New Directions, New Challenges

[Clayton]

Presently I create 2-dimensional, photorealistic renditions of products for the sales folks to show their prospects. The products are dashboard instrumentation for trucks and construction vehicles.

I use CorelDraw and Photoshop with a lot of success. However, the sales folks have become bored with the 2D renditions, and they are static. I've been asked to go a step farther and create interactive, animated renditions for on-line viewing.

As a first step, the interactive animation would be contained on a CDROM that could be sent to a prospect for off-line viewing and interaction. If the concept is successful, the next step would be to transport it to the company website for on-line interaction.

"Interactive" here means the viewer can control various gauge pointers and telltale operation by mousing around with virtual switches, knobs, sliders, and other controls.

What applications should I be considering to build the animation and link the movable objects to their controls? Macromedia was suggested, but I'd rather stick with an Adobe product. I think a graphics-based simulation would be easier to develop and maintain than a video-based one.

Comments? Suggestions?? Recommendations???

[Franca]

Wow. I am used to doing the photorealistic 2-D thing just as you are, and it would freak me out to be asked to make images interactive. I will be as interested as you in any responses to your question!

[don Arnoldy]

What applications should I be considering to build the animation and link the movable objects to their controls?My first look would be at Flash and/or Director. These are both object-based animation apps, and you should be able to repurpose a lot of your existing stuff.

[Clayton]

Great! I think the key words here are "object-based animation".

A simple example of my renderings - imagine a speedometer in a car being rendered in Photoshop. The rendering consists of the following layered bitmaps (starting as vectors in CorelDraw and exported as EPS files for placing into Photoshop):

Layer 1 (bottom): the dial and its graphics. In the simulation, the user can select black on white, or white on black using a switch connected to a show/hide function.

Layer 2: Red warning LED (either on or off). In the simulation, the LED would turn on for 1 second when the ignition switch is turned on.

Layer 3: the pointer hub. Static

Layer 4: the pointer. In the simulation, this would sweep back and forth one time to verify that it works.

Layer 5: bezel. In the simulation, a rotary switch allows the user to select a black, chrome, gold, satin chrome bezel.

More objects than that exist. For example, most dashes have at least 4 gauges, so the Bezel Select rotary would change all bezels at once.

Not really any vectors here. When the simulation is done, I must be able to contain it in one file and either burn a CD or upload the file to the web server.

Does Flash or Director offer this type of interaction?

[Steve Rindsberg]

I've never done any work with Flash but I periodically go off on cartoon jags and hunt down all kinds of Flash animations just to see what people are up to. From what I've seen, it's certainly up to the task you've been handed.

[ElyseC]

Yes, if that's what's behind the car manufacturer sites that allow you to interactively customize a car design, playing with the interior and exterior options, then Flash should certainly do the job. Here's the Honda (car) site (http://automobiles.honda.com/tools/buildandprice/models.asp?SERIES=14&SERIESNAME=Odyssey&DIVISION=A&YEAR=2005&MODEL=RL3825EW&RURL=/models/model_overview.asp%3FModelName%3DOdyssey%26bhcp%3D 1%26BrowserDetected%3DTrue&VIEW=34FRONT&ECOLOR=NH-662P&ICOLOR=OL) I think I played with once when investigating their models. Dunno if it's Flash based, but it seems a very simple version of what he wants to accomplish.

[Mike]

Does Flash or Director offer this type of interaction?

Flash would sound like a good vehicle for that type of animation.

Graphic objects can be bitmaps or bezier curves (or a hybrid) and they can be made to move or morph independently and respond to mouse movements or the timeline.

Flash animations can be published as stand-alone applications or embedded in a web page.

The basic tutorials built in to the application are quite good and can be worked through in about an hour. It would be worth downloading a demo copy for evaluation.

[mact]

You could tinker with Corel RAVE (bundled with Draw)...their version of Flash...to see if that approach would get you closer to where you want to be before committing $$$ to the effort

[Clayton]

The only part of that site that illustrates my needs is the color selection part - click a color, the image turns that color. Wouldn't need the price calculator. However, I would need several such controls to select, for example, a different shape car after all the options have been applied, or to open a pop-up showing details of the dash, that sort of thing. Thanks for the link!

[Clayton]

Didn't think of that. I'll look into that a little later today.

[donmcc]

I use Flash a lot. It has enormous power. It uses a version of JavaScript for control, so if you know any of it, you can get into ActionScript easily. You can connect to databases if that is useful (although that would probably not work in a burned CD).

The beauty of Flash, even over Director, is that it produces the most ridiculously tiny files, particularly when using vector drawings rather than raster. An animated GIF of 200K can be a Flash of 6 or 7K.

Have fun with it.

Don McCahill

[curveto]

Flash would sound like a good vehicle for that type of animation.

...and now it meets your other requirement (an Adobe app).

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