MICA 2D Character Animation Fall 09

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Ever had trouble trying to export a Quicktime version of your animation through Flash? I've always had - there's always dropped frames or parts that just slow up and get choppy. Anyhow, tonight while trying to make nice .mov files so I can upload my animations online, I finally figured out an export method to make nice smooth animation quicktime files! Maybe some of you already know this, but I thought I'd share in case you don't:

To start, be in Flash CS4. (because I've never noticed this function before in CS3)

File > Export > Export Movie

A window will pop up asking where you wanna save it, so find your folder and stuff - and in the dropdown for "Format" make sure it says "Quicktime".

In the next window that pops up, click the "Quicktime Settings" button on the bottom left of the window. Then under "Video" click "Settings..."

Now here's the new part: under "Compression Type" there are two options at the bottom called "Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2" and "Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2" (In the past, everyone's always recommended going with "None" or "Animation" but it still doesn't quite do it right). Either 10 or 8 bit has worked fine, not sure what the difference is yet (maybe it has to do with color, so far only tried it on the grayscale pencil drawings).

Now hit "OK" (I tend to keep most of the other options at the default), and "OK". A little warning window about the Quicktime frame rate being set to match the Flash frame rate might pop up, just "OK" it.

Now you will be back in the "Quicktime Export Settings" window and you can click "Export" and voila! You will have a nice .mov file without any of those awful choppy skips.

Hope this helps!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

INVITATION FEST – TRAINING GROUND PORTUGAL 2010 FROM 21 to 26 JUNE

To register please go to our website www.trainingground.fest.pt

We wish to invite you to be a participant in FEST – Training Ground, that will take place from the 21st to the 26t of June 2010 in Espinho, Portugal

We are happy to announce the opening of the registration for FEST – Training Ground 2010, be sure to be the first one to register as this campus availability is set to fly fast.

As launching promotion campaign we will have 15 no accommodation packs available for 49€ for the first to book, and we will open the best campus first (the one 5 minutes walking from the venues) so if you want to be all together in the central campus you can! But it is a small campus only 26 people can be accommodated there, be fast.

You can find the registration on the Registering menu item on FEST – Training Ground’s website.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Naming your Images

Hey everyone, so Rachel thought it'd be a neat idea if I posted up how I name the entire sequence of images from Photoshop. So naming your images is a great way to keep track of all your files (and not get confused) It's super basic and easy, so feel free to skip over this if you know how already :P

Your action should already be set up. When that's ready to go (like you would normally) File> Automate> Batch [choose your action and source]

Here's where the fun begins: In the same Batch window instead of clicking 'Okay' right away adjust the File Naming which is part of the Destination (Folder> Choose)

File Naming has a helpful 'Example' which will change as you adjust the drop down options. I usually type in for 'Document Name' the name of the project and my name then + (change default extension to 2 Digit Serial Number)+ (in the third drop down>) extension. It should end up looking like this in your Example: ProjectName01 (.ext)

Alrighty, hope that was helpful, cheers you guys!