Improvements made to my animation.

Firstly, I changed my text box a lot from a curved orange box with an Alpha level of 75% to a white text box with an Alpha level of 85% (I didn't think that any Alpha level lower was needed since the background was visible enough at that level). I also incorporated this box with my 'next' and 'back' buttons but I have also importantly added a restart button that is linked in with the overall text box.

This screenshot is taken from my second scene although this doesn't really matter since the text box and buttons are all exactly the same size and positioned the same size on each scene.

Secondly, I have changed the synchronized blinking in the last scene, which was quite odd but each character now has their own blinking speeds and lengths etc.

The is the last scene where you see the characters standing side by side and blinking at the same time. As mentioned it's now fixed.

Thirdly, to fix the problem of having too much text in one scene I have created a fade in/fade out effect on the text. This was a relatively simple process and only consisted of creating a 'Motion Tween' and then changing the Alpha levels.

As you can see from the screenshot the text is fading out and immediately after the rest fades in. I've tried to time this as best a possible with the voice over.

In order to make my animation more lively and engaging I've tried to include more animations in my Flash though it was quite difficult to find different aspects to do so.

Ghosts that appear in one of the final scenes have now had the black outlines removed as the black outline didn't suit the visual style and they now move about.

Finally, I have included credits at the end of the animation (this also includes a 'Start Over' button). The credits are for recognizing who produced the work for example:

Looking at my crit of my Flash animation.

After displaying my animation on the projector this i the feedback I received:

Remove Black outline from ghosts.

Change my synchronized blinking.

Too much text.

Voice Over could possibly be a little too 'echoey'.

My animation could do with a few more animated flourishes to bring it to life a little more.

Move the ghosts to make them a little more scarier.

Make the box in which the text sits in a different colour for example an Opaque white.

Be sure to include a credits at the end of the animation.

These changes are easily done despite some being quite time consuming. I do however hope to have these done for tomorrow when I will be placing my animation on the server for other people to take home with them.

UPDATE: I have completed all the changes that came from my crit with the only exception of the voice over.

ActionScript used in my Flash animation.

As all my scenes are split into individual swf's so this means I have to load them all up one after the other in order for them to link together. Of course this event is triggered by the act of pressing a button in my animation. The ActionScript I'm using goes like this:

Start.onPress = function() {

 loadMovie("10_02.swf",0);

}

All this means is that when pressed the button which I have given an 'Instance Name' of 'Start' will  load the movie "10_02.swf" which, is in fact the name of my following scene.

Starting work in Flash.

Despite already having some experience in Flash I recently learned in class of a new method of structuring my animations in Flash. This consists of keeping everything on only one frame and making everything that you want animated a movie clip.

The screenshot above shows how my layer looks (along with my timeline). There are locks placed, which is simply allowing me to not edit anything other than I what I want to edit. Personally, I think using this type of method to produce Flash based animations (or anything to do with Flash) is very effective as it keeps the timeline clean and clear, thus eliminates any potential confusion from all the potential frames that appear.

One key part to the animated flourishes that will appear in my story is blinking. To make the characters more lively I think blinking is most likely the only way I can think of (apart from subtle movements of arms etc).

The screenshots above show exactly how I have done my blinking (I will use the same method for the rest of the characters in most scenes). As you can see it's extremely simply to do and doesn't take very long.  

Work (Design ideas - Sketchbook) Update.

In my Sketchbook split up my story into scenes and have been left with a total of 9 scenes all together though in overall when I go to build my Flash animation in Flash I will come out with 10 scenes as a start screen scene is needed.

I have also produced Brainstorms for each scenes in order to help me visualize what each scene will contain and also what will happen in each of these scenes.