How to make a basic flash animation.

How to use iMovie: Animation.

Ideological Control Video

Liquid TV - Sweeper

Funny Animation

Black or White

I ran to get my camera when I saw this, I think this is a perfect example of why we should all get along! "It don't matter if you black or white" Michael Jackson.

Toon Boon

I downloaded this program, well the trial version, lol. Just learning how to use it.

Your character is now ready to be added to a peg:

1. Click the Add Peg Element button.
   
2. Drag your character element over the peg to connect it.
   
   

Once your character is connected to your peg, you will need to create a motion path that will go from left-to-right or right-to-left depending on your animation.
To create a motion path:

1. Select the Motion Tool from Sceneplanning Tools toolbar.
   
2. Drag the last keyframe to the left or the right while holding [Shift]. A motion path will appear.
   
3. Run through your animation a few times and see if your character’s feet are sliding on the ground.
   
4. If they are sliding you must adjust the length of the motion path until it looks like the feet are no longer sliding.

Once the adjustments are done, you are ready to start repeating your cycle.

Using the Create Advanced Cycle Option

The next step is to repeat the hand drawn animation several times so that there are enough frames for the character to cross the screen.

1. In the Timeline View, right click the first empty cell of your hand-drawn animation and select Create Advanced Cycle.
   
   
   The Advanced Cycle window opens. This contains two windows, one for the First Drawing and one for the Last Drawing. Make sure that both drawings are correct. If you want to change the drawing, simply use the slider or enter the name of the cell in the specified text box.
   
2. Next, select the number of times you want the cycle to repeat.
   • None: If you don’t want the cycle to repeat.
   • Continuous: If you want the cycle to restart with the first drawing on each loop.
     For example, if you create two continuous drawing loops for drawings-2-3, the resulting loop would be: 1-2-3-1-2-3.
   • Forward-Backward: If you want to restart the loop with the previous drawing.
     For example, if you create 2 forward-backward loops with drawings 1-2-3, the resulting loop would be: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2.
   
   
3. Type the number of times you want the cycle repeat in the Loops field.
   If you want to repeat the cycle for a specific number of frames, type a value in the Frames field.
   In this example, the baby walk will loop 5 times.
   
   
4. Click on OK to close the window and go back to your work.

If you browse through your animation, you will now see that the character will move from left to right only during the first cycle. After, it will be stationary again. You can change this by using the Change Loops option.

Using the Change Loops Option

The Change Loops option is specific to the peg and is used to repeat a peg sequence. You can repeat cycles of hand drawn animation using the Advanced Cycle option.

1. First you must select the first empty cell next to the last peg keyframe in the timeline.
   
2. Right-click and select Change Loops.
   
   
3. Enter the number of loops you wish to create.
   
   In this example we created 6 loops.
   
   
4. Click on OK to close the window and go back to your work.

If at the end of your animation, you notice that the peg loops do not fit with your hand drawn animation. This can easily be corrected by dragging the end of the peg sequence up to the same frame as your animation.

You can now play your animation to see the result!
Your character should now walk all the way to the end of your motion path.

Moving the Motion Path

Now that the animation is completed, you will probably notice that the motion path is not correctly placed in your scene. To move the motion path so that your character comes in and goes out of the screen:

• Using the Select tool from the Sceneplanning Tools toolbar, click on the motion path and move the it until your are satisfied with its position and the result.
  

Summary

Here are some important things you should remember:

• The Create Advanced Cycle option is specifically used to repeat drawing cells.
• The Change Loops option is used to repeat a selected section of a peg.
• Repeating a peg will not create copies of your drawing cells, it will only repeat the Motion Path.
• Use both options together to save time and effort.

Good luck!

The Walk Cycle

Animating a walk, where do we begin. Well first we need a character. For today's lesson we're going to use Mr.Stickman. Next we need a clear and simple method of approaching walks in general. I didn't come up with the technique that follows. I gleaned most of this from Richard Williams book 'The Animator's Survival Kit'. If you find this tutorial useful I highly recommend you pick up a copy. We're going to use a pose to pose method to animate today's walk. At 24fps a walk will usually range anywhere from 8 frames per stride for a brisk pace, to 16 frames for a leisurely stroll. In order to be clear I'm going to animate at 24fps and make each stride 12 frames (march time).  Let's begin animating a walk with the contact poses. This is basically mid stride where the heel strikes the ground. Contrary to what you might think, this is the part of a walk that has the least amount of weight. It's the pose directly after this, or the down pose that sells the weight. We'll get to that much later. For now let's concentrate on this pose. Go ahead and pose every part of your character on frame 1. Make sure the forward leg striking the ground is straight (knee is not bent) otherwise your character may look like he's carrying a load in the back of his pant's. Also make sure you add a little vertical torsion in the hips and shoulders (i.e., twist the torso slightly). Now advance the time 12 frames (frame13) and do the the next heel strike pose. Remember to key everything on your character. The final heel strike pose will happen 12 frames later on frame 25.  It should look something like this.

Now that we have the contact poses set let's start breaking it down by adding the passing poses. Go to frame 7 and pose every part of your character in a passing pose. Make sure to keep the shoulders and hips in opposition to each other and drop the shoulder and hips laterally (i.e. curve the torso slightly, see below). It should look like this.

Now are walk is starting to take shape. Once you get this far the rest is a breeze. As long as the contact and passing poses work you can do just about anything you want with these break down poses and it'll work. For now we're just going to animate a generic walk. Let's break it down further by adding the actual weight bearing pose or down pose between the contact and passing poses (frame 4). The forwrd knee drops and bends, the head shifts forward and the Hips and shoulders tilt. It should be something like this (don't for get to key everything on you character or one pose might wind up affecting a pose you've already worked out).

Now we'll add the striding or up pose between the passing and contact poses (frame 10). This is where your character bounds upward and begins to fall farward. The hips begin moving back toward the centerline so the body will be ready to catch it self with the opposing foot.

We're almost finished. Now it's time to go back and inbetween everything. In your curve editor you'll want to smooth out any nasty bumps or ledges in your curves. You'll also want to make sure you've got a nice steep hard edged curve for the heel striking the ground. At this point the walk is pretty much finished. I like to go through and off set keys on overlapping joints to loosen up everything and give it a more natural feel. Also make sure frame 1 and frame 25 match up perfectly. When you're all done you should wind up with a nice looping walk cycle between frame 1 and 24 (frame 25 is a repeat). Here's what it looks like.

And this is what it looks like in motion.

Using this technique anyone can acheive convincing walk cycles of all types. Now that you've completed a faily generic walk why don't you try animating the following types of walks.