Easy to use internet animation software.

(Not sure which forum this belongs in. I am putting it in IMHO for advice and opinions. Mods, feel free to move it if it is more appropriate somewhere else.)

When I was young I had written out storyboards/comics for a cartoon I wanted to eventually animate. I was thinking I would do it in claymation but then I realized how much work that would be so I eventually scrapped the idea. Now, years later, I see tons of shoddily done Flash and Shockwave animations and think that it would be perfect for my original idea above. However, I don’t really know the first thing about animation software and don’t really have the inclination to learn something that will take a lot of time.

I have seen that Flash and Shockwave both will do what I want them to do. Basically I have the storyboard for many episodes of a cartoon that I assume can be done by myself about as well as Southpark animation wise. Are there any other software packages out there that can do what I want? Price is an issue and I know that both Flash and Shockwave cost a decent chunk of change so if there are comparable programs that are cheaper that may weigh into the issue assuming that all of them are roughly equivalent to learn. If one is ultimately significantly easier the cost may not be that much of an issue afterall.

so, does anyone have experience with computer animation and input on the software used to make it?

      • If you want to do hand-drawn-styled cartoons like classic Disney or Bugs-Bunny type things, the Flash/Shockwave (both are Macromedia-owned, tho I dunno quite what the difference is) is pretty much the only way to go.
  • Animation Stand is the pro-level tool for doing animations; they used to have a small-format version available for free download, but I have never tried it.
  • Macromedia’s package is the standard for making interactive web stuff. Adobe has LiveMotion which also allows interactive Flash-media creation. You can do Disney-type cartoons on either of these, but it’s not exactly the best choice.
  • ToonBoomStudio is another Flash-based animation program. It is more oriented towards making simple movie-style cartoons however, and has no scripting ability at all. It’s hand-drawing tools are much better suited for doing cartoon-type animation than Macromedia’s or Adobe’s is.
  • Additionally, apparently you can create short .swf clips in ToonBoomStudio and link them together somehow with an interactive loader done in one of the other Macromedia or Adobe programs.
    ~

I am not really interested in interactive web things so it sounds like ToonBoomStudio is a good bet for me. Can you load graphics from the scanner into it for later manipulation?

http://www.16color.com/home.shtml