Happy New Year Students

Here's to a prosperous 2010. A year in which you all get the Higher Education places that are right for you. A year in which things click into place. A year in which you work hard, learn hard and achieve the best you can (the very best you can).

Happy New Year

How much are your short films worth?

You think it's just the video production unit, you think it's just the 3D animation unit. It may be that to you but, I suggest, it is whatever you make it.

Consider the success of Fede Alvarez, an inexperienced movie producer from Uruguay, who on a tiny £186 budget and with a few others made a 5 minute short, uploaded it to YouTube, and then got offered a $30 million contract to make a Hollywood film.

More on the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8417789.stm

You can watch the short on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk



I have thought it, and said it, and I will say it again. The thing that lets most of my students down is not potential, it is lack of effort in realising that potential. I'm not saying that getting a $30 million contract because of your YouTube video happens very often (or ever before), but I am saying you can take your work more seriously. Some of you have won competitions with your work, and yet still fail to remain positive and motivated. What is that all about?

I say, work hard, commit the time, the effort, and then reap the rewards. And that means staying positive and staying motivated.

It's not just the video or 3D animation unit. And the upcoming units are not just web design or just interactive media. Each one is a chance to be your best, and make something that will make others sit up and take notice.

You may not get $30 million, but you can make people take notice enough to give you that university place, take notice enough to offer you your first design job, that promotion.

You may not get $30 million but you can succeed in education and make it in a fruitful and fullfilling creative career.

There are no just units. Each on is an opportunity to show off the very best you can do.

Fading Carousel

The following code supports a fading carousel, allowing you to create a method of looping through a selection of images and fading between them.

Code


var fademode = 0;
var currentt = 1;
var maxt = 3;
var fadespeed = 10;
this.tholder_mc.loadMovie("t" + currentt + ".swf");

this.left_btn.onPress = function () {
if (currentt <= 1) {
currentt = maxt;
} else {
currentt -=1;
}
fademode = 1;
}
this.right_btn.onPress = function () {
if (currentt >= maxt) {
currentt = 1;
} else {
currentt += 1;
}
fademode = 1;
}
//fading
onEnterFrame = function () {
if (fademode == 1) {
//do some fading out
if (this.tholder_mc._alpha > 0) {
this.tholder_mc._alpha -= fadespeed;
}
if (this.tholder_mc._alpha <= 0) {
this.tholder_mc._alpha = 0;
this.tholder_mc.loadMovie("t" + currentt + ".swf");
fademode = 2;
}
} else if (fademode == 2) {
// do some fading in
if (this.tholder_mc._alpha < 100) {
this.tholder_mc._alpha +=fadespeed;
}
if (this.tholder_mc._alpha >= 100) {
this.tholder_mc._alpha = 100;
fademode = 0;
}
}
}



Questions?

For further information contact your tutor.

Two Way Sliding Carousel

As an animation tool Flash makes linear animations really easy just using the timeline. But what if you want animation to run in both directions in response to user input?

There are of course many approaches that can be taken, but here follows the approach used in our online gallery.

The Approach

The main principle behind this interface is to reduce the burden of administration. We don't want to have to do masses of timeline editing just because some of the items in the carousel change.

The other principle is that while the animation can be linear, we can mimic, or fake a two way animation by spliting the animation in half, and using actionscript to jump around the timeline. Thus, the visual effect is uninterupted interactive animation for the user, though the reality is that we are jumping around the timeline.

The Logic

The logic that makes this possible comes from understanding that we can repeat the same piece of animation over and over, but change the item that is being animated using actionscript.

We do this by making a movieclip, that contains a movieclip of a carousel item sliding along. Then we use arrows to tell the movieclip to play (thus making the carousel item slide). At a certain point in the animation, when the item is off the screen we use actionscript to change the item, so that when the animation completes and the carousel item returns to the screen, a different item is displayed.

We do this by telling the movieclip to change the item at certain stages in the timeline using loadMovie.

The Code


var artifact = 0;
var maxartifact = 20;

_root.next_but.onRelease = function () {
if (artifact <= (maxartifact-1)) { artifact +=1; } else { artifact = 0; } artspot_str = "butset" + artifact + ".swf"; _root.aniartholder_mc.gotoAndPlay(11); } _root.prev_but.onRelease = function () { if (artifact >= 1) {
artifact -=1;
}
else {
artifact = maxartifact;
}
artspot_str = "butset" + artifact + ".swf";
_root.aniartholder_mc.gotoAndPlay(30);
}


This is the main engine to make the buttons trigger the animations, and to make the timeline update the carousel item.

Within the timeline, the code to make the carousel update is as follows:


//Increment
_root.aniartholder_mc.artholder_mc.loadMovie(_root.artspot_str,"GET");
gotoAndPlay(1);


And:


//Decrement
_root.aniartholder_mc.artholder_mc.loadMovie(_root.artspot_str,"GET");
gotoAndPlay("prev");


See you tutor for further instructions.