Re: FLASH: Animation

[Helen Triolo]

Ellis Creel wrote:

> 

> hey- i'm pretty new on the message board, but I was

> wondering if someone could give me a couple hints on how to

> animate figures, specifically, humanoids with 2 legs, 2

> arms. i've been converting eyes/leg/leg/arm/arm/head/torso

> to symbols, but then if i want motion tweens it takes *so*

> many layers and so many keyframes just to get a small

> animation that i'm sure there has to be a better way.  so,

> if anyone could help me out, i'd really be appreciative.  I

> know this is kind've beneath the level of most of you guys,

> but I don't know any other way to learn it.

> thanks in advance,


Hey Ellis.  I don't think your question is beneath any of us!  It took

me a long time to figure out how to get something to move even halfway

realistically (and that's about as far as I got too).  Your method

sounds like the right one--a different symbol on a different layer for

everything you want to have move independently.  But as someone else

(Marc Hoffman, I think) pointed out once, you don't have to get it all

really exact--it's the effect of motion you're after, not an exact

sequence like you might do with a flip book or something.  Make movie

clips of things that will be repeated several times.  Use as little

detail as you can get away with (to keep file size down and your sanity

intact).  Not much in the way of great advice here, I guess--it sounds

like you're on the right track; it just does take a lot of time to do it

right.  Maybe some of the professional animators on the list will speak

out with some hints!


Regards and show us what you come up with!

Helen


PS My one and only animation (which took a lot of time, though it won't

look like it) is Sockman (who my nasty neighbor refers to as "the

thalidomide guy") at http://i-technica.com/flashlist.  A better example

of some great flash animation is Ronnie Sampson's lab guy at

http://www.sfo.com/~viridian/FlashLab.html, if you want some real

inspiration!

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