Need help with Flash character pack setup

[cedricstudio]

I'm a freelance illustrator branching out into animation. I don't have any formal training in Flash and have been learning it on the fly. I'm looking for a website or tutorial that would show me the smartest and most effective method for setting up a character pack - something that is simple and well-organized but also offers great flexibility when animating.

I've done a little Googling and found some stuff at cartoonsolutions.com, but I'm not sure if their character pack setup is really all that great.

I know several people on this board work at animation studios so I figured this would be the place to find the answers!

Any thoughts, links, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[ACH]

I remember Toonimator posted his reel here once which was chalk full of great little flash anims, I'd love if he'd put something out there that showed some of his techniques. I remember it being crazy fluid and full of life. I've never touched Flash, but would love to learn it, as I've seen some stuff out there from people with very little drawing ability that is well put together...and if in the right hands could be down right amazing.

[blinkok]

this guy is pretty good. he's written a couple of books;
http://www.keyframer.com/

[faroukbaaaaa]

don't try and run before you can walk is the only advice i will give.
Flash looks pretty friendly at times but will actually bite your face
if you get carried away

[Toonimator]

Thanks ACH! I meant to respond to Cedric's post when I got home the other night... too tired.

Farouk's right... Flash loves to smack people around. "Oh hey Fancy Dan, you wanna adjust those curves in that shape-tween, do ya? Well we're just gonna make the shape DISAPPEAR on you instead. Touche, you and your 'Ctrl-Z', I see you're attempting to adjust from another part of the curve, well let's just shut down the program instead. BYE!"

I don't have anything set up to show... and I stink at the explaining. I'll try to set something up soon; can't just show work stuff of course



Basically within a character you've got layers for arms, hands, body, legs, feet, neck, head... maybe more, maybe less, depending how complicated the character is. It's generally best to keep all the pieces of the character's head (or face, in the case of most Mr. Men & Little Misses who have no separate heads!) within one big nested symbol, so you only have to move that one head/face comp as you move the character around, not move each facial feature individually. Then you can do expression changes & acting within the head symbol.

So that's a bit of something... like I said, I stink at the explaining. I know how it works in my mind, just can't communicate it efficiently/effectively.

[AzzaMcKazza]

Bluehickey - your tutorials are exactly what I've been looking for to help with my final project this year. Huzzah! Going to be downloading them first thing tonight.

[FlashCartoonLibrary]

There is a NEW website that has hundreds of pre-made Flash Cartoon Character Packs that are AWESOME. There are: Elves, Wizards, Warriors, Soldiers, King Arthur and Camelot, World Famous, Orcs, Monsters, Devils, Angels, Sexy Girls, Sci-Fi, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and many MORE. Check it out and you can jump-start your Flash animation project. Get animating TODAY!

http://www/flashcartoonlibrary.com