Animation and Flash Drawing

[TrytoAnimate]

Hi guys! I'm new around here, so please bear with me if I sound repetative to the usual questions I've spent months searching through various "Flash help" pages and message boards, and I've never quite gotten the answers that I've been looking for. Recently, someone pointed me in THIS direction and said this was a great place to get help, so I'm going to try this forum out. I'm going to shoot out a few questions here and try to be as precise as possible, so thanks in advance to any brave souls who try to help me .

Here are my goals. I'm trying to create some small animated cartoons in Flash ... similar to those found at http://www.campchaos.com for an example (mostly to prove to my Film and video professor that I can animate.. and because I just like doing animation.) But I just can't get the results I'm looking for in a somewhat reasonable time frame and quality. So, here are some of my questions:

1) After drawing & scanning, and bringing the bitmap into Flash, is it best to use the line tool or the pencil tool and trace the image outlines, or just use "trace bitmap" to get the outlines of the figures? Is there an easier way? Which way is best?

2) With coloring images, why do my lines sometimes change their shape when I am using the paintbucket tool? And sometimes the bucket won't work... even though I'm sure I've filled in all the line spaces. Is there a better way to color images?

3) Does anyone out here have any hints/tricks/knowledge to share with an "Flash-cartoon-animation-virgin" like myself that would help make the creation process not take so long and help me to still get quality movies? (I'm in college... I don't have THAT much free time )

I've been to great help sites like http://www.noogy.com and http://www.ibisfernandez.com , but I am still having some problems getting everything drawn smoothly. If anyone here can help me, I'd be forever in your debt.

Thanks.

-Chris

[phacker]

I usually use the pencil tool, set on a color that's not close to anything else I am going to be using. That way I can make sure that all the lines meet to complete a shape object. I don't worry too much about accuracy at this point. I then fill that shape, delete the outline and then reshape the object using the arrow tool. I get better contours that way. It helps if you start with the basic or main shapes first. This is just the way I work. Hope it helps.

[mad clown]

if you're drawing all images in trace them in adobe streamline. they'll look better and import into flash.

trace bitmap will work well on image with clean lines and fewer colors.. otherwise the files become unreasonably large.

otherwise manually trace.

the bucket isn't filling most likely because the lines aren't connected. under options for the bucket, choose close large gaps.

as far as i know the changing of the lines is a glitch.

creating - try to only change in a frame what needs to be changed, like in cell animation. have multiple layers - one for the background and never change it. remove all bitmaps. that'll help some on size et al.

as for frame rate, the shape tween is a hog on that. consider building a library of any aspects of the animation reused and just placing the instance on the timeline. use motion tween where possible.

happy creating.

[Ibis Fernandez]

1) the easiest way is just to leave the bitmap as is. Is it practical? No not really. Trace bitmap is a great tool for tracing your line work, you can play around with the settings in order to achieve the desired results. What will usually happen is that flash will modifiy your line work as well wich is cool sometimes because it gives the artwork that "Inked by hand with a brush kind of look". No there is no such thing as an easier way or a better way it all depends on you and what you are comfortable with as well as the type of style and look you are going for and of course that you don't dive into animation thinking it's gona be a piece of cake. Personally I like to trace everything by hand as you might have read in my "From paper to Flash" article. I find this gives me absolute control of the optimization proccess from step one. Also you are not required to use black out lines you have a million colors at your disposal, use them. I like to leave my outlines as a darker shade of the same color fill it gives my drwing a pretty look.

This is a screenshot from "Krut and Mojo" a film working on right now, I'm doing it in Flash.


2)Your lines provably change shape sometimes because you might be trying to color using the ink bottle, the ink bottle might have the line width set to a different weight or you might be doing it while zoomed out. Sometimes the paint bucket tool doesnt work because you may be trying to color in the image but you have a different layer selected. Also check your paint bucket fill modifiers, and selectect if you want to paint with close large, small, no gaps... etc. Yes there is a better way to color images. make sure all other layers are locked, torn on the magenet tool and using the arrow tool (black arrow in Flash 5) make sure there are no open gaps in you image., then take you color and fill accordingly. You can selct various regios of your image using the arrow tool and your shift button at the same time and color all st once as well. Gradient fills and their postioning can also be modified.

Here is another screenshot:


3)Learn to draw, I can never stress that enough. create a set of characters and draw the hell out of them get to know them like the "palm" of your hand. try to find a formula that all your characters are based on. For example in The Simpsons all the characters and their design are based on Homer Simpson. If you take Homer Simpson make him shorter and add spikey hair you get Bart Simpson. All your characters (within a series should be based on a formula). Practice as much as you can. Then you can use those characters and animate them. Don't shoot for anything big at first. Try to make a guy walking, then see if you can make him run, what would he look like if he were to go swimming. Use the whole body as a means of expressing the characters emotion, dont just have them standing there like lifeless zombies just moving their moths as their lips move. Look at yourself in the mirror and studdy your own expressions and movements, cartoons are just exagerated versons of this. Animation is defined as bringing something to life, thats what you need to aim for no matter how limited the style, format, or medium may be. A good animator can take rice, clay, and even human beigns and manage to hypnoze them to that "cartoon" reality. If all people see is taking heads or one liners with no real filling you not only have cheated yourself but you have cheated your audience. Dont worry so much about the quality of the animation either, if your story and method of presentation are powerfully filling all will come into place. look at shows like south park or Dragon ball z, the animation quality sucks but a combination of camera angles, story line, driving plotlines, cartoon style make those shows believeable.

Hope it helps dude,
P.S. sorry for the mispellings... been up for a couple of days... Creation is 10% imagination and 90% Caffeination, I always say.

BTW: These are actually the first time i post actual screenshots from the film anywhere so you guys are among the first to get a sneak pek. hehehe

[mad clown]

good post.

let us know when that movie's up.

[TrytoAnimate]

Hey, thanks guys! That really helped a lot. Special thanks to Ibis Fernandez That was great. Well, I'm off to do some work. Catch you later.

-Chris

[a_slosh]

Many of the first Disney animations animated bags of sand, as a way to practice showing emotions through bodies. The bags had no facial features but the animators were still able to show if they were happy, sad, excited etc.

[TrytoAnimate]

Hey, that's a pretty interesting idea. You wouldn't happen to know where there'd be any online examples of that, would you?

-Chris

[a_slosh]

I just remember seeing it somewhere on TV. Try some of the original Disney films.