I've finally gotten adobe flash CS5 (trial version). It will last me 30 days, then I'll use 30 days in the CS6 trial. So far my experiences with adobe flash are astonishing. I haven't gone through all the tools as of yet, but the program is awesome. It automatically smooths out my lines for me so nothing looks pixelated whatsoever! The entire thing about smooth lines may not sound like much because several also programs can draw "smooth" lines, but all those are really just lies. The way photo editors such as gimp, of MS paint handle their smoother lines with the brush tool is by making a base line. This is the darkest one, and the truest color, but its surrounded by gray pixels to give the illusion it's smooth. This is a problem for the fill tool because you'd end up with this ugly outline inbetween the real outline of the drawing, and the now colored portion. Plus, adobe flash has many features installed that will make animating a lot easier. I can add these bone structures to the character designs, and what these do is they act as joints, so you can add joints to a person. This way I can merely bend the bone structure, and it will look like the character just bent its elbow or knee. I've been doing a lot of learning about adobe flash so far, but i'm still no where close to a professional level. Something I've also considered recently is how I'll be using background music (BGM). For the thing I'm animating I already have a general idea of what type of mood the song will set. The song is only a minute and a half so I'll be able to use the whole thing throughout the project. I've also decided to base the animation around the music in terms of pacing. So I'm planning on modifying the storyboard for more precise times to fit the length of the song, and if possible, have the animation flow with the music. For example, while the music raises beat, so do the actions currently showing. I've also started doing some rough sketches of one of the characters. It's not currently finalized, but It's what I've done so far.
I'm thinking about getting rid of the pompadour, and I feel like I should make the horn bigger, but I'll see how it goes. Still got to rough out a couple things with the proportions of the body and whatnot, but again, nothing has been finalized.
Here's a Ronald McDonald Concept. I personally think so far from the ones I've attempted this is the best, but I'll try more things.
On another note, I've been changing up the story board to some degree. I've taken out my idea of including a Morgan Freeman since I don't feel like he fits in with the rest of what happens. I'm trying to shorten it because the amount of work for a couple of seconds can possibly range from half an hour to a full 2 hours from what I hear. It's all about the speed and intricacy of what your doing. Nothing is too grand scale in my project (except for a part near the end) so I don't think anything will slow me down a ridiculous amount.
