Animating Complex Scenes Tutorial?

[LotsOfEvil]

I'm looking for some tutorials, or even just A tutorial on animating a complex scene, such as a scene with more than one character preforming more than one action.

All Flash animation tutorials focus on walk cycles, but I would like to see a workflow example for animating a scene in which multiple character interact.

Any suggestions are enthusiastically welcomed!

Thanks,

LoE

[Fearlessfullness]

Your right - there isn't enough tutorials on how to set up your cartoon, therefore the advice I'm going to give you might not be the best way to set out your scenes.

I use Movieclips and set them out to the maximum keyframe of my actual scene

Eg. Scene highest keyframe = 350
Then Every MovieClip Highest Keyframe= 350 (or at least most)

Then I sort out my movieclips onto layers, and add tweens when needed

Hope this helps :)

[LotsOfEvil]

So you do all your animation for each scene within a symbol rather than on the main timeline?

[HowardWimshurst]

I usually put all of my animation and backgrounds into a graphics symbol because then you can see the movements from the main timeline. Put your audio on a blank keyframe on a different layer in the main timeline and inside the graphics symbol. Once you have made all of your animation within the symbol then insert a frame on the main timeline to the amount of frames you have in your graphics symbol. Then once that's done insert keyframes along the main timeline(the one with your graphics symbol on it) and move the symbol about the scene according to where you want the camera to point. In some circumstances you can get problems with this like the symbol replays from the start when passing a keyframe but it shouldn't happen if you follow the steps right.

And also I animate one character at a time. It seems to simplify things. Usually I would recommend focusing the view direction on the character that is talking.

I would like to try out other people's methods though

[TouchEverything]

I agree, I would to see other methods.

[LotsOfEvil]

At 5/23/11 01:36 PM, terabiter wrote: In some circumstances you can get problems with this like the symbol replays from the start when passing a keyframe but it shouldn't happen if you follow the steps right.

That's one of the main problems I always run into, and I've never seen a way around it. I always end up having to plug in what frame to display at each keyframe.

[RyanBustersword123]

well i draw the first and last and middle frames first, then i make it smooth by adding frames between

[HowardWimshurst]

At 5/26/11 04:52 AM, RyanBustersword123 wrote: well i draw the first and last and middle frames first, then i make it smooth by adding frames between

yeah thats the best way to make a smooth character animation. I motion tween backgrounds and polygon objects though. This is my example.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/bb89 0a9babb597c499963cbf224f3cb8
It can be very effective at giving things depth.

[LotsOfEvil]

At 5/26/11 04:52 AM, RyanBustersword123 wrote: well i draw the first and last and middle frames first, then i make it smooth by adding frames between

That's great, but the thread is aimed at the process of animation complex scenes involving multiple characters, not how to get smooth frame-by-frame animation. I do appreciate the input but this is the same thing everyone is putting other there.

Can anyone shed some more light on how to manage a complex animated scene involving multiple characters? Do you use a million layers or just one? Do you break apart your symbols or do you do internal timeline editing? Do you use graphic symbols or movie clips? Do you animate all characters together or do one at a time? Do you do one FLA file per scene or put all your scenes in the same file? Etc., etc.

Thanks,

LoE

[HowardWimshurst]

Can anyone shed some more light on how to manage a complex animated scene involving multiple characters? Do you use a million layers or just one? Do you break apart your symbols or do you do internal timeline editing? Do you use graphic symbols or movie clips? Do you animate all characters together or do one at a time? Do you do one FLA file per scene or put all your scenes in the same file? Etc., etc.

This is my advice. It may be wrong so anyone can correct me. I would say to always put a complex animation part (of a single character moving for example) in a graphics symbol. Do this for every graphics symbol and then copy and paster the main timeline you have into another graphics symbol. So everything you have is in one big graphics symbol you can move around and fade etc. Use movie clip symbols for still objects that you wish to motion tween or give a an effect to eg glow or bevel or if you are making a game with actionscript movie clips are needed.
Put your music and audio effects in the main timeline and inside which ever graphics symbol you have which needs lip synching. You should only need to have a couple of motion tweened graphic symbols on the main timeline. Also remember to insert frames within that timeline for each of the graphics symbols because graphics symbols need a frame to run on. As for animating characters one at a time that's up to you. I suggest that you should only animate symultaneously if the characters are phisically interracting with eachother a lot.

With a large animation that uses a lot of capacity it is more likely that it will crash or become corrupted or unreadable. The bigger they are the harder they fall. For this reason I would have a folder with a flash file for each scene. This is a problem for an animation which has one long audio clip running thoughout. In which case I would advise to separate it using an external programme such as audacity or wave pad sound editor, theyre both good and free.

I hope hat's answered most of your questions
now I have a question of my own: is there a way to stream an audio clip over multiple scenes? Im making a music video to an audio track and so far Im on frame 2300 and im sick of having to watch the whole 3 minute animation every time i want to test it!
thanks

[LotsOfEvil]

At 5/26/11 03:37 PM, terabiter wrote:

I hope that's answered most of your questions
now I have a question of my own: is there a way to stream an audio clip over multiple scenes? Im making a music video to an audio track and so far Im on frame 2300 and im sick of having to watch the whole 3 minute animation every time i want to test it!
thanks

Thank you sir. This feels like the first time someone around here has had some straight answers. And you seem to have covered everything too.

I wish I could help you with your audio question, but I can't. You might want to start a new thread about it so it gets more attention.

Do you have anything up we can take a look at? I've got a few of my own but their kind of primitive.

Cheers,

LoE

[HowardWimshurst]

this is some random stuff i found in my dumping grounds. Some of the clips are old.

this uses frame by frame and motion tween
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f662 d1a2d8b8120a20b706de7bb3e194

this landscape uses motion tweening
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/da0f 4b7e45fd2ab11e56cdee4d30c7fc

frame by frame animation for a 100frame colab entry
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/c5e1 ba97bf1e3de7ee1a352f78e8a3a6

Also you can have a look at the movies I have on my user page.

[LotsOfEvil]

Here's a site with a ton of tutorials for Toon Boom Animate. Very detailed, and shows the whole process of drawing, rigging, creating backgrounds, animating, and much more. It's not for Flash but the ideas can translate.

[LotsOfEvil]

Oops, here it is...

Toon Boom Detailed Animation Tutorials