To showcase the many helpful, timesaving features in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional that allow you to achieve sophisticated visual results, this article series covers the entire process of creating a digital animated character, from its conception (either using the drawing and shape tools in Flash or scanning a hand-drawn character) all the way through building a complex animation with many different moving parts.

In Part 1, I discuss the process of creating and converting objects to symbols and how to set them up to create motion tween spans and simulate realistic movements. I describe the different types of symbols and the unique behaviors associated with each type, and outline the step-by-step procedure that I follow to develop and define unique and believable characters. Along the way, I discuss some tips and tricks to help you save time, as well as some best practices to organize and manage your project assets.

In Part 2, I describe some of my personal workflow techniques and explain how to use the new Motion Editor to create custom easing effects, how to apply filters to objects to create what I like to call a "2.5D" look, and how to use the Transform tool to skew and scale objects realistically.

This article series uses the example of the boy character I created as a logo for my website, mudbubble.com. If you'd like to follow along with the steps that are outlined here, be sure to download the sample files that are provided below.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you'll need the following software and files:

Flash CS4 Professional

• Try
• Buy

Sample files:

• design_characters_flcs4.zip (ZIP, 383K)

Prerequisite knowledge

A basic understanding of the Adobe Flash CS4 Professional authoring environment and prior experience drawing and developing animated characters is recommended.

Note: If you are still using Macromedia Flash Professional 8, you can refer to the previous version of this article.

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