I mainly animate for the web only, and it has certain constraints that have to be followed unless you are only marketing for the broadband crowd. I'd really like to exchange tips and stories with others that try to make things work for the online crowd that sometimes are still using dialup and maybe even webtv.
Anyone out there?
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Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Phacker -
Just wanted to respond to your header and let you know I'm "out here." :)
I'm pretty new to web animation, I've got 2 'toons up on My Animation Page both of which were finished just last month.
Haven't found my "online crowd" yet, so I could definitely use some tips, too :)
I'll check out your 'toons tommorow, when I can get on our "good computer" (It's downstairs, and everyone else is asleep here.)
- Brent
(animagusurreal)
Animagusurreal.com featuring my image gallery, poetry, and animation
My DeviantArt Gallery
Animagusurreal, you are using Geocities page wizard thing aren't you? My biggest suggestion to you is learn some basic html, and get Dreaamweaver or I used like Homesite for an html editor. Their editor isn't going to let you really put you true identity up there. I am still trying to see your stuff. When I get a look at your stuff maybe I'll be able to give you some more constructive advice. I am on a dialup. Lots of people still are.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Hey Phaker , IM a web animator too , rather my almamater was the web , now im currently doing broadcast animation using similar tools but the same old technique, phaker you been into this for a long time,rite ? tell me how did you get into in , everyone has an interesting story
www.devilsgarage.com
I'm curious why web animation is so maligned. What are some of the things people say about it? When it's well done it can be great, so I guess I don't get it.
I've always been and will probably always be a web animator. I've already shown my site on this board, but here it is again for the curious: Get Milked. I used to draw a lot and always dreamed of animating. Flash allowed me to finally animate something. Though I still have a lot of work to do I have no plans on giving up.
So I'm "out there" too. Hello!
Actually, I didn't use the wizard, I used HTML.
The Animation page isn't as developed as some of the other pages on the site because it's the newest and, frankly, because it hasn't gotten as much traffic as, say, The Gallery.
If the GeoCities pages are taking long to load, you can check out some of my still artwork at My DeviantArt Gallery
Also, if it helps, here are the direct links to the cartoons -
Hearts in the Highlands - Episode One
Mary Christmas
Yeah, I'm on dialup, too :rolleyes: . It took me 15 minutes to upload Scene One of Highlands and an online friend told me he downloaded it in 8 seconds!
Animagusurreal.com featuring my image gallery, poetry, and animation
My DeviantArt Gallery
Just checked out your site, Phacker. I liked how the greetings were projected on the little movie screen, and the character designs were cute :) .
In the constructive crit. dept., I'd suggest trying mixing up a few different mouth movements (closed, open part-way, open a little more, open all the way). (You may have already done this, I only saw about 3 or 4 cartoons.)
- Brent
(animagusurreal)
Animagusurreal.com featuring my image gallery, poetry, and animation
My DeviantArt Gallery
hi phacker,
i'm glad you started this topic. i think a web animator has a ton of web-specific issues that make the job unique. i think it'd be cool to share techniques and suggestions. anyway, i would love any comments you could give my web stuff: http://www.qtandpasootie.com/new
-pete
www.daspetey.com
www.nomorekings.com
I know my lip synq isn't always on. I am designing for the net and I use a four count system like anime. It keeps my file size down, and I am giving this stuff away. I just try to capture the feel of the song. I am also using an old PIII/500, that keeps plugging away. I can't up my frame rate or do all the fancy smancy stuff. I am not looking at making it in the broadcast medium. I am reaching out to folks on dialup and slower computers. Some of my stuff uses more mouth shapes, it just depends on the weight of the sound file. Try to keep my stuff at least under 600k, used to try for 100-200k. Scooter is a work in progress, so some stuff is better than others. I learned a lot of the animation techniques right here at AWN from Tony and Larry...and others.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
I just tried to post the previous reply three times. So many of you people are on high speed connections you clog the transmissions. Finally got it posted.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Hey Pete, sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread. I like what you have but the navigation, is mystery meat stuff. Remember a lot of folks don't know to click around to find ouy where the buttons are. Save the experimental stuff for your animation, make you navigation of the site really easy to follow.
Pat
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Actually it was a vocational rehab thing. I was into horticulture for 11 years: Nursery and Landscaping and got injured on the job. When it came time for rehab they put me in a computer graphics and web design program. I found Flash on my own and was just really was fascinated with the animation and interactivity of it.
In the program we covered all the basic photo and desktop programs like Adobe and Corel, also did some work with Director(and Lingo). I enjoyed Director but Flash seemed alot more oriented to the creative side and the output from Flash seemed smaller and more web friendly.
They also forced me to learn to model, texture and light in 3d Studio Max and touched on animating with it. I just never really enjoyed it.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
You all might find this interesting: an example of character animation (developed in Flash) for use in some corporate online training. He's a character I got to design for HCA, "Seymour Regs". He's sort of based on their logo, which has a star in it.
I've done a few test clips like this one for them to see how it would work. They liked it and now I'm going to get to do about 30 of these for the current course we're developing. (HCA is also trademarking the character and have already printed him on mugs, shirt, mousepads, etc.)
The training covers Medicare regulations--dull, dull, dull stuff--so they wanted a funny, little cartoon to jazz things up. He's done in Flash but then imported into Authorware, which the overall course is built in (I can't show you that part).
--Ted
Ted Nunes - www.tedtoons.com
Hey Ted do you have a link to any of your stuff I'd like to see it. Toggling settings can really be a decision for Flash animators. Haven't done much intranet or self contained stuff. Always thought if someone liked my stuff I'd get into it. I've used the players, but just for friends and stuff.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
>...link to any of your stuff...
There's a few things on my demo site: www.tedtoons.com
I'm waiting to get permission from one of my clients before I can post a sample of one of my favorite projects. It was for HCA; a course about a form (literally, the entire training course was just a "how-do-you-do" intro to a Medicare billing form).
HCA knew the subject matter was too deadly dull and asked for a "School House Rock" sort of character to jazz it up. We didn't get to do a song (we wrote it but ran out of budget), but it turned out to be a pretty fun piece. I'll shout when I post that; it's the most-involved bit of character animation I've gotten to do yet (done in Flash). --ted
Ted Nunes - www.tedtoons.com
Ted why did you pick that bright yellow for your background?
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Why the yellow? I wanted to make everyone that looks at my site suddenly need to pee. Did it work?
Otherwise, generally, I wanted a strong, memorable (almost "branded") color scheme. The primary theme works well with the particular cartoon style I've been pushing lately. I work in a variety of styles but this is my outlet for the sidework I do--outside my day job--so that simpler, colorful "cartoony" style is what I promote mostly (since it's the kind of thing I can do more easily on a weekend, after hours, etc...).
On the other hand, my intention WAS to eventually vary things more, so it's not yellow on every screen. I just haven't implemented that part. You know how personal website can get. It's been about two years with this graphic look and there's all kinds of updates I want to make. They're coming; just slowly. --ted
Ted Nunes - www.tedtoons.com
Just chiming in on this topic:
I create animation for interactive marketing and e-learning presentations, which are largley distributed through intranets, but also over the internet sometimes. I also do some just-flat-out-Flash stuff for webpages.
Most of the time I'm animating in Flash and importing the swfs into Authorware (our primary interactive development tool). Although our low-common-denominator is usually a user on an intranet, I do have to keep bandwidth in mind. Also, Authorware can't play even a "lean" or "cheap" Flash movie as fast as it would play within an html page. That's a frustration.
A good recent discovery; toggling the quality setting (off for fast moving sections where it won't show) can help. Also (similarly) I sometimes swap out/replace my "hero" graphics--that might have nice gradients and lots of shapes--with simpler,flat-colored "stunt" characters for long shots or extreme/fast moves across the screen, etc.
Ted Nunes - www.tedtoons.com
Hi everyone.
I totally agree with what Ewomack said. It´s true that Flash is responsible for a lot of bad animation, but at the same time, it made animation possible for a lot of people, like me.
I´ve already shown my stuff here too, but here it is:
www.livingtoons.com
cheers
www.livingtoons.com
When I said "like me" I didn´t mean I do "good" or "bad" animation.
Just that Flash makes it possible even for people who can´t go to an animation school or are far away from the great studios.
Just to avoid any misunderstanding.
Fred
www.livingtoons.com
I started out on flash, so that period of work works fine online, ( see www.yogyog.org ) . Now I use a variety of diferant packages, and my films no longer fit on my site. I'm looking at putting films on various sshort-film sites and linking to them from my site.
Mike Futcher - www.yogyog.org
Guess I am realistic and know my work is never going to make it to the big screen or tv. I am happy reaching out to those on the net and sharing some of things I want to share through a reasonable format with a reasonable download time. Figure if someone sometime does become interested in my work, we'll work out the porting of it over to another medium at that time.
I'd rather pass on the fancy effects and stuff and be able to present something either fun or of importance to my viewpoint in a reasonable manner, than trying to match what big companies with huge staffs can produce. And a lot of my audience is still on dialup, as am I.
Guess I am one of the few Web designers here at AWN.
Pat
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Web animation is a much maligned art form. We've ignored all the naysayers and forged ahead with a whole series of short films and commercial projects.
Examples below
http://sparkandzoom.com/channel/
eskyweb.com
The Brothers McLeod
[SIZE=2]brothersmcleod.co.uk[/SIZE]