On Flash Design and Animation

Flash design is basically an animated clip that is produced in a program called Adobe Flash. Flash design and animation allows designers to create interactive graphic content or materials that are relatively small in size and are easy to manage. It makes use of vector graphics, thus the images are sharp, clean, and of good quality even if the display is resized. Because they are generally small in size, Flash animations are easily downloadable and they load quickly in a webpage. It is one of the most popular tools for web design because it can be used for a variety of functions, like full-screen animations, navigation bars, banners, and other animated features.

There are two ways to create a Flash design in Adobe -Timeline and ActionScript. In Timeline, you draw and alter frames to produce different kinds of motions, from simple blurring or reshaping motions to more complicated movements. Timeline allows designers to animate objects using set functions that are easy to follow. On the other hand, ActionScript is like a language used to create more complex animations. It provides more room for a variety of motions and greater flexibility to users compared to Timeline.

The following are the uses and advantages of using Flash animations:

• Recent studies show that websites that use Flash content generate higher traffic.
• A full Flash website design is more entertaining and interactive compared to a static HTML website. It is for this reason that FlashScript is now seen as a programming task as opposed to merely design.
• Flash content can deliver messages clearly, creatively, and with a stronger impact. It is being used for advertisements, banners, website introductions, product demonstrations, and many more.

Popular Forms of Animation Used in Media Today

3D computer graphics

The advanced technique of graphic designing is the 3D computer design which gives the 3 dimensional illusions for the designs using the geometrical data. It also uses the light, wind and other effects to give a realistic view of the graphic. It is mostly used in entertainment world especially movies to design artificial environment. Movies like Avatar, used the 3D graphics using various software like Maya that on rendering gives a realistic 3 dimensional illusion of the sketch. The stages of 3D designing are modeling, layout and animation, and rendering. Often it is a time-consuming process.

Architectural animation

Architectural animation is used for the designing of the proposed architecture or a building. This is used to provide a view of the final product with a realistic vision of how it looks. Unlike the traditional blue print which is in sketch model, or 2D designing, the architectural animation provides a 360 degree view of the building inside and out thus able to know how it looks and to understand the strategic points of the building. The software used in designing the animation are Autodesk maya, CAD, CAM.

Tips for Creating a Great Character Design

Whether be it for games, comics, animation or merchandise, we cannot ignore the fact that good character designs play an active role in driving the sales of the product in question. While good character designs help to drive sales, great character designs grow companies and even shape the landscape of the creative industry. This is the first of 3 articles dedicated to the topic of creating great character designs and some tips to bear in mind when designing your characters.

The Core Product

What is the core product or platform which your character will be appearing on? Where will the character be seen and in what medium? This will directly affect how you should design your character, as different products will have different presentation platforms. Ideally your character should translate across several platforms to maximize its licensing potential.

Target Demography

What is your core product's target audience? Have you considered the traits and personality that will appeal to the target audience and not only makes sense in the game, but also gives the game play a boost? Characters aimed at young children, for example, are typically designed around basic shapes and bright colours.