Need basic help with Flash MX- I have a NEW question!

[Eo]

Having recently.... obtained... Flash MX, I've immediately got to work on a dramatic short which thankfully will have no voices. Last year during extra time in computer class, I discovered the basics of how to make frame order work, and I'm pretty sure I can figure out layers. However I do have a few questions I can't find explanations for. Most of these are not nessecary to the construction, but will make it a lot easier. (what's the point of doing old-fashioned animation techniques on a program made to more effciently do the same things with the same result?) So here they are.

1. In a lot of flash movies, I've seen characters who were obviously constructed of several shapes- IE Legendary Frog's stuff. Any tips for making them look like standard animation, and still having them composed of shapes?

2. In DoubleHelix/SuperFlashBros' The Decline of Video Gaming 2, the author's notes state that they had too many objects in the animation and the program crashed, taking what they had made by that point with them. Could I get some explanation of how this happens and how to avoid it?

3. More of an art than a technical question- where should I begin the short? I have the title screen fade into an eye in my plans, but should it become the Hawk Prince's eye as he flies with thousands of other raptors to the aid of the Hawk King, or the Dove's eye as she stumbles depressedly through the woods? My original plan had the former, but I wanted to hear the public's opinion.

4. Another art question - the mouse has had a very uncertain design through the process. He's gone from guinea-pig-like to mongoose like and everything in between. Should he be the big-eared type of mouse or more reallistic? And what colour- light brown, reddish brown, or gold?

5. Finally, I haven't figured out how to add sound yet (I haven't investigated much either, to tell the truth.). The short will have both music and sound effects- screeches, chatters, and hisses mainly- How do I get this to work?


(In case you were wondering, the animation itself will be somewhat in the style of the short Galopagos, entitled dove-mouse-cobra, about an unlikely battle. It's not a metaphor for anything, contrary to the... eleven? people who thought the dove was Jesus. And the people who thought the cobra was Bush. Not going to even MENTION the guy who thought the mouse was Howard Dean.)

Thanks in advance, everybeast!

Last edited by Eo on Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Yoshi]

I can't answer all of your questions as I have no idea what the examples you've listed are, and I'm not really an expert at Flash. However...

1. Well, constructed of several shapes makes parts movable. For example, if you were to make a character and wanted to move his arm, you could move the arm layer. I don't understand what you mean by standard animation, but if you wanted it to work consistently, put all of the shapes/layers into a layer set. Move the layers on their own with a motion tween.

5. Sound is added in as its own layer. I *think* it's File >> Import >> Import to Stage, but I don't remember. If you want to edit sound files, well, you'll have to go to Sound Recorder (not in Flash MX; it's under Accessories if you have a more recent computer) to do that.

[shinigamisrevenge]

5. For sound you can also drag sounds out of the library palette and drop them into a blank layer. This allows you to be able to adjust the sound to fit specific areas of the animation. You can also sets sounds to loop or run once through or to play only when you click an object. If you have the money, I would get a book called Visual Quick Start Guide for Flash MX. I would really help out a lot.

[Eo]

All right, I think I've got some good tips on sound, now for the more artistic questions...

Did a few falcon soldier designs today too, added a bald eagle named Grymbald (XD) a young hawk named Yeer-lin, and one of the Hawk Prince's group named Hakkor. Why the names? Dunno. Might make a special edition someday, in which a blooper will be the Millenium Falcon flying with all the birds.

[Tranx]

2. Save a lot. With Flash is a VERY big program and it's easy to crash even on an excellent computer. I recomend saving whenever you do and command (That might be a bit of overkill). I didn't save at all on the game I made a while ago though.

If you want to see my work then heres the link.

The link

[Eo]

Hehe, neat game. I have a new question, now that I've actually got to the beginning...

First, I scrapped the zooming-out-into-hawk-prince's-eye-thing. It looked very crappy.

But anyway, I need to have a background, and I can't get that to work with layers... dunno why... anyone know how to make a background layer work?

[Tranx]

Do you want the background layer to be an image? If you do then just click the new layer button, clik on the layer name grey bit and drag it down under all of the other layers and then lock it by clicking on the dot under the padlock. If you just want it to be a single colour for the whole movie, go to underneath the layers where it will say, in a small box, fps 12. Double click there. Then there should be, somewhere in the new popup window that it created, a small box with white in it and next to it it should say "Background" or "Background Colour" or something. Click the little box and then select the colour that you want.

Superguy13.....

[Eo]

Yep, a picture. All right, I'll try this ou... heh, if I wanted it to be a single colour I could just use my lovely fill tool. I suppose it's a pity I don't do stick movies for that reason, though.