Which program is best for SWF animation

**Availor** · 16 June 2006, 07:58 PM

Ok, so here's another one:

Which program do you suppose is best for helping flash make it's animation.
When I say animation I also mean 3D, or something that will look like 3D.

The options are: Adobe Illustrator (Can you layers as frames), Swish 3D, Freehand, Flash (the plain old flash), Xara, Sketchup... Anyone has another idea?

**ZEBtoonz** · 16 June 2006, 08:08 PM

Moho http://www.lostmarble.com/. You can do 2D animation and export to Flash. You can also import 3D object files and animate.

**Matt_343** · 17 June 2006, 01:20 AM

I use SwishMax It has a lot of premade effects. I have not used Swish 3D yet, but if it is like Swishmax, it will be very easy.

**Availor** · 17 June 2006, 08:46 AM

I've downloaded Moho, but couldn't quite get to working with it.
Firstly, the tools there work differently and hard to get used to.

Secondly, I had hard time exporting and reimporting objects.
Moho is meant for cartoon drawing. The one major advantage with it is the bone skeletal animation.

Swish is nice, I saw the screenshots but it's a flash-like program. The only advantage there is the pre-built effects I suppose.

**RedWombat** · 17 June 2006, 01:17 PM

I use plain old Flash, version 8. I build a lot of interactive pieces with Flash and need to code directly in AS quite a lot. I'm not sure but I don't think Adobe has opened that part up to an open source model. Don't think other programs have the ability to code AS, but I could be wrong. Haven't tried the others mentioned yet, but might just see what's out there.

**b3rntumb3r** · 17 June 2006, 01:18 PM

Koolmoves has a good reputation. There are also open source tools.

**remi** · 17 June 2006, 03:34 PM

It seems, Toon Boom Studio is a professionell one.

current prices:

from $99,00 Toon Boom Studio Express
to $399 Toon Boom Studio regular price (offer $249,99 ends June 30, 2006)

Remi

**Matt_343** · 17 June 2006, 07:22 PM

Remi, Have you used Toon Boom? How is it different from flash or swish?

**remi** · 18 June 2006, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Matt_343

Remi, Have you used Toon Boom? How is it different from flash or swish?

No, I'm not in the 2D animation business, Matthew

I saw some cool 2D animations from Curt Rierson and Chuck Loof. Chuck uses the same 3D package as I (Carrara 4 Pro). But to produce 2D vector animations Chuck and Curt use Toon Boom Studio. Take a look at their work.

Remi

**Availor** · 18 June 2006, 06:12 AM

Wow that ToonBoom looks pretty neat, I better try it out! I am always amazed by the usefulness of the forums, as one might think that he covered pretty much all of the animation search, another great idea comes up.

I made a search for flash and recieved numerous results. It's good to know there's always more :-)