Once you’ve worked through all of the tutorials and examples I’ve given you so far (you have done them all, right? Go back and make sure), you should have a pretty good grasp of the basic drawing and motion tools in Flash.
Now it’s your turn to complete something impressive with all of that knowledge. You’ll use most of the tools we’ve practiced to create something longer, more impressive, and that has a bit more of a story to it.
READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU BEGIN. Ask questions if you need to.
Your animation could be:
A commercial
A public service announcement
A spooky Halloween story
An animated webisode (a short story)
…something like one of those. If you have a better idea, just make sure it’s going to be appropriate and effective
Requirements:
approximately 30 seconds minimum (could be a little bit less, could be longer)
use the drawing tools, fills, gradients, etc. to draw interesting characters/scenes
use deco brushes (buildings, fire, etc.)
different kinds of symbols (movie clip, graphic, button)
must include various types of tweens
characters must move naturally (use the bone tool)
import bitmap/raster images found online or from other sources (eg. consider importing a background scene for your characters to move around in)
morphing (text to shape, shape to text, shape to shape, text to text, etc.)
at least one example where you’ve used shape hints to transform
complex text tweens (like the last couple of exercises you’ve done, but with your ideas this time)
audio – dialogue or sound effects and music (use music that is appropriate and not distracting. Instrumental music works great for this. Consider using a free, legal source of background music like http://dig.ccmixter.org/)
PLAN THIS OUT A BIT. The story/idea is really important for something this long, so spend a bit of time planning this out and/or discussing it with someone in the class.
BE CREATIVE. Take your time to make this look good and work well. Make sure it MAKES SENSE (no random objects bouncing around, random violence, senseless characters & motion, etc.)
TAKE YOUR TIME! Something this long and complicated should take a little while. There’s no rush to get this done, so make sure you’re doing a good job.
Click links to view samples: