Any Flash animators here?

[Random Axe]

I'm a complete novice and relative idiot on the subject. I'm looking into what's needed to get started and what to expect. I'd probably be way over my head right form the start, but I'm adaptable and learn quickly. I was hoping there are a few here who have done this and could sort of steer me in the right direction. I haven't priced any software or tutorials as I have no idea what I need to get started. Any ideas?

Scott

[Brazoo]

I'm sure there are people on here with a lot more expertise than me. I only know the basics.

Have you used Adobe Illustrator or any other vector drawing software? Knowing how vectors work - or at least being a little familiar with them might be a good place to start.

Also, have you ever used a program that uses timelines and keyframes? I'd say if you know a bit about that, and you know a bit about drawing vectors then you're going to have a very easy time picking Flash up.

If not don't worry - if I can do it anyone can! Years ago I seem to recall Macromedia including a step-by-step tutorial with the program (I could be remembering wrong though). Now that Adobe owns it there might have something like that online. I've seen tons of free tutorials online - and I'm sure you can check youtube as well.

Years ago I learned programs using this brand of books and would recommend them, though I'm not familiar with this exact book: Amazon.com: Flash CS4 Professional Bible (9780470379189): Robert Reinhardt, Snow Dowd: Books

[Brazoo]

I forgot to ask - are you interested in Flash for building websites or just animating? Depending on the type of work you're interested in doing you might want to consider other programs too.

[jimsmegos]

Flash is one program that has always puzzled me. I do all the crappy animation that i share with you all in Premiere CS3 and Photoshop CS3. I tried the off the shelf Anime Studio and wasn't overly impressed.

[Brazoo]

I'm not nuts about it actually. I don't love it for animation and I'm not crazy about Flash built websites either.

Last time I used it was a year ago, and I only used it because I was animating simple vector graphics. Otherwise I mostly use Photoshop, After Effects and Motion.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

I look forward to seeing stuff you come up with Scott.

[megoscott]

I like this guy's tutorials: bitey.com

Flash is a pain in the neck, but it's the best game in town for a lot of purposes, especially building games. ToonBoom is a good alternative to Flash for animating.

[Random Axe]

MOre or less I'm looking into developing some animated shorts much in this style. I have no idea what's involved or how much time it would take to make such a thing. I'm in the info gatehring stage. I have almost no experience or knowledge of digital artwork, so this may be waaaaay over my head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywMOuMqNuI

Scott

[Hector]

I mingled with it on Illustrator...but I'm not really into it...I just like drawing still pictures.

My local community college offers a semester of Adobe Flash.

You should look into that as an option...much better than just reading a book.

[Hector]

MOre or less I'm looking into developing some animated shorts much in this style. I have no idea what's involved or how much time it would take to make such a thing. I'm in the info gatehring stage. I have almost no experience or knowledge of digital artwork, so this may be waaaaay over my head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywMOuMqNuI

Scott

I always love watching that short toon...

[Hector]

Part 2 is great too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeT1t...eature=channel

Poor Bats...never seems to get a brake...

[megoscott]

Despite the simplistic style there's still a lot of work going into those shorts. The animation is pretty much puppeted, which involves managing a bunch of little assets in your library. There's the lip synch and all the sound files.

There aren't a lot of great books about doing that kind of animation in Flash--most books and course are going to cover basic graphic animation for websites and whatnot.

[megoapesnut]

I have learned all of the graphic programs including the bid daddies - Photoshop, Quark, etc. I can tell you that Flash is one of the harder programs to learn. It's not too bad if you just want to do real basic stuff. But if you want to get proficient with it and do whiz bang animations, plan on spending a ton of time learning and practicing. I am nowhere near proficient in it, but I have evolved past the basics, barely. I found a great online training tool at http://www.lynda.com/. Here are a few of the flash sites I have produced. The last one is the company I work for.


http://www.pequea.com/

http://www.moloneyltd.com/

http://www.freshcreativeinc.com/

[Brazoo]

For that style you don't necessarily need Flash, and even if you do decide to use Flash you're going to be using basics of that program which aren't too difficult to learn, so I would think you should be able to get away with some simple online tutorials.

Maybe you should email the guy who made those and ask what program he's using? In any case it shouldn't matter too much. You could do stuff like that with a few different programs and they all pretty much work the same.

Like MegoScott said it will take a fair amount of work, but most of the movement is their mouths talking, and mouths like that don't require in-between frames. Just an inventory of mouth images matching the vowels and consonants. They might even use the same mouths for the different characters.

Here's a quick outline of how I'd go about this project:

1) record dialog

2) import dialog into Flash (or whichever program). The audio will be your guide in the programs timeline.

Here's a video showing some basics of the timeline in Flash (though, it's pretty much the same in any animation program) just in case this isn't making sense: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwegBk2Idp4

3) Draw your cast and backgrounds. As you probably know Flash (and other animation programs) allow you to animate without drawing each frame. As MegoScott said it's more like puppeteering. Draw your characters in the poses you need them in. If your character is going to move a body part you need to make sure each moving part is on a separate layer.

Here's an online guide on mouth shapes for lip-sync: Lip-Synching For Animation: Basic Phonemes

4) Create libraries for each character. You're going to be dealing with lots of image files on lots of layers, so organization is key. If character A only moves his arm and head you'd have a library for character A consisting of a file for his head, arm and the rest of him. I'd try to use the same mouths for everyone, but if you can't then I'd make a library for each characters mouths as well.

5) Personally I'd start animating by puppeting the character's bodies without mouths (or faces if you're going to be changing their eyes for expression). I'd sort of block out the scenes using the audio on the timeline.

After the scene is blocked out I'd go back and add the details like mouths and expressions.

I've never used this, but you might want to check out some automated features of Flash: Lip-syncing automatically with SmartMouth in Flash Professional | Adobe Developer Connection

None of the auto-lip sync software I've used before is perfect - but it least it does a fair amount of heavy lifting so you can just go in a tweak things after.

6) Add extra sound effects if needed.

I'd also edit at this point - but if I was doing this for the first time I would try a 1 scene animation just to get the feel of it first, rather than tell a story with multiple scenes. Like anything I'd start with the basics and then try to get more advanced as you get more experience. The programs can allow you to get a lot more out of your animating as you learn too - for example you can create a character's walk cycle and then repeat it over and over - then plop them in the timeline, so you're not puppeting each limb every step the character takes - you just do it once. Things like that.

I hope that helps!

[boynightwing]

I'm currently learning Flash CS4. I'm on lesson 3 of Foundation Flash CS4 by Tom Green and David Stiller. I've only been at it a few weeks whenever I have time which isn't much.