How to Make a Flash Cartoon

Flash is a powerful animation tool that can quickly bring life to your characters and illustrations. Advanced Flash cartoons require considerable ActionScript coding, as well as a good knowledge of the features and capabilities found in Flash. However, simple Flash cartoons can be created with relatively little knowledge of the software.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Software such as Flash that creates .swf Flash files

1. Draw a character using one or several of Flash's drawing tools. Use the paint fill tool to add color to each section of the character's design.

2. Break your character into components (head, eyes, arms, mouth and legs) and save each section as a separate library symbol.

3. Use your original character's mouth as a basis to draw a couple different open-mouth variations. Save each unique mouth drawing as a different symbol.

4. Create a new movie clip symbol and place your original mouth in frame one. Insert a new keyframe in frame two and place your first open-mouth variation symbol in it. Repeat for additional mouth variations.

5. Play the movie clip symbol and adjust the number of frames between each mouth drawing to achieve the desired speed and look of your moving mouth.

6. Return to the movie stage and reassemble your character by placing each segment on a different layer. Place your mouth movie clip on the character rather than the static mouth image.

7. Use text boxes or import audio to the stage to give a voice to your character.

8. Run the movie and your character will mouth along to the speech you have provided.

Tips & Warnings

• More movie clip symbols can be created to allow for additional movement such as eye blinks and arm waves.