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New to AWN and animation. Help?

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New to AWN and animation. Help?

I'm trying to learn how to make flash animation. I know how to use GIF animators, which I know is primitive but I realize they are similar. I downloaded a trial version of a flash program but I'm running into some problems. My biggest problem is I can't figure out how to change the speed of each individual frame. Also, if anybody has any advice or links that would help me learn all the tools and effects that'd be great. :confused:

The speed at which a frame in Flash goes by is determined primarily by the frames-per-second rate you set for the entire Flash file. Since most animation plays at 24 or 25 frames per second, you shouldn't deviate from that. Just use your country's TV standard if you hope to play your work anywhere besides computers. You can't make single frames play faster than the 'top speed' determined that way, though.

To make individual frames go by slower, just repeat them. It's rare for most animation to have individual frames repeated longer than three times because going so slow will already affect the fluidity of the motion.
The rule of thumb is to have changes in every single frame for fast action (called "animation on 1's"), changes every two frames for normally paced action ("animation on 2's") and to generally avoid changes every third frame ("animation on 3's") unless the animation style is limited or the action shown that way is very even or subtle or somewhere in the background where viewers won't pay a lot of attention to it anyway.

Overall, your desired animation style will determine how you should time your animation. Animation on 1's is a lot of work to draw but tends to look smoother and more intricate. Animation on 2's is only half the work and usually works very well, but especially fast and frantic action may require more drawings in a shorter timespan to clearly describe what's happening.

lynda.com is excellent. It has a lot off free video tutorials and a whole lot more for a small monthly fee.

thanks that clears up a lot actually. also, any reccomendations for flash animation software thats good for an amateaur thats decently priced?