First Time Flash

JasonElise1983 · Nov 2, 2006

ok, so i've done animated gifs for years now, but i'm taking a class on flash animation (vector graphics in general, so we started with illustrator). This is my first flash animation, and i wanted to get some feedback on it. Any thing will help. Thanks

http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/UbuntuANimation.swf

-JE

eb6 · Nov 2, 2006

I think you have it set at 12fps, which makes for a choppy animation, bump it up to 20 or 30, I use 30.

JasonElise1983 · Nov 2, 2006

yeah, is there anyway to change it without it messing up my timing? Like, will it compensate for the extra frames or will my animation just run really fast then? thanks

decksnap · Nov 2, 2006

It will just run faster. You'll need to compensate for that in your timeline. A good standard frame rate is 24.

tominated · Nov 2, 2006

to compensate for the extra speed, just drag the keyfames (if it is tweened) or just do it maually

CrackedButter · Nov 2, 2006

Just so you know I thought the flash animation worked well and got its message across, I especially liked the stylised people you created for it as well.

I tried to get into flash once, I found it very hard so kudos for your effort.

knackroller · Nov 3, 2006

The orange ball that flies across the globe tends to get "assimilated" as it is the same color....

JasonElise1983 · Nov 3, 2006

thanks everyone. the reason i did the animation at 12fps (which i thought was slow) is because that's what my professor told us to do it at. I thought it was odd at the time, but that's what he said. I"ll probably, drag all my frames out eventually, but not right now. I did add a stop action to it, so it wouldn't loop over and over and over.

Question....does anyone know how to make buttons in Flash? I know to Make an object a button, but i can't get it to work. Any advice would be nice.

decksnap · Nov 3, 2006

There is no reason to set up a flash file at 12 fps. Does your professor WANT your animations to look like crap?

JasonElise1983 · Nov 3, 2006

here is a new one done at 24fps. Hope y'all think this one looks a little better. I also put it on an HTML page, just cause i like it.

http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/ubuntu/

you can just see the animation again at

http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/ubuntu/UbuntuANimation.swf

thanks,
-JE

neut · Nov 3, 2006

JasonElise1983 said:
here is a new one done at 24fps. Hope y'all think this one looks a little better. I also put it on an HTML page, just cause i like it.

Nice ... always package in HTML so it won't resize.

Add some easing and it will be pretty slick.
_

Button: Make a button (F8 - select button). //To make invisible ... double click the button and on the timeline drag the first key frame to the last (the hit state) so nothing is visible in the first three frames.// go back to the main timeline. on the button in the Action Script panel add ...

Example:

Code:

on(release) {
   getURL("http://www.ubuntu.com/", "blank");
}

Your button should now take you to ubuntu.com

_

peace.

MagicWok · Nov 4, 2006

JasonElise1983 said:
here is a new one done at 24fps. Hope y'all think this one looks a little better. I also put it on an HTML page, just cause i like it.

http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/ubuntu/

you can just see the animation again at

http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/ubuntu/UbuntuANimation.swf

thanks,
-JE

Much more slick!

JasonElise1983 · Nov 6, 2006

thanks everyone, i like it better at 24FPS as well.

maybe i'm a total Flash Neub, but i can't manage to get the button to work. I don't really know what i'm doing wrong, it just doesn't work. I did everything you said, and it doesn't give me an error, and it does recognize it as a button, it just doesn't go anywhere. i click it and it does nothing. I'll keep trying, but just can't figure it out. Thanks

-JE

neut · Nov 6, 2006

JasonElise1983 said:
maybe i'm a total Flash Neub, but i can't manage to get the button to work. <snip> i click it and it does nothing.

Hmm, that could be my error. When I first posted I said to use gotoURL instead of getURL ... could that be the problem? That should be it as I tried out the steps myself, but that's never a very good test. Let me know if that was the problem.

Good luck JE'83.

peace | neut

needlnerdz · Nov 6, 2006

Hey nice little animation - my quick critiques:

-it looks sooo much nicer now at 24fps, but the speed of the globe rotating has yet to be adjusted.. spinning a bit too fast..

- when the globe appears.. and the little circles pass over it, id try a version making them a slightly transparent.. so the globe can still be seen behind the orange circle.. (unless the pinkish one passed over it- and still a bit transparent)- their is just no contrast between the orange circle and the globe behind it..

- if your professor is at all buggy about keeping it at 12fps because 'someone on dialup will just see a staggered choppy animation at 24fps' - then impress the snot out of him by installing a modest little preloader at the beginning of it:

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/percentagepreloader.htm

- there are better tutorials out there.. video ones infact (just having a hard time finding the most excellent one that taught me how to make a preloader.. now i just duplicate the guts of it from the demo file i made for other fla's)..

Heres a few good starting places for tutorials on flash.. while theres a lot to learn, theres a plethora of information out there- free too:

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash/index.htm
http://www.actionscript.org/resources/categories/Tutorials/Flash/
http://www.hed.swinburne.edu.au/design/tutorials/flash.php (videos)
http://www.tutorialoutpost.com/
http://www.learnflash.com/ (has some great beginning videos)

enjoy!

JasonElise1983 · Nov 6, 2006

Thanks neut, the button now works flawlessly. you can check it out. not to post the site for the 13th time, but it's http://www.ualr.edu/jrrogers/ubuntu/
Thanks alot, now it's functional.

neelnerdz: thanks fot the crits! I'm always glad to here a good critique (good as in helpful, not good as in complimentary). I made some of the changes you brought, up and they were all things i had been thinking about. I almost liked how fast the glob was spinning, but now that i slowed it down, it makes more sense. I also changed the orb/planet things to where they are all darker when they start and then fade to there color, accept the yellow one which starts darker, then goes way lighter, then eventually lands on it's natural color. Trying for a pseudo-atmospheric perspective look, though it's kind of backwards. Let me know what you think. Thanks for your help.

-JE

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