Chapter 14: Character Animation Techniques

Overview

In This Chapter

Introducing cartoon animation

Discovering the importance of the storyboard

Using cartoon sound: Voices, effects, and ambiance

Expressing motion and emotion

Anticipation, weight, and overlapping actions

Walk cycles and coloring tricks

Lip-syncing

Syncing with music and sound effects

Using Flash tweening for cartoons

Cartoon backgrounds and scenery

Flash is a powerful tool that continues to grow in popularity as a professional production option for creating high-quality cartoons and animated broadcast graphics. The best thing about Flash cartoons is that you don't always know they were created in Flash when you see them. Flash allows artists to create characters in nearly any style they can dream up. Although Flash makes it especially easy to produce clean, geometric designs, it can also be used for sketchy hand-drawn styles, or even for collage animation that uses source material from photos or video. This is the result of Flash's unique drawing tools, media-friendly authoring environment, and scalability. By "scalability," we mean that a Flash cartoon can be scaled down for delivery on the Web or scaled up to the size and resolution needed for video or film presentation. Creating broadcast cartoons can be extremely complex — specialized techniques are covered in many books and classes — so we focus on some basics to get you started.

Although Flash includes some special techniques, most of the basic principles of animation apply regardless of the authoring environment or production process you choose. You can often learn more about animation principles by watching classic animated films than by looking at 'toons online — at least at those examples created by "animators" who know how to Motion tween but have not spent any time learning techniques for effective character animation.

A growing number of artists with traditional animation skills are making the transition to working directly in Flash, and there are even a few Flash experts who have taken the time to study animation. Individuals able to combine knowledge of classic animation principles with technical aptitude in Flash have the best chance of finding success in this challenging field.