Christmas Music, a Snoring Dog... and a Lesson on Patience

Well, I finally finished my big final project for Illustration 3! It was my first time ever using Adobe Flash, and I hated it and loved it at the same time. As the time went by, I found myself yelling at the computer less and cheering more- it's really exciting to see your illustrations come to life!

Here is the non-interactive vector illustration created in Adobe Illustrator:

And now for the exciting part... click here to see the finished interactive Flash illustration!

Roll over parts of the illustration with your mouse and click on stuff and it will come to life. Here are a few things you can try:

1. Click on the christmas tree to change the song
2. Click on the star to turn the christmas tree lights on or off
3. Put the mouse over the open doorway to see who's hiding there; click to see what he has to say
4. Click on the frame on the wall to change the artwork
5. Click on the pillows on the couch to change their color
6. Click on the curtain rod to open and close the curtains
7. Put the mouse over the open window to see who's outside; click to hear what he has to say
8. Click on the lampshade to turn the lights on or off in the room
9. Click on the doggie to hear him
10. Roll the mouse over the gifts to make them rustle; click each one to hear what's inside!

Lesson Learned: PATIENCE!! Flash was such a frustrating program for me to use at first, but that was just because it was all brand new. Now that I have a better understanding of it, it's actually a lot of fun! Don't claim to hate a new software just because you don't understand it- once you figure it out and make something great, you might just end up loving it!

Bouncing Ball.. and a Lesson on Precision

Here is a simple bouncing ball animation I learned to make in class last week using Flash:



I'm working on an interactive environment for my final now. It's an illustration of a living room at Christmas time, and when you click on things, they animate. I finished the illustration last week- I'm working on the animation now, and I'll add sounds next week! I'm excited!

Lessons Learned: Illustrating by hand can be loose and spontaneous, but using computer software to create art, and especially to animate requires understanding of specific tools and processes or it will not work. There is no such thing as loose technique in Flash animation- each action must be thought out carefully and the processes completed perfectly in order for the animation to work. It can be very frustrating at first, but just take a deep breath, learn from your mistakes, and you will eventually start to memorize the simple processes and be able move on to create more complex and exciting animations.

Mt. Rushmore Gets a Makeover... and Tips for Brainstorming

My last decorative illustration assignment was to create a set of holiday-themed paper product coordinates : a paper placemat and coordinating paper napkin design.

I chose to do a design for the Fourth of July:

Lesson Learned: When brainstorming for a design idea, make a list! 

For this project, I started by writing down things that I associate with the 4th of July: fireworks, flags, stars, summertime, barbecues, America... then expanded on a few things from that list- summertime: hot, sunny, sunglasses; America: freedom, democracy, presidents, national landmarks... and I eventually ended up with the idea of illustrating the presidents on Mt. Rushmore wearing sunglasses like they were taking part in the sunny backyard BBQ. I never would gotten to this idea if I hadn't written everything out to help guide my thought process.

Dungenous Crab... and a Lesson on Color Temperature

For my last big assignment in Adobe Illustrator, I had to create a poster advertising a San Francisco Event. I chose to make a poster for the Fisherman's Wharf Crab Festival. Yum!

Lesson Learned: Color temperature is very important to make objects come forward or recede in an illustration. It took a lot of experimentation before I found the right temperature contrast to make the red checked tablecloth sit behind the red crabs on the table.

Coffee on the Beach... and a Lesson on Saving Your Work

Last week, we learned how to create simple animations using Adobe Illustrator.

I had almost finished a really cool animation of a girl doing yoga on the beach holding a coffee mug, but then I saved it to my flash drive from a school computer, and when I got home the file was gone! So, around 8pm on Wednesday night, I had to start my animation over again (it was due the next morning). I ended up simplifying it a lot so that I could get it re-done in time, and this was the result:



(CLICK HERE to see a full-screen version of the animation.)

Not nearly as cool as the yoga girl would have been, but it works...

Lesson Learned: When you save a file that you have worked on for hours, check and double-check to be sure that you saved it in the right location! My yoga girl animation probably ended up being saved onto the school computer and got deleted that night when the lab techs came around to clear the files from the computers. So sad.

Happy Birthday to me!

I created this this simple interactive flash illustration in class today. Just drag your cursor over the name tag on the box and click on it to see the animation.



This was my first attempt at using Adobe Flash- I'm excited to learn more!

If the image isn't loading in blogger,  CLICK HERE. This should open it in another window.

If you still can't see the image, try opening the page in a different browser (Google Chrome works) and make sure you have the free Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer.


Lesson Learned: Don't try to draw in Flash- the illustration tools are no good. Do the drawings in Illustrator and then import them into Flash to animate.