Reducing the File Size in Animations - M3

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw

There are a numerous amount of ways to reduce the files size when it comes to animation and here are a few of them:

Reducing image quality

By reducing the image quality you will reduce the file size dramatically because the colour depth will be reduced and the pixels will not be as precise. Although this way is good for reducing size, it's not preferred in industry because they want to have the best quality possible with the lowest file size possible.

Using different files

Changing the file type can also reduce the file size, but this can affect the image quality, resolution, and colour depth. Tiff files are used in industry because they are renown for having very good quality when it comes to images, but Tiff files take are usually massive files because of the high quality. Using something like PNG, Gif, or Jpeg would be best because it keeps the files size down low and is fast when uploading to the web, but image quality is reduced in return.

Reducing the amount of colours

By reducing the amount of colour in an animation, you can reduce the files size by quite a lot, but then the definition will not be at its optimum level. You have 8 bit, 16 bit, and 32 bit. Depending on what one you have will depend on the amount of colour avaliable for you to have in your animation. The 8 bit has 256 colours, but 32 bit has millions of colours, allowing  a wider variety to choose from but in return, increasing the file size.

Cropping down images

Many images when created are not cropped down. Even though it seems there is nothing there, actually, the black space is us using up precious file space. By cropping down the image and removing the unnecessary blank space, you will reduce the file size.

Reduce the frame rate

In animated animations, the more frames you have, the smoother your movie will be, but this also increases the file size. If your movie is taking too long to upload or save on the web, then you may need to think about reducing the amount of frames in your movie. Although this will decrease the quality, it will make upload time increase dramatically.

Creating Animation for Web Use - P5

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw




E-cards (Electronic Card)

Animation can be a good thing to use in E-cards because it allows the sender to put a personal animation of something and send it to friends and family. The good thing about sending animation this way is that the file size is reduced so you can send cards fast and easily without waiting for it to download, but due to the file size being reduced, the image quality is also weaker meaning that you won't get the full quality when sending it. The file formats commonly used for E-cards are: Animated Gif, Flash files, Jpeg.


Output Devices

Printers for example allow the user to print out animations in high definition from software on their computer, like Microsoft Office. You can also print animation directly from the web, by simply right-clicking on the image and clicking the print button. Printing out is an easy way to have your work on paperback for either backup or to give to someone.
These days printers can even print in 3D, so if you have specialist software that deals with 3D animations of characters etc. then you can print out a high quality 3D version of your work.


Mobile Devices

Although mobile phones are seen as small computers, not all phone are compatible with certain file formats. So if you wish to have your animations in phone format, then you will have to create a different version that is compatible with mobile devices. Many companies that want to have their websites accessible by phone have to create a totally new website in the correct format because phone screens are smaller so all the images will have to be descaled to the right size so it's readable on the phone.


Animated Rollovers

In many websites, the roll-over buttons are generally animated with another image. So when you go onto a website you will see the button in one colour, then when you hover your mouse over it, it will change colour.
Almost all websites on the web do this because it makes the website look more professional and sleek.

Some big companies even have moving roll-over buttons. For example the CBeebies website has little characters the move sometime when you hover over them with your mouse. This feature is used mainly for children as it makes the website fun and keeps them entertained for a short while.


E-mail Attachments

Emails are the easiest way of sending animation to many other people easily and quickly. Unfortunately there is a limit on the file size (1 MB - 100 MB), so to get around this you will have to either reduce the quality of the image or movie, or compress the file in a zip file.

Many people these days though use Cloud to send and retrieve files through the internet because there are no limits on the amount you can send. This way is preferred by many major companies to send work to colleagues and to also back up their work.

Persistence of Vision - M1

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw



Jacques Harris - Persistence of Vision

Persistence of Vision

Persistence of vision is a theory in which when we show a number of images together within a short time period, it gives the illusion that the images are moving. Because our brain can only process a certain amount of information at any given time, when images are shown in a quick succession, we see it as if it's moving.

In films, the frames per second are in the thousands, which in turn make the movie incredibly smooth. The minimum amount of frames per second humans need in order to define the images as a movie is 24. Although the movie won't be as smooth as it could, we still will consider it a movie or animation.

The theory was debunked in 1921 and to this day has never been proven properly.

There are other theories, for example, some scientists believe that it's caused by the Beta Movement, which is the brain assuming that there's movement when images are shown quickly one after another.

Another theory is that when we see images in a quick succession, the brain remembers the last image for a very short time, meaning that we see all the images smoothly without jumps.

Test Log - P7

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw

Test	How you test it	Outcome
Does it meet the purpose	I asked a few members around the class to see if they thought that the animation was suitable for 7+ ages.	With the data I received from the people I asked, the animation is fine and suitable for ages 7 onwards. There is no gore etc. that would offend anyone.
Is the duration fair	I asked members of the class to watch the animation I created and to see if they thought either if the animation was too long or short.	Using the comments I received, the Length of the animation was fine. The only problem that I received was when the name of my game comes on screen at the end of the animation, it doesn’t stay there for very long, so I need to make it longer.
Chrome	I right clicked on the flash animation and opened it up in the Chrome browser.	The animation worked fine and the frame rate was nice and smooth. The only problem that occurred is that the video didn’t load straight away, but I have fixed this now by reducing the file size of the file.
Firefox	I right clicked on the flash file and opened it up through Firefox.	Again the file didn’t load as fast as it should have in the Firefox browser, but when it does load, the frame rate of the animation has been increased slightly, which is annoying because at the end of the animation when the name of the game comes on screen, it goes so fast you don’t get time to read it.
Internet Explorer	I right clicked on the flash file and opened it through the internet explorer browser.	The animation works okay but you have to unblock the running scripts that stop it from playing in the settings.
Download the file	I will have a look at the files size of the animation to see if it is too big.	I looked at the file size and it was a fine size. I tested it in a browser to check the download speed, in the browser it loaded okay but there was a small waiting time of about 2 seconds before it loaded. To reduce the files size all I had to do was reduce the frames in the animation.
Animation movement	Watch the animation and the movements of the objects to see if it all works fine and does the job it is suppose to do.	When I checked the animation, all of the motion tweens worked perfectly fine and they all reached the destination they were designed for.

Types of Animation - P1

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw

Types of Animation

Movement:

Movement is what you see when a collection of of image is shown one after another in a quick succession.
In animation to create movement, you need to have an image, then, in the next frame, put the same image in but change it slightly, and by repeating this process, eventually you will have a lot of images that gives the illusion of movement.


Masking:

Masking is used in animation to allow you to see through an object or a layer, revealing the contents behind it. 






Morphing:

Morphing is use to turn one image into another in a smooth transition. Many monster animations use this effect as the human changes to monster.

Uses of Animation - P2

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw

Uses Of Animation

Entertainment - 

The biggest use for animation is for entertainment. Animation is used on the TV, on your phones, and all over the internet.In television, animation is mostly used to occupy children, as is gives them something to laugh about and keep them entertained for long periods of time. Programmes such as Tom and Jerry are created to make the children laugh, and tell the audience that just because you are bigger than someone else, doesn't make you better.

Many movies these days are created using animation. Films like Shrek and Finding Nemo gained a massive profit from people watching the film and buying the merchandise.

Animation isn't just for children. Programmes like Family Guy and American Dad are animations that get adults laughing.

Education - 

Animation is used in education because it make children watch the animation and not get bored with it allowing them to intake information. A good example is on the BBC Bitesize website, as all of their information is supported by bright colours, animations, and characters that attract the audience and allows them to revise and learn without losing attention.
Many animated childrens programmes are used for an educational use. For example, Dora the Explorer teaches children how to speak basic English and Spanish, and tell right from wrong.

Advertisement -

Animation plays a big part in advertisement. Many big companies use animation in some kind of way to attract the audience. An example of animation in advertising is the Dancing Pony Advert by the phone company 'Three'. This advert attracted millions of people all over the world to their website and in return they gained a massive profit.

Animation is also used for advertisement on the web. Many games companies create cool looking animations to attract the audience to play the game or visit the website.

Without animation in adverts, advertisement would be incredibly boring.



Scientific Visualisation - 

Animation is used to create models that are essential for research and study. Animation allows you to create 3D, realistic models that allow diagrams etc to show accurate representations of an object.
An example of this is an X-ray. Doctors use this to get an accurate look at bones etc. so that problems can fixed quicker and more efficiently. 




Simulations - 

Simulations are mostly used in the military for weapons training and to train for certain events. Pilots also use simulations to practice their flight training without having to spend money on fuel and equipment. Simulations are also used for practicing events and to get a predicted outcome for something. For example, when NASA are planning on putting a rocket in space, they will use simulations to get a predicted outcome of what might happen. This is essential because it can potentially save lives and resources. 

Frames, Layers & Tweening - P4

My gaming Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjW5hPdI4qRYZu7cRbgD0Jw



Jacques Harris - P4

Frames

Animation is all about frames, because frames are the main part when coming to create an animated movie. Frames are the images per frame that are used to make up the movie. The more frames or images you have per second determines how smooth your animation will be, for example, in films, they have thousands of frames per second just to give the audience a nice smooth outcome. The minimum amount of frames a human need in order to see it as a movie is 24, anything below this is considered to have 'lagg' or 'jump'.

In animation they are two different types of frames, they are:

-Key frames - Are used to plot a start and end in a sequence of images. An example of an animated key frame is a man kicking a ball, man getting ready to kick the ball would be one key frame, and the leg making contact with the ball would be another key frame.

-In-betweens are the frame in between the keyframes. They basically make the animation look smoother and more professional. Inbetweens are used mostly to get things like movement accurate and realistic. 

Layers

Layers are very useful in animation because it allows you to have different object in your animation separate from each other. This allows you to edit and/or remove different parts of the animation without messing with anything else. For example, in a mountain scene, you would have:


Background layer (Sky)
Midground layer (Mountain, rain, clouds, etc.)
Foreground layer (Goats, grass, people etc.)

Tweening

Tweening is basically the in-betweens used in animation. Tweening is used to fill in the gaps without you having to create each and every individual frame. There are two types of tweening that you might use when doing this. 

-Motion tweening - Motion tweening is used when you need to move an object from one place to another without doing each frame by yourself (This saves time). For example, this can be used for a plane. The plane can move from left to right easily with motion tweening.

-Shape tweens - Shape tweens distort shapes/vector graphics into another. If you create a triangle on one keyframe and a circle on another keyframe, the shape tween will make the necessary calculations in order to morph the shape from one to another.

One extra type of Tween is the Classic tween. The classic tween is just like the motion tween apart from the motion tween is more efficient and less time consuming. 



Controls
Symbols
Libraries