Case 03 - ActionScript 3.0

In this case we had to use Actionscript 3.0 in Flash to move a object, which could be a simple square or our character, back and forth while not going outside of the scene/screen.

I started reading Learning ActionScript 3.0 - A Beginner's Guide(R. Shupe and Z. Rosser) trying to get a basic understanding of AS3.0, but I found it quite hard to get into it. And it would take me forever to go through that book to find the exact information I needed to complete this case.

So I pretty much ended up waiting for the lab class last Thursday, where we learned the basics of setting up a AS3.0 document and making things move. After that class I feel I got a somewhat understanding how this works, and should be able to solve future cases involving actionscript 3.0.

With some tips from fellow classmates I got my character to turn on the exact spot before going out of the scene and flip the animation when running back.

 

Pirate - Case 03 AS3.0 by ~p2vollan on deviantART

Click it to see it in action

Case 02 - Animation

In this case our task was to animate our character. It had to be animated so it can run to the right, left and start a jump.

After the lab class last thursday(17/9/09) I started working on the animations. The lab class were pretty informative, just enough for the basic. Such as setting up our character for animation, tweens, anchorpoints, bone tool and ect. Their video tutorials they linked to on fronter.com were quite handy.
I also used various tutorials on internet and books to figure out how I should animate. Look at the bottom of this post for list of resources.

I joined some people from my class and people from the 2nd year classes LAN evenings, there we worked on our animations, helped each other solving various problems we had with flash and shared some tips.
Arranging evening such as this really helps, and its also alot more fun than figuring out everything on your own.

I ended up using the bone tool and motion tween, and this is the results.
To make a run cycle and ect. that goes left I just flipped the animations, so I didn't bother posting them here since they look pretty much the same.

Animating in flash ain't easy, but not hard either. I had some issues with flash while animating, wierd behaviour and "random stuff" happening almost all the time. Especially the bone tool like to mess things up. Their anchorpoints tend to move around, resulting in missplaced symbols/"limbs".
Allthough, I think the results ended up ok, nothing superfancy but they will do their job. There will probably be some more animations and tuning before the finished game.

Resources:
Fronter tutorial - Fra animasjon på scenen til symbol
Fronter tutorial - Hvordan sette sammen en "Sprite"
Fronter tutorial - Horisontal flipping av animasjon i en sprite
heyflash.com - Flash CS4 Tutorial - Animation (walk cycle and bone tool)
How to cheat in Adobe Flash CS4, Chris Georgenes - Chapter 4: Motion tips and tricks

Case 01 - Character and basic gameconcept

In case 01 we had to design and draw a character in Flash, ready to be animated. Also we kinda had to have a gameconcept.

I started with sketching various characters in Photoshop. Since I had no idea for what gamedesign I was going for I just drawed some few different characters, tho I kept the same style overall.

After some minor brainstorming I decided to go with the pirate(#5 in sketch). The gameconcept is at this very moment pretty simple, you play as the pirate that gotta save his dear parrot from the sneaky ninjas. Expect a more fleshed out gameconcept on a later date.

Then I continued in Flash, bringing over the pirate sketch and started drawing. I primarly used the Pen tool, Line tool and Fill tool/Bucket tool. And also Brush tool for certain details.

 

And that's how it turned out after some struggling with Flash. There'll probably be some retouching and redrawing before the final game, but this will do untill then.

And that's pretty much it for case 01, I think. Anyhow, I'm going to bed..

Introduction - Better late than never

Through this blog I will write about how I progress and solve various "cases", which in the end will be a Flash-based platformer game.
This is a school project in Animation & Interactivity class, and the finished game gotta be completed this semester. We're doing this by solving a number of cases, where in each one we gotta solve certain tasks. Such in case 01 we have to learn to use the drawing tools in Flash CS4 and make a character, which must be ready for case 02's task, animation.

That should be enough for the introduction. :-P

And so it begins

Not much yet. Stay tuned for updates in the coming days. ; )