Animation Final Format Instructions

Hey guys, I just posted videos showing how to put your final animation into .mov format. Check 'em out.

They include instructions on how to export separate video and audio tracks and edit your final movie together in QuickTime Pro.
Hope it helps!

Animation Final Info

Animators,
Miles will be lurking about the lab or in his office (AB 111) at 2:00 on Monday, Dec 7 to collect your animation magic for the screening on Tuesday! Bring all of your files in case something goes awry, but I'd like to get a high quality .mov from you.
Cheers,
Miles N' Such

Cripes! Real live comic colorists at SOU Tuesday (tomorrow!) at 9:30 a.m.!

Comic book-types. Go check this out!!!!

Hi Miles,

The DC Comic Book colorists, Jeremy and John, are going to be at my class this Tuesday, December 1 at 9:30 AM in MA 003.

They'll be showing their work. This will be a good opportunity for students to ask questions about the BIZ, techniques, etc.

Sorry for the short notice. I just got the word. If you can't get word to your classes on time could you send out class emails.

Thanks,
Don

Get "Covered"!

Check out Covered, a blog that posts covers of classic comic covers alongside "covers" of the originals by contemporary artists. Dan Scanlon's take on Kirby's X-Men no. 1 gets my vote. Thanks to K. Silem Mohammad for the link! Make sure you check Kasey's blog for the best use of blurb-based elipses (. . .) I think I've ever seen.

Final Crit for Art 352 Animation

Let's put on a show! If you can get your final projects to me by noon, Monday, December 7, I'll put together a compilation DVD we can watch in Meese auditorium for our final. That will be Tuesday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m. If Meese is booked, we'll come up with an alternate location.

Final Crit for Comics & Picture Books AND Art 450/496

We're on the home stretch, so we'll basically just be doing studio days from here on out. I'll be around to help with technical junk, therapy, and self-esteem issues as needed. Heck, I can even provide feedback on your actual work too. Why not?

Our final critique will be on Monday, December 7 at 6:30 p.m. in MA 101 (and the lab to look at web stuff). We'll make an unholy Frankenstein mix of Comics/Picture Books and Art 450 Special Projects (and 496 Capstone!) I'll bring the pizza. Plan on having your finished product whatever that may be--web site, final dummy, individual illustrations, etc. As always, keep your blog updated! Electronic existence is good for your stuff.

Good Stuff - 3 Cheers For Phil McAndrew

I forgot who sent me this, but I think it is wonderful. Go check out Phil McAndrew's work!http://www.philintheblanks.com/comics/manenough.html

More nifty links

Check out these lovely stop-motion delights.

Muto - A wall painted animation

Strawberry Swing

Final Project - Art 352 Animation

Hey, let's do a final project! Come up with a concept or treatment for the project, put it on your blog and we'll look at 'em on Thursday.

Here're some links that might help get you going:

The Blackheart Gang! Make sure to check out Tale of How and The Making of the Tale of How.

Michel Gagne. Some concepts for Ratatouille, really nice post on pre-production work for Iron Giant, and his nifty silhouette animations which I'm pretty sure were done with Flash.

Good Stuff: LeUyen Pham

I picked up some good stuff from More Fun last week. Including Prince of Persia, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. She's done some beautiful picture book work as well. Those of you considering illustration, ought to take a gander at her website, this interview, and well, uh, this other interview. Good stuff here on college years, getting started in the field, and her technical/creative approach. Read and learn.

How to make a scrolling background! And how to do Swap Symbols!

Here are Miles' videos for making a scrolling background for your walk cycles. Enjoy.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5

Here's a simplified Symbol swap video too -- useful for setting up a character for lip synch.

Jeff File for Animation Class-- lip synch with phonemes and flash symbols

Animation students, click here to download the Jeff.FLA file (if you dare). It's a 9 mb zip file, so it might take a bit to download. Patience and all that. Anyhow, you can analyze to see how I worked with nested symbols and "swapping" for the phonemes. Quality. Regular folk, can click the picture to see the swf file.

How to loop a SWF

1. Create a new layer, call it "Actions" and insert a blank keyframe on the last frame. See below--click on the images for higher res.

2. Make sure you are on the timeline on the blank keyframe you just made. Click Window > Actions
and then type:

gotoAndPlay(1);

Yer done.

Enbed Code For Your SWFs

Here is the embed code for putting up your own swf files:

<object height="230" width="395"> <param value="yourfilename.swf" name="movie">
<embed src="http://yourremotesite.com/yourfilename.swf" height="230" width="395"></embed></object>

DON"T COPY AND PASTE THIS CODE. IT WON'T WORK!!!!

Do download this .rtf that has the code for you to copy and paste!

Enter the correct height and width fit your actual movie size! (look under Modify > Document in Flash to get the dimensions. I've also found it works to make a copy of your movie and make a shrunken version that's under 400 pixels wide.

Walk Assignment

For Tuesday, October 27 have the following up on your blog.

1. A walk cycle including arms and legs.

2. A walk cycle with a panning background.

Remember:

1) Pans look better on ones (24 fps or 30 fps).

2) Arms tend to hit their extremes at different keys than the feet. For example, feet hit extremes on 1 and arms hit extremes on 3.

“Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero” at U of O!

Beg, borrow or steal a ride up to Eugene to check out “Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero” up at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. It's up until January 3rd, so see it; it could change your life. . .

Walk Cycle Demo Videos

Here are the step by step videos on creating a 9 frame stick figure walk cycle in Flash. Enjoy.

Video 1: Contact and Passing keys.

Video 2: Up and Down keys.

Video 3: In-Betweens.

Video 4: Converting the step to a cycle.

Click here to download the .fla file of the stick figure walk before it is converted to a cycle.
Click here to download the .fla file of the stick figure walk converted to a cycle.

New Tween Demo Videos

Classic Architecture, Classic Rock, & Classic Tweens. Here's how to do some ball bouncin' with ease control classic tweens in Flash CS4.

Tween Video 1: How to set up the basic classic tween.

Tween Video 2: Adding easing (adjusting spacing).

Tween Video 3: Adding funky strokes n' blurs. Creating a shadow.

Tween Video 4: Easing the shadow scale tween.

Icycle & A Good Intro To Easing Video

Icycle by Damp Gnat Games - Excellent-looking nude tricycle riding post-apocalyptic side-scroller! That's entertainment.

Here's a good intro video on using the Flash CS4 Motion Editor to control your easing. Turns out the Flash Motion Editor is different from Maya and Max. Irritating. Irritating. Irritating.

Jill Bruhn Time

Here's a link to SOU Art Alum Jill Bruhn's stuff she did for the animation class. Nifty! While you're at it, check out her blog too.