Why hello there!
webufs here, and this news post is gonna be about the process of animating, and how you can go about making better flashes! If you think you might have something to learn, then read on, my friend, read on! If not (but I know you do!), then feel free to scroll down and post whatever you want to post. Hilarious randomness would be preferred.
Firstly, you can't animate if you don't know how to draw. Personally, I like to doodle, so if you feel like something looks cool, try drawing it. Chances are it won't look anything like what you wanted, but that's okay. Maybe someday it will, maybe your renditioning captures something more than what you originally intended. Essentially, I'm just recommending doodling as a way to practice drawings, which will eventually be animatable.
Eventually? But what if I want to do a great animation NOW?
That's what I thought animating was about too: sitting down, making an animation, then enjoying success. However, the greatest lesson I've learned about animating is that it takes time, and not just "2 hours" time, but days, weeks, months (of course it varies according to how long your animation is and what style you use, etc). But realize that to make some good, it'll require, say, a few hours to make a few seconds of good animation. Generally, hopefully a portion of that time will also be planning out your animation. Taking an hour to plan may seem like a pain, but if it saves you hours fidgeting around with a scene that doesn't fit at all, I'd say that's worth it.
Taking time to do flash?... Well okay, but I'll take a few shortcuts.
Taking shortcuts is okay, but realize that saving yourself some time will make your animation that little bit less impressive. Realize that motion tweening someone walking might look "okay", but that a lot of people will be able to tell that it's motion tweened. Generally speaking, tweening shouldn't be ruled out as an animation technique though, just be conscious that you're using it, and that the end result doesn't make your animation look cheap. Little things and cameos are also pretty big parts of an animation. Consider putting in a few hours of effort into everything, even if you think some people won't notice. Those that do will appreciate it, and maybe those that don't will subconsciously be convinced that your animation is... strangely awesome...
How can I learn to animate better?
Well as I mentioned, I like to doodle. In the end, because my mouse drawings aren't anything like my paper drawings, I ended up taking pictures of my doodles and tracing over them with the line tool. Likewise, if you have a scanner, you can do that too. Tablets are a viable option, but if your issue is not being able to draw and color well at all, then consider looking up some tutorials. If you have a particular preference (ie brush tool vs line tool), then all the better, because there are tutorials for all kinds of styles. I won't link to any of them, but Google is your friend - search somethin' up!
Now for a few random thoughts, mostly about my "recent" Harry Potter parody:
The response to it was astounding, I'm glad Newgrounds liked it so much! It makes me feel like locking myself in my room for 4 days was worth the effort! In fact, I was thinking about the number of views I got, and how much time that entailed. At the moment I have 47,000 views, and the animation is almost 3 minutes long. I'll be conservative and say that half those people watched it from start to end, which means something like 75,000 minutes, which is like my flash being run continuously for 50 days, back-to-back. Just thought that was kind of cool, please don't think I'm a nerd 8D
Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. I'm busy with uni life, so I haven't touched flash in a while, but hopefully I'll be able to put something together someday. Haven't had any extraordinarily inspirational ideas as of late though. If you have any, feel free to post ideas or responses to whatever the hell I was just talking about, I promise I'll read everything!
webufs