Eric's project #4

Here are some molecules bouncing around the stage. Some are not sticky, like water above its boiling temperature. Others are sticky, like oil...

Click to see animation

(I am not including the .mov as I designed it to loop and I don't know how to make the .mov do that.)

Tutorials - I don't have the patience for the videos. I prefer the book as I can scan through to find what I want. The online text tutorials are tolerable. I only really used #5 as I was failing to select the full shape before trying to add bones.

Completing the project - after reviewing the assignment I created my usual storyboard blank with key requirements and space to create. This molecule theme seemed to fit the bill, particularly since IK appeared to be able to solve the problems I have been having with molecules in my chambers and pumps.

With that I figured what I would need to import and went out and found the plasma background image (newscenter.lbl.gov) and the sounds (freeloops.com and pacdv.com).

And then I animated:

Symbol IK: the water molecule using an Oxygen symbol and two Hydrogen symbols. There are also two handle (invisible) symbols so that I could change the bone lengths from the oxygen to the hydrogens. I deviated from the assignment here because I put the rotation/tumbling motion in a New Symbol Movie Clip, which solved a motion problem I had been struggling with on previous projects (those become blobs.)

Shape IK: the oil molecule. I did not spend enough time with the bind tool, so the shape gets messed up a bit. I just don't seem to get along with shapes - they take too much time that I don't want to spend.

Bitmap: cropped and resized using Fireworks. I chose my vector graphic conversion settings to maintain as much of the appeal of the gradient without locking up Flash.

Sound: I imagined what I wanted and went out and found it. I don't do sound editing. These were so small they didn't seem to need compressing, but the velcro sounded better with the ADPCM than the default MP3.