Tear it up.

Working on a little effect for an animated book. Just ripping paper... I've simplified a few things as it happens quite quickly and the eye makes up for things that aren't really there.

Let me know your thoughts.

Walking

I've been working on the walk of the Hairy Diary girl and came up with this little gait... almost dance like. Not sure I'll stick with it but I like it. Let me know what you think.

You'll also notice the usual Flash CS5 export to Quicktime problem... yep, artifacts. Its a known issue and very VERY annoying. There are ways around it check out my next post.

Animation test

Working on the the character form My Hairy Diary and working out how she might move and how her hair works. This is a really small test, just to get a feel. Let em know what you think.

Hairy Diary moves into the digital realm

I have been preparing my character form "The Hairy Diary" from pencil (Coloursoft) to digital. ALso been playing with backgrounds, more for feel and colour than actual situations. She is being prepared for animation and I working on rigging her.

Animation for Kilimandjaro

Just did a simple little animation for my wife's mother. 

She is climbing Kilimanjaro and raising money for Mira and organisation that "works to help disabled individuals lead their lives independently as functioning members of society. We do this by providing dogs bred and trained to respond to their adaptation and rehabilitation needs."

Good luck Marie Claire...

Here's the link to the animation ~ http://www.youthebiscuit.com/marieclaire.html

Animation in an App ~ Task Dude is out!

Well at last the anti procrastination app is out... took 10 long years of distractions... No not really.

I did the illustrations and animation for this neat handy little app. I think its a great idea as we... OK, I always need an elbow in the ribs to get back on track. You can download the app here ~ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taskdude/id428891160?mt=8&ls=1#

And the developers web site is here ~ www.inspirapption.com

Hope you enjoy it!!

Artwork

Another collection of artwork done in Flash. Playing with characters, scenes and props.

Characters and Scenes

Here's a little mix of what I've been doing for Whaang.

All Flash, vector based graphics, super lite...

Backgrounds

I've been developing some backgrounds for an online comic client and thought I'd share some ideas. Created in Flash.... they are also designed to give a feel of a place where something could happen. I feel its always the ordinary where the extra-ordinary happens.

Flash Artwork

Here's a little look at a couple of characters I've been working for Whaang.. should be going live soon, very excited about it. Users can choose backgrounds or situations, then drop in characters with different props to create there own comic stories, its a lot of fun and a great concept.

Characters

Been playing with some seaside characters for a online book I'm animating thought I'd share a few of them. Coming out as an interactive book about seahorses with Tumblebooks.

Characters

Fish in Flash

Flash CS5 icon play time....

Playing with the new CS5 icons and banner... Just seeing how it would look if it were me. Glad its not me to be honest.

duplicateMovieClip.... where did you go?

OR ... there really is no duplicateMovieClip in AS3. So where do you go and what do you do? I used this alot in AS2, great for developing organic animations and out of synch, natural effects. so I was a little lost in the beginning. Thankfully there are lots of far more talented people than me about so stand on the shoulders of giants to help you go further.

There are many options like this from ~ Senocular ~.  The I came across this at ~ Mr. Doob ~ So clean and simple. I really like it, although it duplicates objects/swf's from outside your file, for me not a problem. You just have to keep your assets in good order. He has some great lab works to play with as well.

If you search there are many ways round it, seems a shame to lose such a useful tool, but I guess its out shone by everything else that AS3 has to offer.

Character Animation.

I've been loving the bones tool in CS4 AS3 and have been able to clean up some character designs.

Links to the animation coming soon.

Characters to animate.

Here's another in that same style... a butterfly that makes me smile already.

Characters.

Just been playing in Flash and creating some characters to animate. I like the feel of these sketches not too clean and not too rough. Bright and colourful and quirky.

Bird nest.

InterActive Books

I've been working on developing some interactive educational books for Tumblebooks. Its been a great project and lots to work out. The key is always working out the way to show so much information in a simple clear and understandable way. Using standard symbols and expectations already brought on by the majority of internet sites is a good way to make users feel at home and give them confidence to explore further.

Dolphins is almost finished...

Here's a little foot note for the Quicktime post... I found a great app called SoundConverter. Appropriate as this is what it does. BUT, what it does for me is convert PERFECTLY, with many choices, .swf to MP3 (and more).

Created by Steve Dekorte. The OSX version is free for files under 500K and only $14 for a license. Support small business and smart people. Thanks Steve.

Great bit of software creation. Get it here ~ http://dekorte.com/projects/shareware/SoundConverter

Flash CS4 and exporting to Quicktime

I know I'm not the first to have this issue... in fact I think its been around since CS3 but I've been having problems exporting Flash movie to Quicktime.

But lets take a step back because originally all I wanted was the sound files. I'm running CS4 on a Mac and I haven't got the original sound files. My first step was to go to the library and right clicking (CTRL Clicking) and using the 'edit with...' I then use a fantastic little app called Switch. It converts everything (Sound wise) to almost everything else and if you pay, to everything else. Its very simple clean app. for MAC and PC ~ http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html.

Anyway I digress.... the "edit with " approach only works if you have the original sound files... which I didnt. BUT wait, there's the obvious way, I hear you cry... just 'export movie' and choose WAV and there you go.... Oh no no, not if you have a MAC... its true!. It doesn't exist!! If someone can enlighten me to this incredible omission, I'm all ears.

So, next step export to Quicktime and then rip the sound out... actually I have the option just to export Quicktime sound, GREAT I thought. No said my mac... an error occurred. No number, no excuses, no info just an error! To cut a long story short here's what to do if you encounter many different versions of the same problem... and I'm still not guaranteeing success.

Instead of exporting to the last frame, use the time function.... divide your frame numbers by your frame rate to give seconds and then work out your minutes etc.... I have heard that it might be better to make it slightly longer that the actual movie as it can still hang. It fixed my errors and I used the exact time (Lucky me : ) ).

Using the “Quicktime Settings….” you can switch to Sorenson, with specific types of screen settings, this will help solve the hang/error.

Also if you have stop() action in the main timeline this might cause Quicktime to ... stop ! Playing with Quicktime’s compression settings can solve this. So make sure you don’t have a stop() action in your main time line that prevents the play head from getting there.

More fun and games with our beloved Flash soon....

Martin