Some Nifty tricks to keep in mind related to workflow in aspects of production [ a few key points that may help you with workflow in a media environment] :
We all work different ways in both flash, illustrator, finalcut, after affects and photoshop. But when working in a group as we so often do, and since we sometimes send our files out to places like klipmart/motif/ and many other places, we should make it a rule of thumb, that once something is approved, or when we have downtime, to name layers and organize into layer set folders when larger files are built. This way, it’ll be easier to move around a file, and for an outside vendor to understand it if it needs to be sent out.
Designers developing flash apps, games, etc.. and handing it off. This works sometimes, but other times the avenue the designer takes causes problems once the developer gets the file. It would be great if we knew early on that X was starting something and Y would finish it, that they talked early on. This will streamline things. I think night listener was a great example of this working smoothly, we all worked closely and it helped us get hrough a though time working with a vendor, having organized files is always helpful, but so is building something modular. Of course this is not always possible to plan.
When designing, and resizing psds, jpegs, png’s and giffs, please, make sure to create an _assets folder in the unit size folder. This will save everyone time and effort later when elements need to be re-exported or resized.
Make an effort early on to collect the fonts along with the units. If you are working on a pc, let your project manager know what the fonts are and try to use fonts that are on both platforms, so easy replace is possible.
‘having components installed that are needed to do rich media need to be installed on every machine. I have developed a mxp folder on creative resources that install the components for rich media components of motif, eyeblaster, and action easing. Every computer should have these installed so that not just one or 2 machines have these on them.
Visit the vender’s website today to get the most up-to-date components!
When loading files into one another with loadMovie(); or any other external load command, make sure to cut and paste the name from the .swf file and paste into the area of the parent file that receives the files, ie loads it in. This avoids mis-spellings and capitals which make a big difference and makes the file work locally and online smoooothly.
Motif: if it doesn’t work after setting up…you didn’t set it up correctly.
Fonts continue to be a problem and one solution is that for each project/job, the initial designer collects that projects specific fonts and puts them into the fonts folder for the project before someone lese begins working on it or breaking it out. This will save time for looking for fonts on the server and if the font is new and local on the creators computer, it will ensure other people can easily find it if it is in the folder.
A suggested ultimate video source format for working with for the web is a de-interlaced file, preferably square pixels at a standard resolution of 720×480, 640×468, 800×600 for 4:3 or 1680×1050 or a similar 16:9 ratio. When getting source materials it should note the fps. If the source is interlaced, it should be noted Documenting frames per second, time codes and the such when cutting video. What software was used. Saving files with custom settings and crops, documenting the crop sizes and location of the source materials.
Example:
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Time codes for CLIP_edited.mov : fps 30
Intro: 00.56-9.70
Clip1_part1: 15.11-33.06
Clip1_part2: 39.93-46.68
we cropped the video in sorensen and used the height - width of: 63top 71btm 88left 89right to get video to be 300×224
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Time codes for Trailer.mov : fps 24
Clip2_part1: 24.79-30.54
Clip2_part2: 37.50-47.00
Clip3: 1:04.50-1:15.85
we cropped the video in sorensen and used the height - width of: 1top 1btm 69left 69right to get video to be 300×224
All time codes were modified in flash video clips further to accommodate time issues for client approval in the mockup
A few steps that might help you and your teams.
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Tags: workflow, art, production, animation, advertising, tricks, video, flash