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Character animation using Flash

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Character animation using Flash

So I've decided to make a new thread dealing with animation, mostly character animation, using Flash. Sure I know other programs can do things Flash can't, but of the 2D animation programs I only know Flash.

What promped this was Blinkme's post in the Show and tell forum. As I think it is straying away from Showing and Telling, I figured I'd start a new tread in a more appropreate Forum. So here we go! Wheeeeeee :D

Aloha,
the Ape

Animated Ape's picture

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Wow, I forgot I had this tread! I'm a moderator in this forum now and came across this thead while cleaning out all the garbage.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Yeah, 24 fps is good to work with.

You are on the right track. Set up an actions library where you can just grab and put in so you don't have to keep animating a head turn for instance. Other things like walks, runs, characters sitting down or standing up are good things to reuse. You can just copy all the frames for that action and make it a new graphic. That way you can put it in where ever on the stage and move it around, scale it or what ever. As for blinks, I usually contain them in an eye pack so I can just call up what ever eye shape I want.

I would also suggest only having one file. It doens't sound like you have the time to do two.

Also when you're done with each short. Go to the library and delete all unused items. This will get rid of extra symbols that aren't being used on your stage. This will cut down on file size a bit.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Murray Bain (one of the co-owners of Copernicus Animation ) just posted a very useful tutorial on animating hair in Flash on his blog :

Murray Bain Tutorial - Animating Hair in Flash

"EustaceScrubb" has left the building

Plugins for Flash character animation

Hi guys.

Have you heard about plugins to work in Flash character animation?

You can see the site

www.trickorscript.com

hope you enjoy

www.animbot.ca

Hi guys.

Have you heard about plugins to work in Flash character animation?

You can see the site

www.trickorscript.com

hope you enjoy

These look really good Alan. Thanks for the link !

"EustaceScrubb" has left the building

Animated Ape>
I just wanted to clarify what you felt the differences were between the toshiba and the cintiq.
What I got from your reviews was that the cintiq is too bulky (I use it the same way you do, so I'd probably have the same problem), and the toshiba has sketchbook (does it come with it or something? cause it seems like you could use sketchbook with any tablet, including the cintiq. I've wanted to try that program ever since I went to Glen Vilppu's workshop here at SCAD, in which he used it and made it look really good).
You mentioned that they both lag behind a bit, so I'm assuming they're both equal in that respect.
Are there any other differences? Cause I've never had a laptop before either, and I'm hesitant about making the switch.

Hey Boss,

Well the first and main difference between the Toshiba and the Cintiq is that the Toshiba is an actual self contained computer where as the Cintiq is just your monitor and wacom tablet combined. You still need a computer to run it. The Toshiba came with a free trial version of Sketchbook Pro and I ended up buying a real copy. The Cintiqs might also come with a trial version.

One problem with the Toshiba is that when I use it with Flash, I use hot keys a lot, so in Tablet mode, I have to have an extra keyboard. But yes, the Cintiq is thicker than the Toshiba. I don't remember exactly, but the Cintiq was quite a bit thicker than an average keyboard, where as the Toshiba is just about the same thickness. So for me, I line up the keyboard right behind the tablet, so with the Cintiq being thicker, my hand kinda hung down to reach the keys. Other people have different set ups so it works for them, but for me, it was awkward.

I hope that answers your questions. If not, let me know.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

yep, that helps
thanks
I'll probably stick with the cintiq just because I'd rather be able to mod my computer if need be

Cool beans. What size are you thinking of getting?

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

well right now I've got an intuos2 12x12 wacom, and that seems to work ok for me, so something around that size. size would be doubly important for the cintiq and pc tablets, I would imagine, because of the display.

Hi animated people,

I have read this topic and found it helpfull, infact I was very suprised to find what I thought I needed answers to.I am having trouble with motion tweening replacing all the keyframes I have put later in the time line. I only used the properties box as suggested and not "Insert-motion tween" and it still will not let me change the instance by typing in a number.

I am confusing myself as I'm very new to Flash and have been given some characters to try animating, and I'm still not familiar with the names of everything.

Some of the tweens have the black line next to the keyframe but most don't, but I'm sure I did it all the same way.

I hope it's not annyoing to answer the same question, but I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I hope someone can help.
Thanks

eva

Makes one wonder why it takes a third party to implement these ideas.

I really think Adobe (Macromedia) doesn't care about cartoon animators as long as we keep buying, that's what matters.

Makes one wonder why it takes a third party to implement these ideas.

I really think Adobe (Macromedia) doesn't care about cartoon animators as long as we keep buying, that's what matters.

Yup. I've actually heard it from a Macromedia rep, and I'm paraphrasing, that they don't care about Flash animation. That it's such a small community that we have little impact on the use of Flash. Their real market is web designers.

This is very apparent by their release of Flash 8,"8 Ball" which was supposed to be very animator friendly. Yeah, I can really use drop shadows on all my characters.

But I still love the silly little program. It's very flexible in what it can do, and hell, it's paid the rent for the past 7+ years.

I have to check out some of those extensions alancamilo. They look pretty cool. Here is another site that has Flash extensions to download: http://www.toonmonkey.com/extensions.html I use several of these extensions all the time. Very handy.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

have any of you had your animation speed up outside of Flash?

i've been doing all of my character animation in Flash at 24FPS and compositing my Flash elements with 3D backgrounds in After Effects. when i preview my animation in Flash, it looks fine. i then render out a PNG sequence, import it into a 24FPS After Effects comp, composite it with my backgrounds, render out, and my animation looks slightly fast.

i'm almost certain that this is because Flash is previewing my animation at 22 FPS or slower (the Flash Player is notorious for not playing SWFs at their specified FPS, even on a fast machine), so what looks right in Flash is ultimately too fast in After Effects. I'm on a 3.4Ghz Xeon workstation with 2GB of RAM, so i'm pretty sure it's not the machine.

I guess I could compensate in Flash, but that's kind of a pain in the neck... does anyone know of any other solutions? would adding a soundtrack and setting it to stream help? i've heard that that forces flash to play at the correct FPS, but i wasn't sure if it would fix my problem.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks!

Hi Eva, and welcome to the AWN Forums. These aren't annoying questions so don't worry.

The instance problems is tied to the black line next to the keyframe. When there is no line by a tweened keyframe, it means the "sync" feature is on. You can turn this off in the perspective box. It's on the bottom of the pannel, you might have to expand the pannel by the arrow in the bottom right corner. If the sync is on, what this does is that it syncs the symbol to what ever number the keyframe befor it is, and it will not let you type in a specific instance. So if you have a bunch of tweened keyframes that are like this, you can drag select them in the timeline, and click the "sync" off. Then you should be able to change the instance of the keyframe. I hope that makes some kind of sence.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Hi Ceglia, and welcome to the AWN Forums. I usually export out an avi to test my animation. I prefer it better than swfs. I have them play through Quicktime as well so I can frame by frame through the shot if I need to. Try giving that a shot, and see if it works.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

aaaah, i will try this, thanks so much.

Hey Ceglia see you made it over from Flashkit hang around for a while I am sure the Ape and others can help you iron out your problems.

Pat

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I have a bit of a problem with my flash file organization, and I'm wondering if someone could give me a hand? This is for a web/broadcast project I just got a contract for, and haven't had much of a chance to learn Flash before I got it. :o

The way I lay things out right now is nesting all the characters/bgs into different scene files, each file containing all the frames of every characters animation. Each character symbol contains all the actions of the character in the entire cartoon (each of which is generally a minute long). So far this is the best method I've come up with of organizing everything, as the director constantly wants changes for each episode and this allows me to easily trim/extend scenes. The problem is that it can be a little time consuming scrolling through all the different frames of the animation and finding the spot that corresponds to the scene that I'm working with.

How are scenes generally laid out in Flash? Am I doing something horribly wrong?

Check out my work!

thanks ape... yeah, i'll have to give that a shot. i've been relying on the CTRL-ENTER preview, which is really convenient, but i guess it's just not as reliable as i'd like it to be.

hey pat, thanks for the referral! :)

That's the way I would set it up Billy. But I like nesting things. :D You just got to find a set up that lets you be organized and still work quickly.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Really? Cool! So it's ok to have a graphic for scene8 that has 1500 frames in it? Or a graphic for scene 19 with 4000 frames? I was worried that I was making a mistake by having too many frames in each scene file.

This leads me to my next question... Is it common to use a template to grab common actions from (like blinking, head bobbing, turning, etc)? Normally I just draw the graphics that I need, then save them in the library and carry them over to the next episode.

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure I'm doing this as efficiently as possible (I've got 48 more episodes to complete!)

Check out my work!

i think it's probably fine for broadcast, but your system may not be optimal for web.

a lot will depend on how you load your scenes, but if you're only going to use, say, 1000 frames of a 4000 frame graphic in a single episode, you might want to delete the unused 3000 frames from the graphic symbol because a 4000 frame graphic could get pretty heavy in terms of file size (it'll depend on the actual frames, but...) and, once you drag an instance of that graphic onto your stage, all 4000 frames will be exported out from your library, even if you only use a small portion of them in your animation. it's definitely good practice to keep your file size low for the web.

by the way, i'm assuming you'll post online in SWF format... if you're posting your episode online as a Quicktime movie, then you can adopt the same system you're using for broadcast.

That's where I'm running into a bit of a conflict - the director wants both a broadcast version AND a web version, which is why he wanted me to do it in Flash. I was thinking about setting up two different files for each episode, one for broadcast and one for the web, but I only have about 1 1/2 to 2 days to animate each 1:30 - 2min episode, so time doesn't really allow for it. Right now my file sizes are averaging 1mb per minute. Is this OK? I don't know very much about Flash files or what size they should be, so I'm hoping I can get everything to run fine on the web (First episode was already broadcast).

ANOTHER question :o What frame rate does everyone work in? I've been using 24.

Check out my work!

yeah, that's not a lot of time. 2MB per episode isn't necessarily bad for the web, especially as more and more people move to broadband. it really depends on your animation. it hard to say without seeing an episode whether or not you're being efficient in the way in which you set up your scene. just try to optimize your vector art, generally stay away from bitmap images, and make use of symbols when you can.

also, in your publish settings, check the box for Generate Size Report. it will generate a report that tells you how much each element in your scene contributes to the overall size of your SWF.... helps you identify the areas where you may wish to optimize further.

good luck!

oh... i generally work at 24FPS.

Blinkme's questions

Before I start I have to say this. This is a must for character animation in Flash. Always use "Graphic Symbols," and NOT "Movie Clip Symbols." "Movie Clips" will NOT play when you export your animation to put it to VHS or DVD. When I say "Symbol" I always mean "Graphic." The only time you should use a "Movie Clip" is for websites where you need action scripting. Since we are not talking website design here, DO NOT USE "MOVIE CLIPS"!!! And while you're at it, DON"T "Group" things either.

...Is there any way to link a symbol on a layer to a symbol in another? so that, for example. if i move the body of a character, their arms will go with it? Oh, and i asked a flash teacher this, and they werent sure...

I don't believe you can. I'm not quite understanding what you mean by "Link" though. If you mean like a parenting type of structure where you select the upper arm, and that automaticly selects the forearm, hand, and fingers? Then no.

If you mean selecting two different symbols on two different layers and creating a new graphic symbol out of the two? You can't do that either. To make a new symbol the things you select have to be on the same layer.

This is the way I've always done it. Say you want your character to raise his or her arm up above their head. I'd select all the arm parts in the stage area by (shift + clicking each symbol on the stage), then move the whole group's center point to the shoulder area, then rotate all the arm parts. All the symbols will stay as they are lined up and will rotate around the whole group's new center point at the shoulder.

*A thing to remember. If you select mulitiple symbols and change their edit point, it is only while you have that group selected. If you deselect one symbol or select another symbol to add to that group, the center point will recalculate its self back to the center of all the symbols you selected. If you move the center point of an individual symbol, it will stay there till you change it. Since Flash "Tweens" a symbol from it's center point, if you alter the center point from one Key Frame to the next and "Tween" between them, your symbol will move very strangly.

..can you set up ease in and ease out in a tween? or do you just have to set frames between the two positions?

Yes. When you create a symbol, click on the key frame that you want to start the tween. In the "Properties" window, there will be a box that says: 'Tween:' and it should be set to "none." Select 'motion' in the box. Right below 'Tween' option, there should be a box that says 'Ease:' There you can set your ease-in and outs. Flash has the terms backwards for some reason, I don't know if this is changed for Flash 8. The term "Ease-in" or "Slow-in" have always ment that more frames are added the closer you get to the next key frame. Like this: l......l.....l....l...l..l.llll And the "Ease-out" is reversed like this: llll.l..l...l....l.....l......l........l..........l But in Flash those terms are reversed.

You mentioned above about some characters were given to you in one pose. So for each character are you given like a set of basic symbols to work with? then you create any special ones specific to the scene if need be?

It would depend on how much that character would be animated. For the scene I was talking about, yes, it was only one view. Preproduction would draw and color the character in the key pose that's in the storyboard. They would then give that character to the Animation Department where the Asset Artists would then break the character apart in Flash into useable symbols for the animators to use. The animators will usually create new symbols that we would need like arms and legs in my case where they character's needed to walk. But if there are more complex symbols that need to be created, the Animation Department has a Character Designer that will draw and "Flash out" symbols like very specific hands, mouth charts, or certain facial expression, etc.

How many symbols is Bloo? i mean he is just a simple shape...but he is so bendy, do you work with him as just a shape(in flash terms of what a "shape" is)? those crazy and unpredictable shape tweens? frame by frame shape movement?

Bloo is 278 different symbols. No I'm just joking with ya. Every animator animates differently, but for the most part Bloo has a head symbol which contains all his face symbols. His body which is just "Raw art," and his arms which go back and forth between "Raw art" and symbols. I can never get "Shape Tweens" to work right, so I usually end up inbetweening his body frame by frame. Besides, Flash is dumb so it will only tween linarly, and half the fun for me was to play with his body shapes in the motion.

...and just curious, what kind of computers do you guys use? PC? Mac?"

The Animation Department uses PC's. The Post Production team are on Macs for all the compositing of the animation, BG and FX elements in After Effects.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Awesome

What a great addition to the thread. I'm sure this will help not only me, but many other animators.

Thanks again,

KalEl118

I'm glad you like it KalEl, and I hope you and other will find it useful.

I don't know if I was clear, but people are more than welcome to post other questions and answers. This thread wasn't just to answer Blinkme's questions. I'd like this to be an ongoing, liquid thread.

Mahalo,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

hey,coudn't you still use movie clips and then use some kinda screen recording program to record it?and everything be settled...or??

I don't know if I was clear, but people are more than welcome to post other questions and answers.

Greetings, Ape! I just wanted to ask what version of Flash you are using in your studio? Are you still using Flash MX (version 6), or have you upgraded recently to the latest version? Thanks for your time and, oh, this is a great thread you've started here! Cheers!

Blog

Totally off topic but out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the banner ads for Mipcom Junior with four mulit colored button, light things. I just thought of these condom ads that I've seen at the train stations here in Germany with different colored condoms. Sorry, just thought it was funny.

Any way....we were using Flash MX 2004, so Flash 7 I guess. I use that at home as well. I'm waiting to try out the demo to see if I want to get F8.

Noob, I guess that would work, but why go through that extra step, why not just do it right from the start? Besides, and I'm guessing here, I would think that using a screen grab program would drop the quality of both the video and the audio. That is if it can even grab the audio.

If it's a time thing that you don't want to switch the thousands of symbols to "Graphics" manually, you can open the library > shift + Left click all the symbols. Then right click in the selected area go to 'Type' and change all the symbols from "Movie Clips" to "Graphics." At least you can do that in Flash MX 04, I don't know about earlier versions.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

awesome ape! i am going to have to go look and mess around with the ease in and outs now.

before you mentioned a bit of confusion in terms of what i meant by "link" you pretty much answered it with a solution i have grown accustomed to dealing with with flash. In flash i would always be annoyed with having to move the characters body over then the arm in the exact same place. I always wanted like an FK (forward kinematics) relationship like in 3d software. haha.

which kinda leads into the character Edwardo.

The hair on his back is an example as well of what i meant. like you would move his body so the hair goes with it, then you can just animate the motion of the hair and not wory about its positioning but...knowing flash....

do you just shift click his body/hair and put them in the poses then animate the secondary movement of the strands like you mentioned? or is this kind of a different situation? Each strans movements look kinda similar, so do you just animate one stran, then copy it on another layer then move it to a different location? or do you actually have to animate each stran? does each hair even have its own layer?

You also mention flash being dumb for its linear tweening. So do you ever use motion guides? maybe for some greater arches and not so much character stuff. or will that result in some issues like movie clips?

and one last question for now....am i annoying you yet with all the Qs? haha.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

...which kinda leads into the character Edwardo.

The hair on his back is an example as well of what i meant. like you would move his body so the hair goes with it, then you can just animate the motion of the hair and not wory about its positioning but...knowing flash....

That is done by what is called "Nesting." You create the body shape on the bottom layer. Then position each hair on the body on their own layer. The hair is then animated frame by frame or by tweens, up and down. You then select and copy all the frames of animation on all the layer in the timeline, and create a a symbol out of that. You then set the new symbol, lets call it body, to "single frame," in the properties window. This will keep the animation from looping. When you want the hair up, you set a key frame and then type in the frame number that the hair is up inside that symbol. This is also very useful for eyes and dialogue in the head.

You also mention flash being dumb for its linear tweening. So do you ever use motion guides? maybe for some greater arches and not so much character stuff. or will that result in some issues like movie clips?

Yeah, it's not just Flash though, most software are dumb inbetweeners. You could use guides. I've used them before, but usually for props and things, not for character animation. This would mean that you would have to have seperate motions guides for (lets use an arm) the upper arm, fore arm, hand, and maybe each finger if those are seperate symbols. To me, it would be much easier to set a key, grab the whole arm, rotate, set another key, grab the arm rotate, etc. But that's just me, try the motion guide. You might find some thing that totally works and everyone will be using that method a year from now.

Not at all Blinkme, ask away!!

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

That is done by what is called "Nesting." You create the body shape on the bottom layer. Then position each hair on the body on their own layer. The hair is then animated frame by frame or by tweens, up and down. You then select and copy all the frames of animation on all the layer in the timeline, and create a a symbol out of that. You then set the new symbol, lets call it body, to "single frame," in the properties window. This will keep the animation from looping. When you want the hair up, you set a key frame and then type in the frame number that the hair is up inside that symbol. This is also very useful for eyes and dialogue in the head.

wow, I've been using flash for a long time and I never knew about nesting, it makes a lot of sense of things I've been trying to figure out how to do for a while. I was using a crazy method that takes forever to do the exact same thing(go into symbol, break apart frames i want to use and copy/paste individually)

you are truely learned in the kung fu that is flash. long live this thread!

http://ben-reynolds.com
Animation and Design

Woah. Super thread! Thanks, Ape! I'm going to have to try some of this stuff out. But I do have a question:

Do you have a different character setup for each shot with different assets like the poses you mentioned and the mouth positions? Do you typically have a standard "character pack"? Or is it something in between, like a standard character pack with assets brought in as needed?

Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com

Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight

Model packs and we'd add to it when new or better assest are created.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

tablet?

soooo ive been working with flash for about four years, primarily for animation. Im finally looking into getting a tablet. Do you guys think a tablet is a worthwhile investment or worth the time to break my mouse drawn habits? any sugggestions on good tablets to use?

I've come here to do two things: chew bubblegum and kick ass...and im all out of bubblegum. :mad:
http://lastplacecomics.com

Get a Wacom tablet, fer sure dude!

Coudn't live without mine...a must-have for Photoshop and Painter, too!

(And on another note...)

Great thread, ya big Ape!!!

I'll be reading it often!

Splatman:D

yeah i really think i need one but im hoping for something were i can look at the screen on the tablet. I think that would really push me over the edge for buying one. As for a character animation question...do you think its worth while to create a character in 3d first before going into flash?...im planning a short and I want to have some almost flcl like camera movements in there. (extreme rotations revolving around the characters.) but im still struggling with the best way to go about it. Im even considering previz in 3d for the whole short. is this more work than its worth? am i overcomplicating things? :confused:

I've come here to do two things: chew bubblegum and kick ass...and im all out of bubblegum. :mad:
http://lastplacecomics.com

Animated Ape,
This is off topic but I finially got to see your name in the credits for Fosters :D
One of the new eps I think. The one where Frankie suspects that an imaginary friend isn't an imaginary friend....
Also his owner was in Canada or something...
I just saw parts of it. Mr. Harriman is quite funny.
Spoooze!

that episode was great. it was focused around frankie.

I noticed in older episodes of fosters frankies hair used to hang down in front of her ears. It used to be animated and all wavey but then it became static, and now it has been pulled up to her ear.

It looked pretty naturally wavey. i guess it got to time concuming? or maybe just distracting. How did you guys animate it?

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

When movie clips are beneficial.

Absolutely, what ape says is 100% correct about saving animated elements in a graphic symbol for broadcast animation (dvd, avi, mov etc..). Until a few days ago, though, I knew movie clips were only beneficial for interacting with actionscript...but that is not all: if you are creating for the web, like an ecard I just did, movie clips for cyclical animation will keep your file size down. I was working on an ecard that had to be a certain file size. Using animation in graphic symbols the file was 256 kb. When I went in and redefined some of their behavior as a movie clip, it dropped to 122 kb. Of course animtion that is stock reuse like limited mouths and eyes movents I still keep in a graphic symbol so I can define keyframes and play certain instances from there but for animated cycles, movie clips keep the file size down for animation intended for the web.

It's the reverse experience I had working on a show and learning not to use movie clips and now doing something web-specific and discovering that movie clips have a value even if they aren't interacting with actionscripting.

They have those Straightjacket, check out the Wacom Cintiq at :http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/index.cfm

I would totally get a tablet and stylus of some kind. They make animating, esspecially if you have to draw a lot, really easy. They also take the strain off your wrist that can be placed on it with a mouse.

They are a bit pricey and I didn't care too much for them when I tried one out at work. Don't get me wrong, they work great. Well, there is some lag and there is a slight off set between where they tip of the stylus is and where your curser. What I didn't like was that it's pretty thick and I use my Wacom and keyboard lined up one right in front of the other so it was hard to reach the hotkeys for me. Other people use it differently and are fine using them. You can also get a Tablet PC like I got. I got the Toshiba Tecra Tablet PC. You can read my review of it on my blog here: http://erikgirndt.blogspot.com/

As for the 3D FLCL effects, I think that would work. It would deffinatly help to keep the volumes consistant in your characters. For something like that though I wouldn't do it in Flash. I think that that type of effect would need the precision of traditional clean-up. Also if you are going to pre-vis the whole thing in 3D, why not just animate the whole thing in 3D? But I don't know what kind of style you are going for so I'm just throwing things out there.

To me, and I'm not putting you down or anything, pre-vis is for people that can't understand storyboards. I just don't think it makes sence for animation. Maybe for live action, but for animation, I think it's easier and will save you time if you storyboard your short, time it out as an animatic, add your charcaters in your program of choice, and pose them in their "Golden Poses." Then add your Keys, then Breakdowns, and finally the inbetweens and little gribblies.

Great post Graphite. Yeah, there are other uses for "Movie Clips" that I always forget about since I don't use them any more. Esspecially dealing with file sizes.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

hey animated ape thanks so much for the advice...I will be searching more for a tablet after i get some more cizash but the review really helped...im prolly just gonna go for a nice wacom. I definatly need one because my ability to draw with a mouse is getting better than my ability to draw with a pencil...and that must not be! :D also well ive got a storyboard....roughly roughly layed out but i do want some complicated turnaround shots..I definatly dont want to do it all in 3d..ive been working with 3dsmax for three years and while i can do realistic stuff just fine, the raw personal cartoony touch just doesnt ever come through the way i want it. Ive even done a few commercials with toon shaders and what not and i just am never completly happy with how it feels....almost too clean or something i dunno. Ive also considered hand drawing everything...but i work so much faster with flash. maybe a good mix of flash and hand drawn would work? Maybe i can put together an animatic with some 3d bipeds acting out the tough shots and post it for some more tips on the best way to go about this. Thanks again for the advice and yes fosters rocks my socks off.

I've come here to do two things: chew bubblegum and kick ass...and im all out of bubblegum. :mad:
http://lastplacecomics.com

No problem StraitJacket. It would be great to see your progress with your short.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Hey Ape.

I was messing around with nesting and ease in and outs. i found the ease in and out stuff.

The nesting i have to a point. I have the motion of the hairs (i set up a circle and have 2 lines coming off of it) on the ball as its own symbol. I found the "single frame" option so that it doesnt loop.

But i cannot figure out where you type in or how to tell it what frame to go to on each keyframe i have set.

here is a little visual of what i have

see, just need to figure out where at to tell it what frame inside the symbol to go to.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

Just a quick response. The instance number is to the right of the place where you set the symbol to play a single frame.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

alright, well, thats what i was messing with earlier and nothing happened. every time i enter a number it just turns it back to 1 again.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

Oooh, ooh, I know the answer to this!
You must be motion tweening using the menu at the top of the program:

"insert" "create motion tween".

For some reason doing it this way "breaks" the functionality of the symbol to have each keyframe hold it's own property.

You need to motion tween it using the properites box at the bottom of the program. If you tween this way it's sure to work.
I wrote a tutorial on my site about it. Check it out for more details about this problem:

http://clubhouse.cartoonsolutions.com/mouth_comps.html

Flash Character Packs, Video Tutorials and more: www.CartoonSolutions.com

Right you are BlueHickey. You win a bisquette! :) Yeah, I'm not sure if thats just a stupid quirk with Flash or if it's supposed to actually serve a purpose to have two different ways to create a tween and have them react differently. Maybe that's been changed for F8.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

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