Text 2: Making Movie Clips with Flash

This text is intended for introducing the basics of the making of Flash movie clip (animated cartoon), including movie clip theory, flash work environment and an example for design of simple movie clips.

1.Basic Theory of Making Movie Clips

Before we study design of movie first, we should talk about a topic, that is, what is movie clip? Actually, a sequence of static cartoons moving continuously will present animated cartoons;like notion pictures; movie clips make use of persistence of vision in human eyes to produce a sense of movement in our mind. In Flash, animated cartoons are called movies; as they are based on the same concept, we don't tell the difference between them.

Every static picture in movie clips is called “frame”. The rate movie clips are played back is represented by how many frames are played back in a second, that is fps (Frame Per Second), and in computers, the usual rate is 8-12 frames/second; especially in network, the frame rate cannot be set too high. If the frame rate is set too high, the network frequency cannot match up with the audio/video data in transmission, as a result, the movie clips are set in a sequence orderly. On this point, some friends who have not engaged in design of computerized movie clips may be skeptic—if we make movie clips played back at a rate of 100 frames/second, shall we first make 100 pieces of pictures? Is the job too tedious? Well, Flash sees the difficulty and makes use of the powerful computing function of computers, and adopts a technique called “key frame”, tremendously reducing the work for making movie clips.

Now let's study the important concept—key frame. Key frame refers to such a frame whose contents are quite different from those of the precedent frame, so that it presents great changes in critical actions and contents.

2.Flash Work Environment

To facilitate study and to avoid misunderstanding of technical terms, here presented is a brief introduction of Flash work environment. Standard Flash work environment includes menu bar, tool bar, stage, time-axis window, and tool palette. Besides these several major parts, with window menu opened, some small windows like material window can be called on.

1) Work Area

Work area refers to a Flash work platform. It is a rather big area, actually covering all stages as mentioned below and work object for drawing pictures or editing movie clips.

2) Stage

Stage is a platform for demonstrating all elements of Flash movie clip, displaying the content of the currently selected frame. Different from work area, only the content of stage is visible after the movie clip is played back, while content in the work area beyond the stage is invisible, just like players and work staffs in the backstage which are invisible to the audience.

3) Scene

Just like drama having several scenes, the stage can have several scenes. Note, on the upper right part of the stage, there are two small buttons; of them, the first one is a button for switching scenes. With interactivity between different scenes, very complex work can be created.

4) Time-axis Window

The time-axis window is for performing operations on two Flash basic element layers and frames. In default configuration, the time-axis window appears above the stage, close to the upper border, in a form of editing bar. It is possible to drag the editing bar with the mouse to other positions of Flash interface, or even outside the border, to make it a freely floating window. The time-axis window is divided into left and right areas used as layer control area and as time-axis control area, respectively.

In concept about layer, Flash and Photoshop are similar. Both are transparent to the viewer, except that in Photoshop it refers to graph layer, while in Flash it refers to movie clip one upon another orderly. The layer control area is at the left section of the time-axis window; it is a major area for layer demonstration and operation, consisted of several illustrative bars and buttons for layer functional operations. Name, type and state of all layers of current work being edited in the stage are all queued in an illustrative bar, in a same order as layers are placed. In the layer control area, not only the layers and relevant information of current work are displayed, but also operations on one or more layers, including adding layers, deleting layers and rearranging their order, etc. Here we remind the reader that the use of layers dose not increase the size of work, instead, reasonable use of layers can help design a work with distinct layers and ease editing work; therefore, for the novice, It is better to get familiar with the use of layers.

The lower section of the time-axis control area, containing several lines corresponding to the sequence of frames at the left layer, illustrative bars, information prompt bar, as well as tool buttons for controlling playing back and operation of movie clip. It is used for effective control on playing back and placing frames.

Using time-axis window to make good arrangement of spatial position and time setting for material can produce better animation effect shown in the work.

5) Tool Palette

If you cannot find the tool palette, you can select menu Window->Toolbar. In Flash tool palette, all Flash selecting tools and drawing tools are included. The toolbar includes two sections: one is selection section on the upper part of the tool palette, used for selecting tools;another is property section, used for setting properties of the tools selected.

6) Material Library Window

In Flash, material window plays the role of organizing and managing all basic elements of movie clip. Every Flash file contains various elements and all the basic elements are stored in the material library, so as to enable the user to search, edit and set these elements easily.

The material library window can change its size, to adapt to the current need of the user. When the narrow state button is pressed, the material library window will appear in narrow state, displaying only the name of materials. When the wide state, displaying information of the name, type of use and times of use, etc. Above the display state button there is a queuing key which allows the bar to be placed in either increasing or decreasing orders.

In editing Flash works, it is also possible to call for material symbol library of other Flash works, under the prerequisite that the works have not been transformed into movie clip show file. To call for symbol library of other works, you should open those works first.

7) Menu Bar and Tool Bar

Most commands, except drawing command, can be realized in menu bar. This is basically similar to the use of menu bar in Windows, so long as you know its name. In the tool bar, some frequently used buttons are placed for facilitating operations.

There are several parts that are important to understand the Flash interface.

• Standard toolbar: icons for open, save, new, print and a few icons unique to Flash.

• Drawing toolbar: drawing tools similar to many other drawing software packages.

• Status bar: display a brief description explaining the use of a tool when you rest your mouse cursor over one of the drawing tools.

• Stage: actual workspace for drawing individual frames of the movie, you can draw directly onto the stage or arrange imported artwork.

• Layers: think of layers as a stack of acetate transparencies. You can put different elements on different layers to make them easier to work with. The number of layers does not affect the file size of the movie.

• Frame: An animation is made up of a series of frames. Each image changes from frame to frame. To that when the frames are passed quickly before the eyes, viewers see the figure in motion. If the change in each image is slight and the frames move quickly, the motion-like that in a movie-appears smooth. A flash movie is series of frames.

3.The Drawing Tools

In order to draw, edit, select, and arrange objects on the stage you will use the drawing toolbar. The drawing tools are:

arrow tool—selecting and moving objects on the stage, also use to reshape objects.

line tool—drawing straight lines, you can adjust color, thickness, and style.

text tool—add text to a frame.

oval tool—draws an oval with selected stroke and fill color.

rectangle tool—draws an rectangle with selected stroke and fill color.

pencil tool—draws lines like your cursor is the point of a pencil.

paintbrush tool—works like the pencil and allows broad strokes and gradient fills.

ink bottle tool—changes stroke color of selected line or shape.

paint bucket—changes the fill color of the a selected shape.

eyedropper—selects the fill color of one object and makes that color the current fill color.

eraser tool—eraser lines and fills.

hand tool—use to move entire stage.

magnifier tool—use to zoom in on stage.

4.Symbol and Instance

For most novices of Flash, symbol and instance are a pair of special concepts, but actually, they are not difficult for understanding. In simplified words, symbol is graph that can be repeatedly used as button, or movie clip; while instance is concrete incarnation on stage of symbols. When a movie clip symbol is created and put on the stage, then this movie clip on the stage is called instance.

Introduction of the concept of symbol is beneficial to designers of movie clip. First, when handling a great number of elements, they wouldn't be trapped in chaos. When there are a great number of repetitive elements in the movie and they should be revised, it doesn't need to do revision on every instance but revise the symbol; as a result, editing work can be simplified. Besides, the use of symbol can evidently reduce the size of files, and the space for storing all the data. For example, when many scenes use the same background symbol, it doesn't need to store all the background graphs for all the scenes, instead, only information for a few calls needs to be stored. Using symbols in playing back movie clip on-line, another merit is that the customer doesn't need to download repeatedly multiple same elements but only once for one symbol; as a result, the rate can be tremendously speed up.

5.Design Process of Multimedia Movie Clip

Before we study movie clip design, it is necessary to make a brief introduction of steps involved in multimedia movie clip design. It is nothing exaggerated to say that design of multimedia movie clip is quiet a complex system process, especially when the work is rather big and rather important. Designers must be competent for the overall process and should first make an overall plan; otherwise, the design must become tedious and time wasting. When we study design of movie clip, we must first make an overall plan before we embark on the design.

In design of movie clip, energy and time invested in the work will depend on requirement for its quality of content. As experience shows, the design process of multimedia movie clip, involves three phases:

The first phase is the most important one, in which the designer should first consider the purpose, investment, content and time involved in the movie clip, also he should consider the way of how to use the movie clip, its after-effect and interactivity, etc. With these preparations well done, the subsequent work will be very smooth.

The second phase involves collection of materials as planned in the first phase and processing on the materials, for example, compilation of file, audio recording, making of movie clip, etc. In collection of materials, stringent requirement is necessary for ensuring quality.

In the third phase, designer uses Flash to integrate and test the materials collected. In this phase, test should be performed constantly and problems discovered should be timely revised, to ensure an elaborately made movie clip is born.

If several persons participate in the making of multimedia movie clip, taking different jobs, every participant should coordinate with each other. By personal experience in the making process, everyone can accumulate experience and will have more profound understanding of the making of multimedia movie clip.

New Words and Expressions

cartoon n. 卡通画，漫画，动画片

persistence n. 坚持，持续

vision n. 视觉

skeptic n. 无神论者，怀疑者

backstage adv． 在后台

stage n. 舞台，活动场景

scene n. 情景，现场

drama n. 戏剧

default n. 默认（值），缺省（值）

transparent adj. 明显的

viewer n. 阅读器

demonstration n. 示范

illustrative adj. 说明性的

facilitate vt． 使便利；促进，推进

reshape vt． 改造，再成形

thickness n. 厚度，浓度，稠密

eyedropper n. 滴眼药器，滴管

magnifier n. 放大器，放大镜

zoom n.&vi. 缩放

instance n. 实例，情况

exaggerate vt.&vi. 夸大，夸张

investment n. 投资

elaborately adv． 苦心经营地，精巧地

accumulate vt.&vi. 累加，堆积

profound adj． 深刻的，意义深远的

match n.&vt.&vi． 匹配

Exercises to the Text

1.Translate the following words and phrases into English.

（1）时间轴窗口（2）上边距（3）工具面板（4）元件和实例（5）素材库窗口

2.Translate the following paragraphs into Chinese.

(1) Every static picture in movie clips is called “frame”. The rate movie clips are played back is represented by how many frames are played back in a second, that is fps (Frame Per Second), and in computers, the usual rate is 8-12 frames/second; especially in network, the frame rate cannot be set too high.

(2) Now let's study the important concept—key frame. Key frame refers to such a frame whose contents are quite different from those of the precedent frame, so that it presents great changes in critical actions and contents.

(3) Stage is a platform for demonstrating all elements of Flash movie clip, displaying the content of the currently selected frame. Different from work area, only the content of stage is visible after the movie clip is played back, while content in the work area beyond the stage is invisible, just like players and work staffs in the backstage which are invisible to the audience.

(4) In flash, material window plays the role of organizing and managing all basic elements of movie clip. Every Flash file contains various elements and all the basic elements are stored in the material library, so as to enable the user to search, edit and set these elements easily.