Please take a look at this...

[Manu Segura]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, also new at flash animation.

I am a spanish boy (so excuse my poor english :-), I was a comic artist, and thanks to my actual job I am doing some Flash lessons. I both wanted to continue my comics (manga style, by the way I'm upping them to my page) and to do something in Flash, just when I discovered this page, and decided to continue my series in flash animated format.

Now, I have done the storyboards for the episode 0, cast is desinged and everything is in its way. Music is being composed too by a musician friend of mine... now I got ready a little animation for the first sequence, and want all of you to check it... it's only 35k.

It's my very first flash animation... and the background is not done yet. So please be kind... :-D

Thanks for listening, and hope to see you here many times!

Manu.

PD: Almost forgot the url...

http://www.espermaoscuro.kit.net/flash.html

[catbert303]

The character looks really good, please let us know how you get on with doing the first episode.

[Manu Segura]

Wow, thanks a lot... I think I can comment difficulties I will encounter (and sure I will find) when doing it... and inform about the progress. But I don't want to show too much, because I want to play with the susprise factor...

One question: Any ideas to animate the left hand so it will look smooth? I want to turn it downwards... but think that usual frame by frame will not look smooth. Any ideas? Perhaps Shape Tweening?

Thanks again for cheering me up... :-D

[Zensho!]

nonono!!
shape tween is evil! okay, maybe not evil, but i certainly don't like them...

frame by frame all the way, hombre.

[argonauta]

is it forbidden to speak in spanish here?????

bienvenido, señor y buena suerte.

your character is good. I think u got a lot to learn bout flash though....

argonauta.-7*

[CNO]

Hello Manu!

Nice character artwork. I don't think shape tweening would work in this instance, because your character's thumb is in one place, and would not be on the proper side of the hand if you just tweened the image. What you might be able to do is draw two more frames for the hand - one halfway, then fully turned around, and use a little bit of tweening in-between those, if it is quick enough.

And argonauta - it's not forbidden to speak any language here, and we're all here to learn about Flash.

[Xcrew]

Originally posted by argonauta
is it forbidden to speak in spanish here?????
bienvenido, señor y buena suerte.

I have no idea what you just said

[xup878]

looks nice, real nice drawing...

only thing i can say to improve it is to make it so the guns clip doesnt slide around like it does... u should include it inside the same movie clip as the gun, that way when it all rotates it should rotate together...

[Manu Segura]

Mmm... thinking about it, I've seen shape tweening is no solution here. Seems I will have to do traditional animation there... and I will try to exchange the static hand for the animated hand.

Please xup878, can you explain me a bit more how would I do about the clip and the gun? Is there any proper way I can link them? For your info, there is no movie inside a movie, it's all in the same timeline... I know if I want to move all the guy (and I will have to do, because the camera will move) I will have to learn how to do it.

pd:Argonauta, you see it's not forbidden to speak spanish, but a lot of people won't understand us.

Muchas gracias de todas formas! ('thanks anyway' if you don't speak spanish ;-)

pd2:And "Bievenido Señor, y buena suerte" means Welcome man, and good luck"

Thanks you all!

[xup878]

i'm real bad at explaining things...
what i mean if u've got 2 symbols aka the gun and the clip...
u can open the gun symbol for editing then make a new layer and simply place the clip on that layer, that way in the main timeline they are both conected as one symbol... if u get what i mean...

flash allows u to have loads of clips inside clips like this, and they can all be tweened and animated as u please even if they are not on the main timeline...

the different symbols are
Movieclip: continues running unless u set action script for it to stop start etc... (good for games)
Graphic: u can set this to 2 options first is just 1 frame.. 2nd will run only when the main timeline is running, unlike movieclips that will run even when the timeline is stoped...
button: i'm sure u know this one...

dunno if i laid it out to basic for u... but like i said i'm not good at explaining.. CNO lil help

[Manu Segura]

Wow xup thanks a lot! Now I understand it... and I'm sure it will look better like that, without that tremor the clip has... Thanks a lot!

Have U done animations like this before? I would like to see them...

C U !

[CNO]

Originally posted by xup878
CNO lil help

Sounds like you did just fine.

One thing to note (XUP touched upon it, but it's important enough to merit repeating) - if you are using a graphic symbol, be sure to make enough frames on your main timeline (or your movieclip's timeline if you're nesting) to see the whole animation.

A movie clip's timeline is a new environment, like a new flash movie within the movie. A graphic symbol is just like a marker on the larger movie container - you can use it to group actions or elements, but if there aren't enough frames to see what you've done in the main timeline, it'll be like they don't even exist in the graphic element (like trying to fill a 1 gallon container with 2 gallons of water - you need a bigger container).

[Manu Segura]

Ok, I get it, and I can say there will be no problem, you will understand when you see it completely... let's see if I can explain. The animation appears in a scene that hat a camera panning too. It starts at the right of the screen, then slowly moves toward left, and finally, when it dissapears by the left, the animation even continues some more frames, so timeline won't be a problem.

The problem is if I will be good enought to make an animation to that hand that doesn't looks like... well, I'll say 'bad', there might be kids looking... ;-)

Just I've never animated nothing :-)

BTW, your advices, besides helping me, makes me think and understand flash better! Thanks!