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rtil
please forgive your useless sister.

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CS4 tutorials anyone?

Posted by rtil - December 11th, 2008


i know a lot of people are not very open to CS4 or don't like it, but i think we all had similar feelings when CS3 came out and now most of us use it. or not... but still. i'm always a sucker for updating my software even if there's no real reason (and i do it the 'easy' way cough cough). but i've been messing with CS4 a little over the past few weeks and i have to say i'm pretty impressed with some of the new features.

i think for the first time adobe has listened to animators and tried to implement some new features that will help us a lot. like the new tweening system. it is similar to after-effects and is much more visually driven. yes, the properties window can get a bit bulky, but it's also important to customize your interface. and these days, most digital animators have dual monitors. in this case i think it would come in REALLY handy. but sometimes you don't even need it - seeing your motion paths and being to edit them -right- on the stage is very handy.

there's also some other neat but probably useless things like the deco and spraypaint tool. oh and let's not forget bones - which i think will produce a lot of great animations, but at the same time increase the amount of stick animations. but hey, at least their limbs will stay together. it could also be used for a lot of really neat mechanical and game-oriented stuff.

long story short i'm really excited to see what comes out of the CS4 department.

and one thing i've tried to do with my website is create a flash wiki full of free resources and tutorials for animators and programmers. since i created it last year it has been accessed over 100,000 times and over 8gb of resources downloaded from it.

however, it is far from complete. there's hardly any AS tutorials on it and the animation tutorials are mostly bits and pieces. but now with CS4 upon us i would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you if you'd like to help out.

flashwiki is dead and gone, and now my project - anipedia - is the only wiki dedicated to flash and animation left. i know there are other tutorial and resource sites out there, but i feel like there has never been one comprehensive site a person could go to and get all the info they could want. that's what i've wanted to build and i'll keep going at it. but it would be impossible for me to do it alone.

if you want to help, it works just like wikipedia. runs on the same software.

as a buildling block, i made this page, which has a layout of a keyboard and a list of all the tools in CS4. from there, they will branch out to other tutorial pages, or simply explain what a tool does. it could be a starting point for people starting with CS4.

if you would like to help, check out an example of what a tutorial should look like on anipedia, and feel free to PM me or add me on aim/msn. i'm also on IRC, server irc.rizon.net, channel #thebackalleys. there's forums dedicated to the project on my site as well.

anyway, thanks for your time, and even if you don't want to help i appreciate those of you who have found use out of anipedia as well.

also here's a screenshot to a "cartoon" that's part of a "collab" . i don't know when it's coming out.

CS4 tutorials anyone?


Comments

Just the the Dummy book.

nobody the's dummy books anymore this is the wave of the future get with it

How does it run performance wise? I'm always hesitant to get newer adobe products.. they always manage to slug it up more and more with each version... atleast the panels have a fancier skin i supposeeeeee.....

How do you like it from a non beginner's standpoint? its one thing to cater to a new audience and to inspire new animators .. but what about seasoned vets in the animation scene... that being said, is it worth the upgrade? (ASSUMING I AM PAYING FOR IT MIND YOU.)

well it is bulkier as expected. i don't think software has ever upgraded without demanding some more resources from a machine. but it has better memory management if it's worth anything.

i'd say for a beginner CS4 is rather intimidating, unless you run through tutorials. however, adobe's help files are all online now, as opposed to coming with the software. and it's a little bit more complicated. but from the standpoint of someone who has been using flash for years, i find it rather exciting. however everyone else i've talked to seems to hate it.

I really need to get my hands on CS4. I'm assuming Bones is the term of the new rigging system for the paper-doll type of character animation? That specifically I'd like to see in action and see how it works. Anipedia looks like it could go places with the right additions so I'm definitely up for supporting it.

Also, it's not gonna be coming out anytime this century, I can tell ya that right now. That segment was still glorious though.

lmao is it really that far behind

anyway, yes you could do that with bones. the whole idea of keeping groups of symbols together in a kinematic system. i've tried it and it works very well

wanna *verb* her *noun*

I'm sure certain companies'll be all over that shit in the wrong ways as usual, but hopefully it'll be put to good use somewhere since it's become such common practice. Good LORD it's expensive though, ugh.

Yeah I finished the intro for it forever ago, none of the "meat" of the thing's been completed yet last 30 times I checked. I Hope you guys won't be bored with the concept by the time the real thing's put out because I wanna see the whole thing compiled XD

we'll just compile it and let it sit around until the time is right

and yeah it's expensive, but there's always those eternal free trials...

this newspost should be re-titled "the desires of kirbopher"

the politics of cambo

cs4 is quite bulky...and I guess I can forget about keeping certain palettes on my cintiq, they're just getting in the way now.

..i guess I'll figure something out.

the only thing that gets in the way for me is the easing/tween properties window. a dual monitor is the only solution i can think of. it works amazingly well in busy software like maya and avid, i think it does the same for flash. unfortunate, but true. someday, when display technology advances, i'm sure it will be easier for artists and animators to manage stage space and panels

I downloaded the trial of CS4 and played around with some of the tools, but I just couldn't get around the interface. I'm so used to CS3, and it just looks nicer. I use a single 22in, and with just that, my screen just seemed cluttered. That's really the only reason that turned me away from it.

I plan on eventually using two monitors. I'm sure my opinion would change if I used one monitor for drawing/ animating (if you can call it that) and one for tools and other things.

i like to keep my panels tucked away on the right side, and expand them when i need be. the default layout is too cluttered indeed.

Cool keyboard thing for Anipedia. Too bad I don't use Flash or I'd help out! I guess I can help wirte some stuff about DeviantART and any animators I'm familiar with.

the communities section is seriously lacking, that would be great!

Yeah there isn't really anywhere for a total begginer to jump into Flash right now. I'm in the middle of a Flash project at college, the tutors suggest everyone read up on Flashkit.com, Actionscript.org, Kirupa an all that business, but most of those are either a few years out of date or a jumbled mess of user content :/

Saying that, I've got a shedload of production notes written up on Objects, tweening, interactivity, vectors n all that shite. I'd add everything, but I work in Flash 8 and I don't want to fill in pages that'll just confuse the newcomers.

i haven't been to actionscript.org or kirupa, but my god flashkit is certainly beginning to show it's age, i agree.

if you still feel inclined to write, you could make flash 8-specific articles. some of my friends still use 8 as well.

dat pictur
dat pictur makes me
uumph

The jump to CS3 made me think that the newest Adobe products are more geared towards teams of animators/coders. Is that the same case with CS4?

I've worked with CS3 for months, and found that working in the older programs, especially using Actionscript 2, is just that much better if you're independent. I've been debating if purchasing CS4 products would be worth it.

i've never gotten that feeling. it would depend on the size of the actual cartoon/game you're working on. a lot of animators simply refuse to learn AS3, myself included. but i've never been unsatisfied with newer versions of flash.

ANOTHER NIGHT OUT
ANOTHER DANCE FLOOR

I'll check it out.

CS4 feels slower than previous versions, especially when highlighting frames with lots of detail in them.

the new motion tweens are also weird for me, they act different than previous tweens but they keep the old motion tween under 'classic tween' in this version.

i haven't really dealt much with the new motion tween, bones or deco tool but the spraypaint tool is very useful as you can spray movie clips on the stage with anything from random sizes to random rotation. it helps if you want stuff like rain drops hitting a large area (see my pirate movie).

the 3d options (z-axis) are very useful as well when drawing perspective drawings like walls and whatnot. you could technically make 3d objects as well as long as you rotate lots of 2d planes of varying sizes and shapes to form pseudo 3d objects.

most tools deal with symbols so cs4 isn't necessarily going to enhance your frame by frame animation skills or anything

no feature could enhance frame-by-frame animation, unless they did something revolutionary with the onion skin, and personally i don't think it needs to be changed.

the new tweens are a little intimidating, but i like the new features they have added to them

holy cow you live in seattle!!!!

sure do

Horray! Someone actually goes over the program a little bit :]

I would make a tutorial, but I haven't used CS4 yet.

understandable, it pretty much just came out

I've recently made the upgrade. My last submission was actually just me testing out what cs4 was capable of. Albeit, i didn't use the bone tool (which is actually one of the coolest new features, i mean IK already programmed into flash!SWEET!) and i'm still getting used to the new tweening system, but i must say i absolutely love it.
It still has everything cs3 brought to the table, for those animators making the transition (like myself) which allows you to learn the new features on your own time. It is definitely a valuable weapon for any animator/programmer's arsenal.

ah :D finally a positive light on the new flash. all i keep hearing about is how much it sucks. be sure to try out the bones, they work very well.

whhheeen aaareee they gonna fix the soooounnndd ssyyynnccc

i always figured sound sync was an issue with computers that can't "keep up" , but it's been a while since i've had a syncing problem and i have a new machine now. i should try and re-create it and see if the issue still exists

I think CS4 is awesome!New features (if used right) make it much easier for some stuff that you would have to spend lot of time on.

i agree :)

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