Looking for a Good Program to Start

[NovaPow]

I'm sure this question is asked quite often, but nevertheless, it needs to be answered...
I usually make Machinima. I find it as a good film medium. Though, I thought I might give Flash a try, since it, too, is a popular film medium.
Of course, since I'm new to this, I'm not prepared to blow $600 on Adobe Flash..
I tried Pencil, but I'm not sure if there's something better.
Also, are all Flash Programs (Adobe Flash, for example) frame-by-frame like Pencil? Just wondering..

So if you could recommend a good program that is free to start out with, it would be much appreciated, or at least maybe a few tips on Pencil?

[Innermike]

At 2/20/10 09:06 AM, NovaPow wrote: Also, are all Flash Programs (Adobe Flash, for example) frame-by-frame

far from it , adobe flash (if you had actually used it properly you would have seen) has a powerful and flexible tween system and is not much like pencil at all in a lot of ways

[Skrupsakken]

If you don't want to throw away money right away, you could always go for the Adobe Flash 30-day trial version.

And there's much more to Flash than fbf. There's tweening. You'll be able to create some pretty awesome stuff, just be creative and use your imagination.

[superzeon]

well it's hard to choose, there are good options, as adobe player, but if you want to look for something cheap or free, you'll have to look deep well in the internet, or ask someone with much knowledge about this.

[Innermike]

At 2/21/10 10:15 AM, superzeon wrote: there are good options, as adobe player

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH oh holy crap that is funny BAHAHHAHAHA LMFAOROFLHSTIFF

whew man thanks for that , its been a rough day and that perked me right up

[masterrom]

you could get liveswif, which is pretty much flash 6 for free. It's kinda dated, but it's free and can export as swfs. (swf is the flash format) link: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Li veSwif-Lite-Download-79356.html

it takes some time to install, it's more complex, and it doesn't export as an swf (not that I know of) but this pretty much the same quality as flash. It's really professional and it's available for windows, mac and linux. It's free, also. link: http://www.synfig.org/en/download

[BlackClown]

At 2/21/10 01:27 PM, ArthurGhostly wrote: T weening is frame by frame. It's not meant to replace your animating process. It's meant to aid you in doing the inbetween frames automatically. You're still the one putting in all the key frames. Frame by frame.

I can't stand it when people get literal with definitions. It's not about the goddamn etymology of the word or what the dictionary says, it's about communication and using the social norms. People always seem to want to come in and play English teacher.

Tweening is technically frame by frame, congratulations. But if you want to communicate with the rest of us, you'll notice the distinction we've made between the two.

[Wolfos]

At 2/21/10 10:15 AM, superzeon wrote: as adobe player

wait, what?
how are you planning to animate with that?