Flash Animation

For my flash animation I decided to create a fictional opening sequence for a snowboard movie. I incorporated both animation that I created and pictures that I cut out with the polygon lasso tool and cropped in Fireworks. The target audience for my project is teenagers and young adult snowboarders. I was inspired by a snowboard movie I watched a few months ago called “From___, With Love”, produced by MACK DAWG PRODUCTIONS. At the beginning of this snowboard movie they present the snowboarders and the places where the movie was filmed with animations and real pictures of the snowboarders. I wanted to give my flash animation almost a kids cartoon look, thus why I kept the animation very basic, but at the same time give it an edgy appeal for younger adults. I really think the way I used the word ‘Featuring” as a rail that the snowboarder then goes on is effective and original. This was my first experience with Flash. I did not know how everything would turn out before hand because my knowledge of this program was very basic, but after a lot of trial and error I was able to master a good portion of this program. My animation only contains one interactive button, but I think it is justified since it is a title sequence. I was able to explore many of the functions in flash while doing this project, although I’m sure I was only able to touch the surface of it’s full potential. I must admit at first I wasn’t a fan of this program, but now I can see why it is such an important skill to have. If I had been able to use flash for all the movies I have created in the past I think they could have been a lot more effective and visually pleasing. I used both Fireworks and Flash to create this animation. Instead of using music from the iTunes play list I decided to create my own music to go with this animation. I used Garage band, which I believe turned out to be much more effective since I was able to create music that really fit with the image I was trying to create. The problems I encountered while doing this animation where things like trying to figure out how to create a specific anchor point and getting all the images to flow nicely on the seen without looking choppy

I believe that this piece is effective in conveying the message that it’s a fun, light movie, most snowboard movies are. The snowboarding laid-back attitude is also represented in this movie, which is why it works well for its target audience.