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CALLING ALL ANIMATORS!
14 years ago
Hey there, folks!
I've got a project in the works which involves animating via Adobe Flash CS5, and I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some tips. I've used flash plenty in the past, though mainly Macromedia Flash 8 (I only recently upgraded to CS5), so I'm suddenly rusty again. At the moment I have a sketched storyboard filled out, and I just need to start refining the animation but I'm indecisive on what method to go with. I've run into a few obstacles with attempted methods, but I was wondering what animating method those out there with experience find easier. The methods and obstacles I've run into are...
FRAME-BY-FRAME
First thing I tried was frame-by-frame animating. I originally did the sketch in this method, but that was only quick easy sketches, not proper detailed stuff like I plan for the finished product to be. Also, I find drawing in flash incredibly irritating. I'm much too used to the smoothness that PaintTool SAI gives me, so seeing all these odd, mishaped lines is rather discouraging.
MOTION TWEENS
I notice a lot of animations out there (And some cartoons as well) made in Flash use a method where characters are simply cut into "pieces" that are moved individually by motion tweening. This was the original method I imagined the animation would be in, but once I attempted it I found it harder than I thought. I ran into the same obstacle as Frame-By-Frame, being that flash is a hard program to draw anything decent in, and even the Line/Pen tool wasn't giving me much better, both of which were rather frustrating to deal with.
OTHER PROGRAMS
Along with the Motion Tweening method, I then tried drawing up the pieces I needed in PaintTool SAI and then importing them as objects into Flash, but that didn't work since Flash ended up lowering the quality of the objects, and some of them had these thin black outlines which made the seams too noticeable. I also tried using the "Trace Bitmap" feature of flash, but that still kept small little smudges of the black outlines on some of the objects, or got rid of the cell shading I'd done.
NON-FLASH ANIMATING
I also was considering simply drawing each frame-by-frame part in PaintTool SAI, but I then realized this would take forever considering I was planning to even have small, subtle animations on characters, such as breathing when standing still or tail wagging. Thinking about it, it could work to an extent, but I haven't yet attempted it due to the fact that it, in theory, would be even more tedious and lengthy than most other methods.
So I'm curious to those of you who've done animating in the past: What kind of method do you find easiest? Should I perhaps even just go back to Macromedia Flash 8 if it's just as capable as CS5?
The animation was planned to be in 1920x1080 resolution (1080p HD). Below is an example image of what I was imagining the finished product would look like:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14597086/Zephyx.png
Thanks to anyone in advance for your advice :3 It's really appreciated and I hope to have this project done soon~
PS: Please don't ask what it is, since I'd like to keep it a secret for now so as to keep the surprise~
I've got a project in the works which involves animating via Adobe Flash CS5, and I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some tips. I've used flash plenty in the past, though mainly Macromedia Flash 8 (I only recently upgraded to CS5), so I'm suddenly rusty again. At the moment I have a sketched storyboard filled out, and I just need to start refining the animation but I'm indecisive on what method to go with. I've run into a few obstacles with attempted methods, but I was wondering what animating method those out there with experience find easier. The methods and obstacles I've run into are...
FRAME-BY-FRAME
First thing I tried was frame-by-frame animating. I originally did the sketch in this method, but that was only quick easy sketches, not proper detailed stuff like I plan for the finished product to be. Also, I find drawing in flash incredibly irritating. I'm much too used to the smoothness that PaintTool SAI gives me, so seeing all these odd, mishaped lines is rather discouraging.
MOTION TWEENS
I notice a lot of animations out there (And some cartoons as well) made in Flash use a method where characters are simply cut into "pieces" that are moved individually by motion tweening. This was the original method I imagined the animation would be in, but once I attempted it I found it harder than I thought. I ran into the same obstacle as Frame-By-Frame, being that flash is a hard program to draw anything decent in, and even the Line/Pen tool wasn't giving me much better, both of which were rather frustrating to deal with.
OTHER PROGRAMS
Along with the Motion Tweening method, I then tried drawing up the pieces I needed in PaintTool SAI and then importing them as objects into Flash, but that didn't work since Flash ended up lowering the quality of the objects, and some of them had these thin black outlines which made the seams too noticeable. I also tried using the "Trace Bitmap" feature of flash, but that still kept small little smudges of the black outlines on some of the objects, or got rid of the cell shading I'd done.
NON-FLASH ANIMATING
I also was considering simply drawing each frame-by-frame part in PaintTool SAI, but I then realized this would take forever considering I was planning to even have small, subtle animations on characters, such as breathing when standing still or tail wagging. Thinking about it, it could work to an extent, but I haven't yet attempted it due to the fact that it, in theory, would be even more tedious and lengthy than most other methods.
So I'm curious to those of you who've done animating in the past: What kind of method do you find easiest? Should I perhaps even just go back to Macromedia Flash 8 if it's just as capable as CS5?
The animation was planned to be in 1920x1080 resolution (1080p HD). Below is an example image of what I was imagining the finished product would look like:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14597086/Zephyx.png
Thanks to anyone in advance for your advice :3 It's really appreciated and I hope to have this project done soon~
PS: Please don't ask what it is, since I'd like to keep it a secret for now so as to keep the surprise~
I don't know how flash is for drawing, though. I might direct you to Pencil , but only because that's what I use. It's simple, cross platform, and effective for frame-by-frame. Someone else may know a better program for that style, though.
Lemme know if there's any more help I could give. :3
also, i recommend frame by frame if the bone tool fails, and set the frame rate to along the lines of 0.2 a second
Pencil's really only for sketching out.
Here's also a nice tip.
Importing PNGs from photoshop will retain the quality. So it's possible to layer a character in that first, then import the pieces.
That and it's possible to put those pieces on a skeleton to make animating a figure a little less difficult.
As for the PNG Importing, that's what I tried doing. I drew up the character in the pieces I wanted in SAI, saved it as a PSD and opened that in Photoshop instead. I then saved each piece individually (So they had their transparent background) before importing them into Flash. But that's when I found that flash was lowering their quality :T
I forget how though.
I'll have a fiddle then, see if I can figure it out~
If it makes it easier to know what I mean, this is the show an style that's been inspiring me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2JrWJfdoqk
Frame by frame, however, definitely looks better. A mixture of the two can give lovely results. For example, modifying a part while it is being motion tweened can give a much more fluid look than if you were to just let it slide. However, you have to be careful when you do something like that because movie clips/graphics can mess up if their scales/rotations are off.
I have only worked with Flash 8, so I really can't say if the newer versions are any more or less of a pain. I'd bet, however, that just for what you're planning on doing, sticking with what you're familiar with would be your best bet.
Don't use the paintbrush or pencil tool to draw anything important, ever. Instead, sketch out what you want (I use Photoshop for this but you could probably sketch with the paintbrush or pen tool) and then use the straight line tool to make all your lines. It might take some practice to do it efficiently, but after you have the straight lines in place you can bend them with the pointer tool to make them curve just the way you want.
This is especially helpful for doing shape tweens, I think they're pretty much impossible otherwise.
I'd be willing to help you out with this stuff any time if you need some pointers, we've already got each others' messengers.
I'll knab you on AIM again though :3
Onion skin is your friend, especially when doing a whole lot of frames. After you finish a section, go back along frame by frame (easily done with the < and > keys) and make sure you didn't leave anything in places they don't belong.
Motion tweens only work on groups or symbols (actually it's been a bit, maybe they only work on symbols). If you want motion tweens to work, piece things out and you'll have to learn how to draw guidelines from online tutorials. Shape tweens are.. strange, and only work on pure vector shapes. I recommend against using shape tweens unless you really know how to use them (because I certainly don't).
TO GET BITMAPS TO LOOK NOT-FUZZY IN FLASH: Import the bitmap in whatever quality you want, go into your symbol library, right click the bitmap you imported, and then you'll see a dropdown menu which you change from the default setting to Lossless. After that the quality should greatly improve, if you want MORE quality, break apart the bitmap (ctrl B on windows) and then convert it to a symbol, and leave it as one.
I've never tried tracing a bitmap before, sorry. But if you want smoother lines, try keeping smoothing on the brush tool at 50%, and be sure to set the pencil tool to "ink" instead of smooth or sharp. The comment about the line tool is definitely a way to do it, zoom in and make small lines, or make lines and use the pointer tool to curve them. Don't forget that clicking the center of the line curves it, and clicking the end of the line moves one of the ends.
If you want to make small movements, the key is to make some things symbols (for example, zephyx breathing you would want to make his brown fur a symbol, the flares on his shoulders a symbol, and his upper arms/shoulders of course) so you can change one part (like zephyx's chest) and slide them over to attach correctly.
Also, if you're interested in getting drawing working, this might not help, but you could try pushing the button that says something like "autogroup" in the toolbar for the drawing tools. It makes everything you draw automatically group, so you can move each brushstroke individually. Just be proficient with break apart (ctrl b) and group (ctrl g).