A4 - Sound Bite

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megaphone.jpg

In this assignment we'll use Adobe Animate to create an animation based around a soundbite. You can work with a partner for this project.

Key Thing to Think About

  • Keep your animation simple, choose a short soundbite to animate and build a story around it

What to Do

  1. Create a storyboard so that your animation has some structure and you have a plan to follow! Keep it simple = easier to animate, less work, looks better.
  2. Create a new HTML5 Canvas in Adobe Animate, change the size of the Stage from the default to something that is a little larger – 1920 px by 1080 px works well.
  3. Create a sound layer for your soundbite and insert a keyframe “when” you want it to start. Then either drag your sound file directly from the folder onto the stage or use File>Import to bring the file into your animation. Some sample soundbites are included in the digital animation class folder but you can choose your own if you like. Important – Adobe Animate seems to be a bit fussy about the type of file that can be imported, if it isn’t working ask for help to convert the file to something that will work. Use Right-click>Insert Frame on the sound layer until the entire sound clip is revealed. This is the minimum length of the animation.
  4. Create your background and objects using the shape tools (rectangle and oval), then use the selection tool to manipulate the shape the way that you want it (pull corners, bend lines).
  5. Make sure to use layers to separate out your backgrounds and moving objects. Convert your objects/characters to symbols in order to animate them.
  6. You can create different stopping and starting points for the objects by right clicking on a frame in the layer and “Insert Blank Keyframe”.
  7. Create motion by selecting the object that you want to move and using Insert>Motion Tween. Animate usually then automatically creates a set of frames that is 1s long. You can change the duration of the animation in the timeline by changing the position of the end frame making it shorter or longer. Important - make sure to check the position of the Scrubber (blue rectangle and line above the timeline). Move the Scrubber to the point on the timeline where you want the animation to end and then simply drag the object to its end point. Animate will create a path of movement which is shown by a line with dots on it. You can also use frame by frame animation to create more detailed animation.
  8. Add a title and credit section to this animation
  9. Create a folder in M (Media):\ [INGRAM]\2020\2D Animation\Your Name\A4
  10. Save the edited animation and place the .fla file in your student folder.
  11. Export the animation as a .swf file in the assignment folder.
  12. Put a comment in Canvas that you've completed the assignment

Pro Tips

  • Label your layers so you know what is on each layer.

  • Name your symbols so that they are easy to identify

  • Start your animations at different points in the timeline and have objects move from off stage, onto the stage, and then exit off stage.

  • To create more natural movement, move the blue Scrubber rectangle on the timeline, move your object, then move the Scrubber further on the timeline, move your object, repeat.

  • Animate the size of your objects/background to create a sense of movement – convert your background to a symbol, add a tween and instead of moving it scale it to make it bigger or smaller. The object will increase or decrease in size over the course of the tween. You can also make your background wider than the stage and move it slowly from left to right (like a Flintstone cartoon) to create the sense of movement.

  • Add background sound and sound effects to your animation – create a second sound layer(s) and then import an .mp4 file to your stage. Check the M: [INGRAM]/[INGRAM - Resources] for sound effects.

  • Add a title sequence and credit sequence.

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