Flash Animation Software recommendations, please. (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

I have been playing around with some flash animations and demoing different products. I just want to do some simple cartoons with sound. Most of the products I've tried are clunky and geared for making internet banners and advertizements so they have all of these unwanted text transitions built in.

Currently I am trialing 3D Flash Animator, and it seems to do everything I need so far, but I find its menu system mind boggling and too cumbersome.

Are there any Flash animators out there that have an easy to use interface and will allow me to import images and sync with sound? I just want to move a handful of sprites around the screen so, I really am looking for a simple program. Also, It needs to be able to export to a working SWF file.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[John_Berger]

I've been using Swish (www.swishzone.com). It's not as full-featured as the real Flash software, but it's pretty damned good. I haven't tried actually syncing audio, though.

Trying to give Joe Cartoon a competitor?

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Trying to give Joe Cartoon a competitor?

Hehe... maybe someday.. right now I'm just trying to put some animation and sound to an embarassing photo I have of a couple of friends of mine.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Well, I finally put together a crude animation with Swish. Personally, I think the whole process of creating Flash animations is entirely too complicated.

Anyway.. I managed to get things to move around the way I wanted, and I even introduced sound and got things synced pretty well. That is, until I exported it all to .SWF... suddenly the sound is out of sync.. the animation runs a bit shorter than the sound in the final product when it seemed to run fine in Swish.

Anyone know the proper way to include sound with a flash? I don't see anywhere you can introduce sound as an "element". I just told Swish to play the sound when the file is opened. Is that the way it's supposed to go?

I'll try tinkering with it some more. I'm using an audio program called Audacity which, for freeware, is pretty awesome at editing sound. I highly recommend it. I'd share the final product with you all.. but I'm afraid its content isn't within the boundaries of this forum. :b

 

[John_Berger]

Keep in mind also that Swish isn't meant to be as powerful as other Flash products. It's meant to be a good alternative to Flash for general and web purposes, but I don't know that it's really suited up to the task of animation like what Joe Cartoon does.

I'd share the final product with you all.. but I'm afraid its content isn't within the boundaries of this forum.

Well, MY curiosity is piqued!

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Well, MY curiosity is piqued!

Well, it just involves a picture of two friends of mine holding the same beer bottle and smiling big, cheesy grins. I've just made their mouths move and added a little dialogue so it looks like one is telling a riddle to the other... it's the riddle that isn't appropriate.

What I think I'll try is to compare the timelines in both Swish and Audacity and just sync them up that way by hand. It doesn't have to be exact... it's meant to look sort of like a Terrence & Phillip cartoon.

If it works, perhaps I'll do some more with some other photos and share with the group.

BTW... do you know what Joe Cartoon uses to create flash stuff? What are some of the more heavy handed software packages out there?

 

[John_Berger]

do you know what Joe Cartoon uses to create flash stuff? What are some of the more heavy handed software packages out there?

Couldn't tell you, although I'd love to know myself. A lot of sites do this, FlowGo, Oska, HomeStarRunner, etc... so there must be SOME program that they have in common.

 

[MarkHastings]

Ummm, have you guys ever heard of Flash?

It's what all of those cartoon sites (and pros) use.

 

[John_Berger]

Yeah, well, Flash is also $499.

 

[MarkHastings]

John, you said

Couldn't tell you, although I'd love to know myself.

so I thought you didn't know about Flash. :b

 

[John_Berger]

Actually, I thought that there would be something meant specifially for animation outside of the Flash package itself.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Ummm, have you guys ever heard of Flash?

:b I didn't realize there was a software package called Flash. I always just thought it was a proprietary animation format from Macromedia. Sort of like .gif's from Compuserve.

Well, $500 is more than I would like to spend just to make fun of my friends.

Really, though, the concept of Flash animation is pretty straightforward. The software used to create it seems more complex than the final product. What I would like is a package that sort of lets you move the sprites around by hand and then you snap a picture of the frame. Sort of like how real animation is done.

 

[MarkHastings]

Dave, I didn't mean that comment to sound as demeaning as it did. I just assumed that Macromedia Flash was common knowledge. I can see how you can confuse it with JPEG's or GIF's that aren't created by a specific program.

The software used to create it seems more complex than the final product.

Yes, if you are only doing simple animation, then Macromedia Flash may be too much for you. The reason why Flash is so complex is because it integrates a vast programming language into it (including Javascript and Cold Fussion) - This programming ability can make for some high-end/complex applications other than just animation and sound. So yes, $500 is a lot if you are just going to use it for a simple animation.