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Animating in Flash - Help needed

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Animating in Flash - Help needed

Hello all,

I used Flash brifely at college in 1999 (Flash 5). All we really did with it was make a circle 'tween' into a square and text fly across the screen, etc. After that, I went on to university and studied traditional 2D animation, so I now know all about character animating, timing, etc.

My Question is this: I have seen Flash used for 2D character animation with great results. Flash animation can even be found on TV these days (when I used it Flash was strictly a web animation medium). I would like to transfer my 2D animation skills to the computer using Flash but I can't get my head around it. What is the technique? Do you still draw keyframes on paper and scan them in then use Flash to do your inbetweens (sort of like Maya or Max where you set up the main poses and the program does the inbetweens for you)? Sorry if I'm sounding ignorant here but I am a complete novice. Maybe somebody can recommend some good sites or books that include explanations and tutorials? Do I need a more recent version of Flash to do character animation or can I use my old copy of Flash 5 while I learn?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really want to get on this but I don't know where to start.

Yoda Is Your Father's picture
War does not make one great

War does not make one great

lots of experts here, they can surely help out more than i can.

all i will say is you need to figure out the action and then pose out the main action.

then use Flash as much with the vectorized models to do the 'betweens'

i hope tht makes sense

I think it makes sense.

The way I see it, I am the animator, I draw the keyframes/key poses, and Flash acts as my 'assistant', drawing all the pictures inbetween. And then I can mess around with the settings to get the timing right, slowing in and out, etc. Is that about right?

I know Flash is a tool like any other and I can learn it, but I'm just trying to figure out the concept to begin with.

War does not make one great

yeah you got it right.
basically you take pose 1 and you take it as far as you can animate with it (disecting the points correctly) then when you you cant go further without a new key frame you insert one and so on and so forth.

There are a couple different ways to go with Flash. One is to do jointed characters, swapping out parts when it's time for head turns, expression changes, etc. Examples of this type would be shows like Mucha Lucha, Foster's, etc. A web example of the same technique is Chuck Jones' Thomas Timberwolf. The advantage of this style is that you can use Flash's motion tweening to inbetween your key poses. The drawback is that you're locked into the shapes that are included in your character pack, unless you do specific one-offs for extreme action, etc.

The other way to use Flash is as a simple page-flipper, creating your keys, breakdowns, and inbetweens as you would on paper. Or, creating them on paper, scanning them, and importing them into the app. This movie, a full-length feature about to go into limited release, was created by one guy using Flash as his animation tool. He drew directly into the program using a Wacom. The advantage of Flash in this case is the scalability of the vector art it creates and the relatively small file sizes (unless or until you start including raster art into your shots). The drawbacks are similar to any traditional production - you have to draw each and every image.

Regardless of how you use it, you'll have to spend some time getting your head around how Flash works. It's not the most intuitive animation tool, and the workflow is a bit different than you're probably used to. It's not a particularly steep learning curve though; you'll be up and running before you know it.

This movie, a full-length feature about to go into limited release, was created by one guy using Flash as his animation tool.

Holy crap. Why am I the last one to find out about these things? =)

Can I not just draw the keys and use Flash for the inbetweens, as you would in 3D animation where you pose the character into key poses and the program fills in the gaps?

The idea with 3D is similar to 2D...find an efficient means, yes, but be as descriptive as possible. Do as much of the actual work as possible because using the computer to fill gaps between key poses is literally worthless in terms of animation quality. Doesn't mean you need something on every frame, but you'll find what works for your skill level and specific situation.

Holy crap. Why am I the last one to find out about these things? =)

yeah same here. id like to know mroe about this.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll just play with the program and see what works. Can anyone recommend any good websites or online tutorials, etc? Some books maybe? I haven't even looked at Flash for over 5 years so I'm basically an absolute beginner.

War does not make one great

Can anyone recommend any good websites or online tutorials, etc? Some books maybe?

Try flashkit.com. It's an all-purpose resource for all things Flash.

Books are harder to recommend, since we don't really know how much you already know. I'd suggest getting a "Flash basics" book to bring you up to speed on the app itself, as well as a Flash animation book to give you the specific information you're looking for. There are lots of both types on the market - look through a few and see what works best for you.

Can anyone recommend any good websites or online tutorials, etc?

I sell video tutorials about animating and drawing in Flash. Here is one of the free ones that may answer your questions regarding Flash "tweening" your art for you:

http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/wave_video.html

The best movements you can get would be by using symbols. Put your art into symbols and then you can tween them.

Here are some other free tutorials:
http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/tutorials.html

And here are some of the pay ones:
http://cartoonsolutions.com/store/home.php?cat=280

Flash is an awesome program and once you get your mind wrapped around it, you'll love it!

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

You could also try Cold Hard Flash. It might be helpful.

www.coldhardflash.com/

Blue's tutorials are terrific and very useful. Well worth the low price he offers them at.

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

Blue's tutes are great also. He hasn't been around for awhile, so forgot about those.

Always a good place to start are the sample tutorials included with Flash. They seem lame in the beginning, but if you do all of them, they explain many of the tools and how they work. And they are free and came with the program. Many of the folks that complain about Flash's drawing tools have never taken the time to go through the tutorials. They explain a lot. And they don't take that long to go through.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

yeah same here. id like to know mroe about this.

Well, aside from the first link I provided, here's an interview with Phil. Haven't read it yet, but how far wrong can you go when it's an interview with the guy who made the film? :)

The other way to use Flash is as a simple page-flipper, creating your keys, breakdowns, and inbetweens as you would on paper. Or, creating them on paper, scanning them, and importing them into the app.

Can I not just draw the keys and use Flash for the inbetweens, as you would in 3D animation where you pose the character into key poses and the program fills in the gaps?

So, to give a very simple example, let's say I draw 3 pictures on paper. One is a stick man standing still, two is the stick man with knees bent ready to jump and three is the stick man in the air with his legs and arms spread. I scan these 3 pictures into the computer, import them into Flash, place them where I want them on the timeline, and then Flash can do the inbetweens for me and I will have a very basic (and very crappy) animation of a stick man jumping?

War does not make one great

Flash really can't interpolate the poses you would wish for in your example. What it can do is: if you put together a walk sequence clip is have that action clip move from left to right or vice versa, etc.. For the jump action you would probably have to key out the knee bending and arm movements, and only a very brief section of the upward or downward movement could be tweened and still be convincing.

Best thing for you to do is play with the program, and do some experimental basic tests with it.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Can I not just draw the keys and use Flash for the inbetweens, as you would in 3D animation where you pose the character into key poses and the program fills in the gaps?

So, to give a very simple example, let's say I draw 3 pictures on paper. One is a stick man standing still, two is the stick man with knees bent ready to jump and three is the stick man in the air with his legs and arms spread. I scan these 3 pictures into the computer, import them into Flash, place them where I want them on the timeline, and then Flash can do the inbetweens for me and I will have a very basic (and very crappy) animation of a stick man jumping?

What you're describing is what Flash would define as shape tweening. While it does have a shape tweening tool, it can be cumbersome to use and works best with very simple shapes. For a complex character with any level of detail, Flash would turn it into a nice piece of abstract art, rather than giving you usable inbetweens.

On top of that, if you were using just your scanned drawings, rather than turning them into vectors once they were in Flash, the program would have nothing to work with, as the shape tweening only happens with vectors, and not raster art.