I've finally decided to use the Vcam. The problem is, I'm about 4 weeks into animating the project that I want to use the Vcam in. Does anyone know if it's possible to simply institute use of the Vcam later on in the project? Or is it one of those things that has to be used from the first frame onwards.
Skaijo is hungry. Gah! I'd kill for an oreo...
of course you can use it now, just put it on a new frame on the highest layer.
Oh, not you too. What made you turn to the dark side? :P
At 9/25/06 11:12 AM, Paranoia wrote: Oh, not you too. What made you turn to the dark side? :P
It was just so snazzy. xD
Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-
At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-
It's not that hard :)
I've got it in for the V Cam for no real reason. Mainly because lots of coders coders who really should be making their own scrolling mechanisms are taking the easy way out and using it in their games.
At 9/25/06 11:23 AM, Paranoia wrote:At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-It's not that hard :)
I've got it in for the V Cam for no real reason. Mainly because lots of coders coders who really should be making their own scrolling mechanisms are taking the easy way out and using it in their games.
Whats wrong with that? Just because its easy to do, it shouldnt be used?
At 9/25/06 11:23 AM, Paranoia wrote:At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-It's not that hard :)
I've got it in for the V Cam for no real reason. Mainly because lots of coders coders who really should be making their own scrolling mechanisms are taking the easy way out and using it in their games.
I plan on working with the Vcam to produce my own unique conglomeration of old-school and new school tweening magic.
*fist raise
Oh yes! That will be my goal--believe it.
At 9/25/06 11:27 AM, the-distractor wrote: Whats wrong with that? Just because its easy to do, it shouldnt be used?
It's easy to make you're own scrolling too, and then it's yours. You engine is something sacred; something not set upon by someone else's code.
At 9/25/06 11:33 AM, Skaijo wrote: I plan on working with the Vcam to produce my own unique conglomeration of old-school and new school tweening magic.
*fist raise
Oh yes! That will be my goal--believe it.
I look forward to it :) If it's half as fifworthy as your usual stuff, it'll rock many socks.
id rather make my own v-cam, it would have rotation and filters.
filters arent hard to have add, but rotastion is where it getsa difficult
At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-
No no, Flash's lack of a virtual camera included is a great big flaw on the part of the developers. Every regular animation program has a virtual, and most often 3D, camera. Flash is really such an old program, that has been appropriated by animators and game designers and web developers and illustrators even, but the developers don't accomadate all these groups equally. The system is so old it'd probably be pretty hard to incorporate a virtual camera into the program. But they should. It'd be so nice if I didn't have to do camera's in post, since compositing systems are so slow, and having to render bitmaps of all my character animation, and vector backgrounds, all at hi resoultion takes up a lot of hard drive space.
At 9/25/06 12:10 PM, MikeToole wrote:At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-No no, Flash's lack of a virtual camera included is a great big flaw on the part of the developers.
What the hell are you talking about? They made their choice with the stage system. It isn't the same as other programs, but it works well. If someone hadn't made their own cam then nobody would be missing it.
At 9/25/06 12:10 PM, MikeToole wrote: No no, Flash's lack of a virtual camera included is a great big flaw on the part of the developers.
Maybe for Newgrounds, but realize that Flash is used for thousands of different purposes, from training videos, displaying pdf docs, interacting with Breeze Server, working as an live communication tool, and displaying video. While they are known to be a great animation tool, a camera was one thing that could have been survived without putting into the Flash software.
And to tell the truth, I am glad that not everyone thinks to use Vcam all the time, because it disuades the user to actually think about angling the camera or doing other rotational affects with the animation. Since the vcam won't rotate, the idea of rotating the camera angle in the animation ceases to be.
Hi there!
At 9/25/06 12:28 PM, jmtb02 wrote:At 9/25/06 12:10 PM, MikeToole wrote: No no, Flash's lack of a virtual camera included is a great big flaw on the part of the developers.Maybe for Newgrounds, but realize that Flash is used for thousands of different purposes, from training videos, displaying pdf docs, interacting with Breeze Server, working as an live communication tool, and displaying video. While they are known to be a great animation tool, a camera was one thing that could have been survived without putting into the Flash software.
And to tell the truth, I am glad that not everyone thinks to use Vcam all the time, because it disuades the user to actually think about angling the camera or doing other rotational affects with the animation. Since the vcam won't rotate, the idea of rotating the camera angle in the animation ceases to be.
Well by flaw I mean it is indicative of the developers lack of support of Flash's use by professional animators. Flash is great in general, and has been appropriated for many many things.
And the stage system has no benefits over a camera, it's only a limitation. Every single animator I've ever heard of wishes Flash had a real virtual camera so that we didn't need to do a plane camera composition in post with a video compositing program.
As for rotation, that other camera at that other website does let you use rotation, so that's not a big issue for general actionscript driven cameras. But actionscript won't export to video so in Flash camera work only, as they say, 'lives on the web'.
I like Flash for character animation though, its a hell of a lot better than a compositing program!
At 9/25/06 12:28 PM, jmtb02 wrote:
And to tell the truth, I am glad that not everyone thinks to use Vcam all the time, because it disuades the user to actually think about angling the camera or doing other rotational affects with the animation. Since the vcam won't rotate, the idea of rotating the camera angle in the animation ceases to be.
Good point. I just realized that the Vcam does not transfer rotation on export a short while ago. I guess it just further strains the fact that I as well as all other artists on Newgrounds should be open to new techniques for our art, but not allow ourselves to use a new method 100% of the time, replacing all the tricks we had previously learned.
Just about 10 more days until your next level up, jmtb02. Someone must be exceited. :D
At 9/25/06 12:07 PM, ImpotentBoy2 wrote: id rather make my own v-cam, it would have rotation and filters.
filters arent hard to have add, but rotastion is where it getsa difficult
Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
Writer @ www.Johnrickett.com
At 9/25/06 04:32 PM, Johnny wrote:At 9/25/06 12:07 PM, ImpotentBoy2 wrote: id rather make my own v-cam, it would have rotation and filters.Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
filters arent hard to have add, but rotastion is where it getsa difficult
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
I <3 you.
At 9/25/06 04:32 PM, Johnny wrote:At 9/25/06 12:07 PM, ImpotentBoy2 wrote: id rather make my own v-cam, it would have rotation and filters.Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
filters arent hard to have add, but rotastion is where it getsa difficult
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
My favorite thing about that one is that it matches your stages aspect ratio automatically.
At 9/25/06 04:32 PM, Johnny wrote:
Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
im too outdated for it :(
At 9/26/06 04:45 AM, skooj-lik-chaah wrote:At 9/25/06 04:32 PM, Johnny wrote:im too outdated for it :(
Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
Wait a second, so that actually works? What's this .mxp file? Is actually safe to use?
At 9/26/06 07:50 AM, Skaijo wrote:At 9/26/06 04:45 AM, skooj-lik-chaah wrote:Wait a second, so that actually works? What's this .mxp file? Is actually safe to use?At 9/25/06 04:32 PM, Johnny wrote:im too outdated for it :(
Or, you could rely on your good friend Johnny to link you to this...
A Vcam that rotates, accepts filters and a host of other things.
If you have Flash 8, then you already have the Extension Manager, if you have MX then you need to download it from Adobe. Then click that file and the extension manager will prompt you to install it. You can also easily uncheck an extension to deactivate it at will. You just need to quit and open Flash whenever you install or deactivate a new one.
It allows for some awesome extensions for Flash. One of the extensions out there caused some weird bug, I think its the one called JK Drawing Tools since I had a ton of extensions that worked in harmony until that. But I just turned it off and it worked just fine! I think it's designed by Adobe in a way that an extension cannot possibly 'break' Flash if you deactivate it.
So its as safe as any file on the internet.
MXPs work with Flash 7 as well. They were originally for "professional" versions of the software as far as I can tell. Extensions are pretty safe - I've got one for extended drawing tools which means I can draw gears even faster than normal.
Personally I'm surpised no one's taken Sham Bhangal's code and added a _root._rotation = this._rotation line to it yet...
...
At 9/27/06 02:18 PM, KaynSlamdyke wrote: I've got one for extended drawing tools which means I can draw gears even faster than normal.
Is that the JK drawing tools? Do you have a PC? Because I think that that is the one causing trouble on my Mac(weird errors that keep popping up when I open the program with no document, and sometimes just for no apparent reason at all). It's not very essential to my work, so I could manage to turn it on and use it quickly, if necessary.
At 9/27/06 02:20 PM, MikeToole wrote: Is that the JK drawing tools? Do you have a PC? Because I think that that is the one causing trouble on my Mac(weird errors that keep popping up when I open the program
Yeah. I'm on a PC with Flash MX2004Pro. Pretty sure it's JK Drawing tools
It throws errors at me when I hold down Shift, Alt and Control in the wrong order, and requires Flash to reset before I can play with them again. Still, most useful toolset I was ever linked to.
...
I had the same problem with JK drawing tools yesterday, where I opened up Flash, and got the start-up screen where you can open a new document, open a file, or look at templates. But some error message kept popping up, and even after I hit ok it would keep coming back.
At 9/25/06 11:23 AM, Paranoia wrote:At 9/25/06 11:18 AM, Skaijo wrote: Plus, it's hard to animate old-school this day and age... '-_-It's not that hard :)
I've got it in for the V Cam for no real reason. Mainly because lots of coders coders who really should be making their own scrolling mechanisms are taking the easy way out and using it in their games.
It is actually easier to create a scrolling mechanism, as V-cam moves EVERYTHING on the screen, making HUD's more difficult. HOWEVER, it helps to reduce lag since lag can be created due to moving a large area, which is why i go for the v-cam
At 9/25/06 11:27 AM, the-distractor wrote: Whats wrong with that? Just because its easy to do, it shouldnt be used?
A. It's not exactly your coding or engine.
B. It's not very good for games. It bugs up a lot and isn't efficient for games.
At 9/27/06 04:11 PM, TrueDarkness wrote:At 9/25/06 11:27 AM, the-distractor wrote: Whats wrong with that? Just because its easy to do, it shouldnt be used?A. It's not exactly your coding or engine.
B. It's not very good for games. It bugs up a lot and isn't efficient for games.
I've had no problem with it what so ever....
And Kayne, with the v-cam, it's not as simple as adding _rotation to it. Try it and see what happens. =)
Writer @ www.Johnrickett.com
At 9/27/06 03:59 PM, Hoeloe wrote: It is actually easier to create a scrolling mechanism, as V-cam moves EVERYTHING on the screen, making HUD's more difficult. HOWEVER, it helps to reduce lag since lag can be created due to moving a large area, which is why i go for the v-cam
you'll get just as much lag with the vcam as you would coding your own camera, if not MORE lag because of the scaling calculations and stuff.
The vcam isn't magic, all it is is a set of functions that alter's the _root._x and _root._xscale FOR you, which is what you SHOULD do anyway when making your own camera.
