transparent objects in animation

Hi - is there any solution to this...?
I have some animated characters that are partially transparent (30% alpha), with a transparent background. At the moment, the lower layers can be seen through the upper ones, causing several problems....
example: When a guy is walking from a side view, at the moment 2 problems occur -
1. the "bottom" (distant) arm and leg can be seen through the body "on top" of it (and also the body can be seen through the front arm/leg, etc.)
2. every layer (or object on top of the other) adds its own 30% alpha causing parts to be whiter.
I want the whole thing to be opaque within itself, and just be transparent in relation to the background. Your help would be most appreciated! surely it is possible to create transparent characters somehow...
Thanks

have all character parts inside of a movieClip and alpha the clip as a whole...

sounds like a great idea but I think I didn't describe the problem completely, so I'm attaching an example.
the fill is semi-transparent (30%-ish) but the linear description (drawing objects made with a brush) is opaque.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2...00034tl.th.jpg you can see in the example the 2 problems, the greater alpha whenever there are objects on top of the other, and the white lines seen through as well. I thought maybe there's some programming solution for this.
thanks again