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1. Nobody knows what the fuck kind of effect you're talking about because you posted a video of a sprite animation with no controls to pause, rewind or fast forward and your description is pretty vague.

2. Common sense doesn't mean what you think it means. Don't know how to use a word? Don't use it because you make no sense when you try.

3. Nobody will help you now because of how you acted toward the first person who tried to help you.

4. Google.

At 6/26/13 06:48 PM, trekopep wrote: Hiya Newgrounds,

So, I'm making an animation with a lot of filters and effects and the like, and my plan was to export it as a Quicktime movie to remove any lag that would've otherwise existed. Unfortunately, when I try, the lag exists in the Quicktime movie too. As in, if I scroll through the movie, I can see spots where it freezes for a bit.

I had it set to putting a keyframe on every frame, but that didn't help.

Swivel would've worked perfectly (it didn't lag or anything), except that because of the number of filters, some of the effects get screwed up when exporting to a swf, and those effects transfer over due to the way Swivel works.

Any ideas? How can I remove lag from a Quicktime export?

I'd suggest exporting and doing effects in After Effects, but that's not very helpful if you are unfamiliar with the program. Here's a few solutions:

When exporting, don't use "When last frame is reached" for stopping the export.

Type in the exact time of your entire animation in the "After Time Elapsed"

Go into quicktime settings and change the frame rate to something funny like 23.976. I can't explain to you why it works, but 99% of the time this is the one thing that fixes the issue for me by just putting in a decimal frame rate.

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Import your SWF into after effects and learn to export from after effects. Sometimes swfs will be properly played in AE, sometimes it won't.
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At 5/2/13 05:25 PM, asb2957 wrote: In my free time, I like to help others or play around with voices. If you have any female characters/young children that needs a voice, why don't you give me something to look at and I could give you little voices to toy around with? :)

Make up some characters and record yourself doing some samples. Upload them and post them here, otherwise a lot of people are just gonna overlook you :/

There are so many...but i'll list the few that I've used today:

Download extensions. There are some extensions that make certain flash menu options into shortcut keys.

There's an extension called Kuler that will help you with color palettes.

You can resize your stage to match your content, so if you have a 2280x2280 stage and have a drawing at 800x600, flash will resize the stage to be approximately that dimension. Just choose the "content" option when resizing.

Always use Graphic, and never movie clip symbols unless you're gonna use Action Script.

Masking. Look up Masking for Flash.

You can Alt + Left click on the lock of a layer to unlock all other layers except the one you clicked on. Same rule applies for changing the visibility of the layer

Exactly what the person above me posted. Double frames are what we call animating in 2s. So essentially, your animation will be playing back at 12 frames per second. However, sometimes you need slow and smooth animation, so that is when you will have to animate in 1s, or single frames.

Well, I can animate, I just prefer to only work on environment for this particular project. I'll do additional animation when needed such as when the primary animator is overwhelmed by too much to animate.

At 4/29/13 04:09 AM, BasedBubbus wrote: @spoydermon
mixummus

@Mismo
peggy

@Squidbit
JokeyMcNaysayer

@Jeffyx
13NBlown

@DarkMatter
Jokey Bravo

@Namisaur
helpfulanimatorguythingpersonn00bl337

What the...why is mine so boring (the most boring in fact)...and that's not even a nickname! What a ripoff. I want a refund

My turn!

(although I am fairly new to the community)

At 4/28/13 09:05 PM, MrShadowflower wrote:

If you don't mind me posing one more question; I've watched a lot of flash animation, always been a fan, and with all that it feels very hard to pin down a "style", or sort of "how stuff should be drawn." Like I love Harry Partridge stuff but he's obviously light years ahead, compared to someone like Oney who's animation seems a lot more "basic?" but still manages to be entertaining. Then I remember years ago growing up watching Legendary Frog, and watching that again is completely different stylistically.

What I'm trying to ask, sort of, is when do you know your stuff is good/well animated/funny, when everything seems so different? Like, I've played guitar for about 7 years, and I know how I am compared to others, even though genres are different. But with animation there seems to be no line and it's quite hard for me to judge by own stuff.

Thank you again for replying guys! <3

Being able to recognize that your animation might not be good compared to others is pretty good. But this is such a broad topic, everyone will probably give you a different answer. But I'll tell you my story.

First and foremost, my style started off being completely dependent on my drawing ability. It wasn't very great at first, but I found styles of exisitng artists (traditional) and animators that inspired me. I didn't copy there styles. No, but I did try to an extent and in the process of trying to imitate multiple styles, I was able to find my own style which consists bits and pieces of other people's styles as well as my own originality.

But that was when I only had 1 style. Nowadays my "style" has a certain consistency in it, but within it I have varying styles as well from all the practice and studying I did on art/animation. My style isn't exactly limited to my ability anymore, but to my imagination.

At 4/27/13 06:07 PM, WittyBaron wrote:

text and stuff

I don't usually see people apologize for anything, but you're not so bad. All is well :)

Before you do limited animation like that, I believe you should practice in some full frame by frame animation first (lines only, no color)

For example, animate the entire body of your character doing a motion, not just the arms and part of the face. Imagine everything as being connected (well because it is) and if you move one piece, the rest of the body is affected somehow.

When your character raises her arm to wave, the shoulder has to move up. The neck and the head can also move up just a SLIGHT bit to exaggerate the motion and because the face is part of the head, the face also needs to move. Don't forget the glasses.

Key Frame Animation:

Try drawing the very first frame of where you want your character to start
Then draw the very last frame of where you want your character to end

Then draw a few more keyframes in between and get your timing right. After that, draw everything in between the two motions, making sure you redraw every part of the body. I think it's good practice

Get the book called "Animator's Survival Kit"

At 4/27/13 03:49 PM, tsukikomi wrote: We need an west coast meet-up. Like in Washington or B.C.

Set one up :). I'll be in the west coast a few times

Hi, although I've signed up for another project, I would like to help with this one as well, but only in creating enemies.

Here is a recent sample of work: https://vimeo.com/64931711

But before I sign on, can I see more of what you're working on?

I haven't tried exporting an swf that loads another swf before.

I suppose exporting as a MOV or a PNG sequence isn't an option because of the Actionscript right?
I can't imagine that you will ever be able to convert something like that into a movie without something that very specifically does just that. Try googling for something like that. If nothing comes up, I'd guess it won't work.

What kind of things did you load from the other SWFs? Can't you adjust your animation so that it doesn't have to do that?

I can do environments or set design. I won't have much available to see online for a while, but I just happened to upload this work-in-progress of a shot to show someone else:

https://vimeo.com/64931711

Do you have any experience in animation yourself? It's taking me literally 11 months to do a high quality 4 minute animation...Unless you're paying someone here at least 20 dollars an hour, it's unlikely you'll get anything more than extremely limited animation at low, low, low,low quality.

At 4/26/13 11:14 PM, WittyBaron wrote:

At 4/26/13 08:49 PM, Blounty wrote: Wow, fuck you.

Animation requires effort and you want people to go out and make your shitty idea on the hopes that you may choose it. What does the animator even get in return?

Do you take me for a fool you dumbass? my friend posted this as a troll. I can animate fine myself and my friend is an ass so go get a life and find something better to do with your life than replying to trolls.

You're kind of an idiot and childish. How would he know that he was replying to a troll? How are you gonna tell someone to get a life when you get so mad over a reply and then bother to tell him to get a life?

At 4/20/13 08:23 AM, BamboLord wrote:

At 4/18/13 10:11 PM, Namisaur wrote:

At 4/18/13 09:32 PM, Pwnidge wrote: Well i get really mad whenever that happens so i delete my tablet drivers and redownload

^

Lots of different possible solutions. I guess you're just gonna have to keep trying until you find one that works specifically for you. But if you only have this issue in Flash, then how about updating Flash? Or maybe they haven't released an update to fix your specific problem for your specific pen tablet yet.

I updated flash, I already updated m tablet drivers, and I lowered the undo limit, but nothing works. It's weird, cause this never used to happen when I was using flash 8 on xp (I actually have the same problem in flash 8 on windows 7 too), and I switched computers because I THOUGHT this one would work better, because it has more ram and a better processor, but nope. Is flash supposed to use a shit load of cpu?

Hmm let's see. Flash doesn't get "heavy" until you're animating with 2,000-3,000 frames or if you have a bunch of imported photos that aren't optimized, then it might bog down your flash too. Before I get into fill and photo optimization, I guess it's important to ask if you've tried using the brush tool on a completely new document to see if it works?

Oh I guess knowing the make and model of your tablet is important information I should have asked days ago.

At 4/18/13 09:32 PM, Pwnidge wrote: Well i get really mad whenever that happens so i delete my tablet drivers and redownload

^

Lots of different possible solutions. I guess you're just gonna have to keep trying until you find one that works specifically for you. But if you only have this issue in Flash, then how about updating Flash? Or maybe they haven't released an update to fix your specific problem for your specific pen tablet yet.

Sorry for double post, but I forgot to add that you might have to restart your computer, or kill the pentablet.exe process in your task manager + reconnect your tablet in order for the changes to take effect.

At 4/15/13 04:33 AM, BamboLord wrote:

At 4/15/13 04:14 AM, Namisaur wrote: What kind of CPU do you have? What's the RPM on your primary hard drive?

Also, have you tried changing the settings via bamboo dock?

I have AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.40 GHz processor and 3 GB ram. The rpm is 7200. I don't think its my tablet, cause it only lags in flash, I can draw in autodesk sketchbook perfectly fine (except the eraser on my pen isn't being an eraser, strange). What settings would I change anyway?

I used to have similar problems, but updating the drivers for my tablet fixed some of that. It didn't solve everything though, so I went into my Pen tablet options and there's a setting for Tip Feel that ranges from "Soft to Firm"

I have my settings maxed out at "firm" and that completely got rid of the trailing problem. <<<-This was actually the PRIMARY solution to my problem. Of course, you don't need to max it, but find something closer to firm to fit your needs.

^What that setting does is change the sensitivity of when your pen tip makes contact with the tablet. If you have it set to completely soft, then when you raise your pen a few millimeters off the tablet to move it, the brush will still follow your pen for a short period of time.

Other factors include lag from autosave and setting the undo levels too high, but these are minor. The primary problem will be the Tip Feel settings.

At 4/13/13 09:51 PM, FleckMyLife wrote: I'm making a short animated film in Flash, and I'm unsure as to how many frames I should continue a shot after the "action" of the shot has ended.

For example, I have a shot where a hand reaches into frame and picks up a ball, lifting it out of frame. Is there a rule of thumb for editing as to how long I should continue the shot after the ball has left the frame?

Now I'm sure with more intense, action oriented scenes, the editing should be quick and shots should end almost immediately after the "meat" of them is shown and done. But what about more mundane, everyday things? What's the ideal length? 1 second? Half? 10 frames?

By the way, my frame-rate is 24 fps.

Thanks in advance.

Actually, within film editing there are conventions for these sort of things. They are only guidelines though, so in the end it's still up to your own natural judgement.

The rule of thumb is to "wait a beat". I know that doesn't help for most people, but it's between half a second and a full second. There are rare times where it takes 3-5 seconds. You just have to keep rewatching and rely on your gut instinct on if it "feels right" or not.

If you ask yourself, "Is this lingering for too long? then you can trim it down. Conversely, "Did I just cut this too quickly?" means you'll want to let it linger for a bit longer.

This all depends on emotional impact I guess. The more action packed it is, the less time you linger. The more emotional and impactful the event is, the more time you want to allow your audience to understand the situation and absorb the sentiments.

For everything in between, then half a second to a second, in my opinion.

I recommend watching a few live action movies (good ones) that vary from action packed, to dramatic and emotional and study this specific area.

What kind of CPU do you have? What's the RPM on your primary hard drive?

Also, have you tried changing the settings via bamboo dock?

At 4/10/13 07:47 PM, NATA wrote:

At 4/10/13 04:55 PM, Emrox wrote: By that logic, I'm gonna say that's probably not allowed, but if you start from scratch, you can probably use the same idea. If you ask me, though, you shouldn't sacrifice a project you've already worked on just to squeeze it into the competition theme.

^-- Basically this. You shouldn't use stuff you've made already, since that gives you an edge on the competition. I know it sucks, but we need a level playing field here. :)

Also, re: multiple entries: No. Only one entry is allowed per animator.
and don't try to submit multiple entries with multiple usernames. It's been done before and it's always really obvious.

Gotcha. I'll see what original material I can animate a couple days before the deadline...since the deadline is on the day of my last Final + senior showcase haha.

At 3/31/13 10:28 PM, Comicdud wrote: I've been trying to develop my animation skills but have little success in getting a good critique. I continue to work on my own stuff but I would appreciate some feedback from you guys. The link is to a mash up of animated bits I've done over the months.
Comicdud demo

Learn to do a proper walk cycle. Then learn how to fake a proper walk cycle. And then finally, learn how to tween a walk cycle in flash.

The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams is a good place to start for proper walk cycles. Faking it will be up to your own discretion. Tweening it can be found on youtube.

At 4/4/13 08:18 PM, SecBedProd wrote:

At 3/11/13 02:33 PM, hopeless87 wrote: Short and simple, I'm a writer who knows nothing about the process of animation. I'de love to collaborate with you amazingly talented people and I want to get it right. When writing for an animator, what should I keep in mind to make sure my submissions are condusive?

What goes into planning as far as screen direction? Environment settings? Action? Are things like outdoor environments harder to do that indoor? Should I avoid explosions because they are difficult to animte?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Also, if anyone has ideas they want to flesh out let me know!

I'm sure someone else said it, but it begs repeating. Don't sacrifice your story for the sake of easiness. If you have a story you believe in, find an animator who believes in it, and they will make it happen.

Despite what I just said, I also agree with this poster. My previous post was for adjusting to the needs of your animator. If you really, truly believe in your story, then make little to no sacrifices with the story itself and find someone who's willing to adjust to your own needs.

1. Keep your writing concise.
2. Everything has a meaning. Don't write any action or dialogue that isn't vital to the story in some way.
3. Minimize the amount of characters.
4. Minimize the amount of difficult scenes per project. Don't have 4 detailed dragon battles in the same project, for example.
5. Sometimes you don't need dialogue to convey a certain message or emotion.
6. Be very descriptive.

At 4/6/13 05:20 PM, Otto wrote: It's because your movements have no anticipation. Robots move suddenly, but humans have a bit of pre-movement. Like the swing back before hitting a ball with a bat, or how you pull your arm back before a punch. Nearly every movement has this, as well as a follow through.

^This. Not only do you require anticipation for the action, your follow through actions are actually too exaggerated and bouncy. If that's what you're going for, then the problem is that the follow through is happening to quickly.

At 4/10/13 04:55 PM, Emrox wrote:

At 4/10/13 10:43 AM, Kpheeyat wrote:

At 4/10/13 06:44 AM, Namisaur wrote: Am I allowed to modify an unfinished, work-in-progress and tailor it to this contest? It's work-in-progress and has never been submitted anywhere and hasn't gotten much of its story done yet.

Yes - if it's tailored under the topic, I don't see a single reason why not.

From my understanding, the reason the topic is in place is to prevent people from using work they'd worked on prior to the competition.

By that logic, I'm gonna say that's probably not allowed, but if you start from scratch, you can probably use the same idea. If you ask me, though, you shouldn't sacrifice a project you've already worked on just to squeeze it into the competition theme.

I should clarify. I mainly want to use the assets from that project, and only a slight piece of the "finished" parts and modify them to the competition. I won't be sacrificing anything because the reason it's unfinished is because it has been abandoned already. There's nothing for me to do with it and no motivation to even finish it as it is :).

Am I allowed to modify an unfinished, work-in-progress and tailor it to this contest? It's work-in-progress and has never been submitted anywhere and hasn't gotten much of its story done yet.