It depends what you're trying to do, and the effect you're going for. If you just want to do quick pose tests, it'll be faster to draw directly into Flash with a tablet using the brush tool. The brush tool allows you to vary line thickness according to pen pressure.

If you want to clean up the animation you've done on paper, then you might want to scan in your drawings and draw over them in Flash. However, Flash doesn't have tools which automatically line up your peg holes, so you might have to fix your registration in another program and then bring the properly-registered drawings into Flash for cleanup.

People complain a lot about the drawing tools in Flash, depending on the version. The over-aggressive line correction, zoom-dependent brush sizes, and lack of opacity control are all reasons I don't like to animate in Flash. But if you're just doing really rough work, it can be very fast. You can time your poses in Flash and then do your proper drawings in another program or on paper.

Nick Cross (below) works entirely in Flash, Photoshop and After Effects and he does gorgeous work, so it's ultimately a matter of your personal working methods.

Direct Link

Direct Link

If you're serious about animation going forward, you might consider ditching Flash for something better. Premier and Toon Boom Animate are great alternatives. Really Flash was never meant for animators, and Adobe is only making it worse for us. It's great for messing around as a kid, because it's easier, but for real animation it's really something to be left behind for a better way.

Last edited by JKR (06-06-2012 10:12 pm)

Spee wrote:

I should probably experiment with more Animation programmes, I agree, but would it not be better for me to use Flash for a bit and master that before moving onto Toom Boom?
Toon Boom and Flash are both are tad unintuitive at first glance, and I don't want to have to learn a whole other programme when I already know how to basically animate anyway.

Exactly why moving now is your best bet IF you are in this for the long haul. The more you get entrenched in Flash the harder it's going to be for you. I know, I'm there right now. I spent 8 years with Flash when I finally got to the point where I saw just how limited I was. Now it's been a pain in the butt trying to unlearn all that and move to Toon Boom. I'm just trying to share this newfound wisdom with people not so far in the Flash journey so you can save yourself a butt load of trouble later.

Up to you of course. If I could do it over, I'd have left Flash behind ASAP and gone to greener pastures. Especially now that Adobe is taking it farther and farther down the web-development side, and leaving animators to pick up the pieces.

You want to pencil test your pencil drawings?  I think the most direct thing would be some software that lets you click off single frames with a web camera and string them together into animation.  there is free stop-mo software out there, I forget the name at the moment however.

But then why not just scan them in the first place?

zoepiel wrote:

Because it's very slow. The advantage of a camera and copy stand is that the exposure time on most cameras is much quicker, so you don't invest a ton of time just to test a few dozen drawings.

No, I hear that. I mean vs. doing the pencil test in Flash first.

I second robcat's comment. Expensive as all get out, but my Cintiq is hands down the best tool I've ever purchased for my animation work. Worth every penny, unlike a lot of things I buy!

I do like the look of those tablets you guys just showed me, but like I said a couple of posts ago, I'm not a great fan of my wacom tablet, because it's very slippery so it feels like carving onto some ice with a pick made of ice, because I'm a very clumsy handed artist (I dunno if that's something I need to grow out of, or just a matter of fact.) so I prefer drawing on paper, which has more grip, and then inking quickly with a mouse with a bit more accuracy. So in that sense, a tablet PC wouldn't do me much good at the stage I'm at. If I ever conquer my disability to draw on a wacom, I might consider it mind you.

And in any case, not to toot my own horn, but I'm still at College, and my pencil tests so far consist of this kind of thing.

Direct Link

Instant playback does sound nice, but whenever I animate in Maya for instance, I always get myself into the bad habit of trial and erroring my way through Animating by referring to the playback and I don't learn or feel anything from it. But if I have longer to figure it out, I can usually guestimate it the first time, like with my above line test.

It's all personal preference though, my opinion might change one day, if I learn to have a steadier hand at any point, I might warm to drawing on a tablet.

Don't think I'm ignoring your advice though, it's still useful to hear multiple methods of traditional Animation, and I thank you for your advice robcat.

robcat2075 wrote:

Has anyone taught you to  "flip on the pegs" and "roll"? 

That's how the classic animators previewed their animation instantly.

Agreed. Takes a lot of work to master, though, just as an FYI. You have to keep at it.

I learned to "roll" from an actual old-time Disney guy! And "flip" too.

Those are absolutely essential skills for anyone working with animation drawn on paper.

For rolling you have to use "bottom pegs".  This guy shows one hand to do about five frames. with two hands you could do up to 10 frames.

Direct Link

Direct Link

jason108 wrote:

I do vid ref first of hand acting for cartoony stuff

Hand acting?