Miccool 2011-09-08 22:54:53

Yeah I use that for some of my toons too... If I didn't, they'd pretty much be unwatchable..

RicePirate 2011-09-08 23:13:50

I coded a simple little tracker in AS3. That way when I preview the video (especially long ones), I can just track forward or back to watch/re-watch parts I need to.

As I make my movies all in one scene, it's a bitch to have to watch the whole video again and again to sort out issues in the last portion of your video.

If you want the FLA, I can send it.

RicePirate 2011-09-09 00:05:36

Here's the tracker...
<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/28a9aa3097aca7fff3bded0aa354bc5f">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/2 8a9aa3097aca7fff3bded0aa354bc5f</a>

Just drag it on top of the animation and make sure it spans the whole thing.
Adjust the size of the buttons however you want.

Here's an example of it in use...
<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f181dcea5b29407ef1365be6b7bf3e4f">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f 181dcea5b29407ef1365be6b7bf3e4f</a>

Thundaboom 2011-09-09 00:57:10

Don't. Ever. Use. Scenes.

MiddleFingerRings 2011-09-09 01:24:41

If you want to have an animated movie clip alpha-fade in or out without showing all the boundaries of the individual movie clips within it, simply add any filter to the movie clip, and set its strength to 0%. (This way the filter is not actually visibly applied.) I tend to use glow.

Here's an example without any filter: <a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/0cda767ee03c87d0e901ab82a7990096">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/0 cda767ee03c87d0e901ab82a7990096</a>

And here's one with a filter: <a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/8505e2f289b5ff9a8a020f861b46f1f2">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/8 505e2f289b5ff9a8a020f861b46f1f2</a>

Thundaboom 2011-09-09 02:43:02

That was my TIP. BY THE WAY.

DONT
EVER
USE
THE
SCENES

RiverJordan 2011-09-09 03:17:05

Use the Command Key (or Ctrl on Windows) to quick-clean up your edges by selecting the edge of the paint line and dragging it overtop of itself, which will cause it to delete and you'll have a sexy crisp edge without needing to pull out that pesky eraser!

Starogre 2011-09-09 03:48:32

Switch to ToonBoom

molkman 2011-09-09 04:26:37

I save my fla under a new name (number) every now and then (like, when enough progress has happened), so I can go back in case I changed some things that I don't like anymore OR if the fla gets screwed up by Flash. So I always have various steps of the development.

lenkalamari 2011-09-09 07:57:41

thundaboom is right but he isn't explaining the alternative, which is using movieclips to make makeshift 'scenes' if you want to break your movie up

try as best as you possibly can to make your audio just one track

also there's a trick for longer/busier flashes that stops that horrid de-sync error that tends to kick in at the 6 minute mark, but i've forgot it (someone should post that)

lenkalamari 2011-09-09 07:59:54

@ ricetracker jesus fucking christ that you for that tracker, holy shit

lenkalamari 2011-09-09 08:00:43

*thank you guhh

MOC-Productions 2011-09-09 08:55:12

I've noticed that with longer flash movies, sound delays become a huge problem eventually. This is an ongoing issue with any Flash program. I've discovered that there are numerous ways to conquer it.

The one I find the easiest and most effective is to export your scene's sound separately as one track. This way you don't have 100+ sound effects infesting the timeline. Instead, they're all in one sound file. Once you do that, put that one "soundtrack" into a MovieClip and place that movieclip on the timeline. This, somehow, eliminates any sound delay throughout the scene.

MCarsten 2011-09-09 09:57:03

You can use a code in Flash to slow down hard rendering which is the cacheAsBitmap() method, he is just going to store everything you have as a bitmap, so if you have a bunch of vectors which are slowing down, he will give some boost.

Example: (type this in your very first frame)
<a href="http://pastebin.com/kR5Ry118">http://pastebin.com/kR5Ry118</a>

boybogart 2011-09-09 11:01:38

Something I've noticed is the way text graphics shake when tweened, like this:

<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/458127f73201da74e455403d4a72e9e1">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/4 58127f73201da74e455403d4a72e9e1</a>

To prevent it, break apart the fonts inside of the symbol. Then it'll become less shaky like this:

<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/d00ff2ac5e79e89816acafb3b27a1b05">http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/d 00ff2ac5e79e89816acafb3b27a1b05</a>

Also, following up on that png/jpeg technique, I also use it for the entire screen when the action is really fast. I just export the screen image(use screen size)then re-drag it into the stage, removing the objects underneath it. It's a bit of a pain when the actions are long as you have to export then redrag it, but you only need to use it when the file becomes to big and it's much better than people not seeing your frame by frame hard work.

Finally, Use alt when rotating symbols so it'll anchor on the opposite side of the object, not in the center. Very useful when doing pivot animation.

RatherRandomReality 2011-09-09 11:51:26

I have a little tip for game makers: if you use a lot of sounds and control them with code you end up raping your preloader, because all those sounds have the "Export in first frame" checked by default. That causes your preloader to stay blank (white box) for a long time because Flash loads all those sounds even before the preloader itself. The way to help yourself with this issue is to uncheck the "Export in first frame" box on every sound item then create an empty movie clip on the second frame of your movie. Then you throw all those sounds there. This way Flash will load your sounds and the preloader will work well also.

RatherRandomReality 2011-09-09 12:01:23

Also the BEST and easiest tip to do the simplest thing - COPY, very few people know this:

None of this bullshit: right click, select "Copy" from the dropdown menu, then right click again, select "Paste" from the dropdown menu and then spend 6 minutes to locate where exactly the object was copied.

INSTEAD:
Grab the object, drag it where you want it, hold CTRL and release the mouse button. Tadaaaaa! It's copied, OMG!!!

Soupcat 2011-09-09 20:21:29

@Ricepirate
That is actually pretty fucking useful. Sadly enough it's AS3 :C

There's actually a project I worked one that uses some kind of youtube player
(seen here www[DOT]newgrounds[DOT]com/portal/vie w/574555 )

I asked for the code but it seemed bugged >_>

OH WELL I HAVE NO TIPS FOR YOU. YOURE CLEARLY A MORE EXPIERENCE ANIMATOR AND SORRY OKAY
IM SORRY.

You probably already know this but always put your Audio format in ADPCM. yanno. no sync troubles n shit

Emrox 2011-09-10 00:31:29

Here's some complex tweening tips from someone who overtweens whenever and wherever possible:

When you're shape/classic tweening (I don't use CS3-5) many items and you need to apply eases to all of them, even if they're mixed tweens, make them all classic (motion), and then apply ease out -100 to all of them. Then, hold the apple key (ctrl key) to select multiple distant timeline frames at the same time and make them all ease in 100 at the same time. Then turn the shape tweens back to normal, and you just saved about 2 minutes of ease-work.

Unless you use the custom ease feature, which is actually a bit unreliable, but saves even MORE time.

Secondly, when converting an object to a symbol, (like an arm), rotate it so it's flat before making it a symbol, and then rotate it back to its natural position. That way, if you ever end up needing to scale it, you don't end up with a scale that only works when used on both the x and y axis.

Lastly, USE SHAPE TWEENS. Whenever you're doing fbf on a simple shape (say, a torso), it never hurts to check if it can be shape tweened. You'd be surprised.