Foundation Flash Cartoon Animation

Foundation Flash Cartoon Animation

Released November 2007
Publisher(s): friends of ED
ISBN: 59781590599129

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Book description

Whether you are an experienced Flash designer or developer looking for a guide to doing animation in Flash, or a novice to Flash who is looking for an effective way to create and distribute animations, this book will prove invaluable to you.

Covering every aspect of Flash animation, the book is a fast-paced yet thorough review of the Flash animation process. Written by the Emmy Award-winning team at ANIMAX, this book not only reveals the step-by-step process followed by one of today's leading Flash animation studios, but also give you valuable tips and tricks to take your Flash animation to the next level.

Divided into three phases of production (pre-production, animation, post-production) this book breaks the Flash animation process into smaller, more manageable steps. And because the authors approach the animation process from various perspectives (such as producer, animator, and editor) the book balances many of the real-world issues facing today's Flash animators, from artistic to technical to financial.

The book starts off by looking at planning and designing an animation project, including working out your goals, and putting together character libraries and storyboards. Next up we look at the production phase, which includes using plug-ins to make your work more efficient, implementing your animation, and adding special effects. Finally, we look at post-production work, including how After Effects can be used effectively alongside Flash for tasks such as camera mechanics, how to make Flash not look like Flash, and tips and tricks from the experts.

Whatever the reason, like millions of others around the world you've become interested in Flash animation. And you've come to the right place to learn more. This book is compatible with pretty much any fairly recent version of Flash.

  • Covers the full process of Flash animation, through preproduction, production, and post production

  • Covers many practical techniques, including creating character libraries, using plugins, and camera mechanics with After Effects

  • Written by the Emmy Award-winning ANIMAX studios team

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
  4. CONTENTS
  5. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  6. ABOUT THE TECHNICAL REVIEWER
  7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  8. INTRODUCTION
    1. Who this book is for
    2. Prerequisites
    3. Layout conventions
    4. Downloading the code
    5. Contacting the authors
  9. Chapter 1: THE PROJECT PLAN
    1. Outline your goals
    2. Planning your Flash animation
    3. Making your project plan
    4. Summary
  10. Chapter 2: CHARACTER LIBRARIES
    1. An overview of the character library process
    2. Size (and weight) are important
    3. A nose by any other name
    4. Creating the head comp
    5. The body
    6. Putting it all together
    7. Summary
  11. Chapter 3: STORYBOARDS AND ANIMATICS
    1. Storyboards
    2. Drawing digitally
    3. Building animatics
    4. Implementing animatics in your Flash animation file
    5. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: SETTING UP YOUR FLA
    1. Technical issues
    2. Organizational issues
    3. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: PLUG-INS AND EXTENSIONS
    1. Introducing our favorite extensions
    2. Where to download more extensions
    3. Making your own commands
    4. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: FRAME BY FRAME ANIMATION
    1. A few words on fundamentals
    2. You are an actorrrrr!
    3. The character library
    4. Animating a scene
    5. Getting started
    6. First pass: blocking and timing poses
    7. Second pass: inbetweening and body acting
    8. Third pass: lip sync
    9. Fourth pass: eye acting and expressions
    10. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: ANIMATING WITH TWEENS
    1. Pros and cons of tweens
    2. Analyzing the scene
    3. Timing and animation
    4. Summary
  16. Chapter 8: ANIMATION SPECIAL EFFECTS
    1. Highlights and shadow modeling
    2. Water
    3. Fire
    4. Smoke
    5. Debris
    6. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: WHY USE AFTER EFFECTS?
    1. Animation running longer than 1 minute
    2. Animating in separate scenes
    3. Animation incorporating complex camera mechanics
    4. Animation requiring non-Flash assets
    5. Animation requiring delivery of something other than a SWF
    6. Desired effects and tool sets are not available in Flash
    7. Disadvantages of using After Effects
    8. Summary
  18. Chapter 10: AFTER EFFECTS AND CAMERA MECHANICS
    1. Exporting out of Flash
    2. Importing into After Effects
    3. Setting up your After Effects project
    4. Multiplane motion
    5. Moving the camera
    6. Summary
  19. Chapter 11: MAKING FLASH NOT LOOK LIKE FLASH
    1. Varied line styles
    2. Traditional animation
    3. Color choices
    4. Creating distortion for animation
    5. Summary
  20. Chapter 12: TIPS AND TRICKS
    1. Animated Illustrator brushes
    2. Creating custom keyboard shortcuts
    3. Fixing broken shortcuts
    4. Super zoom!
    5. Fade in and fade out
    6. Reversing frames
    7. Blurs in After Effects
    8. Transitions in After Effects
    9. Glow effects in After Effects
    10. Earthquake effects in After Effects
    11. Summary
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Foundation Flash Cartoon Animation
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2007
  • Publisher(s): friends of ED
  • ISBN: 59781590599129