Today I have finally finished my typography assignment! it took weeks to do a simple 30 second animation of any media which has words in it. This animation was done on flash.
The media I used was the song "Smyphonies" by Dan Black. The 34 second song clip I used is a calm soothing song. So the text I used was simple, stringy wavy text (not hardcore bloody, bold text) the background i used was a simple light blue and green background. But my background wasn't completely plain. I added moving circular objects in the background to make it more interesting. I used about 5 different texts in making my clip, and used over 100 layers! (it took a long time labelling them) i used many tweens, both shape and motion. I also used as much creativity as possible.
My clip represents simplicity, considering smyphonies is a simple calm song. That is why my clip had simple colours, background text, and wasnt very full. I kept it as clean as possible so the typograhy would match the music, which is the main purpose of the assignment.
At the end, the final result came out perfect! with some minor issues, i soon solved them and finished before the deadline. However, if i could change one thing, i would somehow tried to make the animation more eye popping and interesting. But considering my song is simple and cam, it would be hard to add more media to it, without making it to cluttered and messy.(it wouldn't really match the song, considering my clip represents simplicity)
Some problems I ran into in flash was how flash has difficulty n doing shape tweens. When i create a shape tween(even very simle ones) it studders and messes up. My solutions which I found was to add shape hints, just one added fixed it more, however not completley. Otherwise than that, i had no other problems, and my clip went by smoothly.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Alcie in wonderland
I went to the new movie "Alice in Wonderland" the first day it came out. This new version is very different from the cheerful Disney version that was made back before the 21st century. This new version, was not only real people (not cartoon) but less happy and cute like the other version. Considering cartoons are less detailed and are more simple, compared to the computer graphic art generation we live in today, that can create the most out of this world creature and make it real before our eyes.
Now since we are living in the 21st century, we are remaking movies like crazy (king kong, war of worlds, Batman/dark knight, etc.) and now remaking Alice in Wonderland. This new version has a less cheerful perrspective related to the Disney version. Considering The orginal Alice book was meant to be less cheerful and more mysterious.
I loved the new version, the detail put into the characters was outstanding. For the two characters, Tweedle dee and Tweedle dumb, they were made by to large bodies and the face was a real persons face but just place on top of a large circle. The characters were completley changed from the older version. Also the characters in the new version have been given more human like features. Such as the little white rabbit. Who has been given human eyes, and the face seems to be shaped more like a human face.
Now since we are living in the 21st century, we are remaking movies like crazy (king kong, war of worlds, Batman/dark knight, etc.) and now remaking Alice in Wonderland. This new version has a less cheerful perrspective related to the Disney version. Considering The orginal Alice book was meant to be less cheerful and more mysterious.
Contour Drawings in cyberarts
Currently in Mrs. Mcfayden's cyberarts class we are working on a realism drawing, by actually drawing what we see, with many different ways of drawing the contour and shading. The assignment first started by drawing quick sketches of poses, but in blind (not watching what we draw on paper, but the object itself) these quick sketches lasted certain amounts of time, usually from 30 to 2 seconds!
After those, we moved on to drawing skulls. We were challennged to really look at all the detail in the skulls, and draw what we see. Once we became experts, the real assignment came. We were seated in front of a very large display of random items.
Our assignment was to draw 3 sketches of segments of what we saw, and a final 4th drawing of what we wanted to use for our large final piece. After we did the 4th sketch, we moved on to the large canvas plane, and worked on our final piece with value(shading). The final however, has many rules. We have to make sure the resulting image isn't static (boring, drawing in the middle, doesn't make your eyes move, etc.) We have to make the piece interesting and the value has to be done well, and in a certain area of the piece, the value has to be extremely detailed, to really catch the eye.
Presently, I am on the step where I add value to my piece. So far it is turning out good, but it will take time before I finish.
After those, we moved on to drawing skulls. We were challennged to really look at all the detail in the skulls, and draw what we see. Once we became experts, the real assignment came. We were seated in front of a very large display of random items.
Our assignment was to draw 3 sketches of segments of what we saw, and a final 4th drawing of what we wanted to use for our large final piece. After we did the 4th sketch, we moved on to the large canvas plane, and worked on our final piece with value(shading). The final however, has many rules. We have to make sure the resulting image isn't static (boring, drawing in the middle, doesn't make your eyes move, etc.) We have to make the piece interesting and the value has to be done well, and in a certain area of the piece, the value has to be extremely detailed, to really catch the eye.
Presently, I am on the step where I add value to my piece. So far it is turning out good, but it will take time before I finish.
How to import images to flash
Tutorial:
Flash macromedia is a flash software that has the tools to create animation. However from past experiences using flash, it is more used for amateur cartooning, and not the software for actual cartoonists. Actual cartoonists (there job) use a more updated and more detailed easier to use software flash version, than the one we use in cyberarts. However, the flash version we use is more srtaight forward to use, and has simple features that is very easy to learn.
Considering this is a animation software, it focuses more on animation, then the detail in the object being used to animate, (so no dodge tool, burn tool, and artistic special effects are in flash) however, if you have the photoshop illustrater (or other photoshop software) you can export files to flash from illustrater.
To do this, just create a new file on illustrater then create the image using the illustrater tools, which have a much wider variety than flash tools. when you finish the image, go to file, export, and save the image as a "swf" (do not forget this!). After exporting, go back to flash and import the image, then the image will appear in a new layer. This however takes much longer time than in more updated flash players for experts. This is because the illustrater images cannot be "tweend" and means to animate the image, you must change the image little by little back on illustrater and repeatedly exported to create a flash. So it is recommended not to use illustrater for flash for a very large animation project. Instead, use flash tools to create images, and if needed, use illustrater.
Flash macromedia is a flash software that has the tools to create animation. However from past experiences using flash, it is more used for amateur cartooning, and not the software for actual cartoonists. Actual cartoonists (there job) use a more updated and more detailed easier to use software flash version, than the one we use in cyberarts. However, the flash version we use is more srtaight forward to use, and has simple features that is very easy to learn.
Considering this is a animation software, it focuses more on animation, then the detail in the object being used to animate, (so no dodge tool, burn tool, and artistic special effects are in flash) however, if you have the photoshop illustrater (or other photoshop software) you can export files to flash from illustrater.
To do this, just create a new file on illustrater then create the image using the illustrater tools, which have a much wider variety than flash tools. when you finish the image, go to file, export, and save the image as a "swf" (do not forget this!). After exporting, go back to flash and import the image, then the image will appear in a new layer. This however takes much longer time than in more updated flash players for experts. This is because the illustrater images cannot be "tweend" and means to animate the image, you must change the image little by little back on illustrater and repeatedly exported to create a flash. So it is recommended not to use illustrater for flash for a very large animation project. Instead, use flash tools to create images, and if needed, use illustrater.
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