Flash Animation Tutorial #1, Setup your file - Alex Butera

These tutorials give the basicis on getting started with Linear Animation in Flash, and also discusses After Effects intergration.

The author:
alexbutera.tumblr.com
twitter.com/AlexButera

Flash Tutorials On Traditional Animation

Flash to After Effects Experiment 02: Exporting FXG

FXG

A FXG file is a "new" file that Flash exports, instead of the usual Adobe Illustrator filetype (.ai).  Why Adobe did this? I don't know.

So, with that, I fired up Illustrator and saw how it imported. 

What the...?

It did not import the forearm. I decided to go back to Flash and break up the symbol that had all the arm shapes in it and put each symbol in it's own layer.  I also decided to draw a new hand with the fingers separated (for another test I want to see...)

That's a little better...

Flash to After Effects Experiment 01: Exporting Characters?

So, I did some stuff a LOOOOONG time ago with some STTNG Characters drawn by Josh Howard.   I worked in Flash tracing out the character of Data, trying to make animatable character for me to use for cartoons.

Well, I let things go a little bit--starting College up again and all--and never did finish up.

However, I have been doing some thinking, and I wondered if there is a way to import characters I draw up in Flash into After Effects and animate them there, using AEs powerful effects and the like.  There are a few different ways to do animation in AE, so I wasn't sure which one I should use.

So, I decided to try some experiments to see if it would work. I made a new FLA with just one frame. I splayed out the arms and legs of Data so I can try out different types of animation.

Digitalbolex.com - 2K for $3K? Yes Please!

So, supposedly there is a gap for videomakers who want to shoot High Quality video, but supposedly can't afford a 16 to 20 thousand dollar camera. (damn, that IS expensive)

Enter Digital Bolex. They used all common parts (in other words, no custom chips or processors or whatnot) and slapped together this camera. A 2K camera for around three thousand bucks.

Artist depiction... NICE!

So this thing can kick out 2336 by 1752, 2048 by 1152, the two flavors of HD and even a 720 by 480, if you want to totally waste the potential of the camera. It records to CompactFlash cards, so if you have some of those lying around you're set. The file size is 2 to 3 MB per FRAME, so you better have some big cards like around, though!

Framerate goes up to 32fps for 2K, 60fps for 720p, and 90 for the 480p. So... SLO-MO ENABLED!

Here it is looking like a Retro-Spider cam!

Here is the spec sheet, and here is the website: Products | digitalbolex.com

And.. .yeah. Sweet