Flash Questions R Us!

[Brett]

Stop motion!

That's what I was looking for!

I just spent about an hour making bases, cars, planes, and other cool dealies for the lego people.

There is animation called FBF or Frame By Frame, but it's typically when you are creating drawings frame by frame, not taking pictures.  Stop Motion animation is like Claymation and the like.

[Sakayama Aru]

All right, first question. When I make my cartoons and put musical sound files in them (MP3s, AIFFs), their quality seems a lot worse than the quality of Jenga's cartoons or HSRT's toons. What can I do to make them sound less fuzzy?

All your other answers are okay, but this is my recommended answer.

- Go to File > Publish Settings. Click on the Flash tab. (If you're not able to, click to check the box so you can get the Flash tab.)
- Once you click on the Flash tab (I have said Flash tab too many times), click set near Audio Stream/Audio Event and a new window called 'Sound Settings' will open up.
- On the Bit Rate scroll-down list, pick a higher KBPS (128 is full-quality sound, but I use 80).
- Once finished, click OK twice (Soung Settings and Publish Settings), then preview your movie as an .swf file (Control (not the key on your keyboard) > Test Movie) , and see if you get a higher-quality sound.

Also works when exporting your movie (File > Export Movie).

Hey, thanks, Golfy. That really helps me a lot.

EDIT: Oy, never mind. Windows only. Can anyone find software like that for Mac?

You have a program called Sound Studio (Macintosh HD > Accessories), and it has a sound filter option. It's only on Mac OS X, so if you have anything below X, you're out of luck.

[JelloB_TastersChoice]

Is there a way for me to store animations for later use? Like, if I wanted to animate homestar running, is there a way I can save that and use it in another animation without needing to animate it again?

Thanks,

JBM

[SpongeBrain]

Is there a way for me to store animations for later use? Like, if I wanted to animate homestar running, is there a way I can save that and use it in another animation without needing to animate it again?

Thanks,

JBM

Save it as a .swf and import it later.

[Hammer_Of_God1]

Which flash program do you use to design the backround/characters etc.?

[Jengajam]

That would be... Flash.

Flash MX 2004. Although if you want, the art program by Macromedia called "Fireworx" is some kinda art program that is compatible with flash. Also there are components and porgrams you can get for flash that help draw and things, but I would recommend keeping it cheap and just using regular flash.

[Jengajam]

Is there a way for me to store animations for later use? Like, if I wanted to animate homestar running, is there a way I can save that and use it in another animation without needing to animate it again?

Thanks,

JBM

You can use DFCs way, but there's a much more efficient way. Copy all the frames of the animation, then right click on the object in the first frame and goto Convert to Symbol->Graphic (Or Movie Clip, but graphics are better for just doing animation with no script, MC can also use script, but you won't see them animate until you go to play the movie). then double click the graphic and paste all the frames into it's timeline. then just double click somehwere on the stage where there is nothing and you will go back to the main timeline. Then the graphic will animate that way and you can copy and paste it wherever you want.

[Hammer_Of_God1]

That would be... Flash.

Flash MX 2004. Although if you want, the art program by Macromedia called "Fireworx" is some kinda art program that is compatible with flash. Also there are components and porgrams you can get for flash that help draw and things, but I would recommend keeping it cheap and just using regular flash.

Well, when I load up flash, it gives me a bunch of option to choose from.  Which one do I use?

[daBurninator]

Well, when I load up flash, it gives me a bunch of option to choose from. Which one do I use?

Are those options like "Dreamweaver" and "Freehand" and stuff like that?

If so, You want to open the plain ol'  "Macromedia Flash MX" one. If not, then I have no idea what to do

[Jengajam]

What exactly does it say?

[Frank Benedetto]

I have an odd question:
can anyone direct me to where it shows how to make that weird effect The Cheat always uses, where the person dissolves into a bunch of colored squares and then back out to normal?

If you have no idea what I mean, roll over the "downloads" button on menu 15.

[Jengajam]

Those are Shape Tweens, kinda like motion tweens except it transforms shapes.

just click a frame, go to properties and where it says "tween" change it to shape, otherwise it's, the smae as a motion tween.

TC doesn't really use it properly, similarly to motion tween, if you have multiple things in the frame it probably won't work right. The shapes tween and turn into completely different shapes at different rates so it looks like they kinda dissolves before it reappears.

[Frank Benedetto]

Wait...correct me if I'm wrong but it's slightly more than just a shape tween, isn't it? What else do you need to do?

[Jengajam]

You make another frame with the stuff somewhere else, I thought that was kinda self explanitory. It's the same as a motion tween. Remember, it still has to be inautoshaoes, not grouped in any way.

[Agent Brown]

Well, when I load up flash, it gives me a bunch of option to choose from.  Which one do I use?

If you want to make flash cartoons, choose "Designer". If you're going to be making applications using Flash, choose "Developer".