Research/Websites

Examples of Style/Type of Animation:
- Sprint (Nextel) "Iredell" animation ---> simple and clean graphics
- Sprint (Nextel) "Katrina" animation ---> seamless flow from different scenes
- Stash 45 ---> BD (8 minutes into animation) ---> Frame outlines the animation, almost as if you are looking through a window

BBC Recipe Finder ---> http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/
Children's Recipes ---> http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes/theme/cooking/all

Interactive Animation ---> natural disasters ---> objective is to learn more about the different types of natural disasters---> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7533950.stm

Example of An Interactive Animation at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre ---> explains how the theatre might have worked back in the day ---> how they created sounds backstage, etc.

Class Animations 22.02.2010

One of the animations that we learned how to do on Monday was essentially a way to move a scene in any direction. The image shown above is the scene I created making sure to put the foreground and background on different layers so when it came time to animate it, they would move and split apart according to whichever direction the mouse was pointing towards.



I also made another animation that had a moveable button. This animation allows you to put the star on top of the tree where it belongs.

Class Notes 22.02.2010

Objectives Learned in Class on Monday:
Importing Documents ---> file ---> import (can keep layers or flatten image)

Control Example -- methods of control -- code to use for project

Fade ---> color effect ---> change alpha percentage (shape tween)
- If you want to fade the whole screen, create a box and fade the box instead of individual items -- alpha change as well.

Add Extra Instances ---> action script ---> copy and paste single line for all quadrants ---> rename and make sure code matches up
Example - front_mc.x - = 12;
front_mc - instance name
x - quadrant
12 - speed


Interactive Animation - user input; engagement, choice

Lev Manovich - Language of New Media
- "Interactivity is a tautolgy" - stating the obvioius; anything that is on a computer screen is interactive
- danger of 'equating interactivity with physical interaction at the expense of psychological (cognitive) interaction'
- employ identification, recall - get viewer/audience to be intrigued and want to know what comes next

www.soundtoys.net ---> Towards an Aesthetic of The Interactive (CADE Remix)

Alan Peacock - Quality of Interaction
'Interactivity' VS 'The Interactive'
- engagement - inadvertent vs deliberant
- consistency - predictability vs unpredictability
- cursality -

Ideas for Main Project

This past week I've been trying to come up with interesting concepts for my main project. It has been quite difficult since the animation has to 'interactive' so I can't do a basic animation that plays once you click the play button. When thinking of different ways to represent the text and make the animation, I came up these ideas:

- have a house or castle and have people navigate through and gather clues in order to get out ---> after the viewer 'unlocks' the key to get out, have the award be the 'success' quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

- create a jungle scene where there are three different paths to go do and viewer navigates their way through to find the magical city ---> have only one possible correct path and all others lead to a dead end of sorts

- have a garden scene where the viewer can choose vegetables and fruits which they have and want to use in a recipe ---> have multiple recipes so they have to choose what they want

Class Animations 15.02.2010

Here is one animation that I created in class on Monday:



Another animation that I created was of the picture below. The obvious button that says 'Push Me' starts the animation when it is clicked and the purple rectangle also starts the animation once it is rolled over. The animation itself is of balls bouncing around the stage. The butterfly also flies across the stage, along with the word 'bee'.

Class Notes 15.02.2010

Objectives Learned in Class on Monday:
Motion Tween: allows you to do more complicated motions (spin, bouncing a ball, etc.)

Creating a Tween ---> symbol ---> convert objects ---> choose graphic, movie clip, or button
Graphic - basic motion
Movie Clip - has a separate timeline (allows multiple animations for one object; man walking across stage)
Buttons - start/stop animation

Motion Tweens don't require a second keyframe
- a black diamond in the frame means it's a property keyframe which allows you to move it to a particular place at any time

Creating a Movie Clip ---> select object ---> modify ---> convert to symbol OR insert ---> new symbol

Movie - has 3D rotation tool in tool bar (good for rotating and altering animation)

Motion Editor - alls to see full animation; easy to tweek

Symbol Editing Mode:
- allow you to edit
- only allows one change to happen at a time (duplicate layer to get around this)
- has it's own timeline -- allows for multiple animations

--dashed line means the tween is not working; something is wrong and needs to be fixed in order for animation to work

Buttons:
- up/over/down -- can change colors or shape when curser rolls over it
- hit -- invisible button or hot spot

Action Script ---> right click ---> actions
- use script from examples to create animations (copy and paste)
- name in script (start_button) can be anything you want it to be
- name in script and instance name need to match in order for animation to work
- instance name is different for each button/animation if multiple copies are on stage
- instance name can be different than the library name

Movie Clips can be buttons too ---> curser trigger events/animations when:
out - curser rolls out/off of button
over - curser rolls over button
down - curser click down on the button
up/click - curser is released or in the 'up' position
hit - area that counts as the button but is invisible (only way to tell it's a button is when you roll the curser rolls over the area the arrow changes to a hand)

Spin File -- play (line 11) - can change to:
gotoAndstop(2);
prevframe();
nextframe();
stop();
play();

Class Animations 08.02.2010

Here is the animations that I created yesterday in class:

Class Notes 08.02.2010

Objectives Learned Yesterday:
Tweening: need two key frames - one at the beginning and one at the end; allows you to move things across the stage without having to insert a lot of key frames
Classic Tween (Blue) - need two key frames and a grouped object (grouped objects have a blue box around object); moves object from Point A to Point B
Shape Tween (Green) - need two key frames and object must be broken apart (broken apart objects have dots in the image/shape); easily changes the shape of an object

Onion Skins: shows the individual steps of a motion tween (helps to see where objects actually go and can also help when tweeking a project)

Removing Frames ---> highlight frames and right click then delete frames OR CMD and put mouse at end until double head arrow appears and then drag that up and down to delete as many frames as needed

To break something apart ---> modify ---> break apart OR CMD B

Anything you want to move or animate has to be on separate LAYERS in order for everything to work correctly.

Words for Project

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and to endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether be a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.


-Ralph Waldo Emerson

First Animation 01.02.2010

During Class today, we worked on using the tools in Flash to make a self portrait. We then were shown how to make a simple animation. I chose to make my eyes blink. Not bad for my first time creating an animation with Flash.

Class Notes 01.02.2010

Objectives Learned Today:
Changing a Bitmap to Vector ---> modify ---> bitmap ---> trace bitmap

Frames: individual slot on timeline
- ordinary: can't change; identical to preceeding key frame
- key: can change --> quick key to insert a key frame is F6

Test Movie ---> CMD & ENT

Publishing Work:
create SWF (actual animation)
create FLA (working file)