Defining Variables


To establish guidelines that support your design process, you first have to analyze the choices that are relevant to the content. Is the tone of the project peaceful, quiet, fast, slick, funny, scary? Try to be as specific as you can about the approach that best suits your content. Then try to make consistent choices that support that description. Some of the questions that may help you to frame the basic elements of your project include

  • What kind of motion suits the style of the project or personality of a character?

  • How does color communicate your theme or idea?

  • How does sound support the atmosphere or character?

If you try to make a design that is "all of the above," it will end up being too vague and confusing to keep anyone interested. One of the hardest things to learn as a designer (and to communicate to clients) is that if you try to make a site (or story) that is a little bit of everything, in an attempt to suit all audiences, you'll only weaken your message and your branding, and/or dilute the experience for everyone. The very best designs are consistent enough that they allow anyone to understand them (or at least get what they're about), and specific enough in style that they have a memorable personality and attitude.

Of course, there are some things that do appeal to many people — humor or surprise, well-executed visual complexity, engaging and functional navigation. But even these elements can be too generic; they need to be added to your design with a specific (and hopefully original) style. After you've decided what style is appropriate for the project, you can begin to plan the elements that will create the experience for the audience.

Considering these factors for every project may seem like over-thinking, but try to see how often you can apply at least some of the questions we outline in this section to really focus your design strategy. After a few tries, it should be much easier, and you'll be on your way to establishing a personal style that you can adapt to different projects.

The Environment

What planet are you on? As you begin planning and building a virtual environment, even in a 2D space, thinking of it as a real place is helpful. Decide what kind of place you want it to be and what characteristics will help the audience to understand where they are.

Is this a soft, fuzzy world where everything floats gently as it moves, or is this a hard, metallic world where things are heavy and make fast, abrupt movements, or maybe it is even a liquid world where things are very smooth and quiet, with organic movement? These are extreme examples; obviously, the possibilities are endless. Try to include all the factors that define an environment as you experience it visually:

  • How light or dark is it?

  • Is everything very distinct or blurred and layered?

  • How crowded or open is the space?

  • How quickly can things move?

  • How much does gravity affect objects?

  • Is space (depth) limited or endless?

The main thing to keep in mind is that all the elements and movement that you add to the design should help the audience locate themselves in the world you've created. Aside from natural environmental analogies, try to consider historical and cultural context, too. Is the environment meant to have a retro feel or a post-modern feel? Is it influenced by multicultural elements, or defined only by a very specific subculture?

If you find yourself thinking, "Well, all I really want is to make a cool site that the audience will like," then remember the point we made previously: The more specific you can be about the kind of environment you want to create, the better chance you have of making a design that the audience will be interested in. Most of us are pretty jaded viewers by now, and something that looks trendy or resembles a jumble of many other things we've seen before is not likely to hold our attention very long.

The Materials

As you consider the overall environment that you want to create, you also have to decide on the smaller details that will be consistent with your idea. Even if you're working purely with Flash strokes and fills, trying to imagine the kinds of materials that would be most appropriate for your graphic elements can be helpful. Do you want elements to be jagged and hard or fuzzy or squishy? How much volume do shapes or graphic elements have? Are any of the items transparent? Considering these questions will help you to make decisions about line styles and perhaps even colors, but most important, these decisions will help you to design motion that will be convincing and appropriate for each item.

If your materials are soft, motion will include a lot of stretching and squashing and maybe even jiggling. If you want materials to seem hard, motion will probably be smoother, with sharper, cleaner transitions. If objects are heavy, they will have a lot more inertia. If objects are very light, they will need to move in a way that conveys weightlessness. Some of these types of motion are hard to describe, but if you can visualize them clearly (or even better, find examples in real life), you'll have an easier time planning and making your animation.

Even if you decide that your "materials" are actually best kept very flat and graphic (such as construction paper or felt cutouts), then you can focus on that kind of look and avoid throwing in gradient fills or shiny highlights. The most important thing is to simply have a clear concept in mind that enables you to make (and explain) the design choices that best support your content.

The Motion

Choosing to add animation to an item can be a quick decision, but finding the right kind of motion to add can take a lot more time. If you've made some of the decisions we suggested so far in this chapter, then you'll have a much easier time narrowing down the style of motion that you want to add.

Flash provides some great options for controlling the speed and pattern of motion, but until you have a clear "flight path" mapped out, you won't be able to use these tools effectively. There are few things worse than spending a lot of time creating an animation, only to realize that the motion lacks personality or seems meaningless. Most ineffective animation is the result of poor planning. This is one area of design where endless options can work against you. It can be fun, and helpful for learning, to play with different kinds of movement in Flash, but this isn't the best way to develop a project, unless you're already an experienced animator. "Designing" animation by simply throwing together some random tweens and timeline effects is the visual equivalent of whistling tunelessly or absentmindedly strumming a guitar — entertaining for the person doing it, very annoying for everyone else!

Although experienced animators develop an intuitive sense of timing and rhythm, designers who are just starting to experiment with motion will have a better chance of success if they have a very specific example to refer to. References for animation (or styles of movement) can be found almost anywhere in the real world — you just have to observe carefully, and, if possible, document the motion with video or a sequence of stills. Often, the documentation will surprise you. It wasn't until cameras were used to photograph sequences of horses running that artists realized there were moments during their trot cycles that all four hooves were off the ground.

These are some resources that we have found inspiring as motion references:

  • Eadweard Muybridge: Eadweard Muybridge is a photographer who did some of the first "stop-motion" images ever made. His classic photographic sequences can be found in books published in the Dover Pictorial Archive Series (Dover Publications). The California Museum of Photography provides some background for and examples of Muybridge's work on its Web site: http://photo.ucr.edu/photographers/muybridge/contents.html

  • Lawrence Jordan: Lawrence Jordan created strange and wonderful animated films using cutout graphics and stop-frame animation. In his 40-year career, he produced a body of work that has been influential for many artists working in new media. You can learn more about him in an essay in the Bright Lights Film Journal at www.brightlightsfilm.com/30/lawrencejordan.html.

  • Bruce Conner: Bruce Conner is a visionary and groundbreaking artist who works in a variety of mediums. He was honored with an exhibit at the Walker Art Center in 1999–2000, and it has produced the most comprehensive catalogue on his work to date. You can find out more about Bruce Conner on the Walker Art Center Web site at www.walkerart.org/programs/vaexhibconner.html.

    Web Resource 

    If you are interested in seeing work by Bruce Conner and other influential experimental film-makers on DVD, a good source is Canyon Cinema: http://canyoncinema.com.

  • Erik Natzke: If you haven't heard of Erik Natzke, then you are in for a treat. This Flash hero has been using Flash to make things move in beautiful ways since way back in Flash 5. He continues to do great work and is generous enough to keep an archive of experiments online at www.natzke.com/2002.html. The examples are mainly scripted, dynamic motion rather than timeline-based animation, but they demonstrate the special characteristic of dynamic motion designed in and driven by Flash.

Of course, you probably also have examples in mind of animation that you've seen and admired. Looking at other animators' work can be a great way to analyze "how it's done," but you should always aspire to develop a unique style rather than to copy someone else's directly. The history of animation is rich and full of many examples of diverse styles that have been effective. By looking back at the work done by great animators and filmmakers, you're likely to find something that will inspire you and offer new possibilities for the ways that you can render images and motion on a 2D screen.




Macromedia Flash 8 Bible
Macromedia Flash8 Bible
ISBN: 0471746762
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 395

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