“Alphie and Betty’s Alphabet Adventure” using Tumult Hype

6 min readFeb 1, 2016

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Have you noticed how children are constantly using technology at such a young age? Have you ever wondered if the content they are watching is suitable or worthwhile for their age? At Get Hype Productions we asked ourselves these questions and came up with a fun, engaging, and entertaining way to teach young minds.

Meet Alphie and Betty! Alphie is a stranded alien who must learn the alphabet through the help of Betty the Bear if he has any hopes of returning home to his planet and escaping the clutches of Dave the Dragon!

Our plan is to create a short film using Tumult Hype. We plan to also use the program to market the movie with websites and advertisements. We plan to create a movie campaign for this educational alphabet movie. The final products will include a film, a main website with some games and interactive content, some animated videos, and some advertisements.

We will be using Tumult Hype 3 Pro, because will be producing on multiple platforms (website to be viewed on tablets, desktops, and mobile devices.)

Checkpoints

Prototype: Full script based on bullet points of the story (C is Castle, G is Goose) of who our characters will interact with and how the script will flow. Basic layout of all characters and settings. Layout of how the website should look/what will be in it.

Beta: A full rough cut of animated film, hopefully working on a tablet, with the basic corresponding website. Vocal tracks recorded, possibly synced.

Final: Full film with synced voices and music. Detailed website. Presentation material.

The biggest hurdle we might have is actually being able to make all of the different products we plan to make. We will start designing characters and landscapes immediately. While those are made, the script for the movie will be made. The technical lead will then work with content person to make the film. While they are working on that, the designer will begin to make the websites and advertisements for the movie. The manager will oversee all of the projects while working with the content person to make content for the website.

Safety Goal: We will make just the educational movie.

Main Goal: We will make the film along with a website to promote it.

Reach Goal: We will make the movie, a website, and some interactivity with games involved throughout the projects.

Meet the Get Hype Productions Team

Deja White is a junior from Stone Mountain, Georgia majoring in Mass Media Arts. As the Technical Lead she is responsible for making sure our technology runs smoothly, as well as making sure it meets requirements set by team members and the project point people. She plays a major role in creating and submitting our prototype, beta, and other mini projects. She works with the Content Developer to make sure that our animated movie flows with the overall story.

Patrick Bailer is a junior Mass Media Arts major from Cumming, GA. He will be working as the content/copywriter, where he’ll write and develop the story for the project and will also be responsible for drafting presentation material.

Erick Holmquist an advertising Major from Norcross, GA. He is the Designer/ Advertiser. He will design the characters and the visuals for the film. He will also make the website and advertisements to promote the movie.

Christopher Harper is a senior from Athens, Georgia majoring in Human Geography with a minor in Environmental Law. As Manager for the Hype Productions team, Chris facilitates group meetings and communication and provides assistance to the other team members whenever necessary.

What is Tumult Hype?

Hype is an HTML5 animation tool that is often used to create animations for the web without using Flash.
Hype is offered in two different versions, Standard and Pro, which are updated constantly with the most recent update being Hype 3
Hype 3 is a free upgrade for existing users, and Hype 3 Professional is an optional in-app purchase.
Tumult Hype 3 is marketed as animation software that is easy to use for people without HTML5 or CSS knowledge under their belts.

Animation Capabilities

Uses keyframes
Things that can be animated: simple objects/shapes, bitmaps (PNG/JPEG), or vector artwork.

Hype 3 Pro Features

Rearrange — you can work with responsive layouts, providing different object positioning for different sizes of screens
Symbols let you package up an object (or group of objects) along with their animation, then re-use that chunk over and over again in a single timeline.
Physics support:
Dynamic (bounce against other objects in your scene).
Static (You can keep objects within bounded areas)
Defy gravity by tilting your device

- In the picture below, the clouds are moving to the right and then the second timeline is introduced.

- This timeline shows the boats moving to the left, while the clouds are still moving. This can be helpful in creating realistic backgrounds and more complex animations.

Below is the setup for the timelines. These can be layered so that multiple timelines (animations) can be going at the same time.

Hype Pro allows you have responsive layouts on multiple platforms. If a website is being created, Pro would be the package to get in order to have great animations on all types of screens.

The whole advertisement can be on one file due to the timeline capabilities Hype Pro offers

Disadvantages

Some of the properties will not work on certain platforms (i.e. CSS3 filters created in the program won’t work in Internet Explorer)

The picture below is the most negative review of the product on the Apple App Store.

Competitors

Adobe Edge Animate

- Uses HTML5, Javascript, and CSS3

- Available on both Mac and PC, as opposed to Tumult’s Hype only being produced for Mac

- Pictured is the base layout in edge animate

Google Web Designer

- Completely free to download and use (beta version)

- Web Designer feels unfinished as a product.

- HTML5, Javascript, and CSS3

- One comparable app to Alphie and Betty’s Alphabet Adventure is called Monkey Word School Adventure. This is an app that focuses on letter and word recognition for children 4–7.

After conducting our research, we believe that Hype 3 Professional would be the most beneficial package for our project.