Cartoon Animation Tutorial

Summary 18 lessons index

LINK : Creating a Walk Cycle in Flash by Laurence Arcadias 01 Feb 2002 This tutorial will show you how to draw a simple character and make him walk.

Lesson One Open the Flash Movie

French Version download all the (.fla)s

choose a lesson index introduction download the flash movie lesson 1 open the flash movie lesson 2 create a new layer lesson 3 drawing straight lines lesson 4 modify the straight lines lesson 5 trace the head and the body lesson 6 trace the eyes lesson 7 repositioning the body lesson 8 trace the legs lesson 9 smooth the lines lesson 10 change layer lesson 11 trace the pupils lesson 12 positioning the legs lesson 13 switch on to mode movie lesson 14 positioning the animation lesson 15 create the final animation lesson 16 example 1 walking Kohlrabi lesson 17 example 2 flying blue bird lesson 18 import and trace bitmap

You will find magnificent Preston Blair 's Animated Gifs animation models to import into Flash and create your own animations in the Preston Blair Gif Gallery

to introduction

to lesson two

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YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRAW ?

Don't panic !
You don't need to draw !
Flash knows how to draw for you !


Let us begin
with
a simple walk



Here is a Lone Cuke walking


1. Open lthe cukesconi.fla in Flash.

2. Open the Library by clicking on Window
and then onLibrary.



In the Library you have two Lone Cuke walking.

The First One is going to the right : his name is Cuke sconi Invert.

The other is going left : it's cuke walk symbol.

First let's choose the First One :
3. Select it by clicking on its icon in the Library...



You will first DUPLICATE it :

To DUPLICATE it...
4. Click on the button up on the right side of the Library.



The Options Menu of the Library will open :



5. Click then on Duplicate..

6. Then a Dialog Box opens
when you can rename it :

7. Give him another name:

8. Click on OK.

You can notice he is now
added in the Library
undre the name of Dugenou.

9. Select Dugenou by clicking on his icon



Click two times on his icon or on his image in the Library.
His Time Line opens then in Symbole Mode.

She holds 10 images on a layer named Layer 1.

10.Create a new layer upon Layer 1 by clicking on the icone +



He takes by himself the name of Layer 2.


We will now create 10 Blank-Keyframes (NOTE)


11 . Select 10 frames on the Layer 2
by dragging your cursor upon
as you could do to select some text in Word :



12. Then create 10 empty Keyframes in Layer 2
by clicking on Insert in the Menu Bar and then on Blank Keyframe :



Ten empty Keyframes (on black) appear on layer 2
upon the 10 full Keyframes ( grayed) of Layer 1.

Like this :

Hop !



And if you click outside
They are then deselected et turn all in white !

Et Hop !



Extraordinary, no?

NOTE This Tutorial has been created with Flash 4. In Flash 4, you can create 10 empty KeyFrames by this operation. Many visitors tell me they cannot do it with Flash 5. How to create 10 Blank-Keyframes in Flash 5 : ( The Picts are from a French Flash 5 version) 1. Select 10 frames on the Time line by dragging your cursor upon as you could do to select some text in Word : 2. Go to Modification/ Convert to Blank Key Frames : 3. It's Done ! NOTE for Flash 5 : To get the small white circles in your empty KeyFrames, you have to activate the mode Flash 4 Selection Style in your Preferences ( Edition > Préferences) : See document Once Flash 4 Selection Style checked, lthe small hand is changed in a arrow. RETURN

13. Consider this Layer 2 laying upon the Layer 1
like a transparent tracing sheet
laying upon a white sheet of paper on which
are drawn the 10 positions of the marching Cuke


14. I tonly remains to you to draw image by image
the 10 positions of your new character
in the ten empty Keyframes of the Layer 2...

... and when you have complete the walking of your new
character, you just have to delete the Layer 1

To know how to draw image by image the 10 positions,
let's go to lesson 2 : everything is explained there.

let's see lesson two

Et Voilà !

Huh ? What ? No way ?

YOU CANNOT DRAW ?

It's not a problem !
With Flash you don't need to draw!

No need to any Wacom Tablet !
Let your cursor do all the work ! How ? I'ts very simple !

let's see lesson two

return to intro

forgot to download cukesconi.fla ?

18 lessons index