Any animators around?

[the_jetfighter 94]

i am animating in a provincial skills competition with the most recent flash. i was wondering if there was any helpful hints that could be sent my way. My partner in flash who is also a brony knows allot more than i do, i just want to be able to be a better support for the competition

[Pony Joe 582]

I animate, but sadly I don't use Flash.  Are you looking for program-specific help, or would I still be able to give you a couple pointers?

[the_jetfighter 94]

I animate, but sadly I don't use Flash.  Are you looking for program-specific help, or would I still be able to give you a couple pointers?

i have only used flash, and unfortunately that is the only program that we are allowed to use in the skills competition, but if there is another program that you would recommend i would love to try it!

[Pony Joe 582]

i have only used flash, and unfortunately that is the only program that we are allowed to use in the skills competition, but if there is another program that you would recommend i would love to try it!

 

I use Anime Studio Pro, which is extremely easy to use, but doesn't offer anything you can't do in Flash (hence the enormous price difference).  Despite the name, hand-drawn animation is almost impossible in it; it's designed for vector-based keyframe animation and bone rigging.  If you've ever seen the How It Should Have Ended cartoons, that's about the quality you can expect.

[the_jetfighter 94]

I use Anime Studio Pro, which is extremely easy to use, but doesn't offer anything you can't do in Flash (hence the enormous price difference).  Despite the name, hand-drawn animation is almost impossible in it; it's designed for vector-based keyframe animation and bone rigging.  If you've ever seen the How It Should Have Ended cartoons, that's about the quality you can expect.

is anime studio good for tweening? or does it have a symbol save thingy like flash? lately i have been practicing them it to make my animation a tadd bit smother,

[/mlp/ 106]

I'm an animator, I use Adobe Flash Cs6 and Macromedia Flash 8 Both are perfect for tweening. I'm still new to both so I really can't help too much.

[Pony Joe 582]

is anime studio good for tweening? or does it have a symbol save thingy like flash? lately i have been practicing them it to make my animation a tadd bit smother,

 

Anime Studio basically is tweening.  After you've drawn your set pieces, most of the actual animation process is manipulating vectors/bones/images/shapes on different points on the timeline and telling the program how to fill in the gaps.

 

I really don't know what you mean by "symbol save thingy," though.

[the_jetfighter 94]

Anime Studio basically is tweening.  After you've drawn your set pieces, most of the actual animation process is manipulating vectors/bones/images/shapes on different points on the timeline and telling the program how to fill in the gaps.

 

I really don't know what you mean by "symbol save thingy," 

 

the symbol can be like a bunch of shapes kinda "glued together" to all be one shape, i like it for things like fingers, and it makes it easy to save a shape that you have made and if you need it later in the animation its right there!

[Pony Joe 582]

the symbol can be like a bunch of shapes kinda "glued together" to all be one shape, i like it for things like fingers, and it makes it easy to save a shape that you have made and if you need it later in the animation its right there!

 

I'm still not sure exactly what you mean, but Anime Studio has is the ability to save layers into groups such as skeletons (for multiple interacting limbs) "switch" groups (to swap out mouth and hand positions) or masking groups (for when a layer's visibility is dependent on its relative position to others).

 

Anime Studio is a bit weird in that your work space is constant throughout a file, meaning everything visible must be imported or drawn at frame 0 and literally dragged into the camera when you need it.  There's no need to "save something for later" because there's no way to for anything to disappear from your work space to begin with.

[the_jetfighter 94]

I'm still not sure exactly what you mean, but Anime Studio has is the ability to save layers into groups such as skeletons (for multiple interacting limbs) "switch" groups (to swap out mouth and hand positions) or masking groups (for when a layer's visibility is dependent on its relative position to others).

 

Anime Studio is a bit weird in that your work space is constant throughout a file, meaning everything visible must be imported or drawn at frame 0 and literally dragged into the camera when you need it.  There's no need to "save something for later" because there's no way to for anything to disappear from your work space to begin with.

sounds like the groups are basically the same thing! looks like something that i will have to look into, its just to bad that i cant use anime studio for the animation competition   

[Pony Joe 582]

sounds like the groups are basically the same thing! looks like something that i will have to look into, its just to bad that i cant use anime studio for the animation competition   

 

Like I said, there's nothing you can do in Anime Studio that isn't possible in Flash, but I would recommend it as an introduction to 2D computer animation techniques.

 

Also, you can save Anime Studio files as SWF's, so take that how you will.

[ErBoi 498]

I'm somewhat familiar with Flash.  But, personally I prefer Toon Boom overall.

Toon Boom Studio is, primarily, a traditional frame-by-frame animation software but it has all the tools and options needed to do Flash-style animations and is a much more stable program (it's crashed once in the 5+ years I've used it and rigs virtually never break when tweening).  That said, Flash has a lot of basic effects, such as rack focus, that Toon Boom does not (or did not until very recently; so recently that the version of Toon Boom Studio that I own does not have it).

It doesn't really matter I suppose since you're only allowed to use Flash.  My only advice would be to keep all the principles of animation in mind as you animate; the same advice I'd give to anyone animating with anything.