Welcome! You've entered Moogie's Flash Deer Emporium, where Deer may come and be embodied into a beautiful, lifelike form and be taken anywhere, on any forum, any website... Shown to the entire world, or perhaps just tucked away inside an email, a living gift, delivered to someone special, for their eyes only...

I am Moogie. Or rather, I am Moogie's human. Moogie is an old soul in the Endless Forest. Well-built, but easily tired, he sleeps away the peaceful days of his twilight years, under mossy ferns and in the shade of ancient elms. Meanwhile, I spend my time breathing life into art. I draw characters and then animate them with Flash. I have such a love for this, ever since I discovered I had this talent two years ago.

Here you will learn how to commission your very own Flash-animated deer. Multiple options are available to cater to any price range that may appeal to you. Please scroll to the Q&A section of this post to see which commission slots are currently open.

If you want to see some of my non-TEF animations, please watch this video of my Whirled.com projects.

Option #1: The "Classic" Walk/Run (Looping) ~ £6.00

Using a pre-built armature that has been perfected over many hours, your deer, with its own unique and fully customised graphics, is placed into a looped "walking" or "running" animation. The graphics are tailor-made to your Deer's personal looks, and the animation itself is given careful attention and tweaked to fit those graphics as seamlessly as possible.

All deer created from this option will use the same walking/running motion. Note: If you want yours to be unique, please consider Option #3, as that requires a full re-animation of the timeline!

A Closer Look:

• Shadow and background transparency optional. Please specify whether you want a transparent or coloured background.


• The walking/running animation itself cannot be randomised in this option. The motion will always look the same.


• If you purchase this option you will receive two versions: SWF and GIF. See the Q&A section below for information about these filetypes.

Option #2: Posed (Static) ~ £6.00

Do you require a non-animated option? Have your deer posed in any position you like. This is perfect if you want a static image to use as an avatar or part of a signature image.

The price of this option matches Option #1, because neither of these requires an animation to be built, just their graphics to be drawn and positioned.

A Closer Look:

• Shadow and background transparency optional. Please specify whether you want a transparent or coloured background.


• If you purchase this option you will receive two versions: SWF and PNG. See the Q&A section below for information about these filetypes.

Option #3: Custom Activity (Looping) ~ £18.00

In addition to having your deer lovingly drawn and painted in all his/her splendor, this option allows you to pick exactly what he or she is getting up to. Don't let the example fool you; I chose to pose Moogie looking alert and quiet, staring into the distance. But you may very well choose to have your deer leaping over bushes, chasing butterflies, or anything you can think of! -- Within reason.

A Closer Look:

• Shadow and background transparency optional. Please specify whether you want a transparent or coloured background.


• Your chosen pose or activity will loop, just as the walking/running deer do. Keep this in mind when deciding what you want. Complex behaviours don't easily lend themselves to this option; please consider picking Option #4 if you want to see your deer doing different things!


• If you purchase this option you will receive two versions: SWF and GIF. See the Q&A section below for information about these filetypes.

Option #4: Deluxe Custom Activity (Randomised) ~ £18.00 +£6/per.anim for the first two, reduced to £4/per.anim for any more beyond that.

This option is the most complex, but also the most rewarding. Your deer is drawn, painted, posed and animated using a technique that allows for very lifelike behaviour. Your deer will come to life as you specify any number of activities you want to see happen, and in addition, they will happen unpredictably -- whenever you deer 'choses' to do them. Do you see my old fellow Moogie, to the right? He may be acting alert, or tossing his head, or even getting a bit tired... but you never know what he's going to do next.

Pricing note: The first two additional anims cost £6 each. If you add even more, the price of each additional anim is reduced to £4. So for example, you pay £24 for a 2-anim file, £30 for a 3-anim file, but only £34 for a 4-anim file. For your reference, the example shown to the right uses 2 additional anims, for a total of 3 possible activities, and would cost £30.

A Closer Look:

• Shadow and background transparency optional. Please specify whether you want a transparent or coloured background.


• There's no limit to the number of additional activities (anims) you want to add!


• The first anim is free- I call this the base anim. It's identical to what you'd receive if you picked Option #3. Additional anims give your deer the freedom to pick from a list of possibilities. These probabilities can also be weighed, so some activities can be rarer than others.


• If you purchase this option you will receive a compiled SWF. A GIF will be delivered on request, however, GIFs cannot be randomised; an Option #4 GIF will loop all activities, one after another, in a predictable fashion. See the Q&A section below for information about these filetypes.

To request a commission, please send me an email with the following details:

• Your Deer's name
  
• A description and/or image references of your Deer, so I know what to draw
  
• The Option you've chosen, plus any extras you'd like
  
• Anything else worth mentioning

I can only accept Paypal at this time. Although they take a sizable chunk of the money for themselves, it is still the easiest method of payment. I may work out something better later on.

Why these prices? Here's how I worked it out. Minimum wage here in the UK is roughly £6 per hour, and that's for cleaning toilets and handing out Happy Meals. I've been learning Flash animation for two years (and counting). Factor in the cost of the software itself and the running costs of a PC, and it soon starts to stack up.

Though in reality it probably takes me longer than 1 hour to draw all the graphics required for one of these projects, I decided that Options 1 and 2 deserve the cheapest possible price. Option 3 requires triple the workload, as both graphics and animation have to be built from scratch, and animation takes twice as much time to create and perfect. Option 4 is practically the same as this, except I chose to add a discount after a certain point, as the price starts to rise steeply when you add lots of extras.


If a slot is open and I commit to your animation, work will begin immediately. When the project nears completion, I'll ask that you send the required payment. Your files will be delivered via email when the money has been received.

Please note: There may be some requests that I simply cannot fulfill. You have my promise that I will never commit to a project that I don't think I'll be able to finish. I'll let you know if I have a problem with anything you've requested, and we can discuss what to do about it before finalising the details. When we come to an agreement, you'll have my assurance that what we've agreed to is within my abilities, and that I am able to deliver what you've asked for. Before you request anything, familiarise yourself with my style and level of quality. I will always do my best for you, but I can't work miracles!




Greetings! I've only just opened shop and I'm still testing the waters. I'm considering this experimental for now. If you spot any errors in this post, or think of any improvements I can make to its layout, I'd love to hear it!

How do I use my new Deer animation?
First, you'll need to find somewhere to host the file. Unfortunately, Imageshack recently disallowed SWF files, so your options are limited. But thankfully there are still some decent SWF hosts out there.

I'd recommend http://www.upswf.com for its very easy-to-use interface, but please be aware that anything uploaded there is publically viewable. You could also try Googling "swf host" for alternatives, or if you have your own webspace, that's even better.

Once your file is uploaded, you'll need to insert some special code into the signature area of your TEF account. You'll find this if you go to your "My Account" page, and click on "Edit".

Paste the following code into your signature box:


If that code doesn't work for some reason, here's an alternative version:


Replace "YOUR_SWF_URL" with the full URL where you uploaded your swf. If using the second example code, also replace "YOUR_SWF_FILENAME_ONLY.swf" with the filename of your SWF but not the actual URL of it. You can also play with the width/height numbers and the alignment (right, left, center).



Small details of your animation may be randomised, such as twitching ears, eyes blinking, hair motion, etc. I consider these precious details a standard part of my quality assurance process. They will not cost you a penny! (Not applicable to Option #2)

Does your deer use magic? Will you need special effects? We can discuss these. Depending on their complexity or difficulty, I may ask for a small (negotiable) additional fee for the time it will take to draw and animate these effects.

When you send me your email, please be sure to include all the needed information. I'll get back to you ASAP. If a slot is open, I'll begin work on your Deer and keep you updated on its progress!

A note on filetypes: SWF files, where supported, allow you to scale the image to any desired size, without any loss of quality. PNG files are like high quality GIFs, allowing for transparency, but not animation. GIF files are low quality images that support animation and can be used virtually anywhere.

Due to the environment I'm working with when creating these animations, it is very difficult to do fluid changes of direction or perspective. It may still be possible under certain conditions, so feel free to ask about this, but I can't guarantee it.

Got questions? Ask me! Post a comment here, or send me an email at:

This post is subject to corrections/updates.