wkz
Probably on the other side of the world from you
Given that another content provider in SB/SV recently exploded and rage quitted from the stresses of trying to continue his fic despite RL... yeah. Take all the time you need.
Terrene Spire - Gently ended.
- Thread starter Dexexe1234
- Start date
- Original Art Quest
Mithrandir
Endurance and victory!
- Location
- Lighting the Blue Beacons.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
sasahara17, author of the Kancolle fanfic Greatest Generation.
It's a crying shame, because that's the fanfic that got me to stop rolling my eyes and KanColle and realize just how great it could be.
Then I saw the source material and realized 80% of the greatness with KanColle is done by the fans rather than the source game.
- Location
- .
@Dexexe1234 , this quest kinda inspired me to try to use CS3 Flash to make something, and, well, so far it's crap.
There are absolutly no good instructions online on how to do this, and what I have figured out thus far isn't getting me very far.
Would it be too much to ask of you if I asked if you could make an how-to guide on CS3?
There are absolutly no good instructions online on how to do this, and what I have figured out thus far isn't getting me very far.
Would it be too much to ask of you if I asked if you could make an how-to guide on CS3?
- Location
- Denmark
uh, how-to on CS3?... There are a lot of functions to flash, from its vector drawing ways to it's keyframe animations and built in timeline... It's a little broad to just give a like, general CS3 tutorial. It would be a lot easier if I knew what you are trying to do and then I can help in that direction.
- Location
- .
Good point.
I guess I would ask how the heck you are doing this so fast, I know you said shortcuts...but that question is too broad.
Let me think about it and I'll ask some better questions when I get to my computer.
wkz
Probably on the other side of the world from you
An artist-type friend of mine said this:
Cost (cheapness), Time (quickness) and Quality (awesomeness).
When you're a beginner you don't have all three.
When you start learning, pick one and sacrifice the other two. Either you take forever and a mountain of paper to tweak something to reasonabily good art, you search for and buy sprite-art to arrange and decorate, or you do a quick and dirty sketch which looks horrible if you're not using some costly software.
When you get good, eventually you can pick another category and start getting better at both. Shortening your sketch speeds for example, obsessively tweaking your pic to something better... Etc.
And when you get good, as in really good, you can really push the limits. Push out a sketch in no time at all. Draw amazing things with a pallet of good paints, etc...
... But you can never max out all three. Even the best artists out there can never max out all three.
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- Location
- Denmark
WKZ is right, though the best way I have found is a balance of those three, because if you hyper specialize you become great at that one thing but then you also stagnate. Art is flow, its an ever present learning experience. When someone is drawing something, anything, they aren't spending the hours it takes to make that, they are literally adding the the YEARS of experience they have had before. It didn't take an hour to make that logo, it took 20 god damn years, you know?
Like literally the best course of action is just to try. I had no guides or help, I was alone in figuring everything out.
Either way, some tricks I guess:
This is how i have my interface. It gives me everything I need just within reach instead of having to open it.
All these functions are probably there from the start but its never bad to go over some basics:
Starting from the top:
The Windows tab allows you to open more of the many function windows that are present (the ones that the arrows are pointing at). You might be able to see similar names between windows and the options in the tab.
Behind the window tab that I opened is the TIMELINE! The most important thing when you are animating. It allows you to do shit inside of it, add keyframes and such so you can cheat the eye and make it seem like shit is actually moving. Simply put, whenever you right click and add a keyframe, you can change something in the new image and thats stored there. Every keyframe is a "new image" so to say, it remembers the situation going on in that layer at that point. When you really get fancy with layers and keyframes you can do some remarkable stuff but thats a little too advanced for this writeup.
Color and Swatches kind of says itself, its a color wheel and a swatch tab with a core collection of colors and all new colors you make with the color wheel and then grab with the eyedropper tool (hotkey: i ) are dropped in the swatches as well.
Align/Info/Transform I always keep as a trifecta over there because all of them is able to tweak whatever you select with either the selection tool (hotkey: v ) or the lasso tool (hotkey: L ). Basically, transform changes things in the context of percentage, info changes things in the context of pixels and align makes the thing "snap" to the vectors of other drawings.
Note: Everything drawn in flash, no matter what it is, is a vector. That's just how flash do.
The Library is very important to my work, because it stores the symbols! Ancient powerful constructs that-pff nah. Basically a symbol is a contained drawn element, its its own little thing with its own timeline. Most of my characters and things of interest, are symbols. symbols come in three forms, a movieclip, a button and a graphic.
Finally there are Properties/Filters/Parameters/Actions. Properties is where you change the aspects of the thing you currently have selected. For instance if you have a movieclip selected, you can change its "status" to stuff like "alpha" where you can make it see-through. This is also where you can change the state the symbol is, from movie clip to button or graphic and so on. Mind you, if you have a symbol pulled out from the library and change it in properties, only that one you pulled out is actually changed. The "master file" of the symbol still present in the library will still be whatever it is in there. If you want to change the master file you right click the symbol in the library and go to "type".
All of those words up there are important because only movieclips can have filters present on them. Filters allow you to blurr and change and wonk up movieclips! It's kind of neat :>
Parameters are........ An odd one. Frankly I only keep it there cause it looks weird without it now. I dont think I have ever used it.
Actions are basically the hub for Actionscript. It's there for me again because it looks weird without it. Actionscript is basically Flash's coding language.
....Wow jeez thats a lot of words. Let's leave it at this for now eh?
- Location
- .
WKZ is right, though the best way I have found is a balance of those three, because if you hyper specialize you become great at that one thing but then you also stagnate. Art is flow, its an ever present learning experience. When someone is drawing something, anything, they aren't spending the hours it takes to make that, they are literally adding the the YEARS of experience they have had before. It didn't take an hour to make that logo, it took 20 god damn years, you know?
Like literally the best course of action is just to try. I had no guides or help, I was alone in figuring everything out.
Either way, some tricks I guess:
This is how i have my interface. It gives me everything I need just within reach instead of having to open it.
All these functions are probably there from the start but its never bad to go over some basics:
Starting from the top:
The Windows tab allows you to open more of the many function windows that are present (the ones that the arrows are pointing at). You might be able to see similar names between windows and the options in the tab.
Behind the window tab that I opened is the TIMELINE! The most important thing when you are animating. It allows you to do shit inside of it, add keyframes and such so you can cheat the eye and make it seem like shit is actually moving. Simply put, whenever you right click and add a keyframe, you can change something in the new image and thats stored there. Every keyframe is a "new image" so to say, it remembers the situation going on in that layer at that point. When you really get fancy with layers and keyframes you can do some remarkable stuff but thats a little too advanced for this writeup.
Color and Swatches kind of says itself, its a color wheel and a swatch tab with a core collection of colors and all new colors you make with the color wheel and then grab with the eyedropper tool (hotkey: i ) are dropped in the swatches as well.
Align/Info/Transform I always keep as a trifecta over there because all of them is able to tweak whatever you select with either the selection tool (hotkey: v ) or the lasso tool (hotkey: L ). Basically, transform changes things in the context of percentage, info changes things in the context of pixels and align makes the thing "snap" to the vectors of other drawings.
Note: Everything drawn in flash, no matter what it is, is a vector. That's just how flash do.
The Library is very important to my work, because it stores the symbols! Ancient powerful constructs that-pff nah. Basically a symbol is a contained drawn element, its its own little thing with its own timeline. Most of my characters and things of interest, are symbols. symbols come in three forms, a movieclip, a button and a graphic.
Finally there are Properties/Filters/Parameters/Actions. Properties is where you change the aspects of the thing you currently have selected. For instance if you have a movieclip selected, you can change its "status" to stuff like "alpha" where you can make it see-through. This is also where you can change the state the symbol is, from movie clip to button or graphic and so on. Mind you, if you have a symbol pulled out from the library and change it in properties, only that one you pulled out is actually changed. The "master file" of the symbol still present in the library will still be whatever it is in there. If you want to change the master file you right click the symbol in the library and go to "type".
All of those words up there are important because only movieclips can have filters present on them. Filters allow you to blurr and change and wonk up movieclips! It's kind of neat :>
Parameters are........ An odd one. Frankly I only keep it there cause it looks weird without it now. I dont think I have ever used it.
Actions are basically the hub for Actionscript. It's there for me again because it looks weird without it. Actionscript is basically Flash's coding language.
....Wow jeez thats a lot of words. Let's leave it at this for now eh?
(Nods head)
Thank you both, and thank you Dex for explaining why you set it up the way you do, that's going to help save time.
Prologue: Part 24-a
- Location
- Denmark
Prologue: Part 24-b
- Location
- Denmark
Prologue: Part 24-c
- Location
- Denmark
BAM. How's THAT for a fucking update! HoooOHOHOohh...
WALK THE OPEN ROAD, SCREAMING AT EVERY CRAB YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN.
pantherasapiens
you were always my best friend
- Location
- somewhere over your shoulder
[X] Drive the car.
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
What's that weird squiggly lines in that hole in the cliff above the car?
And can we interface with the electrical station/ telephone?
And can we interface with the electrical station/ telephone?
Evaunit02mark1
S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.
Don't leap at the car just yet, look underneath the bridge.
We got crabs, and I don't think they're friendly. (Look in the corner at all the broken yellow crystals, Remind you of anyone?)
We got crabs, and I don't think they're friendly. (Look in the corner at all the broken yellow crystals, Remind you of anyone?)
We can start a crab battle, tho.
I doubt what the are anywhere as dangerous as red.
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