Big Fan

[alphapocket]

I have been a big fan of flash movies for a long time...but as a fan i have grown tired of sitting on the sidelines...
I 'm interested in creating my own flash movies...problem is...I have no idea where to begin...

Does anyone know of any programs or websites that a noob like me can use?

Thanks in advance

[Edvin]

Well, first of all, If you wanna create movies you need Macromedia Flash ! You can get a 30 day trial on http://www.macromedia.com/flash but to buy the full working version I suggest you start gathering money !!!! Check the price...
And after that, you can get some really helpfull tutorials on http://www.flashkit.com or http://www.kirupa.Com !
Hope I helped you !

[AGH]

Here is a list of tutorials made by NG users. They cover a lot of Flash related topics, including tweening, fading, animated walking, sprites, sound and claymation. I hope this helps you.

[gjlcards]

Also, if you want to learn actionscript (Flash's programming language), go to www.actionscript.org .

[sinkoman]

Some more help would be to buy a book after you have flash. I reccomend the line of Flash Bibles. Get the one corresponding to the version of flash that you have.

Good luck (Oh and don't call yourself a noob. You obviously aren't)

[schorhr]

www.notToxic.com ... lots of info

Download flash tutorial :-)

Tweening/rotating bodyparts

Simple shading with brush

Simple shading with Lines

Tweening Colorchange

Preloader, bar and percent

Tween and fade

The 16000 frame play bug work arround

How to trace bitmaps and remove the background

How to use Monkeyjam for stopmotion

How to change the background color in different frames...

Breaking photos and removing parts with the wand

Making text with outlines

A simple pulsing text / heartbeat

How to make key-movement actionscript

Tweening 16 colors test

Tweening 2 colors test

[Deathcon7]

Is it me, or has Otacon been a rare site around these parts?

Otacon's links and tutorials for N00bs - V3

First of all you need an animating program based on Flash. The main tool is called Macromedia Flash, however there are a lot of other ones that are based on Flash but are free. Before trying any of those, you should get the free 30 day trial for Macromedia Flash.

Flash MX 2004 30 day trial: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash

The price for it is a little over 500$. However you can buy it for much cheaper at the following links:

http://www.amazon.com - Hehe, these guys have everything on sale. Almost always :P
http://www.ebay.com

It is understandable that you might not want to pay for it. Then you can get a free flash maker. Check out this thread posted at NG bbs about Free flash makes:

http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=153186

After you get the program(Flash) and install it, get started in this animated example:

http://newgrounds.com/flash/samples/demo.html

For basic game ActionScripts check out step 3 here:

http://newgrounds.com/flash/index.html

Animated tutorials:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/173263 - Movie clips, Motion Tween and Basic Actionscript.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/175909 - PreLoader
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/143491 - Sprites
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/144223 - Games
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/52586 - Compression
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/80194 - Fading
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/180407 - W00t. This one is one of the best animated tuts i have seen.

Further go to these links for more tutorials and/or flash resources:

http://www.flashkit.com - One of the best Flash resource sites out there. Has everything. SoundFX/tutorials/movies/loops etc.
http://www.kirupa.com - Pretty much like flashkit
http://www.actionscript.org - All kind of actionscript stuff you can ask for
http://www.angelfire.com/in4/star_cleaver/tut.html - A Flash FAQ. Has answers to many questions N00bs have.
http://www.flashadvisor.com/ - Pretty much like flashkit
http://www.echoecho.com/flash.htm - Tutorial site. All kinds of tutorials.
http://www.ultrashock.com/ - A great site. Has tutorials + goodies/book reviews/fla source files.
http://www.sfdt.com/support/ - List of tutorials made in flash. Some examples of tutorials would be how to make special effects or make sticks.
http://www.lionbichstudios.com/flash_tutorials_01.htm - A very good Flash MX tutorial site. Has advanced stuff :)
http://www.gotoAndPlay.it/ - Tons of tutorials, and great stuff.

Free Fla files that can be used in your flash:

http://thealmightychet.250free.com/resource.htm - All kinda weapons.
http://www.ultrashock.com/ > fla sources section.
http://www.coflash.com/

Sounds:

http://www.findsounds.com
http://www.sounddogs.com
http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com
http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx
http://www.google.com << it works :P

Sound loops:

http://www.flashadvisor.com/sound/index.php
http://flashkit.com/loops

Audio-editor:

http://www.audacity.sf.net - Free audio editor. Best out there.

PreLoaders:

http://www.geocities.com/mercloaders/
http://newgrounds.com/flash/NewgroundsPreLoader.fla
http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=157846

Optimizing:

http://www.stillstationed.com/...al_optimizing/optimizing0.html - Optimizing audio, video, jpg, vector, etc.
http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=153125 - Compressing SWF

Sprites:

http://www.eternalrpg.net/sprites.php
http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php - One of the greatest ones out there :)
http://www.captainn.net/main.html
http://sfghq.emulationzone.org
http://www.sonichq.org
http://www.skytowergames.net/
http://deekman.cjb.net
http://www.panelmonkey.org
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=149949 - Sprite resource at NG bbs.

Stopmotion & Free animation tools

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=114332 - Thanks go to Schorhr on NG bbs :)

Actionscript:

http://www.gotoandplay.it/_articles/2003/12/scrolling_upd.php - A fully working Optimized art-based scrolling Game Engine Free to use and learn from it :P
http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=66585 - Teh Leet NG bbs actionscript thread. Has over 150 pages. Full of all kinds of codes.
http://www.actionscript.org - The mother load of AS.

Now, guys you have your movie ready? Full of sounds, sprites, a preloader, good animation, drawing, maybe a game(?), some stopmotion. Of course not :P Your first movie will be crappy. We understand that. Don't submit your first movie. You might wanna upload it at NG to show it to your friends. All you need for that is a free web host. Check out the link below:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=160204

Finally, don't forget to check out these:

http://www.sparkstudios.org
http://www.nottoxic.com
http://flashregs.x3fusion.com/portal.php

And lastly don't forget to use GOOGLE ( http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=158208 ) and also search NG bbs for basic stuff ( http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs ) :)

[Effsix]

Being a moving image designer, I use after effects all the time. I cannot get my head around flash, I'll get a friend to teach me. What I can do, is make anims on AE and export them as flash files, which can be used in macromedia stuff. Some functions don't work, like the 3-d info does not get carried over and flash doesn't support some plugins AE has, but I guess I'll have to learn it properly anyway. Good luck