Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 02, 2003, 01:23:17 pm

Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 02, 2003, 01:23:17 pm: This is my first attempt at a Flash movie, and I must say that I’m quite happy with it. I’ve never used Flash before, but after completing the Lessons and the first Tutorial in Flash MX, I decided to make an FS-Based thing.

In the second part of the movie, with the Argo landing on the desert terrain, I was going for a pen and ink style, like the cutscenes in HomeWorld. I used Photoshop to make the pictures sketchy, and just imported them. The music in the first section is from OpFlashpoint.

And this (http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/PoVBB/CovertOps.swf) is the result. What do you think?
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Nuclear1 on May 02, 2003, 03:07:25 pm: That's pretty good :yes:

Only problem I really have with it is the Argo slipping in from under. I could barely see it.

But otherwise, its a good attempt.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: ZylonBane on May 02, 2003, 03:33:18 pm: Pretty good. Like the music. Don't care so much for the negative-image part though.

BTW, when putting Flash on the web you want to publish as HTML, then link to the HTM page with the SWF in it. Otherwise the SWF plays at the size of the user's browser window. Bad news especially when you're using bitmaps.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Galemp on May 02, 2003, 05:24:45 pm: Not too shabby! But it's a bit slow; is the Argo supposed to take that long to go across the screen?
And the pen-and-ink style isn't that good either. Stick with photorealistic. And don't forget the engine glows on the Argo; if you could make them flicker/pulse that would be great.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Tiara on May 02, 2003, 05:39:51 pm: :yes:

Nice one. Though it could be more interesting if you'd add some text with nice text transitions ;)
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: J.F.K. on May 03, 2003, 12:31:21 am: Hey, pretty slick for a first go. :)

(Btw, Zylonbane's right, stick that thing on a page! Probably a good idea to tell people how big the thing is when you link to it, too.)
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 03, 2003, 05:45:35 am: Thanks for the feedback.

I'll try to do something about the pen and ink bit, but as I could only fins some poor pics of a desert landscape, I had to disguise them somehow. I would give the html version, but for some unknown reason it is over 2 meg!

I have the argo going at that slow speed because it fits the music!

Positive comments? From ZYLON?!??!:wtf:
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: ZylonBane on May 03, 2003, 10:54:41 am: All checking HTML in Publish settings does is cause Flash to also generate an HTML document that embeds the SWF. The SWF itself should be the same. If it's not, you're changing something else too.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Stealth on May 03, 2003, 11:02:25 am: the reason when you go FILE --> PUBLISH the movie is over 2 MB is probably because you're not publishing it as HTML, SWF, and FLA... you're probably publishing as HTML, FLA, and MOV, or MPG, or some other format. check publish settings before selecting 'publish'

EDIT: Wonderful movie by the way! i'm guessing (for the first part) you imported the background image, and then the ship (what format was it in?) and just motion tweened it and resized it, right? it looks very good though! :yes: do another one!!! :) :D
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 04, 2003, 07:47:28 am: The starfield and the planet are on two separate layers, they were both PNGs, photoshopped, and the argo was also a png. If anyone is interested I can send you the fla. file so you can see how I did it.

BTW, i've done a new version without the pen+ink-ness, and with proper images in its place. I have also published as html, here (http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/PoVBB/CovertOps2.html)
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: ZylonBane on May 04, 2003, 03:34:32 pm: Would you mind sending me a copy of that ([email protected])? There's probably a lot that can be done to shrink the download size down without noticeably impacting the quality.

I do think you should eliminate the "landing" bit at the end. It's superfluous, and not nearly as convincing as the first part. Plus for some reason I keep expecting C3PO and R2D2 to pop out the hatch.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Stealth on May 05, 2003, 12:59:45 pm: i'd say the easiest way to shrink the download size would be to translate all the motion tweens you've got (which take a bit of size) to actionscript. that'll decrease the file size at least 400%. of course you can't do that with very complicated motion tweens, but with "straight" tweens, like you've got, it should be uber-easy.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 05, 2003, 02:06:36 pm: I'll think about it.

In the meantime I have started a new one, with a herc being chased by a manticore. It is only a few seconds long as yet, but you get the idea.

HercJink (http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/14_year_war/PoVBB/HercJink2.html)

And zylon, wait until Saturday, as I should have broadband by then.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 06, 2003, 01:41:35 pm: Is this a case of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?"
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Stealth on May 06, 2003, 09:41:34 pm: no it's a case of Real Life :p ;)
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: freespacer01 on May 06, 2003, 11:00:23 pm: One word about the movie... "slow"
But good job for a beginner, I got to give you that *claps*
If I may, I would like to give some advices; it is boring to wait for Argo to arrive on the planet with one angle... you should try to look at it at different angles as it moves to planet (that is if you can do that and have proper images available) and try to find better desert image, it wasn't clear what it was...
Hope these suggestion are not annoying and helpful!
Good job for beginner though!
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 07, 2003, 04:08:56 am: I agree about the desert Image, I was desperate to find one, and that came off Comptons 98.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: ZylonBane on May 08, 2003, 12:38:40 pm: GIS: "desert" (http://images.google.com/images?&q=desert)

Brought to you by the "Google Is Your Friend" foundation.
Title: First attempt at Flash.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on May 08, 2003, 01:15:09 pm: Well I wasn't on the net when I made the movie.