Character Animation in Flash

The Challenge

Sams Publishing and the Digital Video Professionals Association had noticed the difficulty with which many artists with moderate computer skills were having as they turned to animate characters in Adobe’s Flash Professional. The market appeared ready for a book that coached beginners through a basic understanding of Flash and then provided some of the techniques being used by studio using Flash for character animation.

The Solution

Lee Purcell, Executive Director of Lightspeed Publishing LLC, took on the project, creating a detailed set of tutorials to explain the basic concepts of Flash through simple character animation. The book’s narrative then progressed to a series of interviews with some of the top animators and animation studios in the industry, going behind-the-scenes to document the techniques that have brought life to their onscreen characters. Lee also produced the DVD master that accompanied the book, which contained Flash assets to back up the tutorials and animated clips from the various studios. An example of a completed animation, based on the characters Sam & Max, appears in the following video.