[william]

Hi
I'm not really sure if this is the write place for this, but art is art :D .

1) I was thinking about making a flash website using animations from what I draw. The thing is, i'm not really sure how many frames a second I would need to make images look like they're moving. Like, is there a better way of doing this instead of drawing every single tiny movement?

2) Does anyone know how most flash animations are done? I know they use vector graphics, but are the images drawn first, then changed into a vector format? Or are images usually done on the computer?

3) When I draw on paper, sometimes the paper gets a bit messy and scratched up. Is there some quick way to get rid of the dents on the paper through photoshop?

4) Any tips for converting drawn images into animations on the computer?

THANKS!!!

[Ian Jones]

Hey there...

Questions are answered in a random order. read on...

I had this problem recently, I never did find a quick and easy solution. It really depends on how you are going to animate, what you are antimating etc...

If you look at the work of www.synj.net he uses flash from start to finish. (as far as I know). Maybe you could email him and ask about his method or browse his site and find some tips... maybe in his forum?

Another method is that yes, you can convert pics into vector format using flash. There is a convert bitmap tool inside flash, tricky to use but can produce some nice effects. Read the help files before you attempt to use it.

12 frames per second is about the lowest you can go before it really looks chuggy IMO.

To clean up your scans in photoshop, you basically need to make any areas that are white cleaner, and any areas that are black pencil darker. To do this you can use a variety of methods. Try using either brightness / contrast controls, by cranking the contrast up a bit... or use a more flexible control such as levels. Play around with the sliders to isolate or compress the tonal ranges into the areas you need them. For example you need to wash out any areas lighter than say 40% grey till they are white, and you need to push the pencil tones to a darker value. That should clean up all the muddy and smudgy midtone marks.

Hope that helps.