Interface

The interface I found to be very difficult, I managed to get all my buttons onto my index html page, but they were all in one long line down the left hand side, one good thing is that they animated, but when clicked on did not link.

Also I managed to get all of the stories in the html pages, but only the first swf worked, as soon as clicked on they did not link to the rest of the swf in that story. I had run out of idea to make them link to the rest of the story. I will have to seek help in this area to proceed. I did come to a conclusion to why my buttons did not link though, I dont think I have linked them properly in flash actions, I will try and sort this out.

I next tried to put all my buttons into flash again, this time copying and pasting them, this did work to an extent, did loose a few flourishes, however when it came to time to do the action script I think there was somewhere where I was going wrong as they did not link. I did a header a footer in html, which successfully linked to each story, which needs separating, but the story does not play past the first slide.

I figured out my problem, I had named quite a few of buttons with the same instance name, so they did not work, I renamed then and changed the action script as well. This worked and all my buttons linked to the correct story. Also I neatened up my footer, I centered it and changes the colour this looked much better, it was a case of changing my css and relinking it. Below is my new html page.

Buttons

Once I had created all my scenes and they all linked together, next was to do a interface for everyones stories to go on. I created buttons for each story, using art work from other members in the class art work, I was able to do this as we all swapped stories, so we could do this. I animated the buttons as well as making parts of them into buttons, so when pushed in theory it would then link to that story. Below are a few of my buttons.

They have certain hot spots, which link to that story. I have also put sound on a few of them over the over state so the children can interact with the buttons.

Creating my scene in Flash

Once I had decided what was going into each scene, it was time to start to create the scenes in Illustrator. I began creating the background first, then added the different significant objects and lastly I added in the characters in. I needed to make sure that the parts of the scene that I was wanting to animate were in different layers, for example the eyes. This would help me when I came to put the scene in Flash, as the part I wanted to animate would be separate from the main object, therefore would act independently from the the main object.

Next I copied and pasted the whole scene into Flash, which also copied all the layers across too. I began to animate my characters.

My first scene I decided to animate Percy the Pirate. In the story it said that he is jumping on the trampoline, somersaulting, I just had him bouncing up and down. Also it described Pecky the Parrot as hovering above him so I had him flapping his wings. I also wanted to try and have him circling in the air. Below is my first finished scene.

The trees and most of the background I used through out because this was my main and only location that my story was situated around. A few changes though out like, the change in the sky colour as the sun is setting, and different objects and characters introduced were made. But overall this is what my scenes will be based around.

To create this I used different types of animation, scene by scene for example, I found most appropriate for this scene as it allowed me to move my character up and down in a bouncing motion with ease.

Voiceover

For my story I had the performing arts teacher read out my story. I asked him if it would be possible to put on appropriate voices for different characters. We had to make sure we were in a quiet room, the more soft furnishings the better, so the sound has less to bounce off and make it a better recording. We used a microphone that self recorded, and was able via usb to directly download the music onto the macs reading for manipulation.

I would later, cut this up into the correct chunks so that these would then work with each illustration. Perhaps slight sound editing would be needed, to sharpen it. The programmes that I will use to edit and enhance the recording are Audacity and the Levelator.

My Story and Characters

My chosen story is called Bertie and the Beast. In this story I have three characters, two of which have already been created, they are Bertie the Pirate and Pecky the Parrot, these are the two main characters. There is however the Beast, he is a very mysterious creature, in the beginning of the story and actually through out his identity never really revealed. All that is described to us is his yellow, glowing eyes peeping through the bushes and the white tip of his tail. He does reveal himself to the characters in the story but he is not decibed to us. This has given me scope to develop my own character, with the only stipulations being he is beast like, has yellow eyes and a white tip to his tail.

Once I had read my story through several times, I split it up into sections, scenes, overall I have about 18 different scenes, as my story is quite long. I had to split it up into this many chunks as I did not want to much text on each illustration, otherwise to much would be going on.

M next task was to start creating my new character. I had so many thoughts of what I wanted it to be, from a monkey to a lizard. Some sketches of various ideas are in my sketch book. In the end I decided upon a dinosaur, as they are very much beast like, but can be quite cute in a wired way. In the story it ends with them being friends so he cant be to fierce looking! In the end I tried to create a cute dinosaur that is all scary looks but a big softy deep down. Below I introduce you to Dino! (not completely taken by the name yet, so lets call him the Beast).

I did many versions of him, to begin with I just had him all with the two tones of green, but I later thought that this was a bit bland so I added purple to jazz him up. I did many eyes for him also which are all in my sketch book, but I settled with these ones, thought they gave him expression, he did not look too cute but neither did he too scary, just right.

With the other characters there was not a great deal for me to develop. I needed to create some more expressions for Bertie and Pecky, I needed Pecky flying, so there for needing to create some wings. Back views of the Beast, Bertie already had one. So it was just arranging them all into different positions depending on what they are doing in the scene at the time.

Treasure Island Toys

For this assignment we will be working on a live brief, producing content for an online toy store called Treasure Island Toys. Our target audience for this assignment is for the ages between 5 and 7 year olds.

Already a series of characters have been created by the owners, and nine short stories have been written. There is however 12 in our class so three more stories needed to be created so each one of us has a story. From this we are then going to produce illustrations with animated flourishes, weather that be a blink of the eye of a flutter of a feather.

The illustrations will be drawn up in either Illustrator or flash or both, flash will be used to produce the animated flourishes. A voice over is necessary as our age group will not be fully competent in reading the content. Also the sie of the stage that we will create our illustrations in will have to be 845 x 475 pixels. Buttons are essential, as navigation forward backward and back to start, so these will have to also be created in Flash.

To bigin with I did some research on the internet, I firstly looked at the clients website, as this has the style that we need to aim towards, so our work ties in with already existing illustrations. Also CBBC website was another very useful site in which to get inspiration from, they had lots of animated buttons and similar story structures as well.

My final thoughts on my design

I think that if it had all gone smoothly I most certainly would have not learnt nor understood the workings of HTML and CSS as much as now do, the process that you go through when trying to figure out how to correct an element is an essential skill to have when working in this area, I feel that I have learnt a great deal and hopefully when I come to make another website I will have the basics under my belt and will be able to further my skills, and start to explore more advanced techniques.

If I could change my website I would certainly try to include some illustrations, and make more pages so I could explain composition in more detail. I do like what I have created, I would perhaps change the positioning of the text, but I was limited to what I knew. Overall I am pleased that I managed to create a working website, at one point I really didn't think it was going to happen.