Animation for illustrating engineering procedure

[vw98034]

Hi,

I need to illustrate how an (enginerring) entity is built up as a part of web tutorial. I consider the Flash may be too heavy for the task. Is a gif file sufficient for the task?

Thanks for your inputs.

[whackaxe]

-how long?
-2D, 3D?
-lots of action?
-detailed?

depends really. personally i would opt for flash fby far. much more controlable

[mindlessLemming]

ok, so I take it your after something like an "exploded view" ?
The best quality would be to have the model made in 3D Studio MAX and then export the mesh to Swift 3D for output as a Flash file. Or even use 3D S. Max's own .swf exportor plug-in. (can't remember the name).
Obviously you aren't going to learn 3D modelling just for this. And if you think you might, take it from someone who is; DONT!

I'd go to a local university/college and look for their computer graphics department. Put up a little ad that says "Get paid to build 1 3D model"

That'll be the cheapest, best quality and least hassle solution for your needs.
(and in case you're wondering; no thanks, I don't have time )

Andrew

[whackaxe]

for reference. discreet's flash thingy is called Plasma http://www.discreet.com/products/

[vw98034]

Thanks for both of your response.

What I need dones't need to be fancy. It is some sort of graph (in math). What need to illustrate is the followings:

- a block or box (depended what is your view)
- another block
- a connection, that is a line between the two boxes
- the 3th block
- some connections among those three blocks
- so on

2D shall be good enough. Ten or more frames shall be enough.

[vw98034]

I shall say there is a fancy version of the illustration in my mind.

A person shows up on the screen with blank (white?) background. Another person shows up and a line connected between them with a brief note. A third person shows up, and one or two lines connected with those three people and so on.

To create this version, I first need some people's photos and the Flash is required I guess.

The version may need a lot of screen estate.