Becoming a Flash Animator

[ASIB]

It took me several years after high school to finally realize what I want to do with my life and I decided that I want to become a flash animator. I have all these ideas and stories in my head that I want to express through cartoons, and artists like EgoRapter and OneyNG have really inspired me. It's because of these guys that I want to focus on flash animation and stick to 2D cartoons. The problem I have is that I have no art background. I drew here and there on my notebook while going through high school, but not enough to be considered an artist, even to the slightest degree. I mainly created this thread to ask you guys how I should go about learning flash and maybe what other newbie artists like myself have done to become who they are today. Because I don't have any history of drawing myself, I know that I'm going to have to start drawing every day and go to college to learn flash animation. It will probably take me 10 - 20 years realistically to become as good as EgoRapter and OneyNG, but I know this is what I want to do. Any and all advice will really help me out here.

[ExtraordinaryTerrest]

Going to college for it would be great. Fantastic even. But it's only really necessary for the professional side of things. Don't wait until you're amazing to start churning out material.

Watch a shitload of tutorials, read The Animator's Survival Kit, practice drawing as much as you can, and get to work!

You don't have to be amazing right off the bat. I think flash is a real learn as you go type of thing. If you've got ideas, don't sit on them for too long. Get to animating!

Have fun, and good luck!

Also, an NG search for "Animation Advice" could help. I'm sure you'll find a lot of information more helpful than my own.

[BrainworkInProgress]

I'm going to give you the key rules to becoming a succesfull animator:

Draw
Draw more
and

I bet you figured it out

Draw even more.

[Crev]

Same thing happened to me last year of highschool started to draw in grade 12 and wanted to make an animation since grade 11. Had taken some art classes on saturdays outside of school and taken muiltimedia design in college.

You could probally learn flash on your own though research but if you learn better by someone showing you than figuring things out on your own it would probally be the better route.

Deviant art and Newgrounds are good places to post your drawings and reciece feedback from the community. For animation I would say newgrounds it has a pretty good community for animators.

here is a Link of a bunch of animation resources and art books to get you started.