Flash Animation Questions

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Anyone a flash expert?
I have just been learning so that I can add 'flash animator' as a string to my bow.
So far it seems pretty time consuming. I don't know if this is normal as I have nothing to judge it by.
Took me an evening to photograph my daughters various body parts and turn her into a flash puppet. Well the photo bit was easy, but cutting it all out in photoshop and then constructing it as 'doll' with bones, and organizing it in flash took quite a while.

How much are people willing to part with by the hour for this kind of work. Well early days yet, but hopefully I can put it to good use.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

You have a problem

the boom is over.

there are a lot of flash people out there and the market is shrinking like a mofo

i'd find a better animation program that exported mkv or something simular

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

You have a problem

the boom is over.

there are a lot of flash people out there and the market is shrinking like a mofo

i'd find a better animation program that exported mkv or something simular

Oops really?
What programmes are people using?

. . . er, and whats MKV?

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Yeah the boom in apple mobile devices really negatively impacted the flash market.
It's not that there isn't a flash market it's just there a load of old pros who are better than you.

unfortunately i'm not an expert on animation programs. what i mean was more H264 more than MKV

MKV is a nice container that holds stuff like multiple h264 video channels as well as subtitles and audio tracks

Video animation may well be superior to flash animation as the current market is leaning towards video not flash

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Any animation program that exports good video is probably a better long term solution than flash

 

[mr steev]

Check out ToonBoom Studio for 2d computer animation (you can manipulate bitmaps too, bit it's designed for vector).
I'm sure you could find a copy on the web to 'evaluate'

 

[RoyReed]

You can still create animations in Flash if you want and export both as SWF and HTML5/JS/SVG using either Swiffy or CreateJS. Not all ActionScript gets converted correctly so any programmatical stuff would need to be tested, but 'normal' animations convert quite well.

Any animation program that exports good video is probably a better long term solution than flash

Yes if it's straight animation, but not if it needs any type of interaction.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

So flash is not great for we animation anymore?
That was only really a bonus anyway. I think I want to look more at animation programmes in general. I bet flash is not the best tool. It's not exactly intuitive.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Yeah the boom in apple mobile devices really negatively impacted the flash market.
It's not that there isn't a flash market it's just there a load of old pros who are better than you.

unfortunately i'm not an expert on animation programs. what i mean was more H264 more than MKV

MKV is a nice container that holds stuff like multiple h264 video channels as well as subtitles and audio tracks

Video animation may well be superior to flash animation as the current market is leaning towards video not flash

Are H264 and MKV just types of video? I mean if I export a video I can convert it to MKV or H264 in any other program can't I?

It's true there are a lot of old pros that will no doubt be better than me, but I do a lot of itty bitty jobs for TV companies and being able to say I can do small animations for titles or other on screen graphics is not going to hurt.

 

[elbows]

Yes they are just video formats. I would forget that particular tangent of the discussion for now.

I would forget flash too. Start messing around with Adobe After Effects instead.

For example IK Character animation:

http://www.itsartmag.com/features/ik-character-animation-in-after-effects/#.UWrGKaXvYso

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Yes they are just video formats. I would forget that particular tangent of the discussion for now.

I would forget flash too. Start messing around with Adobe After Effects instead.

For example IK Character animation:

http://www.itsartmag.com/features/ik-character-animation-in-after-effects/#.UWrGKaXvYso

Interesting.
I have after effects. I have only used it so far for silly video effects, I have found it a bit of a bugger to jump from premier into AE.

 

[Firky]

How 2001.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

bah.
All was well, but today I had a crack and it just seemed to collapse. The flash program that is. It just stopped playing ball. It leaves all layers in any group of symbols on all the time and when you actually export it has horrible dirty trails.
I think I am just going to jump into after effects instead. Shame about the bone tool though, that was cool.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Hells yeah!
After Effects!
Ok this is much easier and better. Photoshop and after effects.
I have just got to learn camera angles and perspective now and I am pretty much on top of everything I need to know for the moment.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Have to say I don't know anyone who's hired a 2D animator in a while. Perhaps it's an industry thing.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Have to say I don't know anyone who's hired a 2D animator in a while. Perhaps it's an industry thing.

Well I am just learning for myself initially.
Also quite a few jobs that are in my field always ask for After Effects skills as a bonus.

Being able to create title sequences will be a bonus for me, but probably not something I can just walk into.
I might be able to start off as a 'cheap option' on a job I might already be working on.
Either way, learning animation isn't going hurt and it's fun.

 

[alsoknownas]

It's true there are a lot of old pros that will no doubt be better than me, but I do a lot of itty bitty jobs for TV companies and being able to say I can do small animations for titles or other on screen graphics is not going to hurt.

If you're doing stuff for tv then After Effects is deffo the way to go. Learn the basics first though (compositions, pre-comping, nesting, etc.) or you will develop bad habits and tie yourself in knots if your project gets complex (which it will one day, believe me).
Lots and lots of video resources out there for learning After Effects, but it is a massive, powerful beast.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

If you're doing stuff for tv then After Effects is deffo the way to go. Learn the basics first though (compositions, pre-comping, nesting, etc.) or you will develop bad habits and tie yourself in knots if your project gets complex (which it will one day, believe me).
Lots and lots of video resources out there for learning After Effects, but it is a massive, powerful beast.

Yes. Am doing all that now. I keep thinking I am on top of it, then I watch an on line video which takes it into another dimension.
One thing at a time or I will never get anywhere.
Today I made a paper doll, scanned in all it's parts, photoshoped it and dropped it into AE to use as a test puppet. I have it lip syncing to a song my daughter sang. Lots of nesting going on, but not really a complicated puppet. I learned the way to animate mouth shapes from an online tutorial, but there really really has to be a better way. In fact I can already think of one. Well this is a test I suppose.

I think I have the basics sorted apart from perspective and camera angles.
I'll finish lip syncing, then animate a walk and stuff, then I'll start worrying about placing the doll in a background with depth and stuff.

It's all a bit time consuming as I find my feet but it looks incredibly useful and a lot of fun. Right up my street. Wish I had gotten into it years ago.

 

[alsoknownas]

Yes. Am doing all that now. I keep thinking I am on top of it, then I watch an on line video which takes it into another dimension.
One thing at a time or I will never get anywhere.
Today I made a paper doll, scanned in all it's parts, photoshoped it and dropped it into AE to use as a test puppet. I have it lip syncing to a song my daughter sang. Lots of nesting going on, but not really a complicated puppet. I learned the way to animate mouth shapes from an online tutorial, but there really really has to be a better way. In fact I can already think of one. Well this is a test I suppose.

I think I have the basics sorted apart from perspective and camera angles.
I'll finish lip syncing, then animate a walk and stuff, then I'll start worrying about placing the doll in a background with depth and stuff.

It's all a bit time consuming as I find my feet but it looks incredibly useful and a lot of fun. Right up my street. Wish I had gotten into it years ago.

That's pretty good going! Good thing about AE is that it's industry standard, and can take you in lots of different directions.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

That's pretty good going! Good thing about AE is that it's industry standard, and can take you in lots of different directions.

Yes it's jolly good fun, I don't have a huge amount of time in the day to dedicate to this but I would like to learn more.
The best way for me to learn is in a practical way I think, so I would like to take my boring lip sync puppet and make it do more and interact with it's environment in a way that will teach me some useful techniques.

I have posted my dull 30 sec lip sync that I have already done on a new AE thread (now that one about flash is a bit redundant).
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/after-effects-animation-questions.309683/