For animation, I switched over to a product from Toon Boom called Animate – right out of the box, Animate does things for my animation work flow that Flash only can do with plug-ins, and, in some cases not well, or not at all.

Though I’m sure there are other advantages for animators to switch from Flash to Toon Boom, for me and my workflow, there are three reasons worth mentioning – character rigging, a true 3D camera, and automated lip sync.

Character Rigging
Flash CS4 did add the Bone tool, however, Animate’s IK system, IMHO. is a much better solution. Cartoon Smart did an awesome comparison of the two here.

Camera
Flash, to date, has no camera of its own unless you know how to “fake” one or program one using Actionscript. Though I can’t talk about Flash’s lack of camera without mentioning V-Cam. V-Cam is a free movie clip that creates a pseudo-camera for Flash. However, when compared to Animate’s True Space camera, V-Cam lacks Z-depth and the ability to create multiplane scenes.

All of this can be faked in Flash (trust me, I’ve done a few), but having the ability to create camera moves in minutes by simply moving the camera instead of moving your object, scene or symbol is much less tedious, and far more efficient.

Lip Sync
Last but not least, automated lip sync. Almost all of my animations involve some sort of lip sync, from simple dialogue to song lyrics. Typically, in Flash, this process for me can take anywhere from two hours to a full day, or two, depending on the level of complexity or number of characters. However, Animate can automate this for you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a stickler for lip sync, so my preference is to go in after the automation and tweak a few things. The bottom line: I can now get my lip syncs done in a fraction of the time.

In closing, I realize the Flash vs. Toon Boom discussion is one of those conversations that can be lumped in with sex, religion, politics, Mac vs. PC and, more recently, Apple vs. Adobe, but IMHO, there is no reason for discord.

Both Adobe Flash and Toon Boom Animate are amazing tools, and I use both. A hammer and a wrench are also great tools, and again I use both; however, I do not hammer in nails with a wrench, nor will I animate with Flash, for that I use Toon Boom Animate.

Don’t take my word for it; try out the free PLE (Personal Learning Edition) of Animate.

I have 10+ years teaching experience, and two of my specialties are:
1. developing ways of delivering a lot of information in a short time period, and
2. putting forth that information in a way that the novice does not feel overwhelmed.

An example of this is in my Flash animation class, though this is an intro class, students are doing their first animation within the first 30 minutes of class.

I have been teaching, at a local university, a few Community Education (CE) courses on Flash over the past 5 years. The courses are 16 hrs long, broken up over two consecutive weekends. I was looking for a way to build a modular teaching series.

I have always been interested in teaching online, and then I came across the eduFire community. I like eduFire because, like the CE courses, I am free to develop classes of my own design. This is especially helpful as most of my class topics & tutorials are based on students requests and questions. I also love the fact that unlike the CE courses I teach, you don’t have to live near Atlanta to attend them. In my last eduFire class, I had students ranging from California to Cairo!

So, what has developed from this are my new 2-hour mini-classes. Designed to be modular, short and to the point. They are broken up into two groups:

the “I Wanna Learn” Series: intro courses for the beginner to get their feet wet (these classes are always FREE)

and the “Simple and Perfect” Series (these courses are intermediate level, and are normally $49).

Here is a listing of my eduFire classes for August 09, and if you haven’t done so already, please fill out my short survey, as this information helps me to design better classes and tutorials.

I Wanna Learn Flash: Interactive Intro,
*FREE* : Saturday, Aug. 1, 12pm – 2pm EDT

Simple & Perfect : Banners and Ads in Flash,
*$49* : Sunday, Aug. 2, 12pm – 2pm EDT

I Wanna Learn Flash: Animation intro,
*FREE* : Saturday, Aug. 8, 12pm – 2pm EDT

Simple & Perfect: Animating a short in Flash,
*$49* : Sunday, Aug. 9, 12pm – 2pm EDT

Simple & Perfect: Flash AS: Five scripts you should know,
*$19* : Aug. 22, 12pm – 2pm EDT

If you haven’t done so already, please fill out my short survey, as this information helps me to design better classes and tutorials.

Thanks for reading all this (I tried to keep it short), and I look forward to seeing you all in class!

Tony Ross

Well Tom, this tut’s for you, NOW w/ cleaner AS3! (well, at least different) enjoy – Tony

Just a reminder I will be teaching a FREE 2-hour class online this Saturday,
“I Wanna Learn Flash: Interactive Intro“. My online classes will be taught
via eduFire, their membership is also FREE.

About this class: This project, though very simple in appearance, shows the basic elements that are needed to build interactive projects in Flash: buttons, images, sound, animation, and Actionscript 2.0 (Flash’s computer language).

Thanks Tony