Animation Evaluation

I am overall very happy with my animation, considering it was my first attempt of using flash. However I had to concentrate very hard to think about the order i needed to create things in order to make them work (swf files within animation to be tweened). I do not know the advanced aspects of flash so well, for example in cs5 it is possible to create a frame around a symbol with links like a limb that can then be moved and animated from the points, I also  struggled to figure out the masking tool in the opening scene where the scene becomes coloured, and in the 1st version of my animation a rock falls behind a layer when it is coloured, this was due the mountains being a symbol, next time before attempting a mask I will convert all drawings to symbols. I managed to overcome this problem in V2 by lassoing a section so that the layers would reveal a coloured alternate design.


My audience feedback was generally positive, and comments were made about the comedic entertainment style of the narrative, and were also expressed during the 1st viewing of the animation. Also the drawing standard was praised, however next time i hope to use a graphics tablet because drawing using a mouse constricts the ammount of detail and cannot to some extent live up to hand drawn quality.

I would like  to incorporate sound effects such as gleams as things appear, having said that I quite like the ambience the music track (created by a friends of mine) gave to the piece, it became quite dreamscape and hypnotic in my opinion, then again that may be because it reminds me of the nights spent doing the animation without sleep...

The Magic Paintbrush V2 (final)

The Final verson (with a few tweaks and fixes) such as the rock in the first scene doesnt go behing the hills when it gets coloured, I did'nt notice this and neither did anyone who saw it somehow...Also I corrected Matthew Masons name (extra 't')

The Magic Paintbrush V1 (the version I uploaded as soon as finished)

First time using flash so go easy on me...

 

I will Hopefully upload a better quality version in futre...but it's almost 3am

A Jolly Good Idea...

An Overblown Evil guy design

An Animation Update..

I havn't posted in a while, I think Iv been a bit ambitious here as Ive never used flash software before, but I am striving to make it impressive nonetheless...

...and I hope Im not making it way more difficult than it needs to be.

Flash Practice...A sort of Joker bloke...

The Magic Paintbrush

Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang. He was poor and kind and helped a rich man to tend cattle. He liked drawing and drew pictures everywhere. One night, he dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush and asked him to use it to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush in his desk.
From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field and save a lot of time and energy.
When he saw it was difficult for people to till lands, he drew a cow and the cow came to life. People could use the cow to till lands very easily.
So when he saw the peoples' troubles, he would use his magic paintbrush to help. Then many people knew about the magic paintbrush.
But a few days later, the rich man whom Ma Liang helped heard that the magic paint brush could turn everything to life. He was a bad man so he had an idea to steal the paint brush from the young man. He knew that he could make a lot of money by turning things to life and keeping them, so he sent some people to the Ma Liang's home and took him to the prison. He got the magic paintbrush and felt very happy.
Then he invited a lot of his friends to come to his home and showed them the magic paintbrush. He drew a lot of pictures, but they could not become real. He was very angry and asked some people to get Ma Liang.
When Ma Liang came, he said to him, "If you draw some pictures for me and turn them to life, I will set you free." The young man knew that he was a bad man in the village. Of course he did not want to help him. He had an idea. He said to the bad man, "I can help you, but you should obey your words."
The bad man felt very happy and said, "I want a golden mountain. I will go there to gather gold." The young man drew a sea first. The bad man was angry and said," Why did you draw a sea? I do not want this. I want a golden mountain. Draw it quickly."
Then the young man drew a golden mountain which was far away from the sea. The bad man saw that and felt very happy. He said, "Draw a big ship quickly. I want to go there to gather gold." The young man smiled quietly and drew a big ship. The bad man jumped into the ship first and a lot of his family and friends jumped in too. When the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, the young man drew a large wave and it destroyed the ship. So the bad man and his friends died.
After that, the young man lived with his family happily and kept on helping the poor people. So the magic paintbrush was known by everyone.

I will do this in 640x360 dimensions for widescreen

Concept art for Ma Liang

An alternate design for Ma Liang...or 'Bloke'

Work-in-Progess Cow

Because Im using a computer with an Old version of flah, this is as far as Im going with my motions tweens so far, It will be far easier to do the more complicated tweens on the newer version such as the tail, eyes and head/ears combo.

Test Scenery

Test scene in flash (cropped in flash scene), Below is a working scene with tweens...

Adversary- 'Evil Bloke'

A free experiment I drew using flash because I like the effect of the software, This is a starting design for 'Evil Bloke', Below I have made a verry basic motion tween...prepare to be blown away...

Character test

Photoshop Animation-Zen saying

*Knock on the Sky and Listen to the Sound*

Walk cycle

Here is the final outcome, I added the sound of footsteps and some background noise using a very high quality microphone called a Zoom H1, Here are some audience comments and feedback...

• "Very sucessful walkcycle, and follows the human motion of walking well. It has a quirky feel because of the jerk motion when walking"
• "Impressive use of shading and tone, it makes me emotional"
• "Better than I can do, and it runs smoothly"
• "Its good, but to improve, more frames could be added inbetween"
• "The hair is a good touch, it moves as he is walking"

These are some Basic drawings I did to scan onto flash and add more detail later. To do this I drew over stick men guidelines I also drew just to get the positions of movement, drawing over these on flash after creating them all as equal sizes was essentially useful.
A basic 8/9 step walk cycle guide

Walk Cycle Evaluation 

A few weeks on from doing this walk cycle I can notice many faults, for example the colouring is not as good or precise as it could be by using the right flash tools, the lines are different thicknesses and small things like the right leg changing size.

Doing this again I would know how to use layers more effectively and I would better animate the hair swish, however in my animation i will leave the hair alone to avoid eye-sores, however I may look into it with my extra time if I have any after the narrative is complete.

1st Storyboard

I plan to create the character voices and many sound effects myself to create a unique style, I will also incorporate a background noise capture.

An amazing animation 'Your Face'

This style of surreal exploration greatly interests me...

Anime and Manga

Anime are responsable for some of the biggest japanese franchises in the world such as :

• Dragonball/Z/GT (above)
• Poke'mon (owned by nintendo)
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
• Beyblade
• Gundam wing
• Medabots
• Digimon

And many more, also many feature length films.


Traditionally anime have characteristic stylised propertions such as eyes, also uses blocks of shading as a style, I find this japanese genre quite artistic and beautiful at times. Most anime drawings consist of 2 or more blocks of colour shading and dis proportioned/exaggerated features such as large eyes and small nose, this may be useful for animating sections of the face to create expression...

Betty Boop: HA HA HA- rotoscoping

An early example of rotoscoping-(laying over film)

This is pretty excellent, especially for the time...if you excuse the trippy hysterics mid-way through...

Steamboat Willie-Cel Animation- November 18 1928

This was the 3rd Mickey Mouse adventure but the 1st to be released...therefor was Mickey Mouses' 1st appearance! Also this was the 1st cartoon with syncronised sound!