Flash Animation (CS5)

[F22RaptorDude]

So I recently got Adobe Flash CS5 so I could get into animating with one of my friends who also has it, but since he lives in the UK We don't get a whole lot of time to talk anymore since by the time I get home from work he's going to bed meaning we can't rely on each other for anything, so I took matters into my own hands. Anyway my god this thing is useful but at the same time extremely hard to understand, I've got basics but i'm still lacking behind. Spent 4 hours watching a video on how to draw a dude, pausing and recreating so I could get a basic idea of what to do, a lot of it makes sense but i'm still absolute crap at drawing which is my biggest let down, so I figure I could always ask my other friend to draw for me since he's a natural artist. Anyway if anyone on here uses it some tips and tricks would be nice to hear, i'm planning on doing a short mini series when I get good enough on the life of a F22 pilot who slipped through the cracks in flight school and is always making a mess of things, and the other one was requested that I do a fan made version of my little pony  Meaning the 4 guys and 3 girls that want in need to make their own ponies which is going to be difficult at best if I can't even handle a human...

This is where I left off before I wanted to call it a night, going to work on bones tomorrow afternoon, the pony is just for fun but it is based off of me and from what i've heard, looks like me a bit 
Thats an F22 Raptor on the flank

[Pigslilspaz]

Good luck, be forewarned, the average time it takes to make a flash video of even decent quality that is more than a 1 minute stickfight is about 3-6 months.

[The Fugitive]

Good luck, be forewarned, the average time it takes to make a flash video of even decent quality that is more than a 1 minute stickfight is about 3-6 months.

LOL!!! if you only have one finger and your computer is 6 years old, maybe.

I did this one with FLASH 8 a couple years ago. http://webpages.charter.net/maddogjoe/cartoon_vulch.htm  I also did 6 training tutorials in FLASH that are on the trainers page http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/ scroll to the bottom.

I found vector drawing easier than the drawings/paintings I'm trying to do in CS5. Especially the "cartoon" type ones. The biggest thing is to just practice with it. The more you learn the keyboard shortcuts the quicker you will get. Once you get the idea of how things work, the stage, over laying time lines and such it comes pretty easy. I think the "Vulch" cartoon above took a total of 6-8 hours. Thats all the drawings, and time lines and everything.

I haven't played with the newest version, but I thought I read some place that they have more animation tools like "bones" and such to make animating characters easier. That and being able to use more and more imported pictures from other software should help move things along as well.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

LOL!!! if you only have one finger and your computer is 6 years old, maybe.

I did this one with FLASH 8 a couple years ago. http://webpages.charter.net/maddogjoe/cartoon_vulch.htm  I also did 6 training tutorials in FLASH that are on the trainers page http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/ scroll to the bottom.

I found vector drawing easier than the drawings/paintings I'm trying to do in CS5. Especially the "cartoon" type ones. The biggest thing is to just practice with it. The more you learn the keyboard shortcuts the quicker you will get. Once you get the idea of how things work, the stage, over laying time lines and such it comes pretty easy. I think the "Vulch" cartoon above took a total of 6-8 hours. Thats all the drawings, and time lines and everything.

I haven't played with the newest version, but I thought I read some place that they have more animation tools like "bones" and such to make animating characters easier. That and being able to use more and more imported pictures from other software should help move things along as well.

I don't want to be rude but I think that's exactly what he meant by '1 minute stickfight'

[F22RaptorDude]

LOL!!! if you only have one finger and your computer is 6 years old, maybe.

I did this one with FLASH 8 a couple years ago. http://webpages.charter.net/maddogjoe/cartoon_vulch.htm  I also did 6 training tutorials in FLASH that are on the trainers page http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/ scroll to the bottom.

I found vector drawing easier than the drawings/paintings I'm trying to do in CS5. Especially the "cartoon" type ones. The biggest thing is to just practice with it. The more you learn the keyboard shortcuts the quicker you will get. Once you get the idea of how things work, the stage, over laying time lines and such it comes pretty easy. I think the "Vulch" cartoon above took a total of 6-8 hours. Thats all the drawings, and time lines and everything.

I haven't played with the newest version, but I thought I read some place that they have more animation tools like "bones" and such to make animating characters easier. That and being able to use more and more imported pictures from other software should help move things along as well.

My biggest problem is that I can't draw worth a crap, the picture above was copied, I drew it, after repeatedly watching the video, when I get home from work i'll start working on bones and attempt to get a simple animation going.

However I want to know how to animate imported items, ie the pony in the picture, can't I can't add the sections to edit the movements individually and I don't want to try to draw my own cause it would look horrendous, gonna see if my friend will make me some models for fun