The old head turn trick ...

[gbpatriot]

Now on week 3 of my Flash learning curve and have begun some serious animation. Inevitably I came on the perennial problem of turning my character's head through 90 degrees in 2D. I decided to nail this one early and looked to the web for a workable solution. I found what I was looking for at Cartoon Solutions http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/speedlines_arm.html and have decide to use this simple technique for all head and limb 90 degree transitions in the future.

I also purchased the figure (Samantha) from the same site. The microphone prop was drawn in Xara Xtreme and imported as a flash file.

Here is a still from the headturn in the attached movie. I hope this helps any other new animator facing the same problem.

Ray

[-=Drifter=-]

Hahahaha. That is great (so far). I would love to see the finished .swf.

She's not quite what I have pictured in my mind as the woman behind that voice........

[Mike Bailey]

Ray, You might find this site interesting,
You will find 2 animation training videos,
Head comp training video. 44 minutes
Body training video. 55 minutes
http://www.oddjobjack.com/freejack.php?sec=3

[Availor]

Try this: www.cartoonsmart.com excellent website for flash trainings and cartooning. I bought many videos from this guy.

[gbpatriot]

Thanks Mike & Availor for the links.

I'm amazed by the vast amount of free advice and support for Flash both here and on the web. Mike's link gives an insight to the way a team of animators work, and Availors link is to a great value training site.

My mainstay has been the brilliant tutorials at http://www.vtc.com. I can wholeheartedly recommend these commercial training sessions. Take a look at the free lessons to assess their value.

My progress with Flash MX 2004 is generally going well, but as with all modern software it has a vast range of features - so I'm having to limit my learning to animations skills.

I shall succeed in producing a broadcast quality animation - have no doubt.

Thank you again.

Ray