Animation Tutorial: Smoke "effects" Part 4

gremayo (56)in #utopian-io • 8 years ago (edited)

Hello my fellow steemians!!!!

It's been a while since I posted my last tutorial about animation. This time we´re moving on to the next tutorial which is smoke effects. This is a looping animation so It's quite easy if you get the hang of it. You will be needing a couple of frames and drawings to make this technique. Again, here are some softwares that you can use to animate flash animation. Remember that this is only applicable to 2d animation unlike 3d which has a different software to use.

Flash softwares;

Macromedia flash mx
Macromedia flash 8
Adobe flash cs3,cs4,cs5,cs6
Adobe animate cc
Adobe flash cc

You can use any software you want from my list and they all have the same features. But, highly recommend the Adobe flash series because they always have updates and new features. Now moving on, let me teach you how to make a smoke effects the easiest way. I know you've seen this somewhere and you're kinda familiar to it especially if you watch cartoons and animes. I will show you some of the basic smoke pattern that you can easily learn.

Here to give you an example.

I have here a basic and simple commonly smoke effect which is animated. If you take a look closer, my animation has a motion path going up where it follows. You have to understand that motion path is really important and crucial to make this technique more effective. You can start by making your 1st key drawing on the 1st frame. This is a looping animation... so whenever the play button hits your last keyframe it will loop back on your 1st frame so try hooking up your last key to your 1st key drawing.

If you see there, I have 8 keyframes which are animated frame by frame. I activated the onion skin so you can see the next frame. Take a look the drawing which has a motion path going up. Remeber to animate every drawing and make it closer so the result will be smooth with no popping. From frame 1 to frame 8, Simply make a drawing with motion path.

note: You cannot apply this technique over and over again. You should still follow your reference to where the smoke will come out or in other words, depends on the situation.

Here I have another example of an explosion. This is a different case because your smoke effect will come out and will start at the center of your screen.

This is a different case where in the motion path has changed it's direction. The smoke slowly dissipates and fades while it's moving apart from each other like in reality. If you observe a bomb explosion, It should always start from the bomb releasing the smoke that will explode and expand.

I made a ruffs there so you can see the motion path.
Always remember to follow the motion path to make a smooth animation.It has to be frame by frame to get a better result .

Overall, making this effect will always rely on your reference. You should know where the smoke will come out or will follow through. Making a ruffs will always help you a lot especially if you are working with frame by frame drawing like effects. It will give you a vision of what will be the outcome of your animation. In animation Industry,Animators always use this technique to visualize their work and to see a much more better results after making their final decision. I always recommend you guys to practice this technique making ruffs because It will help you a lot in animation.

You can see my other tutorials here,
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@gremayo/animation-tutorial-part-3-how-to-make-water-effects

https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@gremayo/animation-tutorial-the-walk-cycle-how-to-make-your-character-move-or-walk

https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@gremayo/tutorial-basic-guide-on-how-to-animate-part-1-effects-fire

That's about for today , I hope you learn something and somehow get ideas from this tutorial.

I will be posting another step by step drawing or probably animation again..... so see you next time guys!!!

I hope you´ll have a great day!!