P4 Explaining the types of software tools, M3 Tools to reduce file size

P4 Types of software codes

Buttons:  Flash has many tools and features that you can access through the click of a button. All the tools in Flash work cooperatively to produce animated creations. These features make it easy to make your creations for example; tweening tools are very useful for making animation features as it makes the movement of objects for you and can also change vector shapes into other shapes this can be used in the creation of web banners and rollover buttons. Another feature is the ability to save projects in a variety of different file formats, these include; FLA, FLV, SWF and SWC file formats.

Motion Tweening: The motion tween tool feature is in Flash and is mainly used for animating or morphing shapes together, even text. Where as the shape tween can only allow you to morph simple shapes, these tools a better used in different situations.

Programs like flash allow you to make paths which the object will follow to speed up the creation of the animation it is similar to a motion tween. The motion tween feature create movement of an object, it will move from one area of a stage to another over the amount of frames that you set the tween to be. 

Shape Tweening: The shape tween tool handles the propeties of the object instead of its location it will create an animation where the object's shape or colour/s over a defined quantity of frames, from the first Keyframe to the second which is the end of the tween. This can create an illusion of the object morphing into another for a much smoother transition have more frames between the first keyframe and the second.

Classic Tweening: The classic tween tool is one of the tools that have been on many versions of animation software and one of the oldest, basically it is the motion tween tool on older versions of animation software but on the newer versions. With this type of tween i9t requires you to create all keyframes manually then connect them with the classic tween/motion tween. 

This tween tool can be used to affect the location of the object and make it rotate. A key problem with using classic tween is that it can only be used on symbols like movie clips, graphics and buttons. The classic tween is also limited to be used on a single object, which can then allow the animation of two different shapes that have different colours and propeties.

M3 Tools to reduce file size

There are many different tools that can reduce the size of your file. One of is the auto crop tool that allows you to "cut" unwanted sections of the image, the way it reduces the file size is that it removes some of the data that has to be processed when running the animation so the file will be; smaller, quicker to run and quicker to transport between on computer and another. You can also resize the image to make it smaller but doing so will result in the loss of quality that the image in the animation will have.

Another way of reducing the file size is to use the preset features to change the ratio in the image to make it smaller but also keep more of the images quality making the actual image more similar to the original reducing the stretched or distorted effect the image would have when finally produced.

A different method used to reduce file size is frame disposal this is where frames in an animation that are not required to be there and will not affect the flow of the overall animation can be removed while still having a high quality animation. This reduces file size because there are less frames that have to be loaded so less copies of the images used and short tweens this means there is less to load and less digital content that would otherwise increase file size. 

The most common way for reducing file size to make it easier to send the files from one person to another via the internet is by compressing the file, it's becomes a zip file where it reduces the size to the smallest format. It is fast and simple it can be done on your desktop library. After the receiver gets the files, they are still compressed the receiver then extracts the files where they will return to their original size. 

P5 The main factors for creating animations for the Web

P5 The main factors for creating animations for the Web




E-Cards: An E-Card AKA. an Electronic Card, which is similar to a post card or greetings card that is sent over the internet to another user. Electronic cards can be made on websites and sent from one user to another via E-mails. The e card is in animation formats like; Gif and Flash. As they have small compressible file sizes they can be sent quickly over the internet. 


Email Attachments: Some people need to transfer a larger amount of files to another person, as they send more files it will take longer to send. The animation has to have a small enough file size to be sent over email easily.

Sending animation formats like Gif and Flash, may need to be compressed or reduce the file size so it doesn't exceed the maximum file size.


Output devices: Output devices such as a printers will print out animations onto paper from a computer or straight from the web. When printing if the animation uses alot of intricate colour designs, it'll be a longer process due to the colour and text that is has to be printed for using on paper.

Also a display, like a monitor, is an output device it will display the animation. If you are using Flash the user's computer will have to have Flash Player update to the latest update to properly display the animations and creative content on the internet, examples of the creative content are; video games, web buttons and animation. 

Mobile Devices: Mobile devices don't share same compatibility as a computer does. Websites created for computers have different formats to websites created for a mobile device. When modern websites are created, they are developed in a different format so mobiles can benefit when navigating the website. 

If a mobile device navigates through a website that is only compatible with computers, the site will be too small for the user to see and are required to enlarge the screen size. Where as mobile sites will automatically fit to the right size the model of mobile, to make it easy for users to interact on the site.

P7 Documentation

This was my animation pre-editing I was going to use it as my advert for my game I was going to do the finishing touches to it like; cleaning-up the jumps, changing frame speed, changing the length of the different parts to make it flow better. This was when the file corrupted and was irretrievable so based off the time I had remaining I decided to do a different shorter animation to use as my animation.

Test Plan

What I tested?	How I tested it?	Expected Result	Actual result
Can it be embedded?	Embed the animation on a website.	It will embed	It has embedded.
Does the animation work on Chrome?	Access the website with the animation embedded in it.	The animation works on the website and browser.	The animation works.
Does the animation work on IE?	Access the website with the animation embedded in it.	The animation works on the website and browser.	The animation doesn’t work on IE8 because it doesn’t support HTML5 but IE9 does.
Does the animation work on Firefox?	Access the website with the animation embedded in it.	The animation works on the website and browser.	The animation works.
Is the animation suitable for my target audience?	Ask peers of target audience to check.	It is suitable for target audience.	The animation is suitable to all audiences including my target audience.
Is the timing accurate?	Test with peers to check whether they think its accurate.	The timing will be accurate enough to suit the purpose.	The timing of the animation is sufficiently accurate.

Storyboard Pitching P6

Storyboard

 

Task 1 P1,P2,M1

Types of Animation

Masking is a type of animation where an image is place over a background, where the image or the background is more detailed than the other to create focus or a 3D effect on a 2D surface it is often used in comics, manga and anime.


Morphing is a type of animation where two images are interlaced and the first image frame by frame as it "morphs" into the second image the frames in between both the images are the morphing stage where the images combine at different concentrations to create different morphed images. 


Movement is a type of animation where multiple images are flashed on to the screen at a fast enough speed to create the illusion it was commonly used in cartoons as they were often in 2D and it was the easiest way to animate the shows and movies, companies that favoured this form of animation are Disney of the image moving the speed that these images are flashed is frames per second.
 

The uses of animation

Advertising : Many companies use animations in their advertisements for a certain product. Which will draw an audiences as it can advertise their content in a larger than life way..


Creative art: Many different artists use animation programs to produce their ideas as it can bring a interactive aspect other means cannot. Graphic designers use programs like photoshop to develop assets to be used in their creative art.


Entertainment: Animation appears in all types of media and entertainment. Whether in cartoons or YouTube videos even in movies where CGI is used to create the massive worlds and destruction in cinema .


Education:Animation has been used to teach children complex ideas that the teacher would not. It also is more likely to engage the interest of the children through; moving images, bright colours but also interactivity like, educational video games.


Simulators for military, training and architecture: To simulate real front line warfare and the other skills required for the military, they would run interactive animations of the real life situations that they would face. A major example are flying simulators all new pilots always first flying simulators to learn and gain their pilot licence.


Scientific Visualization: It is used to show scientific theories and discoveries on a larger scale as data and paradigms can be inputted that will be processed into a simulation type demonstration that can be used as a visual presentations of findings but also be preliminary experiments to create estimations.

Persistence of Vision

There is a mistaken belief that the human brain's perception of motion is the caused by the persistence of vision.
Persistence of vision is where a humans human perception of the decay of an image is slower than the actual time it takes for the image to decay because of this an image will stay in the viewers eye for a brief time after it has already disappeared.
The myth was proven false in 1912 by Max Wertheimer but is still present in many classic and modern film-theory texts. A more plausible theory to explain motion perception are two distinct perceptual illusions Phi phenomena and Beta movement. 

The phi phenomenon is a psychological term for the illusion of motion upon seeing two nearby lights fired in rapid succession. 

Beta movement is where static images are shown on a screen but flash fast enough to create the illusion of animation (sound familiar.)

Persistence of vision is used a lot in media, if the frame rate is high enough in animation the viewer cannot detect that the images are flashing and the person just sees movement, the minimum frame rate to hide the flashing images is 16 frames per second (FPS) some forms of animation have a frame rate that is less than 16 for example flip books. Most modern theatrical films run at 24 fps in both physical and digital film making.

Advantages of Gifs P3

Advantages of Gifs

GIFs support transparent background so instead of using a plain background you could use a transparent background making your website more unique and interesting as well as having it combine very well with any GIFs you have on your site.

GIFs have a rather small file size, this is a big advantage over other file types as it allows them to be put on websites rather easily and hassle free.

GIFs compression type is lossless and so as it is saved multiple times the images will not deteriate making them more durable and good for distribution.

Disadvantages of Gifs

The maximum amount of colours that Gifs can show is 256 colours this is a big disadvantage if you are trying to create a very specific animation with very specific colour shades.

The users internet connection will have a big impact on the viewing of the GIFs , they do not usually take too much bandwidth to view and there is rarely problems, but for users on a dial up connection or a low broadband connection they would be hard to view and would be very blocky and would not be seen to the fully.

GIFs will only animate in browsers that support GIF animation so that will cause certain users using obscure browsers or with changed browser setting to be unable to see the animation.

Once the Gifs has been animated it does not become possible to go back and edit the GIF.

In order to upload a GIF to a webpage it must be a fairly small file size this means you are very limited to the animation possible and it can be a chore to keep the file size down.

There is no interactive aspects to gifs.

D1 Different Animation software

Unit 31 Task 3 D1
Usability, functionality price compare

Blender 

Blender is usually used by experienced animators and also for creating different effects. The software allows you to customise the locations of different tools to let you make it as efficient and quick as possible making it more user friendly.

This software includes a suite with tool that you can use to create different 3D animations and interactive 3D content. Blender is mainly targeted towards people in media because it is better suited for commercials and other broadcasting methods.

The program offers;

A small files size that makes it easy for you to distribute.

A fully suited creation suite.

A high quality 3D architectures but still enables you to create them efficiently.

Adobe Flash Software

Adobe Flash Software (Flash) is a type of multimedia software that you can use to create animations but also games, these games are best suited and mostly used as browser and mobile games.

It can also be used to create different assets that can be used in websites for example; navigation buttons, slideshows, moving text and web banners.

This software isn't as advanced as the other softwares that I have compared in this blog; Blender and Maya, but it easily creates simple animations that you could find on most websites. 

The main thing that Flash has over the other animation softwares is that it has a much smoother learning curve, it could be picked up by a novice and in a hour they could create an animation (how ever short it may be) that could be used for a purpose. 

This software animates on a 2D surface that makes it unlike Blender and Maya so although it is the most user friendly it cannot be used for 3D animation.

Some of the features included with Flash

The user friendly nature of Flash makes it efficient when creating animation. 

The content created in Flash will resize itself when the canvas it is on is resized.

The software uses layers in its animation style allowing extra control and depth to the different animation on the layers.

The software has a library that allows to store the assets like images and animations in a suitable order and can all be found in the same place.

The differences between Flash and Blender

One of the main differences between Flash and Blender is that Blender uses 3D polygons to animate shapes and to create the 3D movement, where as Flash creates it's shape free hand and so the shapes that are created are as good the animators hand. This makes Flash suited better for games on a smaller scale like browser games and apps. Blenders polygon animation makes it better suited for a game on a larger scale, alot of freelancer game designers use Blender to create their games. 

Maya

Maya has alot of similarities to Blender, both are used in the designing and rendering 3D graphics, but Maya is the industry standard program for creating 3D objects for games and films etc. It can produce more graphically impressive and more realistic graphics than other less complex softwares for example Blender

Some of the features included in Maya are;

Craft animation tools, these allow you to make complicated camera movements within your animations.

Also included substance smart textures, that have dynamic, animated and editable resolutions

The differences between Blender and Maya

Blender can be considered a free Maya, but because it is a free source it does not perform as well as Maya and there are more limitations. Blender is much simpler which means it will be easier for people to use and the smoother learning curve makes it suited for animators that do it for a hobby or independently like; video makers, animators and video game animators.  

Maya is not free but because of this it can offer alot more than Blender, unfortunately this makes it very difficult to use and even harder to master. But for those that can master Maya it can offer high reward as it is widely renown as the industry standard, in most companies Maya will be used for its technological superiority.

Different file formats M2

Dynamic HTML/ dHTML
Advantages:

Fast - dHTML loads content on fly. Your whole page does not loads but only the content part that needs to be altered, so saving the crucial time to make changes that need to be made allowing more time for the website to remain running.

Plug-ins - dHTML uses most of the features already present in the browsers, so there is no need to download any sort of Plug-ins.

Great Utility:- The dynamic features that dHTML  has help web designers to create Web pages that have compact looks, downloads fast, have graphic effects, provides greater functionality and can hold much more text or content all at the same time.

Disadvantages

Cost of Editing tools: - although dHTML provides great functionality but the editors' available for that in market are pretty expensive. Examples of dHTML editors are Dreamweaver and Fusion.

Long and Complex coding: - dHTML coding is long and complex. Usually only the expert JavaScript and HTML programmers can write them and edit them with good degree of functionality.

Browser Support problems: - dHTML suffers from browser support problems for different browsers. For example, a code written for Netscape might not work in Internet Explorer. The problem arises due to the different features of browsers.


Flash

Advantages

Interactivity- Flash offers more intractable features than the other formats like games and feedback forms that will create a more interesting website.

Browser compatibility- Flash is compatible with nearly any browser which gives it a large scope of audience because it doesnt limit itself to any specific browser, the only issue that you will come across is that some browsers will require the latest flash player. 

Disadvantages

Flash player- A lot of the creation in flash will require the latest Flash player but some people don't like to update their Flash player so it will remove some peoples opportunity to access your content.

Mobile devices- A lot of mobile devices cannot access flash content and the people that use mobile for browsing the internet also will not have access to your content this will have an effect on your target audience.

Shockwave /SWF

Advantages

Vector based- SWF is vector based. This means that the content can be scaled easily, so they can be zoomed in to or be able onto different size screens, and the file will look clear and play very smooth a unlike bitmap animation.

Fast loading- It was intentionally created small and light to display entertaining animations and could be run on a system which has slower network connections.

Easy and smooth compression- SWF uses a lossless data compression method known as DEFLATE.

Disadvantages

Compatibility- SWF's major disadvantage is compatibility. SWF cannot be played unless the person has Macromedia Flash installed on their computer.

QuickTime

Advantages
Streaming large files- Large files can start streaming before the entire file is downloaded.

Free players- QuickTime players are for the most part absolutely free.


Disadvantages
Stream issues- To access QuickTime files you have to stream from the host.

Bandwidth- The bandwidth that different users can reach will be a issue, as the user has to stream, poor network connection will stop access to your content. 

RealPlayer

Advantages
Compatibility- RealPlayer is compatible will many audio files types like for example MP3s, WMA,  AAC. It also support video files like MPEG-4.

Disadvantages

It can be subject to lag if the user's connection does not reach certain requirements.

There are other alternatives that take up less space and use less processing power.


Comparison between GIF and Flash 
Flash is technologically superior to GIF it can animate more fluently due to the fact it can store more data this allows more frames, using tweening which will save the time of the animator, which creates the illusion of smoother animation. Also Flash can use a far larger range of colours than Gif as Gif is limited to only 256, also these colours have to be in larger blocks or it will struggle to run smoothly, where as Flash has alot more which allows more interactive design. Although Gif can load alot quicker on webpages and is more accessible to people with weaker internet connection, but Gifs biggest advantage is that it is accessible by mobiles which is a major issue with Flash so for websites that are designed for mobile web browsing will probably use Gif. 


Comparison between QuickTime and RealPlayer
QuickTime streams because of this people with poor internet connection will struggle to access the files because you have to get the files from the host but on RealPlayer the files are yours after you have downloaded them and it just plays them. If the host's server goes down then QuickTIme becomes useless because you don't have any files but RealPlayer takes more processing power to use so they both have their advantages and their efficiency.


Depending on your project the choice of file format will be based on what you are trying achieve. If you wish to stream then QuickTime is your best option, if you wish to make a more complex and interactive animation then Flash is a good choice, if your market is on mobile browsing then Gif or dHTML will be the better option due to Flash's mobile limitations.