'd refine the animation by constantly adding keyframes and moving stuff around. In the end, I had a massive amount of keyframes, but it was no problem since I was just making a lot of tiny animations as opposed to one very long animation.
Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
3. Ok, so lets say I am making my character blink using a movie clip. Obviously, I'll need to change the eye shape sometimes or stop him from blinking. Would I really need to make a symbol for every single eye and "Swap Symbols" on the keyframe? Likewise, when I am lip Syncing, would I need to replace the mouth with an "open mouth" symbol on every word and then paste back? Is this an effective way of doing it?
I personally prefer using code. You can make an animation of an eye that blinks, then use a "stop()" command at the very first frame (to PAUSE the animation while the eye is still open) and then every once in a while, on your main timeline, call "eyeblink.start()". This would make the eye blink once. You should definitely look up the scripting basics.

Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
4.  How the hell do you select an object that is under another. This is why I hate selection tools in Adobe Products...ARGH!
Use more layers.
Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
5. Lets say I make a long complex animation and I decide to tweak something in the beginning, for example, add in a walk cycle....would I need to start from scratch or something? How exactly do I move everything to the right so I can add more to the beginning.
You need to select the frames in the timeline and drag them.
Quote from: Seawed on May 13, 2008, 09:10:39 pm
6. Is there any way to work-out with seconds/minutes in the timelines instead of measuring in frames?
There's a seconds counter on the timeline which is based upon frame number and FPS rate.


Oh yeah, here's one quick tip (I can't write more right now since I'm about to leave): don't ever use anything other than movie clips. No buttons, no "graphics". Just movie clips. And use a lot of them. The most useful thing you'll ever learn in Flash is how to properly organize your movie clips so that your project doesn't become an unmaintainable mess. Movie clips are handy because they allow you to move a lot of things with just one container. Also, make sure that the first thing you do when you start a new project is creating an empty movie clip, moving it to coordinates 0, 0, and then editing inside of that movie clip instead of on the main timeline. You'll be really glad you did.
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