My flash work in progress

[sfox8]

Well, since NG Alphas doesn't look like it'll becoming back anytime soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post my w.i.p. http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image =eternalinstantcs3eu0.swf&width=640 I've got more done by now, but it's taking a lot of self control not to tween the characters and to stick to frame by frame.

I was also wondering if anybody has any good compression tips? I'd rather not sacrifice the image quality too much (so I want to stick with the gradient usage and little details), but I'm already at about 1,000 frames and I don't want the load time to be humongous when the animation is actually complete. Does using graphics instead of flash fx like blur and glow help?

[ShortMonkey]

Bloody hell those graphics are shit-hot. Great work!

And using filter's/effects in Flash would take up less space than importing an image with the effects added to it if that's what your saying. Either way, awesome work there. Gee, Flash standards have gone high... too high.

[swiftstylerX]

At 6/27/08 12:51 AM, ShortMonkey wrote: And using filter's/effects in Flash would take up less space than importing an image with the effects added to it if that's what your saying.

It also completely lags and rapes the flash if there's too many effects, so it is never a good idea.

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 12:51 AM, ShortMonkey wrote: Bloody hell those graphics are shit-hot. Great work!

And using filter's/effects in Flash would take up less space than importing an image with the effects added to it if that's what your saying. Either way, awesome work there. Gee, Flash standards have gone high... too high.

Thanks! Glad you like it then. :)

So.. we have a split. Which is better then? Graphics or effects? I can use whichever one, but I need one or the other because I'll have to use quite a bit of blur and glowing effects throughout the animation.

[swiftstylerX]

At 6/27/08 01:09 AM, sfox8 wrote: So.. we have a split. Which is better then? Graphics or effects? I can use whichever one, but I need one or the other because I'll have to use quite a bit of blur and glowing effects throughout the animation.

Effects = Less space, more lag.

Graphics = A little more space if it's intense graphics, but can actually take up less space for small effects, a lot less lag.

I'd say test it in another .fla first with one of the scenes that requires the effects, and see which works out better for you. By the way, the flash looks amazing.

[Cthun]

Only part when it lagged for me was when it faded in.
Rest was fine. Its a great project great effects a lot of imagination.

Good job!

[Ultimate7777]

This looks really good. It's so clean and peaceful. It reminds me alot of Etoli's work.

I'd just use the effects instead of importing graphics. It's a lot less work, and the result ends up being about the same.

I can't wait to see this finished.

[DarkHabit]

Reminded me of story of khale, it looks real good, too good...

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 01:49 AM, Ultimate7777 wrote: This looks really good. It's so clean and peaceful. It reminds me alot of Etoli's work.

I'd just use the effects instead of importing graphics. It's a lot less work, and the result ends up being about the same.

I can't wait to see this finished.

Thanks guys. And yeah, I'm pretty familiar with Etoli's animations. In fact, a week or so ago I was thinking of scrapping the whole project because I didn't want people to draw comparisons between this opening sequence and Etoli's "Pandora's Book" movie. We also have a similar animating style (which is not on purpose, but I tend to try to make my animations look like my artwork, so that may be where our styles meet). Hopefully people won't rate me down because of a few similarities though. =]

Thanks again! And I guess I'll go with effects and see how it goes then. It'll be easier that's for sure.

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 02:02 AM, DarkHabit wrote: Reminded me of story of khale, it looks real good, too good...

And wow, I had never heard of Story of Khale before. Thanks for letting me know about that. The animation and style is superb. I'm now an instant fan haha.
I guess I gotta step my game up even further now!

[DawnOfDusk]

I could watch this all day...

This is the type of movie that invokes all types of people to just stare in beauty and awe, and it's pure greatness.

Thank you.

[HellBentGoose]

Nice drawing(s) man! Can't wait to see the real thing!

The only thing that I thought that needed to be added was the kid/guy blinking; make it more real, you know?

Other than that, great job!

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 02:41 AM, DawnOfDusk wrote: I could watch this all day...

This is the type of movie that invokes all types of people to just stare in beauty and awe, and it's pure greatness.

Thank you.

Wow, I should be the one thanking you haha. So yes, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

And yeah don't worry, he'll have more organic movements. I'm still trying to figure out a better way to do that scene with him and the dragon sitting by the tree. I'm not liking the composition and it seems too unnatural looking.

[VinceChavez]

At 6/27/08 12:45 AM, sfox8 wrote: Well, since NG Alphas doesn't look like it'll becoming back anytime soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post my w.i.p. http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image =eternalinstantcs3eu0.swf&width=640 I've got more done by now, but it's taking a lot of self control not to tween the characters and to stick to frame by frame.

I was also wondering if anybody has any good compression tips? I'd rather not sacrifice the image quality too much (so I want to stick with the gradient usage and little details), but I'm already at about 1,000 frames and I don't want the load time to be humongous when the animation is actually complete. Does using graphics instead of flash fx like blur and glow help?

Wow those graphics are simply amazing! I seriously can't wait until you finish this. I think it's on the same level of the Bitey of Brackenwood series

[Uberaptor]

It's really great. But it might get stolen. (MIGHT) and placed on a another site. It lagged but it was great. Kinda reminds me of Adam Philips work (KINDA).

[Seltzer]

At 6/27/08 04:12 AM, VinceChavez wrote:

At 6/27/08 12:45 AM, sfox8 wrote: Well, since NG Alphas doesn't look like it'll becoming back anytime soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post my w.i.p. http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image =eternalinstantcs3eu0.swf&width=640 I've got more done by now, but it's taking a lot of self control not to tween the characters and to stick to frame by frame.

I was also wondering if anybody has any good compression tips? I'd rather not sacrifice the image quality too much (so I want to stick with the gradient usage and little details), but I'm already at about 1,000 frames and I don't want the load time to be humongous when the animation is actually complete. Does using graphics instead of flash fx like blur and glow help?

Wow those graphics are simply amazing! I seriously can't wait until you finish this. I think it's on the same level of the Bitey of Brackenwood series

Hah, that's funny, I thought it was too

what you have so far is amazing, and you'r style seems origonial to me.

Just as a question, and this may sound noobish, but could you outline your process a little for me?

..I can only hope I'll make somthing this well one day lol

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 06:40 AM, Seltzer wrote:

At 6/27/08 04:12 AM, VinceChavez wrote:

At 6/27/08 12:45 AM, sfox8 wrote: Well, since NG Alphas doesn't look like it'll becoming back anytime soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post my w.i.p. http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image =eternalinstantcs3eu0.swf&width=640 I've got more done by now, but it's taking a lot of self control not to tween the characters and to stick to frame by frame.

I was also wondering if anybody has any good compression tips? I'd rather not sacrifice the image quality too much (so I want to stick with the gradient usage and little details), but I'm already at about 1,000 frames and I don't want the load time to be humongous when the animation is actually complete. Does using graphics instead of flash fx like blur and glow help?

Wow those graphics are simply amazing! I seriously can't wait until you finish this. I think it's on the same level of the Bitey of Brackenwood series

Hah, that's funny, I thought it was too

what you have so far is amazing, and you'r style seems origonial to me.

Just as a question, and this may sound noobish, but could you outline your process a little for me?

..I can only hope I'll make somthing this well one day lol

Thanks for bringing up the stolen thing. I know there are ways to save swfs so I'm going to put my mark credit on it right away and update the file.

And thanks guys, I'm really amazed you all are liking it so far.

As for my process, do you mean animating part or the art style part?

Well I basically just use a lot of gradients to make things feel more organic. Then after filling the lines with gradients, i choose a color a bit darker than the darkest color in that specific gradient and do the shading. I don't use grads for everything. Just the more focused areas where people will definitely be paying attention to. That's basically what I did for the tree and the character. To add details, I just zoom in about 2 or three times and draw from there, using either the first or second size brush. The key is making things feel organic and blending well, so just playing around with shading and lighting can give you the result you want. =]

And animating is just tween and frame by frame so far. Nothing special. No masks, nothing. Hope that helped a bit. I may include a short tutorial as a bonus feature in the final version.

[Resolution]

It's obvious you have a lot of raw talent, and also a lot of drawing skills which really show in the work in progress. I thought that the dragon at the beginning was especially good, and it would be nice to see if your character animation is as good as everything else.

But whoh, it's not everyday you get something of that standard come along, so well done and PLEASE keep on animating, never give up :D

[trash-can]

Wow. That looks freakin amazing so far. How long did it take?
Cant wait to see it when its done!

[sfox8]

At 6/27/08 12:36 PM, Resolution wrote: It's obvious you have a lot of raw talent, and also a lot of drawing skills which really show in the work in progress. I thought that the dragon at the beginning was especially good, and it would be nice to see if your character animation is as good as everything else.

But whoh, it's not everyday you get something of that standard come along, so well done and PLEASE keep on animating, never give up :D

Thank you. :) I've actually gone back and redone the character animation a few times already just to make sure I get it as good as I can so hopefully it turns out well.

trash-can: I started it late last year but had a hard drive crash and had to pretty much start over so I've been working on it on and off since about January to early February.

[PunkRock01]

holy crap man
if I could describe the graphics in one word:
sofreakingamazinglykickassgraphicsandani mation
Hehe its all one word Ill de-breif
so freaking amazingly kick ass graphics and animation
-------------------------------
Rock on man cant wait to see the finished product

[sfox8]

hehe never heard that word before. Thank you. :D

[PunkRock01]

Yep
No problemo man
PM me when you have it finished

[swiftstylerX]

At 6/27/08 12:56 PM, sfox8 wrote: Thank you. :) I've actually gone back and redone the character animation a few times already just to make sure I get it as good as I can so hopefully it turns out well.

I just re watched it, and have one little criticism(which is hard to find in something so beautiful as this). When the camera is panning on the kid and the dragon(?), it looks like they're floating a little bit. They move too far over, when the background is barely panning, so it looks as if they're sliding along the ground.

[Chaz]

I think the best thing to compress is the music, because that is usually a fairly large file and when you lower the quality on that it brings the whole file size down by quite a bit. Most of the time it's by a few megabytes. Mix that with maybe removing some flash fx, and like you say, just use image effects or whatever and you should have a fairly low file size.

[YoinK]

convert your audio to .wav before importing it into flash, that will lower file size tremendously.

[sfox8]

At 6/28/08 04:53 AM, swiftstylerX wrote:

At 6/27/08 12:56 PM, sfox8 wrote: Thank you. :) I've actually gone back and redone the character animation a few times already just to make sure I get it as good as I can so hopefully it turns out well.

I just re watched it, and have one little criticism(which is hard to find in something so beautiful as this). When the camera is panning on the kid and the dragon(?), it looks like they're floating a little bit. They move too far over, when the background is barely panning, so it looks as if they're sliding along the ground.

Yeah I know what you mean. I'm still trying to correct that whole scene. There's just something about it that irks me to death and that may be it. I'm gonna play around with that and see how I can make the whole pan look more natural. My original problem was that it looked UNnatural without enough movement but I agree that there's too much movement now.

And thanks for the music tips. I actually thought mp3 was a smaller size than wav. I'll try compressing the music instead.

[SimMa-T]

that is some sweet looking flash right THERE

[DawnOfDusk]

I haven't really followed much along in this forum topic, but two things,

First, Everyone open up Waterlolies, stop is on a frame, and compare it to the tree in this movie, pretty damn close visually eh?

Second, just out of curiousity, how long do you believe this will take you?

[sfox8]

At 6/28/08 01:26 PM, DawnOfDusk wrote: I haven't really followed much along in this forum topic, but two things,

First, Everyone open up Waterlolies, stop is on a frame, and compare it to the tree in this movie, pretty damn close visually eh?

Second, just out of curiousity, how long do you believe this will take you?

Adam Phillips is an obvious influence of mine, but like I said, this is closer to the style that I draw in on a day to day basis than anything else. So that's definitely a huge compliment to even be compared to his work.

I don't want to give a definite time frame because it'll just cause people to expect it to be out at that time and I don't like promising release dates when I honestly have no idea if I'll make it. But I would LIKE to have it done by the end of summer (i.e. mid-September for me) and I think that sounds like a realistic time frame based on how far along I am at the moment. Again, I'd rather not set anything in stone for now.