Spring 2008 week 7 evening—03/6

Hi students,
I apologize that this was so late. I guess because of midterms and all, it simply slipped my mind. I would have liked one of you two to have reminded me that it wasn't there. hmmm...maybe you haven't even looked at it yet..? I guess mid-terms hit all of us hard. In any case, here is the posting from last week's handout about how to put a character together.


seven classes remaining...and counting down...

1. TOPICS:
   
   1. LINK   nested symbols—symbols within symbols;
      
   
   
2. HOMEWORK:This week, work on your animation projects by creating the symbols of your five (5) characters according to the handout I gave you. We will be working on these animations from now until the end of the term. The assigned homework is always going to be the minimum amount you should accomplish during the week, so I highly recommend you do much more each week. DO NOT skip a week without working on your project. It will cause you to fall behind, and you will regret it at the end of the term when you get your grade.
   
   EACH WEEK'S HOMEWORK IS A PART OF YOUR FINAL PROJECT!
   
   
3. STORYBOARD: below you will find links to each of the pages of the storyboard containing 3-frames each. Your animation MUST follow along with this storyboard. If you wish to make changes, please feel free to do so; however, you must RE-DRAW the frames of the storyboard that you wish to be different. To do this, all you need to do is sketch them out by hand and show them to me.
   
   • LINK   Frames 1-3
     
   • LINK   Frames 4-6
     
   • LINK   Frames 7-9
     
   • LINK   Frames 10-12
     
   • LINK   Frames 13-15
     
   • LINK   Frames 16-18
     
   • LINK   Frames 19-21
     
   • LINK   Frames 22-24
     
   • LINK   Frames 25-27
     
   • LINK   Frames 28-30
     
   • LINK   Frames 31-33—not yet complete.
     
   
   
    
   
4. CHARACTER SYMBOLS:
   
   1. Graphic Symbols—making the entire drawing one single symbol:
      

      After you have drawn your character, select the entire drawing (if there is nothing else on the stage, click in frame 1 of the layer to this). Click on F8 to Convert to Symbol. Give it a unique name (name it dog), select graphic for behavior, and then click okay.
      1) draw your character:	2) select the character:
      3) convert it into an ordinary graphic symbol first:	4) then break it apart (ctrl-B) and separate all the moveable pieces:

      
       
      
   2. Complex Symbols—creating nested symbols: symbols within symbols
      

      Sometimes it is necessary to create complex symbols. In the following situation, we will make the head and the body into two separate symbols. First, we must break up the symbol that we have already created. To do this, select the dog symbol by clicking on it one time. Next, break the symbol apart by selecting ctrl-B. At this point, the drawing of the dog on the stage is no longer a symbol instance; however, if you look into the library, you will see that you still have the symbol there. Now, select only the head of the dog. To do this you must use the arrow tool, and zoom up very close. Make certain you get all of the pieces of the dog’s head in the selection. It is very important that you do not leave any piece of the head out of your selection. Next, once you select the head, choose the arrow tool (V) and move the head away from the body. If you find that there are pieces of the head left out, little fragments of lines or color, then undo until the head goes back into place, and try selecting again. Once you select the head and move it away from the rest of the dog’s body, then convert it into a symbol (F8). Give it the name dogHead, select graphic for behavior, and then click okay. Now, look at the dog’s body. You should notice that there are little gaps in the body where the head used to be. Fill in these gaps and round them out. Once done, select the dog’s body with the arrow tool (V), and convert it to symbol (F8) Give it the name dogBody, select graphic for behavior, and then click okay. Now that you have two graphic symbols, you may try to put them back into place. You will find that the head is below the body. To correct this, select the head by clicking on it one time. Next, go to Modify >> Arrange >> Bring to Front. This will put it above the body. Convert all the other of the dog's parts into symbols also, both the rear legs, both the front legs, and the shadow. If there is a tail, do the same thing for the tail. They should all be selected indepently and converted into separate graphic symbols. Once the dog is reassembled and looks like it did originally, we will put it together into a single symbol. As it is now, it is composed of two parts: the head and the body; but we want to envelope these two parts together in a single symbol. To start, we must select both symbol instances, the head and the body. They must both be selected in order for this to work, so make certain you see blue boxes around them both. If so, then click on F8, convert to symbol. Give this new symbol the name of dog_mc, select Movie Clip for behavior, and then click okay.

      1)

      
      
       
      
   3. Animated Symbols—Creating symbols that move: here is a preliminary set of steps as to how to create a symbol that moves. You should already have some idea of this from the bird-flying symbol.
      
      1. The reason we are doing this is because we are going to make the head move back-and-forth as the script calls for. The graphic symbol is usually a static symbol, meaning there is no movement within it. The movie-clip symbol, on the other hand, is a dynamic symbol. It often is a symbol that contains animation. In order to make our new movie-clip into an animated symbol, we must therefore put animation inside of it. To do this we must go into the symbol (into symbol-edit mode). As we have learned, to go into symbol edit mode we must double click on the symbol or symbol instace. So, using the arrow tool (V), double-click on the dog_mc symbol. Once you do this, look in the upper-left-hand corner of the window and you will see scene 1, dog_mc. This tells us we are inside the dogMC movie-clip, in symbol-edit mode for the dog_mc symbol.
         
      2. Since we are going to animate the head to make it move back and forth, we must put the head into its own layer. To do this we must cut and paste the head from one layer into another. To start this, name the first layer, body.
         
      3. Next, using the arrow tool (V), select the head by clicking on it one time. You will know that you have selected the head because only it will have the blue box around it.
         
      4. Now, to cut, select Ctrl-X. The head will disappear. In reality, however, what happens when you cut an object is that it is first copied to a location in the computer’s memory known as the clipboard. This also happens when you copy (ctrl-c) a selected object. When you cut, not only is the selected object copied to the clipboard, but it is also deleted from view on the stage.
         
      5. Next, create a new layer and make sure that it is above the first layer. You should name the new layer head.
         
      6. Finally, we must put the dogHead symbol instance into the new head layer, but we want to make certain it is in exactly the same spot it was before. To do this, first click in frame one of the head layer. Then select ctrl-shift-V (paste-in-place). This not only pastes the head, but puts it in exactly the same spot it was before in the previous layer.
         
      7. Now you have two layers, one with the head and the other with the body. To make certain everything is in the right place, hide one layer at a time. If you hide the body layer the body of the dog should disappear from the stage. If you hide the head layer, the head should disappear from the stage.
         
      8. Lock the body layer.
         
      9. Choose the zoom tool (Z) and zoom into the head.
         
      10. Choose the free-transform tool (Q) and select the head.
          
      11. You should notice the little white circle in the center. This is the center-point of the head symbol. Click and drag it straight down to the top of the nose. This is the point around which the head will rotate when we make the head move back-and-forth.
          
      12. Now rotate the head a little to the left.
          
      13. Next, click in frame eight (8) of the head layer and add a keyframe (F6)—don’t be alarmed if the body disappears.
          
      14. Then, click back in frame four (4) of the head layer and add another keyframe (F6).
          
      15. Make sure that you’re still in frame four (4) by checking to see if the red playhead in the timeline is over frame four. Once you are in frame four, choose the free-transform tool (Q) again.
          
      16. If the center-point is not still above the top of the nose move it there again, and then rotate the head to the right.
          
      17. Finally, add motion-tweens between frames 1 and 4, and between frames 4 and 8.
          
      18. Hit enter to see the head move back and forth once.
          
      19. You should notice that the body disappears but the head remains. That is because there is only one frame in the body layer. When the playhead moves past frame one, then the body disappears. Therefore, we just need to extend the duration of the body out to frame eight (8). To do that, you just click in frame 8 of the body layer and hit F5 to extend the sprite (aka extend the duration).
          
      20. Next, click back on scene one in the upper-lefthand corner to exit symbol-edit mode.
          
      21. And lastly, select ctrl-enter to view the animated movie-clip looping.