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Hi,
For projects which include many characters and multiple scenes, which approach would you recommend?
I would like to stay within one file, having set up all my characters, and for each new scene I use duplicated versions of the graphic symbols (unless I want to re-use certain animations, like walking). However, I am getting concerned that this approach results in a huge file and library (with LOTS of duplicated characters) and eventually will have a negative impact on the workflow (like long saving times, lags, glitches and similar).
Would it be better to have one master file with all the characters and then duplicate the file for each new scene (so only one scene per file)?
Thanks for some advice on this!
Andreas
Hi mate,
Whatever you do, do not use Scenes.
Whether to split your film into separate FLAs by shot or keep it all in one timeline is entirely dependent on the project specifics.
I have made 5 min. episodes as one file. Studios usually keep one shot per FLA, but some do sequences.
Here are two articles that I have written which may answer some of your questions regarding structure and approaches:
https://flash-powertools.com/workflow/
https://flash-powertools.com/organic-animation-and-cinematic-look/
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Hi mate,
Whatever you do, do not use Scenes.
Whether to split your film into separate FLAs by shot or keep it all in one timeline is entirely dependent on the project specifics.
I have made 5 min. episodes as one file. Studios usually keep one shot per FLA, but some do sequences.
Here are two articles that I have written which may answer some of your questions regarding structure and approaches:
https://flash-powertools.com/workflow/
https://flash-powertools.com/organic-animation-and-cinematic-look/
The most important advice would be: make backups; save incremental versions of your work several times a day.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks, Nick!
I will surely work through the two articles. Could you just give me a very brief explanation why scenes are a bad idea? I wonder why they are actually implemented as a feature when they should be avoided.
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Scenes are what you would call a legacy feature, coming from the earliest days of Flash in the 90s.
They can't remove them for compatibility reasons.
There are all kinds of problems with Scenes ranging from export issues, to not being able to continue 'stream' audio such as background music or ambiance from one Scene to another, to numbering and timing issues, to glitches, etc. The list is endless.
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Thank you for the insight. That's too bad, as I find the scenes feature very convenient, but I guess I will have to work around it then.
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Nothing can stop you from using Scenes, mate, if they work for you, as long as you are aware of the potential problems and are ready to cut/paste all the content from those Scenes into new FLA files if you have to.
At the end of the day, if you are the only one who works on a project, you are the one who makes all decisions and takes all the risks.