Flash movies

[Utopian Dragon]

Can i use single frames to create a flash movie, like a bunch of pictures that look the same but have a slight changes?? and if so HOW!?!?!?!?!

[DOaks]

Yeah-
you can do frame by frame 'traditional' style animation.
How would depend on just what you were trying to accomplish-You could physically draw each frame and scan them in, or create them in your computer with Freehand, Coreldraw, Illustrator.... whatever.
Some of the programs like Swift 3D generate an SWF file that's all individual frames....

[Utopian Dragon]

Can this frame by frame be done in Flash 5? Or do I need something else? And will it make the end "product" enormous?

[Ian424]

just make a keyframe (f6 on timeline) draw what you want, new, empty keyframe (f7 on timeline) and use the onionskinning buttons under the timeline for seeing different opacities of images just draw etc..

this kind of file can be huge, so dont go overboard with complex shapes and colors.

good luck too, it takes a LONG time.

[gounie]

keyframe animation is what i do.

flash is great for animation because of the movie clips and onion skin.

here are some tips.

to reduce size if you want it on the web:
if you are drawing use the pencil not the brush, the brush is double the size. if it's still too heavy optimize!
as for pictures. edit them in photoshop or other edit pic soft and reduce size as much as possible. save them as jpeg. when you import them into flash (flash will compress them again) , flash should detect the sequence and ask you if you want to import the whole folder. so keep the pics in a seperate folder and put number at end of title, like hello1, hello2 etc...

how to make a walk cycle: create movie clip and make character walk but not move. do all the drawings of a walk overlapping each other. then go to main timeline and make a motion tween from start point to finish point. another alternative is to keep the character in place and then have a background pan from left to right on the screen.
just to show you can do pretty nifty keyframe animation/cartoons with mcs

to draw, i wouldn't create a blank keyframe each time unless you're completly changing the drawing which is very unlikely. draw, then create new keyframe with f6 turn on the onion skin and erase and modify whatever part you are animating.

i usually draw everything directly on the screen. and to make a little more artistic bckgrds i'll either import some watercolor or some photoshop file.

if you draw you animation on paper i would recommend using programms like premiere, after effects etc... because those programms will overlap your drawings more easily. you don't want to spend you life moving the drawings around to make sure they perfectly on top of each other. (especially at 12fps)

if you want to put your animation on viseo do not use any actionscript. it will make your life MUCH easier. then just publish animation in quicktime and import into AE or Premiere etc... (get new quicktime 5, it's better)
and don't forget to make animation at 30fps and confiure size and what not.

if you want to check out some books
"animation from script to screen" from shamus culhane
(the guy that drew all the pluto cartoons)
and "the animation book" by kit laybourne
(he taught at NYU)
are pretty good
the flash bible explains it pretty well too.

there are some websites around dedicated to flash cartoons and animations. actually i think you can find some in flashkit somewhere. otherwise you could probably find some links at animation world network at
http://www.awn.com

i think the show "Blue's Clues" for kids on nickelodeon is made in flash.

hope this helps.
be glad to answer any other questions you have.