For character animation is frame by frame, motion or classic tween?

Hi, i'm very new to adobe flash. I'm using cs5
Am i right in thinking that for detailed character animation, of cartoons or people, i would still need to do frame by frame animation, and then probably use tweening for big movements like making that same animation move across the screen?
Your responses would be appreciated.

I am not an animator (most of the time) but if I were I think I would probably end up using timeline tweening wherever it helped make things easier, especially for what you are calling big movements like having things zoom or move or to have a background moving if the animation involves characters moving.

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Character Animation: Movie Clip or Graphic Symbols?

Should I use Movie Clip or Graphic Symbols for Character
Animation? What do people who make TV shows use. If I'm not
planning on manipulating any symbols with ActionScript and I'm not
using a symbol that requires it's own time line like a walk cycle,
is there any reason to use movie clips symbols? If I put my
animation on the web will it download noticeably faster if I use
graphic symbols instead of movie clip symbols?

What I meant is, there are different ways of setting up a
workflow for Flash animation. Studio animators are trained in
traditional frame-by-frame animation. So their workflow is usually
to do the same in Flash: make every frame a keyframe, then copy and
paste everything from one frame into the next, then make whatever
changes are needed. A classically-trained animator can get a good
momentum working this way.
But for making the most streamlined SWF files, this method is
not the best. It's much better to rely on library assets, place
major parts or sets of parts on different layers, and only keyframe
those things that need keyframes. If good planning is done in
advance, it can be just as fast as doing straight-ahead keyframed
animation.
Either method may end up with the same result. But when you
want to go back and tweak things, it's a whole lot easier to do it
when method 2 is used.
I'm sure I'm not very clear. PM me and I'll send you a list I
created of "best practices" which I give to e-card animators.
One of these best practices is: place a thumbtack on the "G"
key on your keyboard. The very WORST habit that is taught to studio
animators using Flash is to use neither Graphics nor Movie Clips,
but to immediately click Ctrl-G every time they draw something.
This creates a Group. It's faster than hitting F8 and typing in a
name, but it causes ENORMOUS problems, especially when doing
retakes and revisions. And it results in gargantuan SWF files.
I literally GLUED a thumbtack to one one animator's keyboard,
since he seemed unable to remember this rule. Luckily this wasn't
in America, or I'd have been charged with grievous bodily
assualt.

Character Animation Suite

Hi all,
I hope this is the right place to post this:
I'm looking for a character animation suite for AE. An ideal solution would be this: a plugin which let's users create a rig, animate it and save the complete animation (or animation-loop) to be used on different characters. The ability to blend between different animation-sets would also be really neat. I know that e.g. 3DSMax has these functions. Is there anything remotely similar for AE? Do you have any pointers?
Thanks, Michael

I am not aware of such a comprehensive package.
For character rigging, you can use iExpressions or DuiK.
iExpressions can do way more than character rigging, but here are some tutorials that give an idea where it is helpful for character animation
http://mamoworld.com/tutorials/puppet-animation-ik-expressions
http://mamoworld.com/after-effects-expression/change-marker-2d
iExpressions - aescripts + aeplugins - aescripts.com
Maybe you also explore the other scripts at aescripts in the character animation category
Character Animation - Animation - After Effects - aescripts + aeplugins - aescripts.com

Motion tweening a frame-by-frame animation

Hello,
I am an experienced animator who is new to using Flash. I need to know how to add a motion tween to an animation that I already made frame-by-frame. The animation will be of a fish blinking as it swims across the stage. I already created the frame animation of the fish blinking, but now I want to motion tween the whole animation (not just one frame) across the stage. However, I cannot figure out how to do this. Is there a way to create a simple animation that uses frame-by-frame animation and motion tweens simultaneously?

Unfortunately, Adobe let (character) animators down by not developing any of Flash's animation tools since v8 - quite the contrary, the latest incarnation, CC, removed a lot of (quite essential) animation functionality. No more bones (yikes!) or motion curves control.
A shame, because once Flash was the industry standard app for tv show animation. Not so anymore, though: Adobe dropped the ball in that regard, and mostly focuses on web/mobile apps and games development currently.
There are two options:
1) use animator-oriented alternatives like Toonboom and/or Anime Studio Pro (both of which export to flash movies);
2) download a bunch of plugins, and extend Flash so that its workflow becomes more animator friendly.
If you are just starting out, I would probably advise you to have at least a cursory look at the alternatives. However, having said all that, Flash can still be an enjoyable environment to animate in, IF you extend it a bit. Unfortunately some workflow may not be CC friendly anymore at this point due to the missing (almost essential) functionality compared to CS6 - you may prefer to work in CS6, depending.
These will help you extend Flash to become a bit more animator friendly:
http://cloudkid.com/tools
http://flash-powertools.com/
For example, Keyframe Caddy would solve your problem animating an eye by keyframing it in a symbol.
The guys at flash-powertools created a character animation workflow you may like, which addresses the deficiences of Flash for professional level character animation. They have some nice templates and example character files for you to examine.
A word of warning: character animation in Flash can become somewhat technical and daunting - in that case a tool like Anime Studio with excellent and easy to use bone tools and proper real(!) animation curves can be truly helpful. These can then be imported into Flash, and edited. Also, both AS and TB have a "real" virtual 3d camera of the scene that makes it easy to create parallax scrolling backgrounds and zoom in/out panning effects.
Anyway, this is how you would do it in Flash:
1) install Keyframe Caddy
2) draw your fish in a cutout-fashion (seperate eye).
3) convert all the fish elements to a graphic symbol (F8)
4) double-click the fish symbol
5) select the eye, and convert to a graphic symbol again
6) add different drawings for the eye blinking
7) return to the main stage
Now you can start animating the fish:
1) first animate the entire character moving
2) then after you finish the overall movement, move to the frame you wish to change the eye
3) double-click the fish character, and select the eye
4) in KeyFrame Caddy click "load thumbnails". This should load up all the different frames (drawings/states) for that graphic symbol and display them all in the KeyFrame Caddy window
5) now simply click on the required eye state, and KeyFrame Caddy will automatically create a keyframe for that state.
6) move the timeline scrubber to the next frame you wish to keyframe eye movement
7) click on the required eye state in the KeyFrame Caddy window.
...and so on! You may have to switch between the main scene and the fish symbol
Make certain the lengths of both timelines are identical, otherwise the eye animation will start to repeat if it is shorter than the main timeline. Inversely, if the main timeline is shorter than the eye animation, the eye animation will obviously not be able to run completely through.
One more thing: keep an eye out on the graphic symbol's looping in the properties - you may want to set it to either play once or looping (or even single frame).
For more info on graphic symbols, read this:
http://dev.tutsplus.com/articles/flashs-underrated-graphic-symbol--active-9964
Also check out those two sites' other tools. And check out the workflow on the electric Dreams website. Hope this helps a bit.

Global Switches for Frame Blend and Motion Blur aren't working with the newest version of After Effects 2014.1.1

I have been using After Effects regularly since 1995. So this isn't an operator error.
I am on a new Mac Pro six core with OSX 10.9.5 and 32 gigs of RAM.
Is anyone else having trouble with activating frame blend and motion blur?
Occasionally I am able to get the global switch to appear to be on. It still won't activate motion blur or frame blend.

I'll answer my own issue. The global switches actually work. The distinct dark boxes that indicate when the global switches are enabled have been removed and replaced by a light blue outline of the switch icon.

Anaglyph Animation (frame by frame) does this procedure sound OK?

Hello Everyone,
I want to make 3D animation files, using Adobe toolkit and PSCS3. Does this route sound OK?
Open .ASM file in Adobe toolkit, produce two animated Avi files (left) & (right).
Import .avi (left) into PhotoShop as layers (save layers into folder named left).
Import .avi (right) into PhotoShop as layers (select layers and drag over to my "left" file. save layers into folder named right).
Frame by frame turn on corresponding layers in both left and right folders and convert the two layers as per "making 3d anaglyphs with Photoshop tuts." available on the web. e.g.:
Layer (left) frame 1 of 300
Ctrl L,
Ctrl 2 (green) 255 to 0
Ctrl 3 (blue) 255 to 0
Turn layer to screen
Layer (right) frame 1 of 300
Ctrl L,
Ctrl 1 (red) 255 to 0
Etc.....
Does anyone have an alternative or a different method?

thank you so much for talking to me. I didn't realize
tweening applied to frame by frame animation. So I create a motion
tween btw each key frame?
What I don't understand is: I want to be able to take the
symbol in the last keyframe, drag it away from the rest of the
symbols that are all aligned, and then get them to distribute
automaticaly in their own keyframes. This is really done best
through tweening? I thought this would only worked if all the in
between steps were not keyframes.
When I select all the keyframes at once and tween them they
do not distribute.
But I am probably not doing this right, I don't have time to
experiment right now, I just wanted to say thanks.

Frame by frame animation, trying again

or something wrong with the way I am asking it? Mainly I want
to know if am am even using the right tool for this task. And why
the helll this is not working?
I am doing a frame by frame animation of something I brought
in from Illustrator. I have 20 keyframes, each with one (slightly
different) symbol. I need this to move accross the screen.
How does one do it, I must be missing something, this must
come up all the time in frame by frame animation. I need the
symbols to be distribited exactly same distance apart.
I tried using the "align/distribute" feature the same way I
know it from illustrator, and it is just kind of working. I check
"edit all frames" make sure all the keyframes are selected and then
go to the align panel and distribute the centers of all symbols.
What goes wrong is this: it distributes them, but out of
order. Instead of putting frame 2 couple pixels to the right from
frame 1, it puts it right at the end where I would like the frame
#20. the middle then seems in the right order but beginning and end
are always mixed up.
Is the distribute feature the best way of doing this , and
why am I having this problem?

thank you so much for talking to me. I didn't realize
tweening applied to frame by frame animation. So I create a motion
tween btw each key frame?
What I don't understand is: I want to be able to take the
symbol in the last keyframe, drag it away from the rest of the
symbols that are all aligned, and then get them to distribute
automaticaly in their own keyframes. This is really done best
through tweening? I thought this would only worked if all the in
between steps were not keyframes.
When I select all the keyframes at once and tween them they
do not distribute.
But I am probably not doing this right, I don't have time to
experiment right now, I just wanted to say thanks.

Anyone be willing to tweak my frame by frame animation?

Hello everyone,
Anyone willing to help me out and tweak my frame-by-frame
animation? For example, 2 characters are supposed to be going up a
hill and the hill should be spanning out so that it grows bigger
and bigger. And as the characters bounce up the hill, they should
be getting smaller and smaller (since they're going up the hill). I
just have a simple motion tween that doesn't have much of an
effect. Any suggestions?
Anyone willing to tweak my fla? I'll post a link if anyone's
interested.
Thanks

Sorry I never got to this (very busy at work about to go on
vacation), but I did check it out so I have some suggestions:
1. Make the "hill" bigger initally. You really want to give
the impression that you are zooming out, so start bigger to make
the zoom more dramatic.
2. This goes for the jack and jill characters as well. Make
them bigger initally, and with each zoom out make them shrink more
and more. Currently the max to min sizes are not spread out enough
to emphasize the movement of the camera.
3. Don't do so much work on the main timeline. You should
have made more movieclips, one for each "scene". Your timeline is
too long and cluttered using your "do it all on the main timeline"
technique. If you look at professional sites, the main timeline is
usually only a few layers and frames. This is just a work habit
suggestion, if you like doing it your way then nevermind.
You seem to be on the right path. Just make the inital images
larger so that the zoom is more pronounced. There is a big
difference in the appearance of an object going from 500-50 percent
instead of just 200-100 percent.
Good luck - so far it looks good!

Easiest way of converting motion tween to frame by frame.

In the old motion model it was as easy as highlighting all of the frames, converting them to keyframes then removing the tween. But I have no clue how to do it with the new motion model.

"For whatever reason it converts the tween to frame by frame."
Flash does this because Flash CS3 doesn't know anything about the new motion spans. So this is the way your animation can be displayed in an older version of Flash.
(And it's why we added the feature to right-click a frame and convert to frame-by-frame animation - same operation, but allows you to do it for a single span instead of all spans across the entire document).

I am trying to create a simple animated gif in Photoshop. I've set up my frames and want to use the tween to make the transitions less jerky. When I tween between frame 1 and frame 2 the object in frame two goes out of position, appearing in a different p

I am trying to create a simple animated gif in Photoshop. I've set up my frames and want to use the tween to make the transitions less jerky. When I tween between frame 1 and frame 2 the object in frame two goes out of position, appearing in a different place than where it is on frame 2. Confused!

Hi Melissa - thanks for your interest. Here's the first frame, the second frame and the tween frame. I don't understand why the tween is changing the position of the object in frame 2, was expecting it to just fade from one frame to the next.

Animation to loop 60 frames in 24 hours

I want to create an animation to loop 60 frames in 24 hours and then pass on the following second day repere
(script) thank you for helping me

Sorry - bit sleepy when I last posted.
If you want to have the SAME loop week after week, use
on exitFrame me
   dString = the long date -- "Friday, 25 October 2013"
   loopMarker = item 1 of dString -- "Friday"
    go marker (loopMarker)
end
Make sure your markers match the first item of dString.
If your French date string doesn't have a comma after the name day, or has a different layout, adjust "loopMarker =" accordingly

Distributing keyframes in frame by frame animation

I am doing a frame by frame animation of something I brought
in from Illustrator. I have 20 keyframes, each with one (slightly
different) symbol. I need this to move accross the screen.
How does one do it, I must be missing something, this must
come up all the time in frame by frame animation? I need the
symbols to be distribited exactly same distance apart.
I tried using the "align/distribute" feature the same way I
know it from illustrator, and it is just kind of working. I check
"edit all frames" make sure all the keyframes are selected and then
go to the align panel and distribute the centers of all symbols.
What goes wrong is this: it distributes them, but out of
order. Instead of putting frame 2 couple pixels to the right from
frame 1, it puts it right at the end where I would like the frame
#20. the middle then seems in the right order but beginning and end
are always mixed up.
Is the distribute feature the best way of doing this , and
why am I having this problem?

I think you need to go into a bit more detail here. Try to describe exactly what you want to do, and what kind of footage we are talking about here. I really have no clue what you are trying to do with the current description.
Are you trying to do stop motion animation? Make a cup move across a table or something like that? Then get iStopMotion.

Move multiple frames in the motion editor?

Hi! Is there a way to move multiple frames in the motion editor (CS4)? Like now I have to move them one by one and it's hard to make them keep their values coz the shift+move doesn't seem to work. Or should it?
Regards / Jimmy

You can move multiple property keyframes for a single property in the Motion editor. Shift-click them and then drag. You cannot move keyframes across different properties, however.
If you want to move *all* keyframes on mutliple frames, you want to do this on the main timeline. Ctrl/cmd+drag across the frames to select the multiple frames, and then drag them on the tween span.

Frame by frame animation not looping

Hello,
This seems so simple but it's not working - I have two frames I want to continuously loop, they are of a person walking. I have put sym.play(0); at the end of the symbol timeline, but it is not looping. The sym.play(0); command is definitely working as I tested it with another transition in the same symbol, and this did loop. Can you not loop frame by frame animation?
Anyone got any ideas?
Cheers

Hi Darrell
Thanks for your reply, sorry can't really post it as it's a commercial project. They are 2 separate images, which become visible / hidden alternately to show each one after the other.
I've sort of solved my problem by just repeating this manually for now but would still be interested to know if looping is possible - however appreciate this may be tricky without the file.
Cheers
Sarah

Frame by frame video player or slow motion

the video player is outstanding but a couple of enhancements could make it perfect. frame by frame or slow motion could make it a more perfect tool for analyzing a golf swing or studying a surgical procedure. and if a still frame could be magnified or the video magnified during playback it could be all anyone would ever need. still frame grabbing would also be a useful tool. we also need the macro focus - it is an essential tool for recording documents and for producing video presentations of small items like jewels, stamps or coins.

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For character animation is frame by frame, motion or classic tween?

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