Flash animation for the web

From the ebullient wide eyes that stare back at us as we tuck into the wheaty delights of our morning cereal, to the more exclusive realms of the design sector, the colourful art of character creation is a universally appealing form of communication that comprises much of our daily visual intake.

In recent years, character design has grown relentlessly and assumed a far greater position in the visual world than ever before, particularly in the area of design and illustration, where it has become a recognised art form in its own right. But what is the appeal of the countless styles and varying personalities injected into so many great character designs?

Creating characters is one thing, but almost as important is creating a fantastic environment in which they can live, develop and generally do their thing. Background and context are just as important elements to consider in character design as faces, features and general appearance. Without context, your brilliant creations will be like motherless children, alone in the wilderness, with nowhere to live.

The following tutorial touches upon the limitless potential of combining your imagination with Adobe Illustrator and the mighty web animation tool, Flash. By the end of this tutorial, you will be armed with the knowledge you need to create seamless and vibrant environments suitable for the web, in which your animated characters can live, breath, walk around and be interacted with, using the power of simple ActionScript.

You'll need access to a good sharp pencil, some paper, Adobe Illustrator CS2 and a copy of Flash 8 to work along with this tutorial.

Click here to download the support files (5.6MB)

Click here to download the tutorial for free