output size

I should test the output to see how my animation will look. Mainly to see how much detail I need to put into the small things like line weight or stroke style were applicable.
I most likely will get a tv or monitor to display on.

An easy way to test this is to create a vector image, and display it on the spare widescreen via my PS3. That TV would be the largest display possible, so if the images look good on that, I will be fine.

It will also be interesting to see what happens with transparent images. = black

rough room size: 3x4x2.8

animatic test

A rough test to see how troublesome his tail is to animate.
> link <
Easy in free hand, but I also need to animate it with sharp curvy lines to see how much longer that takes.

The characters in the animation in this post look great drawn free hand, contrasting with the sharp backgrounds.

1) animate every frame (similar to rotoscope)

OR

2) draw keyframes and use tweens

I need to do some more tests to see how long it takes to create a nice movement with each method and then compare them to see which looks better.

Tail animation using method 2: > link <
Head animation using method 2: > link <
I needed to put the head/horns on different layers to make it eaiser, so now that I know the best way to do it, it shouldn't take as long the next time.

maximum mood with subtle animating

Nice animation that achieves a nice mood with subtle animating.
The most notable element I saw while watching this, was the sense of depth.
-Slow camera movements through 3D looking space (ex. room)
-Foreground/main/background moving at different speeds for increased depth.

Ways in flash to show depth with flat characters/landscape:
-Foreground/main/background moving at different speeds.
-Layers lighter the further back in space they are.
-Blur filters (possible to gradient blur?)
-Shadows + light.


Shannon helped me to achieve this in photoshop. If I can't find a way to do this in Flash, I will go back to photoshop and try to improve the quality to vector standard.

mammoth concepts

mammoth layers:
-overlap lines
-tusks
-brown gradient
-fur texture

At the moment mammoths take up 4 layers, but I could cut it down to 3 if I combined the brown gradient + fur texture.
As you can see from the bottom right mammoth, the gradients throw off the overlap lines, so i'll test it with flat colour instead of gradients which should solve this.
I have used 4 different shades of the fur texture, but you cannot see it through the brown gradient. I'll need to test this too.


I took out the gradients and replaced them with varied flat colours.


Fur comparisons.
This shows that the texture colour doesn't matter at 10% opacity as much as I thought.
For ease I will use each box of the the second big row as jpgs and import them to the flash library.
This way I same time and not have to duplicate and modify into an extra layer.

using the theme within materials

using every part, no waste

digital practice vs traditional (ex.copy paste/rotate/skew.etc)
reusing/recycling elements
site setup - using canvas/mammoth

demon development

Not sure on which one to use yet.

site location

While looking for a space for site in painting I was directed upstairs to the student area, small rooms each with a window + wall socket. One of the teachers said that they should be availible for site.
The spaces could seat around my target 6 people and I can easily cover the window if needed.

I guess the file will play through a computer/dvd player.
I most likely need to loop the animation, I wonder if there is a way to do this with actionscript/programming.
edit: You cannot achieve infinite loops in actionscript because it crashes the flash player.
So I will have to loop it in the timeline.

edit: After a group crit discussion, I realised that a short loop will be more likely to be watched all the way through, rather than one with long credits.
For example if a person enters the room half way through, and has to wait ages to see the start, they won't stick around.
But if the animation loops quickly, it is much more likely the audience will see the whole animation.

So the casual audience will stay to watch as long as the section they enter upon is is engaging, which I think any part of the caveman/alien interaction will be.
If I saw two radically different characters fighting/taunting/etc, I would want to know why they are doing so.