Sketching - the animation

[MissCookie]

I keep seeing online ads where the picture of a house or a person or a desk or something is drawn as we watch. In particular, I saw an outline of a man's head drawn and then the actual picture (photo) of the head fading in to replace the outline. I know how to do the fade in, but not how to do the outline. Is this frame by frame animation? (I know it could be a mask effect or just a block of black being drawn off the stage, but in some other places, often where doodles wander seemingly aimlessly back and forth and interweaving across the page, a linear solution wouldn't work, I wouldn't think.) Does anyone know how this is done? TIA for any info.

[Jujumon]

usually frame-by-frame or using mask like you said, increase frame rate for 'smoothiness'. Actionscripts can also be used to draw lines as well.
-juju

[MissCookie]

Thanks for the insight. You said to increase the frame rate. I usually work at 30 fps. Does it need to be faster than that? And, if so, you would have to increase the frame rate for the entire movie, yes? You can't just change it for a particular time period - or can you? Thanks again.

[vishnuke]

I personally would probably work on it in After Effects and export it to Flash. There are a few plugins to sequentially draw a stroke. But, that's just me.

[MissCookie]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't have After Effects.

[vishnuke]

Yup, that would definitely hinder that process then

Other than that, I'm not sure. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

[Jujumon]

Thanks for the insight. You said to increase the frame rate. I usually work at 30 fps. Does it need to be faster than that? And, if so, you would have to increase the frame rate for the entire movie, yes? You can't just change it for a particular time period - or can you? Thanks again.

Well, there isnt really an 'ideal' frame rate for anything. It really depends on your likings. Just try and see what framerate works best for you. As for your animation you could probably use combination of techniques of frameByFrame, line tweening, and perhaps some masking, to get particular result that you want.

About controlling the fps, you can use actionscript to control it. here is some example I am sure the code can be modified so it will increse or decrease automatically. Im very sorry but this is the only example i can find you in a short time (im at work) I will help you look more into changing fps at particular timeline when i have some free time

[MissCookie]

Thanks again! I just really need to learn how to draw better. That and about a bzillion other things. Do not need to figure out how to modify frame rates just at the moment, so don't work too hard on my account. Appreciate your post.