Adobe Animate [Session 1]

The main aim of today's session was to learn the basic features of Animate and practice creating an animated asset, in this case a robot.

Similarly to when we were creating animations in Photoshop, the subject was assembled in sections. My robot design was inspired partly by the Iron Giant, but of course I did try make it my own. I was going to give it two legs, but since it was taking a bit long to do, I changed it to a single leg with wheels akin to a Segway.

Figuring out how to animate the flashing elements and moving dials on the robots body was a bit more difficult, as I did get a little confused over which view mode I was supposed to edit them in. However, once that became clear, the process became a lot more simple. 

The last part of the process involved doing the movement of the entire figure. This was done with the tweening tool, which I found pretty easy to use, as it automatically interpolated the movements between the keyframes.

Through the movements, I tried to create the feeling that the robot's malfunctioning was causing it to swerve all over the place, which I think turned out pretty well.

If I had more time, I would have made the robot actually move its limbs about. Like maybe I could have made its head and arms twitching to reinforce the idea that the robot is freaking out.

I also maybe could have extended the loop of the robot and make it swerve around in a more complex pattern rather than just moving just back and forth.