inspiration + perspiration = invention :: T. Edison ::
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I had planned to start this series last week, but events conspired to distract me. However, I did promise to share how I made the Frontier Magic book trailer in Flash, and so here it is. For those readers who already feel confident in Flash and image manipulation, the tone may seem slow due to my explanations for beginners. Feel free to skim or skip whatever you already know.
For instance, if you already know what Flash, Photoshop, or open source software is, you may want to skip today's entry. If not, keep reading.
The first thing you need to craft a Flash animation is, obviously, Flash. Now, there are a few open source projects that claim to enable you to create Flash-level animation. I fiddled around with these for a while, and though I'm an open source proponent, I've not found one yet that satisfies me as living up to the "real thing" (if you have found one, please share in the comments). Adobe currently sells the latest version of this product (CS5.5) for $119.00. Since I got the software back when I could get a student discount, I'm using version CS3.
Another consideration besides Flash version and price is the computer you're going to animate on. Sound, image, and video manipulation all consume a lot of memory and hard drive space. Before starting this kind of project, you should check whether your system can handle the strain. Now, I have personally performed video editing on a laptop that was in no way designed for that kind of power consumption. It's not impossible, just really, really painful. My current weapon of choice is a Sony Vegas, which has a roomy 500 gigabyte (GB) hard drive and six gigs of dedicated graphical memory (meaning no other programs can use that processing power). I would highly recommend looking for a system with dedicated graphical memory if you intend to do this kind of work often.
Finally, you need a program that allows you to edit images. Windows-based computers come preinstalled with Microsoft Paint. I don't knock Paint, since in a pinch it can be a useful program for simple image creation and doesn't drain system memory too badly. Paint's simplistic strength is its main liability, though: you can only do so much with this program.
For more complex image manipulation, you need a major graphics program. The most popular commercial product is Adobe's Photoshop, currently on the market for $199.00 (version version CS5). Adobe also has software bundles you can purchase that include Flash and Photoshop, and even offers a "pay as you go" subscription plan for its software.
But if you're already hurting for cash after buying Flash, there's another option: the open source project GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP.
A few words of explanation for those who don't understand that last sentence: "open source" describes software that is made free to the general public. The GNU operating system is perhaps the most famous open source project. Here's the explanation of "free" provided by the GNU website:
“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer*”.
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* If you're a Baptist and/or teetotaler like me, you can substitute "free tea" if you like.
By the way, I have no idea why the original project creators used an African wildebeest for its emblem. Wikipedia has some kind of explanation that GNU is a recursive acronym for 'GNU's Not Unix!'
(Wikipedia.org, "GNU"), but that doesn't entirely make sense to me. Anyone with a better understanding of the GNU's significance is free to post in the comments.
Back to GIMP: this program is Linux-based, but you can also install it on Windows and Mac OSX with help from the GIMP website. Personally, I tend to use GIMP more than Photoshop, even though I have both programs installed on my computer. In my last full-time job I used GIMP exclusively at work due to it being free (in every sense of the word), and so I became very comfortable manipulating it.
If you've ever used Photoshop, you can learn to use GIMP, although it does have a learning curve due its Linux origins. In recent weeks I've started to "relearn" Photoshop for some contract work, and I find that I actually like GIMP's menus better in certain situations. Plus I think GIMP has better keyboard shortcuts (which I use frequently) and it gives me the option to open and save files with Photoshop's .psd file extension, so I can easily switch between the two programs if I wish.
To Review, in order to create a Flash animation book trailer, you will need:
Tomorrow I'll begin explaining the actual process I went through to create the Frontier Magic video. For now, you're free to comment in the space provided below.