I followed the Design Cycle in chronological order, beginning with the research. The research helped a lot; I learned a lot about Flash and animation in general. When designing, I thought about the audience I wanted to target. I decided that I would create an animation for children, so I chose an already existing children's story 'The Monkey and the Turtle'. I created a detailed storyboard to help me create my animation of Flash. This helped in the creation, because I had a guide that I could follow. The creating was the most difficult part of the cycle, but the most interesting too! Throughout the project I have learned a lot about the animation process, and learned to like it more too. I think the Design Cycle helped me create my animation, without it, it would have been very difficult creating an animation on Flash with no knowledge on the software.
The storyboard served as an outline to my animation. With the story board, I knew exactly what to do on Flash. It also gave the details like time, setting and characters. I did follow my story board for my storyboard, though I did add details that weren’t already in the plan. Added more settings to make the story line flow better, and make more interesting. I think my changes were for the better.
As mentioned earlier, I met all requirements that were requested, like sound characters and setting; though I didn't include music. In my final animation I may have exceeded the time I had planned for in my story board. I found that when I was creating my animation on Flash I needed more time on each scene than intended, so to make the story flow. If I had followed my initial plan, the story may have been too rapid. I included three characters, two of which were the main characters (Turtle and Monkey). I think my final animation met all the requirements.
If I were to improve my final animation, I would improve on the movement of my characters. I think at times they were a bit to abrupt. Moving the character around was the trickiest part of the process.
I wouldn’t change anything in the cycle, though I would create all the settings and characters of my animation beforehand. I created my settings as I produced my animation on Flash which caused me to spend longer on the creating part.
For students working on a similar project, I would advise to manage your time better, especially on the creation part. As said prior organize everything you need for the project beforehand, it is easier that way. Also pick a topic that you know can finish with in the time frame given.
Before beginning this project I didn’t know about Adobe Flash. It was my first time to use Flash this quarter. Now I know how to create an animation.
When I began to work on Flash I found difficulty using and maneuvering the layers. Over time I got used to it and it became easier. I think Flash is a very good soft ware for creating animations. It has many applications that help design and create motion pictures. I’m glad I got to work on Flash; I hope to use it again in the future.
There numerous similarities and differences between Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop. They both offer editing tools, though Photoshop offers more. You can change the appearance of an image using Photoshop, such as adjusting the saturations or adding effects which you can’t do on Flash.
On both programs you can create animation, though Flash you can add sound and morph images which can’t be done on Photoshop. I think Photoshop is more of an image editing program and Flash is an animation or video creating program. I found much easier to create my animation on Flash, it had better tolls that helped me with the production, though I still used Photoshop to edit my pictures.
