As I've seen from numerous emails I got, for many people who start working on their very first large Flash animation simply approaching the project can be a complete mystery. This guide contains a list of tips to help you find your way in the dark and make your work easier and more efficient. Just a note before we start - when I say "client" in the guide, it means the person or the organization you're making the intro for. In case you're making it for yourself, the client is yourself, obviously. That's just to clear up any possible confusion. OK, let's begin. Here's what you should do:
1. First of all, get detailed information from the client on the following things:
- the nature of the client and the product/website that the intro is going to be for - you should know who you're working with, to better understand what kind of product they are expecting (and also to see whether they are actually capable of paying you).
- the purpose of the intro - what the client wishes the intro to achieve, what are the main ideas/facts that the viewers are supposed to understand or find out after they view the intro, what kind of point should be driven home.
- the intended audience - age, gender, nationality, location, occupation, interests, average CPU and connection speed - anything your client knows about people who are going to see your animation. In most cases a Flash intro is a web equivalent of a TV commercial - it advertises something. So you have to know the audience to make the intro appeal to these people better.
- any ideas and content requirements that the client might already have for the intro - what atmosphere and mood it should create, how fast-paced or slow-paced it should be, what specific events, imagery, sounds, music, phrases, slogans, propaganda, and subliminal messages the client wishes to appear in the intro, if any. Ask the client if there were any storyboard or script drafts already created that you should be aware of.
- any specific requirements related to the "physical" side of the intro - such as movie size in pixels, file size in kilobytes, duration in seconds/minutes, allowed CPU load, etc.
This step is EXTREMELY important. You have to get this information before doing anything else - you need to understand completelyh what it is that you're going to make, for whom, and why. The more detailed and specific information you get, the better you're going to be prepared when you continue with the next step.
2. After you get the above information from the client and get an idea of what you have to make, it's time to sit down, do some creative thinking, and make a good detailed PLAN. Create a script of the events flow in the future intro - what key events happen in what succession, combined with what sound effects and what music are heard at these moments. Write it ALL down. Or even better yet, create a storyboard - like a comic strip, a graphical version of the script. Sketch all key events in the intro and their timing, with notes on all the sound effects and music. Try and describe the flow of the intro in as much detail as possible. The more detailed your plan is, the easier it's going to be actually making the intro later - you'll know exactly what should happen at what time in what order, and there's less chance of you skipping something that should be present in it.
3. Next thing you have to do is to present your plan to the client. Show the client your script/storyboard, discuss it, and get their approval. Help the client visualize the future intro so he'd see what you see. Get the client's opinion on what you have so far, write down their notes and suggestions. Change the plan to incorporate the suggestions, get back to client if necessary and discuss again. At the same time, think ahead and see which content will have to be provided by the client (any proprietary images, text, logos, sounds, etc.) and tell the client about it. Modify the script until you both feel good about it, or until it can't be improved any further (some things just can't be made any better or any less boring, even with generous amount of explosions - it happens).
4. After the plan is approved, it's time to get/make the necessary content. Prepare all the images, sounds, and music that are going to be used in the intro before you actually start making it. It is much easier to work when the necessary content is already there - you won't have to interrupt making actual animation. If there's any specific content that the client should provide for you (see the previous step) - get it from the client. If you had a good storyboard drawn, you'll already know how most of the movie elements that you'll have to create will look like - so make the graphics that you need, or at least make rough drafts which you can polish later during at the final stage. While you are doing it, keep in mind the things that cause high CPU utilization and slow the animation down, and main reasons for large file sizes. Try to keep your graphics optimized from the very beginning.
5. After all the necessary content is there, or at least acceptable amount of it, you get to do the fun part - to actually make the intro. So sit down and make something amazing. Most people start with the soundtrack, and then time the animation to it. If your storyboard is well-detailed and you know how long the intro is supposed to be, then you already know how long each segment of the animation is going to last. Because of that, creating a complete soundtrack first should be easy. Once you're done with that, create the animation and time it to the soundtrack. If your animation should be synchronized with the sound, then you might want to consult the sound synchronization guide to find out how it's done.
The last tip is to test your animation, and test very often. Test your baby throughout the whole process - so no big problems suddenly creep up on you when the intro is almost finished. If you can, test it on the types of systems that your audience might be using when they watch your intro - from the slowest to the fastest, with different operating systems and different browsers. Just because it plays fine on your computer, doesn't mean that it won't choke and die on some guy's P2-266 with 32 megs of RAM and a 28.8 modem. Test it on Windows PCs and test it on Macs. Test how well your intro will stream, on different connections, and optimize the way you structure your timeline for better streaming. Remember to show it to the client often - make sure that he's happy with what you have so far, because that means less things for you to change when your Flash intro done.
This concludes the guide. Have fun. First large Flash animation is always the hardest, but it gets much easier after that because you already know all the steps. And even if you don't remember anything else out of this guide, remember this one thing: |
