That ‘frogging’ zoom and pan!
During the drop-in session I made an effort to zoom and pan into my frog animation. At first everything just broke up. So I created another set of keyframes, for all parts that are present at the beginning, at the point where I would have liked the frog to come into view as it was in the rest of the animation. Then I created a second keyframe (for all layers) immediately after that (as a fall back position in case what I was about to try didn’t work).
Then I highighted all the frog parts in their timeline first keyframes and then right clicked on the image itself to convert the whole lot to a symbol. Then I did the same to the smaller frog. This worked much better but I found the lily pad went AWOL So I added the lily pad to the symbols at either end of the tween. This was working okay but seemed to jump at the end of the motion.
I think with more time I could have got this to work. Perhaps I needed to convert the small frog and lily pad to a symbol to start with. Then create the keyframe along the timeline, then expand the initial image and tween it – if I have time I’m going to try this. But it has been a handy experiment in what can and cannot be done with so many parts of the image.
For now I think I will be happy with my frog as it is… perhaps I will make his tummy rumble at the beginning and maybe a smile at the end but panning and zooming will be left aside for this mini-project now.
I was interested to know while thinking about the panning and zoom, though, if layers could be merged down to make them into a less complicated image, thinking this may help but my tutor said he did not believe that was possible. This has also led me to wondering whether other flash animations can be imported into the timeline….
Further reading
I am still trying to find time to read some more about flash outside of our class time, but I have been looking with interest at kids cartoons that I believe may be created with Flash or similar technology and trying to work out how they are done and what if any of it I would be capable of with the knowledge I have now.
This is the website for Franny’s Feet (as I have to watch on weekend mornings with my three-year-old). The animation is quite simple compared to many computer generate cartoons, yet it works (well my boy’s impressed and it has made it on to mainstream TV). It has made me think about what I have to actually create in my final animation and what you suggest to the eye (a bit like the frog’s tongue in the frog animation – there I could not easily make the tongue wrap around the insect so I suggested by breaking up the insect and sticking it in the tongue that was what had happened) and what needs to be actually shown.
http://www.frannysfeet.com
Here’s some things I am looking forward to learning
How do I make it stop and play, and attach it to an email or facebook application, so I can send it to my friends? (I’ve managed to save upload and swf version but I’m not sure how I ended up with a version saved in that format.)
How do I add sound? or video?
Can we use this form of flash to compress videos so that they are easy to play on a website or send to people?
Look at my frog!
I believe I’ve saved a .swf version of my frog animation (pre-tummy rumbling and possible cheezy grin at the end to this ‘share your work’ site … have a look if you like. (For others who want to upload here’s the web address http://www.sharebee.com)
February 25, 2008 at 4:40 pm |
Your frog animation was impressive and demonstrated you had understood most of the key areas we have covered in class. Well Done!