Chris Georgenes, whose professional website is called "Mudbubble.com," is a freelance artist, animator, designer and Flash guru. His clients include Adobe, Yahoo! and AOL. He also writes books about Flash and teaches Flash courses at Sessions.edu.
I recently bought his book, "How to Cheat in Flash CS3," to add to my resources while taking MAT 150. I haven't read far in it yet (I don't know enough Flash yet to use it effectively) but it looks to be helpful with its many quick-study lessons.
At Mudbubble.com you can check out his portfolio page and find 29 interesting Flash projects -- websites, Flash games and animations. Try the "Samurai Kittens" link -- it's hilarious.
Chris also has a blog, Keyframer.com, which is loaded with a lot of good Flash tips, comments, tutorials, Q&As and links. If that isn't enough, Chris talks about being a Flash artist in an interview on the Sessions.edu website. Here is an excerpt from the interview: (Chris): "I approach Flash as if it is a ball of clay, pushing and pulling it into what I want. Many animators get too hung up on the mechanics of the software program and rely too much on only what the interface offers. Flash is just a tool, like any other animation or graphics program is, and it should be used as such. Never should the artist allow the tool's limitations to dictate what can and can't be accomplished. There's more you can do with a hammer than just driving nails."
What I especially like about Chris' approach to Flash projects is his playful and engaging cartooning style. I dabble in cartooning myself so I can appreciate the difficulty of drawing simple line cartoons that are able to convey subtle expressions and personality traits. Chris' vector-based cartoons pack a lot of personality, and because they are relatively simple they make for easy Flash animation. The little girl below, for example (her name is Andrea -- after his daughter), stars in several of Chris' animations. (She's adorable!) Chris animates her playing with the curl of hair on her forehead while she recites "Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . ." That simple gesture, just by itself, ads a lot to revealing her personality.
No comments:
Post a Comment