Hi @Tgibs2 ,   Hands are typically put as frames inside a stopped Graphic symbol, where each gesture is on its own keyframe. Then on the outside you choose the gesture that you need to display, setting the First Frame property of the instance. There should be one hand container with only left or right hands, and it should be flipped for the other hand. Then you can pick hands using Frame Picker or Smart Graphic Control.   For the collar you can use hard welding. and sandwich the neck between two elements, but it may not be necessary as the natural logic of this character's design would suggest very little rotation in the neck area.   I know that you have said that the site is blocked at your school, but maybe you would be able to access it from home or via a proxy/VPN. Most of these questions have been answered in a structured way in the many available articles there: https://flash-powertools.com/workflow/ https://flash-powertools.com/character-rigging-for-flash-animation/ https://flash-powertools.com/advanced-smr-2-rig-architecture/   You can download some of the sample rigs to study how they are built: https://flash-powertools.com/tag/character-rig/       ... View more

What and excellent post, @rayek.elfin !   Yes, I agree. In my opinion Flash Pro CS6 is the best version so far for animation, providing the best combination of performance, stability, features and functional UI. Using the AS2 document type guarantees a virtually bug-fee experience.   ... View more

Hi Matt, It took me about two years to get to a point where I could intuitively set my nested symbol structures as I go without making mistakes and stopping to re-think and rework my setup from time to time. As long as you have a good understanding of the principles that guide your decisions and how graphic symbols work, you will get there. It takes time.   Symbols only exist in the Library. On the Stage we are dealing with instances of those symbols. When we transform an instance on the outside the symbol itself is unchanged, so other instances will be unaffected. It we enter the symbol for editing, however, and make changes inside, all instances will reflect those changes. So sometimes one needs to duplicate a symbol and only edit the duplicate. Or refer to different sections of the symbol's timeline to show different animations, when using the same symbols.   A typical way of handling a head symbol is to run it as a synced timeline, where every frame in the head symbol matches a frame on the character timeline. Then if you have the character talking for 200 frames at first you have the lipsync on 1-200. Then you have the jump and since the head is synced you show frames 201 to 230 where the mouth stays closed.   You can achieve anything with the Single Frame, Play Once and Loop properties and nesting symbols. Nesting will become second nature with practice.   ... View more

Mate,  I had a look at your letter.   You seem to be under the impression that Flash was discontinued. It was not. It has only been renamed to "Animate". Animate is Flash. It has SWF export and it has built-in Flash Player where you can play your SWFs offline.   All the things that you could do in Flash, you can do in Animate - symbols, tweens, everything.   While CS5.5 and CS6 might be a little lighter on the CPU and more bug-free, this drama that you are creating for yourself is completely unnecessary, if you can afford to pay for the Animate subscription.   Just think rationally for a moment: A multi-billion dollar corporation will never change its policy, because of a sob story that some kid has written at 1 o'clock after midnight.    Get Animate or move on. No matter how many posts you write online you will not get old Flash back for sale, so it's more meaningful to spend your energy on something, which has better chances of success.   Good luck!   ... View more

You should be using the Paint Brush Tool, not the Classic Brush.   If necessary, click on the three dots at the bottom of the toolbar and add the Paint Brush to your set of tools.   ... View more

Hi Nikki,   Try H.264 "Default AME" or "YouTube 1080p Full HD":   ... View more

Hi @Tgibs2 ,   Thanks for providing the file!   The real reason for the FreeStyle Rigging to refuse to work is that there is a stray symbol on layer left_ankle which does not have matching Registration and Transformation points. The content of this symbol is way outside of the stage: All that you need to do to fix the setup and start rigging is to delete this unnecessary forgotten symbol or at least include it in the selection and fix the position of its Transformation Point with Make Edaptable or any other of the available tools.   The assumption that flipped instances were causing the problem is incorrect. You can rig instances as much as you like.   I don't mind replying to EDAPT-related questions here, but in the future, if you like, please feel free to post on our website or email us directly, using the address above the contact form.   Good luck!     ... View more

@kglad  I think that you are right. He wants to set defaults for all symbols so that the Transformation Point always stays over the Registration Point when introduced to the Stage, which is impossible.   In Flash at least you could do it on a per-symbol basis, which option has, unfortunately. been removed in Animate, so he will need to keep always double-clicking the Transformation Point when he drags a symbol from the Library to the Stage.   ... View more

@Jeffery.Wright  The little circle that you are talking about is called Transformation Point, not anchor. The Document Settings dialog which you show in your original post is irrelevant.   ... View more

@kglad  It pins the Transformation Point of the existing symbol to where it is on the instance, so that when you drag it out of the Library to the Stage the position is maintained.   ... View more

You can use the Swap Multiple Symbols command and work with a filtered Library selection instead. https://flash-powertools.com/swap-multiple-symbols/ Just give the command a shortcut key and your process will speed up.   ... View more

@Jeffery.Wright , @kglad    You can pin the Transformation Point in Flash from the context menu, but it seems to have been removed in Animate.   This is from Flash CS6:   The property seems valid, as the file created in CS6 works as expected in Animate. You can test with this sample FLA  by dragging the symbol to the stage: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZEH1ZTioAEXxqB80PVfzXZ4vX0zxCGL/view?usp=drive_link   ... View more

I think that you can only lock it to 45° and 90° when holding down Shift. With 30° you would probably need to manually create grid lines to guide you.   ... View more

@sergiopop75 has a video demonstrating a workaround: ... View more

At the end of my previous message I did include a link which should give you step-by-step instructions how to set your Premiere project to work with an image sequence.   Basically, before importing the images you need to check a box which will make the whole sequence import as a movie rather than separate PNGs.   --   Not using Scenes is the way to go. If you need to split your animation, just split it into different FLA files and edit in Premiere. Scenes are bad practice and should be avoided.  The issues you are facing do not come from not using Scenes, but rather from the many bugs that Animate is plagued with.   ... View more

These all sound like issues with Advanced-Layers-based functionality of which there have been many reports over the years. The so-called Advanced Layers were introduced in 2018 and features such as frame effects, Layer Parenting, Layer Depth, Camera and so on depend on them. Unfortunately, all these features are prone to bugs and unreliable, so ideally one should avoid using them.   A way out of your unpleasant situation could be to export a PNG sequence and audio separately and then recombine these in Premiere or another video editor. PNG sequence exporter uses a different renderer and is likely to not display the Flash Player issues with the Advanced Layer functionality.   To try yourself, go to File > Export > Export Movie... and in the Save as type choose PNG Sequence. Review the exported sequence. If it looks well, proceed to export your audio and create a video out of the two in a video editor. https://community.adobe.com/t5/animate-discussions/export-issue-stops-mid-export/td-p/10424361     ... View more

Hi Matt, Originally, in Flash there was no slider at all - only several predefined sizes of which the only two I have ever used were "Normal" and "Small". What I tend to do is keep my timeline undocked, so that I can resize the panel to see more layers or more frames, depending on what I need. You can save different workspaces with the different dimensions of the timeline and switch between those with keyboard shortcuts. [Edit: Sorry! They seem to have removed the option to assign shortcuts to specific Workspaces in Animate. You can do it in Flash.]   Also, you can open a second view of your file via Window > Duplicate Window, so that you don't need to constantly jump in and out of symbols.   ... View more

Hi Luke,   In production one wants to limit the steps and programs used to the minimum, which will give him the results required. Ideally all artwork should be created in Flash. This is often not possible and it is common to import backgrounds created in other software.  As for characters, creating them outside of Flash and then importing, in my opinion, makes the use of Flash pointless.   There are three brushes in Animate - the Classic Brush, the Fluid Brush and the Paint Brush. The last one is rather flexible, but also quite heavy if the textured strokes are left as such and not converted to fills. Traditionally, in TV animation, the Classic Brush was only used for rough sketches and then the clean up was done using the line tool. This produces consistent clean linework, with few points, which is easily editable.   The choice of tools depends on the desired outcome, stylistic preferences and effectiveness.   Personally, I wouldn't attempt cleaning up frame-by-frame animation with the brush as this will make any future edits quite problematic. But then, at this stage, I mostly create designs without outlines as this is what works best in digital cutouts.   There is no straight forward answer to your question. You need to experiment to find what feels comfortable and produces good-looking results and then polish this to become a style of sorts.   ... View more

The order of operations does not matter, however, setting up the proper nesting structure at the start is a good practice, and makes the process easier to control. The trouble with 'good practices' is that they are usually based on past experience, which is difficult to have, when you're new to any kind of activity.   As a general rule, one should not work on the main timeline.   If it is of interest, this is a description of how things should be organized: https://flash-powertools.com/workflow/   And here is a sample FLA, showing the application of these good practices: https://flash-powertools.com/edapt-movie-template-free-download/   Good luck!   ... View more

The proper way of doing this is to put your dance animation (all the layers which define one character) inside a graphic symbol (container) and have as many instances of your character on stage as you need. If there are differences in design you can create duplicates, but still all animation should be done inside those containers, which you can easily reposition, rescale and tint, or even offset with one-two frames to achieve a more organic-looking final result.   https://flash-powertools.com/keeping-cycles-flexible-for-easy-re-timing-by-using-service-frame-and-working-two-levels-deep/   ... View more

I can't help, but just wanted to say:   What a beautiful, cozy scene! Very nice color and designs!   ... View more

I don't use the Asset Warp tool, but I had no difficulty placing a pin in the exact center of a circle: As suggested by @kglad  I marked the center with guides. Zoomed in to 2000% and placed the pin tool exactly above the intersection. Tried to click, but the click did not register. Then I hid the guides with a keyboard shortcut and clicked again. This time the click registered and a pin was placed exactly at the middle which we can confirm when we reshow the guides. For precision, I did all this at maximum zoom.   ... View more

The camera itself is the bug.   ... View more

@KlausKi    I like that! From a user's point of view it's not bad at all.   If it ever gets implemented, I'd rather have it as an optional alternative to the current behaviour, which can be enabled or disabled, like the 'Align to stage' checkbox - 'Keep last-clicked in place'.   ... View more

Hi @Tgibs2 , That's great news. I'm glad to hear you managed to get this sorted out! Well done!   I'm not exactly sure whether the students are just starting to learn how to use Animate or already know the basics. I used to teach Flash and Character Design in a BA of Animation program to first year students, who had never touched Flash before.   The drawing tools are all simple and logical, so they pose no challenge at all.   The most crucial and important thing that lays the foundation of a solid understanding of how to effectively utilize symbols is to grasp the concept of nested and synced timelines.   The simplest example I could think of to introduce the concept was a circle (ball) bouncing in place with a duplicate frame, where the first and last are the same; then wrapping it into a Graphic which shows all but the last (duplicate) frame, and then wrapping this one again and tweening it across the stage. Here is a version of this with illustrations: https://flash-powertools.com/keeping-cycles-flexible-for-easy-re-timing-by-using-service-frame-and-working-two-levels-deep/   Matt Fryer's courses @TipTut are very good:    From our stuff, I'd recommend first learning simple joint mechanics:   And then progress with the rest: https://flash-powertools.com/smart-magnet-rigs-where-to-start/   Good luck! ... View more

Your screen resolution is very low and the toolbar is clipped. First drag the right edge to make it in two columns, then click the 3 dots at the bottom to add missing tools. To effectively use this program you need higher resolution. Otherwise you will struggle.   ... View more

I keep it similar to how it is in Flash with just white tint for both previous and next.   ... View more