Week 9: Flaaaash!

18 hours of work over the last 3 days, and the assignment is finally done!

Unfortunately, couldn't post a workable .swf file to this, but here is my artist statement:

The concept for “A Thought” uses the idea of combining drawn components of first animations (the notepad cartoons) and the modern techniques of Flash in an animation with a unique message. The work combines elements of photography, motion, text, drawings, and sound in one, in order to appeal to the viewer. The concept of drawing or doodling on paper in a Flash animation further assists in bridging the gap between the two different eras of animation. While “A Thought” provides an insight into the opinions of the creator of the work, the idea behind the animation is to also raise universal questions from its potential viewers. Thus, the work’s purpose is to provoke a thought or a reflection within the viewer.

While the piece has no specific intended target audience, it can appeal to several different audiences at the same time. Consumerism is an issue that affects all age groups in a modern society, and thus the message of the work is universal. The use of jazz music in the work may appeal to a slightly older crowd, while the photographs of classrooms can attract university-aged audiences. The concept of drawing can be interesting to a younger audience.

The animation was created in Adobe Flash with graphics drawn in Adobe Fireworks and Flash. Some of the central graphics in the work include the dollar sign, a person’s face, and the dollar coin. The most prevalent technique used in this Flash animation is the motion tween. This kind of tween is used to animate instances of graphics as well as text in the work in order to make it more appealing and presentable. Several movie clip symbols on their own separate layers are also used in the work to create the repetition effect (most noticeably the moving background of lined paper and the rotating earth). The work also uses a combination of two separate audio tracks to convey the message behind the animation. Another aspect of the work features stop-motion photography. This is created as a result of placing consecutively taken photos on frames in succession in order to create the effect of motion.

One of the anticipated challenges for this work was the organization of thought and recreation of the speech in form of images. The biggest challenge in reality however, was effectively synchronizing the sound with the motion on the screen. Because there is no way to check bits of sound for each frame, the movie had to be watched over and over again after making minor adjustment in order to perfectly synchronize the sound with the motion on the screen. This challenge was dealt with through tedious work and attention to the detailing in layer construction, because certain motions were used for specific phrases in the speech it was easier to add more detail after the essential “skeletal” animation was laid onto all of the layers/

The assignment further reinforced theoretical material that was taught in lecture and helped secure the knowledge of Flash concepts such as different tweens, action script, and the meaning of symbols in a flash animation. Although the work turned out not as grandiose as perceived in my mind at first, it is a satisfying effort. The work successfully addresses several target audiences with its universal message.


I think the quality of the work in my section was very high. What surprised me the most though, were the storylines and ideas behing some of the animations. Good job to everyone!