Beginning animation/cartoons - where should I start?

[JediSonic]

What I'd really like to do is make a flash cartoon (homestarrunner type stuff) but there is no way I could ever find $500 to spend on getting the software for a hobby like that!

Still, I wonder if there are cheap alternatives to flash? Kinda doubt they'd be much good... what about earlier versions? Is there a freeware flash kit available of a really cheap/bad version? lol

I'm pathetic i know


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PEANUT BUTTAH JELLEY! -- yeah definitely time for bed.

[TheMelodyMaker]

It's just a wild thought, but have you thought about programming your own animation engine? Make two applications which use it--one for creating the animations and one for playing them back. I did a really complicated version of this for The Traveller's Guide which handles playing multiple animations at once, but you could probably do something simple for doing only one at a time. Let me know if you think you want to try this, and I'll give you some ideas based on my ADF (animations definitions file) format. ^_^

[Benu]

It's just a wild thought, but have you thought about programming your own animation engine? Make two applications which use it--one for creating the animations and one for playing them back. I did a really complicated version of this for The Traveller's Guide which handles playing multiple animations at once, but you could probably do something simple for doing only one at a time. Let me know if you think you want to try this, and I'll give you some ideas based on my ADF (animations definitions file) format. ^_^

He he, I like your thinking Meldoy Maker. If you can't buy flash make your own program. Well I have flash but if you want to do real animation learn to draw but you say you want to do homestar runner like stuff......well still learn to draw but all I know of is a free 30 trial of flash I know of no cheap flash alternative that does animation. So sorry but all I can say is save up your pennies. Or make your own flash.

[JediSonic]

Well beleive it or not, guys, I actually <i>had</i> thought about making my own program before I started this thread. The thing is, 1) it would take a really really really really long time to make a program who's results were comparable to flash and 2)unless it was a java applet, people would have to download everything and run it after downloading my program! lol Which makes any truely popular, convenient way of doing things nearly impossible. Java just might work though. What kind of language did you write 'the traveler's guide' in anyway?

[TheMelodyMaker]

I'm programming The Traveller's Guide in Visual Basic 6, the graphics routines being for DirectDraw 7 meaning that it only directly works with bitmap files. The basic idea behind the animation routine and file format you could use might go something like this:

1. You need a variable to store how many frames are in the animation.

2. For each frame, declare
a. one variable to store the relative path to the image to load
b. another variable to store how many ticks (80ths of a second in my case) it is to be shown for.

Here's what this might look like in VB:

Code: Select all

Public Frames As Long
 
Public Type ADF
  ImageFile as String
  Ticks As Byte
End Type
 
Public Frame() As ADF


Does this help or give you any ideas at all?

[JediSonic]

That seems like a nice, simple approach for IF YOU WANT TO HAND-DRAW EACH FRAME.

The great thing about flash is that it makes it easy to do things like rotate, resize, and move each component or individual image without forcing the animator to hand-draw anything more than the objects themselves before they are maniupulated.

The code I'm invisioning will contain methods to perform these tasks, in a friendly scripting format like

image1 rotate .5 [degrees per tick to rotate by] 5000 [number of ticks to continue rotating; after 5000 rotation stops]

This sort of thing seems like it might almost be easier using 3D graphics. OpenGL, for example.

[TheMelodyMaker]

It sounds like you've already got this pretty well figured out! ^_^ I'm sorry I wasn't much help, though.

[Fsiphskilm]

Acutally I'm w

[inkhana]

This is a great aspiration JS! I've thought about trying my hand at something like this before (I even dled the trial of the Flash studio to try it out. An hour later: "Bah! I don't get it!" *skips it* LOL) I think I have the patience to edit the frames, but I know it would be really hard, esp if I do it by myself. Which I suppose is why I haven't done it yet.

Anyway...the point of all this is that I hope you get your project going! I'll be looking forward to seeing it someday...

Side note: Weird...for some reason, the dancing banana in your first post is...not dancing...FROZEN BANANA! *runs*

[inkhana]

This is a great aspiration JS! I've thought about trying my hand at something like this before (I even dled the trial of the Flash studio to try it out. An hour later: "Bah! I don't get it!" *skips it* LOL) I think I have the patience to edit the frames, but I know it would be really hard, esp if I do it by myself. Which I suppose is why I haven't done it yet.

Anyway...the point of all this is that I hope you get your project going! I'll be looking forward to seeing it someday...

Side note: Weird...for some reason, the dancing banana in your first post is...not dancing...FROZEN BANANA! *runs*

[JediSonic]

I used to love eating frozen bananas when I was little. [strange, it works for me right now; but this problem has happened with smileys before]

When you said you hoped to see the project some day, did you mean the animator or just whatever I manage to make with whatever I was gonna use? lol If someone else was actually going to use it I would have more incentive to make it!

On the other hand, what did you mean about working "on" ANIMe, Volt? You mean you are currently making an animation with it? That sounds pretty cool

[alf4office]

You can buy a student version of Flash for $100. It's the same program as the professional one, only you can't make money with it.

[Straylight]

Hmm, with regards to animation, you could try playing around with animated gifs. They don't always require expensive software make.. and you can probably build up a few animation skills along the way.