| TUTORIAL

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56 December 2007

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FLASH • INDESIGN • PHOTOSHOP

MAKE A FLIP BOOK

It can be hard to stand out from the crowd – imagine how many animators send production companies their
showreels every week. Peskimo outline an approach to self-promotion that really gets back to basics

ON THE CD Self-promotion is a challenge that

The file required for this every creative has to face. You
tutorial can be found on need to grab a prospective client’s
the CD in the folder attention, and quickly demonstrate the
Tutorials\flip. strengths of your work before they
move on to the next mail-in in the pile.
TIME NEEDED However, if you concentrate your
2 hours efforts on creating a unique piece of
marketing, you can capture the
SKILLS
• Animation
imagination of whoever receives it and
win pride of place on their desk.
1 Firstly, plan your animation. It should
be short and sweet, otherwise you
will have more frames, more paper and
4 It’s important that you keep all the
animation in the main timeline. When
you export individual frames or movies
• Paper handling A flip book is a devilishly simple more work to do. The flip book will end from Flash, only the main timeline is read,
• Photoshop contact device that is hard to resist picking up with a frame of your contact details so tie so any animation taking place within
sheets and looking at. This tutorial this in with your animation if possible. Movie Clips will not appear in the
concentrates on using Flash then outputted frames.
INFO getting hands-on with cutting, folding
Peskimo have and sticking paper together. The final
been creating result shows what can be done with
monsters some time and effort, and this will
together for definitely be appreciated.
five years. Their cute, ugly The tutorial assumes that you can
and odd output has animate so it won’t be dealing with
graced T-shirts, toys and how to create your animation in depth,
TV screens worldwide. To though it will offer some guidance
find out more see www. about using Flash to the best effect for Flash only uses RGB
peskimo.com. this project. Even if you don’t use
Flash, any animation software should
2 colour, so it’s a good
move to avoid a subtle 5 For a 50-page flip book, you should
create a 100-frame animation and
enable you to export your frames, so palette, though when you drop every other frame at a later stage.
you can join in at step 8. And if you export the frames there Doing this helps you to preview your
aren’t an animator, you don’t have to will be an opportunity to animation from Flash accurately and
feel left out either – you can always use make image adjustments simulate the speed at which it will be
the same process to create a tiny when converting to CMYK. flipped. The animation will last 4 seconds.
portfolio book instead.
Remember that many people are
striving for the same attention, and a
gimmick or two can enable your work
to stand out from the rest. Consider
presenting an entire package, too,
showing that you can provide a full
service. So if you send a flip book out,
think about the envelope as well, and
all the other elements of presentation Set up your Flash movie with the
that go along with it. 3 following properties: 283x156 pixels
and 25fps. Create a clear area at the left
6 When a flip book is flipped, the final
pages are inevitably lost as the user’s
fingers run out of pages to flip. So it’s a
Tutorial and illustration by Peskimo side of the movie 70 pixels wide. This is good idea to include a couple of additional
www.peskimo.com where the finished book will be bound and pages at the back of the book, perhaps a
held when flipped. mini-CV or portfolio.

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FLASH •INDESIGN • PHOTOSHOP

POCKET-SIZED

This flip book is the

same height as a
standard business
card, so it lends itself
to containing one or
two in the back. You
can stick a small
Use Photoshop’s Contact Sheet

7 To export the frames, use File>

Export>ExportMovie, select JPEG
10 feature to save some time in
collating these frames into one sheet. In
envelope/pocket to
the back cover

Sequence from the drop-down menu and

in the next dialog box enter 300 as the
resolution. The output size should be
1180x650 (give or take a pixel). Make sure
the quality is set to 100 and click OK.
Photoshop, select File>Automate>
ContactSheet, then use these settings:
containing these. If
you have the time,
you can print your
13 As the flip book is being created as
a promotional tool, it’s very
important to select the right materials.
the document size should be 20x27.5cm, contact details on the The paper should be high quality and of a
the resolution should be 300dpi, the reverse of each page heavier stock than normal to give it a long
thumbnails should be two columns in five and create a life – a flip book has to put up with a lot of
rows, and the spacing should be 0cm. perforation close to abuse when it’s used. We chose 170gsm.
the bind so that
pages can be
removed and used as
business cards.

Let Photoshop assemble the

8 Now you need to remove half of the
frames – just do this through your
operating system. Make sure that the
11 frames across five documents. By
specifying the settings as we did the
14 Export the book as a PDF, print it
and cut out the pages. Don’t forget
that the spine will hide the far left of each
important frames are preserved, frames will be placed at 100% scale. Now page, so always cut to leave any guide
BINDING BUSINESS
particularly the first frame and the final convert the contact sheets to CMYK, lines in this area if necessary. Keep the
frame. Select every other frame and flatten and save as high-quality TIFFs. You might like to get cut frames in the correct order or you’ll
transfer them into a new folder. Make any necessary colour changes. the book bound get extremely confused!
professionally, or if
you have the time
and the patience,
create a neat bind
yourself by coating
the spine in glue,
allowing this to dry
then covering the
spine with a strong
piece of paper or

9 At this stage you may want to test that

your frames will work as a flip book
by combining them into an animated GIF.
This can be done in Photoshop CS3 or in
older versions of ImageReady or
Fireworks. Set the frame time to 4/100 to
simulate the speed of the final animation.
12 Create an A4 document in
InDesign. Place the first contact
sheet in the centre of the first page. Give
card. You can also
use butterfly clips if
your book is small 15 There’s a stack of loose pages in
front of you. Try some flipping –
the frame holding the sheet a stroke 0.5pt enough, or if you can doesn’t it look great? The loose pages are
thick and 20% black. Create other lines to find clips that are messy though. There are a few options for
act as cut lines between each frame, and long enough. binding the flip book and the one you
repeat this for all the contact sheets. choose depends on your budget and time.

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16 We’ve compromised, giving our flip book a clean-looking finish

but on a budget. You need a 1.5cm bulldog clip and some more
paper. Start by designing front and back covers. Don’t forget to
reiterate your contact details and make your work recognisable.

19 Remember that the cover is on the right. Add to the design some small marks to
show where you will need to fold the cover to fit around the clip. Print this out,
score gently along the guides and fold in the appropriate direction.

20 Add a blank page at

the front of the stack
and attach the clip as in step
17. Take the arms off the clip
and stick the front cover to the
front page. Using the scored
marks, fold the cover around
the spine and stick the back

17 Knock the pile of pages on a table

to square up the ends that will be
flipped and clip the spine. You could simply
cover to the back of the book.

add the cover and back as additional

pages, but if you’re using a clip with
removable arms you can conceal the clip.
FLIPPING HISTORY
21 Leave the cover to dry.
You could use this
time to tidy up, put the knife
The first flip book is away in a safe place, make a
said to have been cup of tea, decide who you’re
created in 1868 and going to send your flip book to,
was a pocket-sized draft a covering letter, or even
development of the create a new animation for
zoetrope, a rotating another flip book.
cylinder that creates
the illusion of motion
from a series of
images. The site
www.flipbook.info/
index_en.php
22 Your flip book is
complete, ready
to send out to prospective

18 To do this, create a cover that is

one long piece of the paper used
for the pages (if the cover is too thick, it
features a wealth of
history with more
than 4,000 flip books
clients, favourite design
idols and that web-design
guy down the road. Don’t
will make the book harder to flip). Use the filmed for you to view forget that you can
file ‘Flip Book cover template.inx’ on the online. It’s a great always personalise each
CD. The guides mark out the spine, the source of inspiration book according to the
cover and the back, and the areas that for making your own. person or firm you’re
conceal the binding. sending it to.

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