I basically have all my character designs done now. I may tweek some details later, but all of them are done. I also finished my second-by-second story board. I'm planning on doing all the grunt work over spring break. Luckily I won't have to draw every individual frame in back-breaking work, because all I really have to do is erase a moving part and redraw it. It makes the overall frame look a bit stiff, but doing it otherwise wouldn't be reasonable. I also have the option on adobe flash to use a "bone" tool which automatically registers certain portions of picture as a person, and I can move each "bone" that corresponds to a limb to a place where I want movement, but all my characters designs are apparently "too complex" for flash to handle. Go figure. I also got a very good idea as to how to do my TED talk. I got some very good feedback today, helping me with what I should and shouldn't do during the presentation. The rest of the work I have left is pretty dry and boring, but the end result will (hopefully) be awesome!

Hopefully my storyboard is accurate in what actually looks normal though. I'm also concerned because there have been some lagging issues arising more and more frequently with the graphics tablet. Not sure if it's the computer, flash, or the tablet, but it's still manageable. Overall it should be smooth sailing from here on out, and I doubt anything else can really hinder and major progress.
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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.

Project: FLASH ANIMATION

For my project I want to be able to create a flash animation. In simpler terms I'll be attempting to make a cartoon. This is a thing I've wanted to try to attempt but never got around to. I think this will definitely be an interesting thing and there's a lot that I think can come out of my project for myself. I'll need some materials for my project, but I don't think it'll be ridiculous and unnecessary. I'll first of all need a graphic tablet. This is a device that will allow me to control the mouse from the tablet itself. It operates with a pen, by putting that pen on a special surface so I can draw the frames with precision and not have to try drawing lines with a computer mouse. I already have gotten my hands on on for a good price and quality. Second of all, I'll need some software. I'll need a video editor and a drawing program. The video editor I need doesn't have to be impressive in the slightest. It just has to be able to string the thousands of images I'll need to create. The drawing program has to be professional, cheap and versatile. I've already found a program called gimp that may be able to accomplish what I want, but if I could find a way to procure something better like Adobe Flash CS6 then I'll definitely be using that. I also have a written story board of my project that I want to do. The ideas I have are very action-packed and dynamic, but hopefully I'll be able to succeed in making something that is decently presentable.

As for my measurable and how I will plan my project, I'm going to be spending the first week or two getting used to drawing on the tablet and doing research on animation. Drawing on the tablet feels a bit awkward at times because I have to look up at my computer screen, but I have to draw on the tablet. The image I draw on the tablet will only show up on the computer so I can't simply eye what looks good on the tablet. From what I've seen so far is that drawing on the tablet is significantly slower than it is in real life. I have to be much more alert and careful so I don't majorly screw up something. However, there is a pro to drawing on the tablet. Undo. Normally you have to erase a part of a picture you don't like, but since the picture is on the computer, if there's an unwanted line I can just delete it with control+z. It doesn't make up for the naturally slow drawing, but hopefully the more I practice, the faster I'll get. For the next few weeks I'll be drawing the pictures. This will take the longest amount of time, and will require precision. A thing I used to concerned with was drawing each picture perfectly so if I draw a character they aren't flying all over the screen, but I learned that If I just draw each limb individually, I can just put them on top of each other, and adjust them individually for a movement. There are also things I'll have to learn about how the human perceives vision and action. Obviously I don't want anything to appear jagged, or unsmooth in movement and optimizing that will be a big part while I do my project. Nearing the end, I'll have to do the coloring, which should be fairly quick considering that I can use the fill tool which is on nearly every picture editing software imaginable, then I'll put in the audio. Luckily the way my story board is for the animation, I'll just have to put in background music, and have someone voice Morgan Freedman.

I still have a lot of work to do, but so far I think what I have is very solid.