Eh?
What’s this you’re reading?
Let me tell you about a real hero.
Tarboy.
Tarboy was animated in 2009 and the fact it looks like this using only an old version
of Flash is nothing short of a miracle.
Actually it’s a heroic feat to make this type of scene in any version of Flash.
More on special effects in a minute.
Let’s start with character animation.
This is the easiest part to understand.
As I’ve said before, the art is so clean and the animation so smooth because these
characters are puppets.
They are piles of static pieces.
Each individual piece can be moved.
Now the reason Tarboy doesn’t look as flat as a typical puppet animation is first, because
James Lee also did quite a bit of frame by frame drawing, where each shape is original.
This sneak, for instance, the head is the same piece but each leg is a new drawing.
The second reason the animation looks great is because each shot is either slathered in
light and shadow or it has a murderously good use of negative space.
Positive space is your character, negative space is everything else.
Knowing that, you can build incredibly effective animations using only two colors.
There’s been a bit of argument about whether the effects are After Effects or Flash.
It’s Flash.
You want proof?
Tell me when this gets blurry.
It doesn’t.
Flash.
There are three ways you can make something like this in Flash.
The first is to draw it by hand.
The second is to draw part of it by hand and use ActionScript code to animate it.
A constant spray of particles is an example of something you can make with code and some
shapes.
The third is to download a plugin or copy somebody else’s code.
It’s the same as method two, you just save yourself the coding step.
Regardless of the method, most of the Tarboy effects are built either with streams of semitransparent
polygons flowing and fading, or solid white shapes with colored, glowing edges.
The mystery to me is the 3D coin here.
Flash has 3D capabilities, but I’ve never used them.
Not even once.
Hey, no time like the present.
PS, if you noticed the 3D models in James’ animation test reel, I think he used these
as pose references.
The only 3D part in Tarboy itself is the coin.
If you’ve been a fan of this animation for a long time, you’ve probably hear about
Tarboy 2.
What happened to it?
Well, there was a Tarboy video game in the works, but there were a bunch of legal issues
and James Lee had to spend time fighting to get the video game rights back.
It’s left such a bad taste in his mouth that he’s not working on any Tarboy right
now.
Despite that he did say he’d release an explanation video that includes Tarboy animations
he made but didn’t fully finish.
We might see that by the end of the year, so here is his YouTube channel for subscribbling.
Well folks, this is it.
The last “normal” Scribble Kibble episode this season.
There will be a series break after episode fifty.
That should buy me the time I need to make a complete top to bottom course on animating
in Flash.
Anyway, stick around for something fun next week.
Or join the Scribble Den and see everything early.