Starting Out

Hi, my name is Mary and I’m on a mission to learn how to do computer animation. I want to design Ecards, fun online games, put action to stories, and animate pictures of my grandchildren plus much more. I decided a great way to achieve my mission was to start a blog and share my experiences. Adobe Flash is a great animation program for this purpose. Flash Flair will cover the journey I’m embarking on into the wonderful world of animation. What I learn will be turned into easy to follow steps for me and others to use, create from and hopefully share our creations.

I’ve always enjoyed animation and have thought about making my own almost since the beginning of home computers (nothing like dating yourself). I remember seeing my first one when a guy at work brought in an Apple computer. The office gang stood around in wonder at this object. Little did we know then what today would be like? Now there are IBM, Dell, and H.P. computers, iPads, cell phones and gaming systems like the Nintendo Wii. My husband Randy was a main frame computer programmer and not before long we had a PC in our home. This huge clunker was a marvel that hooked us all and from that day forth our home has never been without one. My son Jeff, from a wee guy of one, grew up with this technology and became a master of those early dos computer games. Today I sit at my computer with three monitors and get impatient if it doesn’t move at the speed of light and of course wouldn’t be without my have-laptop-will-travel.

Many years back I taught a class on animation at my son’s school. We did flip books, filmed clay and paper animation and made paper film strips that played on a phonograph. I still have the VHS tape of my son’s beginnings into animation. The students in the class had lots of fun and I learned so much from how each child approached their project. I remember how excited we got when one of the girls talked while filming, adding sound. We hadn’t tried that and it opened up a whole new avenue for their work.

One day while wandering through a computer store Randy came across an offer where a Microtek scanner was bundled with Adobe Photoshop at a great price. Of course we had to have it. Photoshop and the scanner became my tools of choice at the computer. These two items lighted my inner imagination like nothing had before. If it could be scanned, it could be put into the computer and if put into the computer, it could be manipulated in Photoshop. The scanner is still my right hand buddy but my Sony digital camera is a great way of adding pictures for transformation. My first big project was preparing artwork drawn by Jeff for a children’s book. Along with the help of my sister-in-law Char, we spent hours scanning in and working on each page getting it ready for publication. I really love Photoshop but it is not an easy program to do animation in.

Jeff, who is a graphic artist, suggested Flash as a good tool for making animation. With this in mind I set out to learn Flash and discovered that easy to follow tutorials with successful results were not what I had hoped. There are lots of how to do this or that but nothing that took this novice from the unknown into the realm of understanding Flash.Often a tutorial assumed knowledge I didn’t have leaving me with either something not working or not as it was suppose to and wondering what I had done wrong. Manuals or books I find hard to follow. Manuals are a nightmare and I’ve only learn how to scream with frustration using them. I like pictures with examples and clear steps to follow. Too often books have way to much unrelated Blah, Blah, Blah or cute stuff to skim past. Just give it to me straight, simple and where I end up having a working product I understand and can duplicate.

In my hunt for a good Flash tutorial I came across a 'How to Gurus' video which I purchased. I like that the lessons are visual but for me there are some draw backs like: Nothing written so I need to take notes, assumption I already know something about Flash (the only thing I understand are the tools because they are very much like Photoshop) and too much ‘don’t need that data yet’ in the lessons. With that said, I’ll study from the video along with the Flash tutorials and Jeff’s help on my path to becoming a Flash Flair Gal.

I would love for you to join me on this journey.

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow"  Plato