Animated Tutorials (NEW THREAD)

[LiveInTheDream]

INTRODUCTION: So I think it would be extremely helpful (and entertaining) to have a few of our tutorials animated. Like...flash walk through animations that would allow someone to get a feel for what it might be like to experience some aspect of LDing. Some people, like me...are visual learners and would greatly benefit from this. I agree with Aquanina, but unfortunately the thread in which this was posted was several years old, and as such it was closed down. So that's why I'm making this thread. The benefit of animated tutorials seems immediately obvious to me. I don't know how many people I've led to dreamviews.com only to hear them say "I checked it out, but I didn't want to spend that long reading tutorials." Funny thing is, they usually tell me about all the youtube videos they watched that day...so maybe the problem isn't the tutorials themselves, just the way they are delivered. Newcomers who don't yet have an appreciation for lucid dreaming would probably be far more willing to watch an animated tutorial than read a bunch of long posts. THE PROJECT: So I would like to revive the project of animating the tutorials...and actually get something done. I have written a screenplay for the Dream Signs Animated Tutorial to get us started: Spoiler for script: ============================== Dream Signs Animated Tutorial ============================== -Dreamviews.com Intro plays -A wizard comes on the screen and delivers the opening statements from the written tutorial (if no voice actor is available, subtitles can do just fine). The wizard will continue to narrate throughout the animation using the written tutorial as a script. -First example of a dream sign: electronics fail. Show the popular animation of the stickman at his computer banging the keys and then his head and getting the place all bloody. -Second example: incorrect lighting. Show a similar stickman walking into a room with a lamp hanging from the ceiling, only there is darkness around the lamp and light everywhere else. The stickman approaches the lamp and pulls on the cord frustratedly, but it doesn't fix anything. -Third example: deformation. First show animals, then people, then objects, then scenery looking strange. Warp effects and hue shifts are probably sufficient. -Fourth example. illegible text. The stickman is back, attempting to read/write. All the letters are hopelessly jumbled around the page, and when he tries to erase and correct it, he just writes out nonsense stuff, much to his obvious frustration. Then the letters start to move around on the page, in concordance with the narration. Lastly, a digital clock is shown with an impossible time. -The wizard reappears and begins to talk about individual dream signs, using the written tutorial as a script. -First example: places. First show a house, then a school. The scene then shows the inside of a house with the stickman as a child playing with other little stickmen. As the narration continues, two of the stickmen fight over a toy, back and forth, and then one falls over, successfully pulling it away. -Second example: people. We see two stickmen enter the screen, shake hands, and walk off, talking. -Third example: recurring Dreams. The stickman is in bed, and a thought bubble is above his head. Short scenes of the stickman repeat themselves in the bubble, both good dreams and bad dreams. At the right time in the narration, the repeating scenes stop and show the stickman doing a reality check and becoming lucid. -Fourth example: elements. The stickman walks past the screen several times, each time the scenery changing, except for a ball that is always there. (the written tutorial is added onto here; the narrator will now say: "But not all elements are so obvious.") Then, following the narration, three dreams are shown. One of the stickman at the beach playing volleyball, the next driving home in the rain, and the next seeing that his dog peed on the floor and made him angry. The camera will then zoom in on the stickman, who will put his hand to his chin in thought. Then, in time with the narration, he notices that all the dreams involved water. -In closing, the wizard appears and uses the 'Metaphors and Symbolism' part of the written tutorial as a script. When that is done, he wraps things up and the animation ends. Perhaps use this line: "Well, that's all for now! For more information, check out the written tutorial for dream signs at dreamviews.com! Tata for now!" And then the wizard disappears with a 'poof'. I don't have time to fully animate the whole thing today, but I plan on getting a sort of storyboard version up before the day is over, and then we can work from there. TOOLS: One of the most frequently mentioned/asked about things in the other thread was what tool should be used. Of course if you are lucky enough to have the professional tools like Flash or After Effects, those will do just fine, but there are other, free alternatives that can do plenty good enough with a little effort. Synfig - An open source cartoon animation tool with Windows, Mac, and Linux binaries. A good example of Synfig animation can be seen here. Pencil - Also open source, with binaries for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is different than Synfig in that it is a more 'traditional' animation program. Feel free to mention/use your own software as well, these are just two to get everyone started. So lets get animating! EDIT: Storyboard video for above screenplay