Awesome, thanks man. That actually does help a bit.

Of Recent
Personally I am more of a scripter, I can work my head around it easier than animating. However, originally I wanted to animate, so I used director. Then I decided to start making games so I got flash. But now for some unknown reason I've had the erge to get back into animating, it's lots of fun, even if I'm not very good at it. So to everyone what do you specialise in and is that always what you've done/wanted to do?

Roughing It
I do that with my mates all the time when I'm at home (sheffield), though we don't sleep on the street.
Sheffield, for those that dont know, is really close to loads of countryside so we usually walk a few miles outside the city (up a big hill, sheffield is all hills) and then go into the woods. We make a fire and cook sauages and bacon and usually take some booze and get trashed.
I have a hammock which is pretty comfy and one of my mates has one. Then my other friend sleeps on the floor by the fire.
Sometimes others of our group join us but usually it's just the three of us. It's really fun.

Edit, that's the secret, find some woods, dont go in a field. and get a hammock.

Essay question
I have set myself this essay question: Should something be animated if it can be shot in live-action?
I would appreciate everyone's comments on the subject from a (mostly) amateur animator's view point.

Need more AS battles
I've just been watching these again and I'm remembering how great they were. Anyway, I think we should do them again. I know no one wants the job of having to make the engine, so I think we should just re-use jmtb's, maybe with a rule that people can't use their old bots (we could check the scripts for similarities).

Anyway, I think it would be cool if the battles were all a bit more spread out. We could have it set out exactly the same, but with a day or two inbetween waves of battles. Then we could allow for people to make changes to their bots between battles. That way if you notice a flaw in the first round, you can change it before the second round, and it'll make the whole experience more interesting.

Also, if we use the same engine, we'll already have like 20 pre-made bots that people can practice with, so there'll be no need for people to trade bots so they can practice like last time.

Jmtb, would you be interested in hosting another AS battle?

Actionscript Battles

Please make them again! I learnt so, so much from the helecopter one, but I had to stop because the next one was just too much for my knowledge. If your gonna make it please, have headings like: Challenge #5 Gravity Game (beginners)

That would be great :)

Darn, wrong battle, I was thinking about the least code one :(

AS Battles

I'd really like it if we did this, I didn't get the chance to participate in the last one but I watched it all the way through. It would be cool if we could do it again, I think that this time I would also actually be almost good enough with AS to compete. But keeping the same situation as last time still gives those who participated in the last one the upper hand as they know the works of the whole thing.

At 4/29/07 06:22 AM, Fion wrote: I'd really like it if we did this, I didn't get the chance to participate in the last one but I watched it all the way through. It would be cool if we could do it again, I think that this time I would also actually be almost good enough with AS to compete. But keeping the same situation as last time still gives those who participated in the last one the upper hand as they know the works of the whole thing.

If everyones coding their bots from scratch, I don't really think using a different engine will give them any less of an upper hand. It's all aboiut who can think the most logically really.

Tutorial or not
I was thinking of maybe making a tutorial on this effect that ive made using flash. Obviously its no good for animation (it would laggggg) but i think its pretty nifty for making more realistic shading. Its the start of a skater btw.

im guessing some/most of you know how to do this already

Do you use low alpha's for a watercolour effect?

At 4/29/07 06:54 AM, Cybex wrote: AS wars

Hell yes! :)
I can't see why we shouldn't use jmtb's engine, since it will be easy to recognize the behavior from the bots from last time either way :P

I say go for it ;)

At 4/29/07 06:57 AM, fuzz wrote: Tutorial or not

You could of made that title so much cooler "Tutorial, or not tutorial. That is the question"

Anyway, go for it.

At 4/29/07 07:15 AM, Cybex wrote:

At 4/29/07 06:57 AM, fuzz wrote: Tutorial or not

You could of made that title so much cooler "Tutorial, or not tutorial. That is the question"

Anyway, go for it.

Yeah, i was gonna call it that but that sounded stupid. K i just need some screen capt software..

Re:Essay question

At 4/28/07 09:05 PM, TheHappySheep wrote: Essay question
I have set myself this essay question: Should something be animated if it can be shot in live-action?
I would appreciate everyone's comments on the subject from a (mostly) amateur animator's view point.

Arr well, in what context. Like what's the final thing supposed to be. My head hurts a bit.. so that may be why I don't get your question.

Re:Roughing it
Nope I haven't. I've been close to a couple of times mainly on drunken walks home.. but nope.

--

Eeeek, Pico day tomorrow. I'm deadpan happy.

AS: Wars
I have a class file that extends movieclips that has all the functions of the old one. Weird, I was looking at it yesterday and was thinking about making a topic about it :P Either way, we were discussing more options for it were we not? shields, self-destruct, team battle etc etc.

At 4/29/07 07:56 AM, fuzz wrote: Yeah, i was gonna call it that but that sounded stupid. K i just need some screen capt software..

Tada. I'm interested now, i want to see :).

Pico Day

T'is a shame its on monday, i wanted to rack a few B/P for once :). Anyway, i'm sure i'll be spending some time looking at stuff when i get back :). Anyone here done anything for it?

Wallpaper

I can't remember who it was that wanted it, but heres the wallpaper in 1290x1024 size. Link.

At 4/28/07 08:27 PM, InfinateLoop wrote: in Flash I had to lower it to 500x400. For some reason, it made it bad quality.

change the export setttings?
oh ohhhhhhh

AS Melee

i suck at as but it is fun to see what people cna do in AS though.. :)

At 4/29/07 08:09 AM, Vengeance wrote: AS: Wars
I have a class file that extends movieclips that has all the functions of the old one. Weird, I was looking at it yesterday and was thinking about making a topic about it :P Either way, we were discussing more options for it were we not? shields, self-destruct, team battle etc etc.

It would be nice to have a few extra features, but I don't think we should over complicate it. spent long enough coding my last bot. Also, I'd much rather we used the current engine and do it now than have to wait another month and have a few extra features. The extra features probably wouldn't even be used very often. The mines were quite a failure last time.

Also, if we use the current system, we have like 20 premade bots we can practice on.

At 4/29/07 08:40 AM, Cybex wrote: The extra features probably wouldn't even be used very often.

The mines were a failure seeming as nobody moved. I think a shield would be useful as you would be able to say have it up for 10 seconds which costs like 10 health, then you can calculate what bullets are aimed at you and detect whether it would be a good option or not.

Other than that, it pretty much makes it impossible to cheat and is already complete.

At 4/29/07 07:15 AM, Cybex wrote:

At 4/29/07 06:57 AM, fuzz wrote: Tutorial or not

You could of made that title so much cooler "Tutorial, or not tutorial. That is the question"

Anyway, go for it.

i could of but that would be laaaaaaaaaaame
Tutorial

At 4/29/07 08:32 AM, Depredation wrote:

At 4/29/07 07:56 AM, fuzz wrote: Yeah, i was gonna call it that but that sounded stupid. K i just need some screen capt software..

Tada. I'm interested now, i want to see :).

Dang, i got this rubbish one that sticks a label over the top right hand corner :( Nevermind.. Enjoy: http://denvish.net/ulf/290407/49287_Untitled.
php

At 4/29/07 08:43 AM, fuzz wrote:

At 4/29/07 07:15 AM, Cybex wrote:

At 4/29/07 06:57 AM, fuzz wrote: Tutorial or not

You could of made that title so much cooler "Tutorial, or not tutorial. That is the question"

Thats the second time you've replied to that post.

At 4/29/07 08:43 AM, fuzz wrote: Dang, i got this rubbish one that sticks a label over the top right hand corner :( Nevermind.. Enjoy: http://denvish.net/ulf/290407/49287_Untitled.
php

Thats really good. I might try that one day. Does it work with other colours as well, or just black and white?

At 4/29/07 08:43 AM, fuzz wrote: Dang, i got this rubbish one that sticks a label over the top right hand corner :( Nevermind.. Enjoy: http://denvish.net/ulf/290407/49287_Untitled.
php

What would also be good is doing that then messing with the blend mode. Overlay would be decent.

At 4/28/07 09:05 PM, TheHappySheep wrote: Essay question
I have set myself this essay question: Should something be animated if it can be shot in live-action?
I would appreciate everyone's comments on the subject from a (mostly) amateur animator's view point.

Well it really depends.
Do you have sufficient way of supporting your position?
And are there reasons to actually debate that, for example,
is that important to anyone?

At 4/29/07 10:01 AM, BritishMoose wrote: Wouldn't you have a bunch of un-named symbols in your library though? Like...HUNDREDS...

It makes them as objects, not graphic symbols :). Anyway, nice one fuzz, i might use this soon ;).

Firefox, HTML and Flash

For some reason Firefox is messing me around. I've got an HTML file with a SWF embeded in it, which works fine if I open it in IE, but if I open it in Firefox, sometimes it'll show the page for a split second then just go blank. Othertimes it'll give me some guff about "Windows could not fine the file...".

I've got the latest flash player for both browsers (and the latest version of FF), so that's not the problem. If anyone has got any ideas why FF is being a douche I'd love to hear them.

Firefox and flash

Firefox never works correctly for me anyway :P

prehaps iif you put the html up somewhere we could see if it messes up for us too.. :P?

RE: Firefox and flash

At 4/29/07 10:25 AM, Lord-Sonx wrote:

prehaps iif you put the html up somewhere we could see if it messes up for us too.. :P?

lol, I've already hosted it online and it works fine, it just doesn't work if I access the file on my PC. Which is the problem, as when I submit it to my lecturer, he's gonna have it on his PC.

Firefox and flash

strange thing that happens with flash 8 swf's and ie for me, i cna't play them in ie if they are not copied for temp internet files...

prehaps simular situation voer there?

could prehaps make the html laod the swf form an online source?

i fail :D

Tutorial

That is awesome Fuzz, great effect. For what reason is the obj. selecting thing on, though? How does that help the drawing? Either way, it looked great!

AS Wars

I know how to make play buttons and that is about it with AS, but I too watched the entire thread and battles. It was facinating to see what people could do with script. I love that stuff, I just can't do it for my life. That's why animation is where it's at. Speaking of which...it seems nearly everyone in here is solid coder...I feel like the one and few who JUST does animation. Oh well.

Pico Day

I'm excited. The hype about this years Pico Day is definitely bigger than it has been in the past. That makes sense though, more users have joined and more time has gone by making it more of a legend somewhat. It's going to be a VERY fun day. I can't wait to see what some people have cooked up. I've heard people say on multiple occasions that their movies run over ten minutes. That's a shit load of animation. I'll be very impressed to see everything, definitely.

Hairzcut

I got a haircut. I've had my hair long since the end of 8th grade and now graduating from high school I've decided to cut it short once more. I love the change and I like it a lot. It seems everyone was getting long hair and getting that long hair look so I wanted a change, break the ice a bit. Just to note, my hair wasn't super long, but it was all down in front of my face and stuff, so I suppose it was time for a cut anyways. So it's about an inch to two inches long ll over now. hoorahy.

Roughin'

I've never slept on hard earth but I slept outside with sleeping bags multiple times. In fact I did it practically every day 3 or 4 years ago for 3 weeks. It was so much fun. Now I just do it from time to time with a bunch of friends. Fire are the best, AND it gives you something to do all night rather than just sitting around someones house being bored. It's a lot of fun.

At 4/29/07 11:05 AM, ArthurGhostly wrote: It allows the alpha'd colours to pile ontop of each other, where they overlap that area becomes darker.

If it wasn't, you'd just get the solid colour, instead.

I probably should have known that...thanks. :)