Tag Archives: Animate

Computer Graphic Design

Introduction to Adobe Animate CC – Spring 2023

Welcome to Adobe Animate CC! Where Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard vector graphics drawing program, a program called Adobe Flash was the industry standard in rich media production for much of the past decade. Flash allowed its users to produce everything from basic animations to interactive multimedia experiences, to applications such as games.

However, Flash was not without its drawbacks, from its earliest days it was a known memory hog, and as time progressed its robust built-in programming language developed into a security risk as hackers used the popularity of Flash and the powerful intercommunications between Flash and computer operating systems to introduce malicious commands and malware.

As we enter 2023, the standards have changed. HTML5 is now the common language of web browsers, and poor old Flash had to be left behind in favor of an interactive media application redesigned to meet the HTML5 standard’s requirements. Flash was sunsetted (slowly removed) at the end of 2020 and Adobe Animate has taken its place as the standard for web animation.

Adobe Animate works a lot like Flash, but adds a lot of new features that are only possible in HTML5. We are going to spend the next couple of weeks learning about Adobe Animate, exploring its relationship to Illustrator, and learning how both programs can help you to develop rich interactive multimedia experiences for the web.  

Objectives:

  • Identify the elements of the Animate interface, including the Stage, Timeline, Panels and Tool Panel.
  • Produce Rectangle, Rectangle Primitive, Oval, Oval Primitive and Polystar shapes, and discuss their properties.
  • Explain the difference between Object-Drawn shapes drawn with and Merge-drawn Shapes.
  • Explain the difference between Shape Primitives and standard Shapes.

Student Friendly Objectives:

  • I can  identify the elements of the Animate interface.
  • I can produce shapes using the Animate tools.
  • I can explain the difference between a shape drawn with Object Drawing enabled and disabled.
  • I can explain the difference between a Shape Primitive and a standard Shape.

Video Links:

Adobe Animate CC
How to Create and Publish an HTML5 Canvas Document 

Topics Discussed:

  • Start a new document in Animate CC using the Welcome screen.
  • HTML5
  • Canvas
  • Stage
  • Timeline
  • Panels
  • Tool Panel
  • Rectangle Tool
  • Rectangle Primitive Tool
  • Oval
  • Oval Primitive Tool
  • Polystar Tool
  • Object Drawing

Assignment:

  1. Produce a single HTML5 Canvas. Name it “Your Name – Animate Day 1″
  2. Edit the properties of the Stage to make a 30fps, 1280 x 720 pixel (HD) stage for animation. Change the color of the stage to any color you like (other than the default white).
  3. Use the Shape tools to draw examples of the following shapes:
    1. Rectangle
    2. Rectangle Primitive
    3. Oval
    4. Oval Primitive
    5. Polystar Polygon
    6. Polystar Star
    7. Two overlapping Object drawn shapes (representing the properties of Objects)
    8. Two overlapping Merge drawn shapes, where one shape takes a “bite” out of the other
  4. Upload the completed “Your Name – Animate Day 1.fla” file to the “Introduction to Adobe Animate CC” assignment post on the Google Classroom page by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Assigned: April 18th, 2023
Due Date: April 18th, 2023

Computer Graphic Design

“You Toon” Final Animation

Objective:

  •  I can produce a complete HTML5 animation featuring my original character.

Link:

  • None. See links attached to previous lessons for review.

Topics Discussed:

  • For a complete list of Topics Discussed, please see the previous lessons.

Assignment:

  • First, create a new HTML5 HD Canvas (1280 x 720) running at 30fps.
  • Use File -> Import -> Import to Stage to import your character’s front and side views to separate layers. Your characters should be imported to a single flash layer, and should appear as a group of symbols (the symbols you created in Illustrator in the previous lesson).
  • Using the Adobe Animate CC techniques studied in class, design an HTML5 animation using bone tweens and embedded animation to have your character “walk” onto the stage, perform some action, then leave the stage.
  • Your animation must be a minimum of 8 seconds long, without titles. (That’s at least 240 frames at 30fps!)
  • Your animation should have an original photograph as a background. You may not use any photographs downloaded from the internet. Alternately, you may draw your own background in Illustrator, Animate, or Photoshop.
  • Your animation should have an audio soundtrack. I will provide music clips to use, but you may import music that you have available as long as you use less than 8 seconds of music. You may create sounds using Garageband if you have experience with this software.
  • You may only use audio, images and text that you have created yourself. This includes music, artwork, photographs and animations. Anything you did not create yourself may not be used.
  • When your animation is complete, export it as a movie.
    • Go to the File Menu –> Export –> Export Video/Media, and use the “High Quality 720p HD” option under the “Preset” menu.
    • Leave all the other settings at the defaults, and click the “Export” button to convert your animation to a .mp4 video.
    • It will take a few minutes to do this, but when it is finished, your completed video will appear in the “Downloads” folder.
  • Turn the finished .fla Animation file and the exported .mp4 movie  to the Google Classroom “Final Animation” assignment post by end of day on Friday, May 13th.
  • All completed movies will be viewed at an in-class film presentation on May 18th. Note: All seniors must take their final exam on the 13th.
  • You must have an 8-second movie to present on Friday, May 18th. Failure to do so will result in an “zero” on your final project grade.

Do your best, and good luck!

Assigned: April 29th, 2022
Due Date: May 13th, 2022