How would you go about..

[Dragon]

Starting a flash movie..?

I have finally decided to make a serious flash movie with a length of 5-8 minutes.

I am still a beginner in flash but I guess if I never try to make something good then I'll never get good.

I have the story layed out but I and stuck on where I should start.

Story is alien invasion-ish.

So tell me, what steps to do you take when starting a flash movie?

Do you do character design first? Make your preloader? Backgrounds? Sound?

I am still staring at a blank screen in flash. <.<

[denacioust]

Characters first obviously.

Anyway, 5-8 minutes is far too long.

[Dragon]

Characters first obviously.

Anyway, 5-8 minutes is far too long.

Alright let me just get a few more peoples opinions, and yeah the time is still something that I am not sure about.

[truimagz]

I will help you Dragon.

But I need you to do some layout stuff first, then I can help you to decide how to aproach it.



1). Stars of the movie. Create one static image of each character to be in the movie. Remmember, it's a cartoon, so exagerate features.

2). Story board your idea on paper. Meaning draw up a basic "comic book" type story board of the entire movie, this will help you get out the Focal points of the story, what parts really are funny/scary, or amuzing.

Don't worry about artistic ability for the story board, stick figures will do just fine.

3). After the story board is done, condense it. pull out all the fluff, and nail down the points, remmember, you want to get someones attention, keep it, and wow them all within 5 - 8 minutes.


After you have this stuff done, let me know, and perferably let us see it, we can then help you with building yor animations, and figure out the best way to aproach it, either code wise or timeline.

[Dragon]

I will help you Dragon.

But I need you to do some layout stuff first, then I can help you to decide how to aproach it.



1). Stars of the movie. Create one static image of each character to be in the movie. Remmember, it's a cartoon, so exagerate features.

2). Story board your idea on paper. Meaning draw up a basic "comic book" type story board of the entire movie, this will help you get out the Focal points of the story, what parts really are funny/scary, or amuzing.

Don't worry about artistic ability for the story board, stick figures will do just fine.

3). After the story board is done, condense it. pull out all the fluff, and nail down the points, remmember, you want to get someones attention, keep it, and wow them all within 5 - 8 minutes.


After you have this stuff done, let me know, and perferably let us see it, we can then help you with building yor animations, and figure out the best way to aproach it, either code wise or timeline.

That really helps, thanks man.

This whole portion may take me awhile because I will be doing most of this in my free time.

I want the characters to be human and that is the part that may be the hardest for me since I have very little artistic talent in flash, the back grounds will also be difficult for me but I'll take a look at some tutorials.

I am approaching this as my first movie, but I really want it to be good, it may take awhile but I hope it helps me build some skills in flash.

[magcius]

Story is alien invasion-ish.

Get the story well enough so that it will fill 2-3 minutes of play time. That's a lot to ask for a beginner, but no "-ish"s in the final cut.

Don't have a bunch of ideas in your head with no plan on how you want them layed out. Do make a transcript, storyboard, idea list; whatever you think will be most productive.

Start on your art next. Make sure you are good at flash and art in general. Learn several techniques in how you want your art to work. Keyframing, Motion Tweening? Don't use shape tweens this early. Don't do it.

Plan out your ideas before you even open up flash.

[Dragon]

Get the story well enough so that it will fill 2-3 minutes of play time. That's a lot to ask for a beginner, but no "-ish"s in the final cut.

Don't have a bunch of ideas in your head with no plan on how you want them layed out. Do make a transcript, storyboard, idea list; whatever you think will be most productive.

Start on your art next. Make sure you are good at flash and art in general. Learn several techniques in how you want your art to work. Keyframing, Motion Tweening? Don't use shape tweens this early. Don't do it.

Plan out your ideas before you even open up flash.

Thanks, I will take all of that into account.

[truimagz]

Just take your time.

But d the story board first, that will get your creative juices really going

[Dragon]

Just take your time.

But d the story board first, that will get your creative juices really going

Alright.

I am going to hand draw that. =D

[Exodus]

Yep good luck and I hope it's good. ;)

EDIT: Darn, you got banned... it must be really easy to get banned because I've seen so many people banned.

[Joest]

He's not banned. It's a title.

One's signature disappears when one gets banned.

[Exodus]

Oh. I see. Interesting.

[Soon to be flash master]

Heres my process.

1. Character designs. This includes designing the personality, dont just draw cool looking dudes and dudettes. Make sure you characters are animatable and wont explode the flash player when they walk.

2. Backgrounds. The backgrounds should be (in my opinion) Completly unnoticable. Make grounds should be completly nietral so that you focus on the action - the characters.

3. I always animate completly liniarly (word?) Meaning I start at second one and animate right through. Some people like to animate scenes out of order and junk but I don't. Again personal choice.

4. Sounds. My sounds are usually an afterthough due to my style but on the occasions I have a script I always make all my sounds before I start animating.

5. Storyboards. Storyboards are completly useless unless you arn't going to animate. You arn't Pixar here, we are talking 3 minutes of flash. You have the idea in your head, dont get caught up and slowed down by unnesisary processes. If you have dialog, a script is enough.

6. When your animation is finished its always nice to chuck in a cool preloader and a replay button and some othe goodies.

[spider dude]

I always start with my main characters first, make sure each part you want to move is a symbol, not just one big drawing. That is unless you're doing frame by frame.

[Malignus]

I always start with my main characters first, make sure each part you want to move is a symbol, not just one big drawing.


I second that. Draw each individual moveable part of your character's body on a different layer, then select each and convert it to a movieclip (F8). It'll save you a lot of time.