The Favrin's Christmas Card

The Favrin’s Christmas Card

Flash Artist Statement

By: Katie Favrin

My idea was to make an interactive Christmas card. The only problem was, I couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted to have in the card. I knew I wanted a Christmas theme with Christmas music. Since it’s a family Christmas card, I wanted to make the main feature my parents and myself. I finally decided that I’d incorporate the viewer by asking questions and using text to ‘converse’ (i.e. “Who’s the best Santa?”). I then decided to add in moving presents and a Christmas message, in both Italian and English. Since my father’s family comes from Italy, the card becomes more personal and meaningful to them. I wanted to include a bit more drawn animation so I included Santa at night in the snow. After all, Santa is the main Christmas icon. I also thought this was a nice way of ending the card; the viewer gets a wave from Santa. My main goal was to make a Christmas card that I could send to my family and friends this holiday season.

My target audience is everyone celebrating Christmas. However, this card is more meaningful to those who know my family and me. Thus, the main demographic for this card would be my friends, family, and colleagues.

In the beginning, I used Photoshop to make the card’s background (my parents and I) standing beside the Christmas tree, in front of the fireplace. The original picture was of my younger cousin standing in his family room, so I Photoshopped him out of the picture and added my parents and me. Also, the tree in the original photograph (my aunt’s) looked a bit small and bare, so I Photoshopped our Christmas tree into the picture. I then added the “Posterized” effect to make it look a bit more interesting and less “perfect.” That also gives contrast to the sharp images I added later (Santa hat, presents, Santa). I then merged all the layers together and flattened the image, creating a nice JPEG, which was easy to import into Flash. Once in Flash, I made that my background picture and drew in the Santa hat. I made the Santa hat jump from one head to the next and included text. This incorporates the viewer and makes it a little more interactive. To add in the presents, which I drew in Flash, I created Motion Guides and used Classic Tweening. I made the other two presents movie clips and tweened them, so they’d change colour and blink - just like Christmas lights. This also puts more emphasis on the fact that “the winner gets a present and two more as well.” From that, I made the picture of my parents and me, shrink and twirl out of the picture. Again, I did this by adding a motion guide and classic tweening. I then added a holiday message, both in Italian and English. At this point, the carol “Jingle Bells” has finished playing, and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is playing in the background. “Jingle Bells” is upbeat and fun, which is why I put it with the changing of the Santa hat. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is more serious so I thought it would be appropriate when I’m wishing the viewer a Merry Christmas, and when Santa is waving goodbye. I was able to download the Christmas songs from the itunes library at school, but due to their lengths, had to edit them on Audacity and re-export them as a WAV. File. I thought it would be beneficial to include some more drawn animation, so that’s when I got the idea to include Santa waving in the snow. I traced that picture of

Santa in Flash and coloured him in. In order to make the presents look really colourful, I used complementary colours. I made Santa’s hand a movie clip, moving it up for a few frames and down for another few frames; I tweened it, so it would move. For the snow, I drew splotches of white on the background and moved them around a few times. By adding a tween, I made the snow look like it was falling. I turned all my pictures and elements into symbols and created a new layer for everything. I added an end action, so my card would not do loops. I added a “Replay” button so the viewer has the option to watch the card again by a click of a button rather than having to re-load it.

I have never used Flash before. I knew I’d run into some problems, and I wasn’t sure I’d remember how to do everything we were taught in lab. Both Santa’s arm waving and the snow falling caused me some trouble. I downloaded all of our tutorials and read through them until I found my answers. Tutorial 3, which explains how to make the wings on the bee move, helped me with Santa’s arm. I am quite pleased with the result. I don’t think the action looks unnatural. One problem that I hadn’t anticipated, occurred with the “Replay” button. I already knew how to import and make buttons, so I didn’t think that section would be an issue. Originally, I had “Play Again.” I made the lights on the tree appear, when the mouse rolls over the button; when the button is clicked, a star appears at the top of the tree and the wording changes from black text to yellow. However, when I attempted to preview my work, the word “Again” would disappear. It was the strangest thing! The lights, the star and the changing of the text colour were all fine, but the word “Again” would not appear. I even made the text its own layer and changed everything into symbols; nothing helped. So, without wasting any more time, I redid the text and this time wrote one word: “Replay.” As you can see, it works fine.

I’m very proud of my final product, especially because this is my first experience using this program. I think my parents will enjoy watching my card, and it works for my particular demographic as well. I realize that Flash really isn’t that hard to manipulate, but a lot of patience is needed. I think it’s really neat to be able to animate both still photographs and hand-drawn images. The next time, I think I might try to do something more complex, since I feel I now have a good understanding of the techniques.

Reflection:

From showing my flash animation in class, I was able to get some constructive criticism, and hear how I could make it better. I learned that it’s not the best thing to mix photographs and hand drawn images; always be consistent. So, next time, I’d probably try drawing the picture of my parents and me, allowing everything to be cartoon-like. Basically, that was the only thing I was told. People thought it was a great idea to do a Christmas Card and make it personalized. I was amazed at some other students' works. They looked quite complex, with a lot of detail and many moving elements. I thought the haunted house one was really cool. The thing I liked best, was the fact you went in the door, and viewed everything through a little circular beam of light, until you hit the light switch. I thought it was really creative, and turned out very well. I noticed there was a current theme running through the projects. Death and blood were very common, perhaps because these assignments were due just after Halloween?? Or was everyone just expressing their feelings on Flash?? HAHA J