whats the easiest way to animate a short cartoon?

i only know VERY basic flash, and always have trouble with it, i was thinking maybe doing something stop motion but im not quite sure

what would be the easiest way to make a small short animation?

how short?

60 seconds - 3 minutes, to much to make each frame in photoshop or something maybe, maybe not

quote:

---

Originally posted by M73A
60 seconds - 3 minutes, to much to make each frame in photoshop or something maybe, maybe not

---

nah, i can't really see it being live action,

i've been playing with flash and it keeps giving me a massive headache
going to work through some tutorials in a bit to get me used to things

alternatively i can make a flash game, but i have no chance of that working lol

Yeah well to make a game you'd need to learn actionscript, and that would add a whole 'nother load to your project

Do you have an idea of what you actually want to do?

well the projects to do with two people researching, finding a link and making a conceptual piece using the link....

my link is disobediance. so im thinking a cartoon dog? lol. but im having trouble trying to animate anything i come up with. gonna try and story board some 'events'


edit:
hm, how about making sprites? photoshop and the animation part of it...

Long url << should help =p

wow thanks! im just playing around with what that link is telling me, its exactely what i was looking for thanks

its still really hard! lol where do i put the code? hm
okay got it, now am playing about ^_^

blah cant get it to work, text doesnt show up and the dog doesnt move! hm time to mess about

you have to make keyframes with actionscript in. I haven't used flash in a few years so I can't remember exactly, here's a few links instead

How to insert actionscript
More about inserting
Basic actionscript

I mean I'm just googling and reading around, so just google anything you get stuck on [feel free to ask here if you can't find the answer though and I'll try to help]

okay, thanks a lot i've been trying to google for tutorials on things but i had no idea where to start lol

edit:

im trying to use the code from the first link, in the actionscript window etc, but it just doesnt want to move like the car! and no text is coming up when i press any directional key....gonna be here for a while! >.<

quote:

---

Originally posted by M73A
how do i define a property? the property is 'Key'

---

lol right, forget that. lol

what im stuck with is

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/w...file=00001013.html


Assign the following onClipEvent() handler to a movie clip, and select Control > Test Movie and press the desired key:

onClipEvent(keyDown) {
    trace(Key.getCode());
}



it just doesnt have any of it lol


EDIT:

was using actionscript 3 when i needed to use actionscript 2.

stupid and don't know why!


EDIT

im trying to do this, it has pictures so im finding it easier:
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:BJL21MGciVEJ...ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk

i get 8 errors....

1120: Access of undefined property Key.

onClipEvent(keyDown) {
    trace(Key.getCode());
}

^^ should just say whatever key you press in the output window.

To make something happen when a key is pressed you have to use

if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
        <<do something>>
    }

EDIT: I can't see why you'd get errors if you did the same as in that second tutorial, is the Movie Clip named properly? (For instance he uses 'square' in his example - Step 2)

EDIT2: Also he provides the .fla at the end of the tut so it's probably a good idea to download that and make sure you're doing things the same, and to just get a better feel for what he's doing.

thanks for the help! i was using the wrong version of action script for the link i used. im going to try the one with the text output now

Nice!

To make a button clickable is quite simple, in essence all you do is make a button, and use some code which says when this area is clicked, go to frame 10 and do this.

Here's it in detail: http://www.echoecho.com/flashbuttons01.htm

[There are thousands of others here]

Microsoft Powerpoint

quote:

---

Originally posted by vaccination
Nice!

To make a button clickable is quite simple, in essence all you do is make a button, and use some code which says when this area is clicked, go to frame 10 and do this.

Here's it in detail: http://www.echoecho.com/flashbuttons01.htm

[There are thousands of others here]

---

im going to try and make like a dog sprite for the different things he does, that all return to the same place, so when i press a button the sprite of the action can be played.

it seems to make sense in my head. thanks for the help

quote:

---

Originally posted by linx05
Microsoft Powerpoint

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by NanaFreak

quote:

---

Originally posted by vaccination
Nice!

To make a button clickable is quite simple, in essence all you do is make a button, and use some code which says when this area is clicked, go to frame 10 and do this.

Here's it in detail: http://www.echoecho.com/flashbuttons01.htm

[There are thousands of others here]

---

i prefer making my buttons out of movie clips... its just easier for me that way.. plus you can do a whole heap more stuff with it ;o

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by M73A

quote:

---

Originally posted by NanaFreak

quote:

---

Originally posted by vaccination
Nice!

To make a button clickable is quite simple, in essence all you do is make a button, and use some code which says when this area is clicked, go to frame 10 and do this.

Here's it in detail: http://www.echoecho.com/flashbuttons01.htm

[There are thousands of others here]

---

i prefer making my buttons out of movie clips... its just easier for me that way.. plus you can do a whole heap more stuff with it ;o

---

like what?

---

is what im thinking, kind of like a REALLY shoddy flash nintendogs with about a total of four features lol.

you make the center part a single movie clip and have action script it stop at certain frames so that you can have all the animation together but it wont play through them...

then when a person clicks a button it will make the center movie clip go to the frame that is relevant to the action and play until the movie clip stops the action (then you can make the movie clip go back to a main frame if you want)

just make sure to have checks in place to see if the movie clip is at frame 1 (MovieClipObj.currentFrame)

i think i made sense... if not im sure someone can explain what i am saying a bit better ;o

right, thanks for the help

time to use more pooooor drawing skills to draw a dog!

EDIT:

i dont do much flash animation, i cant tween anything i don't think... does anyone have any tips for making something walk or do things i want?

EDIT EDIT:
http://www.pixelhivedesign.com/tutorials/Endless+Scrolling+Background/

and have made an endless background. - http://megaswf.com/view/de8ba7b095ef54aee54656a0da7ae864.html (which didnt work >.<)

now need to make dog animationg to plonk on top.

why doesnt the tutorial work with this code its exactely the same but the images don't 'loop'

code:

---

animator = createEmptyMovieClip('animator',1);
bg_1 = animator.attachMovie('bg_mc','bg_1',1);
bg_2 = animator.attachMovie('bg_mc','bg_2',2);
bg_1._x = -bg_1.width/2;
bg_2._x = bg_2.width/2;
speed = 1;
streetWidth = 1500;
animator.onEnterFrame = function(){
    bg_1._x -= speed;
    bg_2._x -= speed;
    if(bg_1._x <= -bg_1._width) bg_1._x = streetWidth;
    if(bg_2._x <= -bg_2._width) bg_2._x = streetWidth;
}

---

Which version of Flash and AS are you using?

flash cs3 and actionscript 2
^-)

Ok, not used CS3 (I don't think) as 7 is probably still the easiest to use. 8 gets a bit more complicated for certain things and Adobe bought it out not long after that and made it way more complicated than it needs be (AS 3.0 for example).

I can't really help much atm because I'm at work, so if you PM your WLM address later, I should be able to help (around 10 o'Clock though so if you get help before then thats fine)

okay i'll pm you

im following the tutorial and its refusing to do what the tutorial says!

did you draw each picture of your avatar? i like that lol.


EDIT:

okay i have the basics of the human walking, going to be hell trying to make a dog!!

person:
http://megaswf.com/view/6562c8f8a6878d06161503aa51080815.html


how can i add my street image to scroll through behind him?

EDIT: okay fixed that!

needed to edit the image, it doesnt work if you offset it now, but it works in flash with it going round and round which was confusing!!

link:
http://megaswf.com/view/0107ec3a4f660642bbafa294b11ed2c3.html