Animation Project

NAME: Jessica Ruxton SUBMISSION DATE: 16TH May 2012

(i) Character Animation

The character I used for my animation was a walking banana. This is what the image firstly looked like:

I wanted to use these cartoon figures but I firstly had to cut them out in order for them to be placed on the stage in Flash. I opened the image in PhotoShop and began cutting them out. I started by highlighting the first image by clicking on the marquee selection tool and copied the image. Then I created a new file and pasted it onto the stage and then selected the magic wand selection tool to select the area around the image that I wanted to delete (so that the white in the background wouldnt appear on the stage in Flash). I saved each of these as PNG files and then imported the banana figures into the library in Flash. So now each image looks like this:

I created a symbol and called it BananaWalking and this separate folder contained each of the figures walking on the spot. I keyed in F6 for each on the timeline and then saved. Back in scene1 I then dragged the symbol folder BananaWalking onto the stage and then one character appeared. I dragged the banana from left of the stage to the far right of the stage by holding shift. And now by pressing CTRL+ENTER you can execute the banana movement. By doing this, my cartoon figure walked from left to right and continued the infinite loop until I wrote the code stop(); which then terminated the movement. I wrote stop(); at the end by creating a new scene and placing the same background image onto the stage, this stopped the animation completely. The banana walks behind trees and a log before finally getting zoomed in on at the end, where we get a closer look at the banana figure. When the banana first comes onto the screen, the other images on the stage move too. I had to individually chop out each of the trees, as well as the log, in PhotoShop and create a new image to edit it on. I deleted the background of each image and placed them in Flash over the other image. I did this because I wanted to bring them forward. I created each one as a motion tween and

went into properties where I found 3D Pos + View this gave me options of X, Y and Z and I used the Z option to bring the image back or forward. As the banana walks, you see the images getting zoomed in on, or expand in size. You see this concept at the end when the lip-syncing begins. In the third scene, nothing moves but the banana and this is where you see the lip-syncing.

^ The image that my animation started off with

Scene 2 (beginning) where the banana begins to walk

Scene 2 (beginning) as the trees and log begin to expand

(ii) Lip Syncing

For the lip-syncing of my banana caricature I simply edited the face of the banana in PhotoShop. The sentence that the banana speaks is as follows peanut butter jelly time!!! Peanut butter jelly time!!! Peanut butter jelly time!!! Freestyle your style, freestyle your style. An infamous catchy song in Family Guy sung by Brian (dressed as a banana) to Peter hence the banana in my project. I edited the previous banana frame (that we see zoomed in) and I simply changed the mouth movement of each frame by erasing the eyes and the mouth occasionally and each time placing in a different movement than the previous. I ensured that the yellow colour of the banana was the same on each figurine, and the same for the black outline and the blue eyes. This is what each PNG file looked like:

(iii) Text Animation

The first text we see is in the OpeningTitles. For the titles at the beginning I used red and yellow colours, since the background image is set at night so colours are quite dark. I wrote the sentence welcome to banana world! since the theme is of a banana strutting through a forest to give the impression of a fantasy-like fairytale land. The welcome and to are in red and then banana and world are in yellow, obviously because of the banana cartoon being yellow. I then clicked on the eraser tool and began chopping off parts of the letters. World! was the first word to erase from the stage. I chose to erase in an upward direction and continued to do so for the rest of the words. I clicked on F6 each time I erased part of a letter in order for them to be recorded on the timeline. When viewing the edit, by holding down the curser, you can see how each letter appears and reappears. I was happy with this but by leaving it, the sentence will play backwards beginning with the word world appearing first. In order to fix this I selected the whole layer called Text and right-clicked then chose the option reverse. Now the sentence started with the word welcome appearing first. This will play at the beginning before the banana figure will appear. At the end I decided to make the text a little more bubbly and energetic as the opening title. For each word there is a different colour e.g. green, blue, brown, yellow pink, red, purple etc, to add to the crazy happy theme of the animation. I again, created a new scene and layer for the credits, the layer AND scene were simply called EndCredits and also included the background image and an outro tune. The text reads hope you enjoyed the peanut butter jelly time experience with mister banana!! Brought to you by Jessica the rabbit. Nice and simple, quick and easy to read and ends on a positive note too. Each letter was done in the same way as before, I pressed F6 for each letter and in the end reversed the writing so it would read from hope you

Scene 1 (OpeningTitles) Welcome to Banana World!

Scene 4 (EndCredits) Hope you enjoyed

(iv) Use of Sound

I came across an excellent background mix on a website that allows the user to download royalty free clips (royaltyfreemusiclibrary.com). This particular clip was called Wasting Time which just reminded me of a funny, quirky, cartoon comedy but also something that you would hear at a carnival. I cut this down in three sections so I could place them onto scenes 1-3. The tune doesnt begin until the word banana starts writing (this was to match up with the next section, heard in scene 2). In the third scene, the Wasting Time tune was reduced in level because I wanted the banana to be heard. I also wanted bird sounds in the background and I found the perfect sounds on a website called ilovewavs.com, which as it says, allows you download WAV files directly. The clips that sounded perfect for my outdoor scene were called cananies.wav and duck.wav. I used the canary bird sound in the OpeningTitles scene and used the quacking duck in ZoomingInBananaTalk scene. The other obvious audio file I used was the Peanut Butter Jelly Time MP3 file. I actually stumbled upon this idea on YouTube without thinking that I would use it in the end. I was looking up banana-songs, so it would irrefutably make sense in the end. I had to edit the Peanut Butter Jelly Time audio clip, as it was too long. I also gave it a sound effect of an inside room, hence the slight echo. I edited the clip in a sound editing software that I have on my computer, I find it advantageous and adaptable for a quick and easy edit its called WavePad Sound Editor. I was going to use the end of the Wasting Time song in the EndCredits but the voice of the banana and the way he said the words gave way to a harsher song called New Mad Ragga Song. The opening tune is nice to listen to and then we end the animation on a loud beat-box song, just to change the rhythm and theme a little. I imported all audio to the library, as I did with all media.

^ All the media in my library

my scenes, excluding the 5th scene which contains the ActionScript

(v) Critique of Finished Piece

I did the last bit of editing on Tuesday the 15th and finally fixed what I wanted to fix. From the beginning, I struggled with Flash and editing. I had an idea from the start of what my project would look like in the end, and even though its short enough it took me a very long time to get it altogether. I had a problem with the text in the end in that it just wouldnt appear when executed. I reduced the text, one F6 by one, and finally it worked. Overall, I am happy with what I could produce even though it is not perfect! I do criticise the lip-syncing, since it isnt exactly spot on. And when the banana is getting zoomed in on in the third scene, it doesnt look entirely right and could have been cut down further. However, despite my attempts and combats with Flash I am content in what I have created, I just wish it hadnt taken me so long.

The ZoomingInBananaTalk scene

Third scene with banana zoomed in substantially