Oh boy! Let's hear what Farfenwaffle has to say about free animation programs!

Let's start off with this, Flash generally surpasses all free animation programs. If you have the money check out the adobe site. About 700$ for the full version, and If you look hard enough you can find the student version for around 200$. You can even try flash out for free! Just press "try" on the flash page.

Now that we have that out of the way let's hear some ANIMATION SOFTWARES!
EZ toon
-Download-
Finding that download like was like a wild goose chase! If anyone knows an official ez toon website please link me in the comments ;)
heres the newgrounds thread
This program is 100% frame-by-frame kinda stuff. It has onion skin (Although only one layer of it) It is only in black and white but it has the ability to color in with shades. It exports in animatedGIF
Pencil Animation Software
-download link-
-homepage-

A very nice program, It is vector based like flash it also has bitmap layers and has a very nice timeline. It supports sound also. While not as advanced as flash it still has a variety of tools. It also supports colors
Pivot Stick Figure Animator
-download 2.2.5-
-dowload 3.0-
Again, still no sign of a homepage of any sort.
newgrounds thread

This program is really great if you want to make a stick movie with little to no redrawing. It has a pretty good timeline and supports colors. Very simple animation program for beginners in animation. It is still suitable for vets too.

Helium Frog (stop motion)
-homepage-
-download-

While this is a stop motion animator, it is the best free one I have seen! It features simple chroma keying, a nice frame viewer( stuff like that is rare in stop motion programs), nice look, and tons of other stuff. I recomend this if you have a camera that hooks to your computer, or a webcam.

LiveSwif
-Forum-
-download-

From what I remember, liveswif is an swf producing program. It is alot like flash in it's looks. Everything is alot like flash except the timeline is so so. At times the program can be hard for beginners. I recomend downloading it if you want to feel like your using flash.
Blender (3d animation)
-download-
-homepage-

A powerful 3d animator if you want to go throguh the trouble of learning it. It supports everything you would want in a 3d animation and model creator. Although The interface is really crazy. If you have some 3d experience already it would help.

More To come!
drop a comment if you have any other suggestions! keep on animating. Have a nice life

Who liked the album? It came out like a month or two ago. I personally enjoyed it. I think Yoshimi Battles The Pink robots is up there, too. Anyone else like the flaming lips?

linky! linky! linky!

Also, anyone listen to the unicorns? I have been wishing they hadn't broken up five years ago. They had some great potential.

I know, I know, I have weird music tastes sometimes.

I have fallen in love with this game!

It is surpassing to every single sandbox game I have played. While PowderGame and Scribblenauts and Boomblox and others are still fine. But this is now on my list of favorites.

Check it out for yourself! Link

Do you like phun? I do!

Aslo, fw v2 is going along good. why not you check this comic out i made? http://www.truploader.com/view/207579

Have a good century!

Alex-the-cow, Mooch31 and myself went to the penny arcade this year. We went to the behemoth booth over and over and OVER again Just because Behemoth/Newgrounds is AWESOME. I got tons of free stuff and got to play demos of the newest games out there (including Scribblenauts! September 15th can't come sooner!)
Have a nice life!

Oh, and I am a lazy prick for not updating my website for the entire summer. I am fixing to do it. possibly. If school wont take up my time.

Oh, and I hear other people got sick after pax too. I actually got sick the day after I left pax. damnit. why whoudl you go to a giant room filled with thousands of people if you are sick? what a jackass that was.

Hey guys! Have you dreamed of being a beta tester? well post a comment and you may be able to get in the credits of the game! Just fill out a 4 question survey after playing.

Thanks for the enthusiasm everyone!

YEAH!!! it's being submitted to newgrounds now! adn it's on my site now, http://farfenwaffle.com/squares_view.h tml
go see the movie! also some other sites I plan to submit it to are: youtube,flashportal.com,albinoblack sheep.

note: 45 seconds seems really short, but anything longer would take so long to make that i would never get around to making musicvideos for everyone

REMEMBER!: you NEED to send me an email. or else it makes my life miserable
farfenwafle@gmail.com

I'm going to make you a music video!!!!

hey! I have been getting into the habbit of making little -simple- music videos and i decided i can turn this habit into a way of helping YOU. I like to search the audio portal for things that fall off the radar! but its getting harder to find you, now that you have found ME I'm going to help you:

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO:
-I will make you a music video for a song of yours if it fits these requirements.
1. the song must be under 45 seconds (thats 900 frames commited to YOU)
2. you need to email me at: farfenwafle@gmail.com with the subject "music video"
3. your song has to be good, I can't make a music video of something that sound horrible can I?
4. (optional) you should have some kind of instant messaging program. I have a list of programs i use on the contacts section of here: http://farfenwaffle.com/about_me.html
every month I will finish a music video.
here is a list of authors that i am intending on making a music video with:
1.trey gamer333
2.andrewboy895??

Hey yall' did you like Rolling along-simple as that- and stuff-simple as that-? Then your going to love __________-simple as that-! This will be pure genius. and will crush the last two. You will wet your pants in its colorful presentation. you will tremble before the fantastic music artist called Arnas. In a matter of about 13 days you will be blessed with this production. Be afraid, Be very afraid.

oh! and farfenwaffle.com gets a new cartoon every tuesday! check it OUT

SWEEEET. Yeah, i update it every week with new animations and images! every Tuesday in fact, So those of you who check my Newgrounds page should probably see this site. did i mention new stuff that i make every week?! A NEW cartoon, every week?! oh my gawsh, you should see it. and check back every week or so for your BRAND NEWcartoon.
I mean, seriously. Come on...something new every week...

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I have been reading and practicing for the last 2 weeks. now i really want to help you improve. I'm not an expert. i think that i have some concepts that will help YOU.
about half of these concepts shared have been read out of a book or learned out of 4 years in animation. i have a great selection of books for you to read that will help you out a bunch! i will introduce them now:
THE ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT
-i STRONGLY recomend this book for EVERYONE you should really get this book!
- this must have been one of the most helpful books i have read on animation so far! it not only teaches you how animation works. but it also teaches you how to make it interesting but also how to make it look realistic.i have learned about many things from this book. just remember that the best way to get these books is to check them out from your local library! if you look around long enough you may find even more books on aniamtion/art! if you do find a good book you recomend to me i will read it and mabye put it here.
ANIMATION UNLEASHED
-100 principals Every animator,comic book writer,filmmaker,video artist and game developer should know
-this book helped ALOT it taught me about story telling elements, analogys,animation techniques,timing and special effects. you NEED to read this book if you are a beggining animator or even an expert.
"Make your animation say what you want it to say. Animation's potential as a powerful tool for communication is just beginning to be understood. This book reveals key principles, useful for both professionals and beginners, which will help you harness the full power of this exciting and ever expanding medium."
Animation: the whole story
-this book not only teaches you the whole story of animation but also tells you all about what is in the world of animation! a great guide for everyone.
-"Animation professor Beckerman shares his insights and legacy in ANIMATION: THE WHOLE STORY - a discussion of what makes good and bad animation. Beckerman worked as a classic animator for over forty years, hand-drawing thousands of characters: chapters discuss everything from story lines and action scenes to directing tips."
Macromedia Flash 8 For Dummies
-a great book if you want to learn how to use flash 8 (or higher) alot faster! even if you have used flash for a very, very long time you will learn alot of helpful things you probably dident know flash could do (like did you know if your gragging an object with a selection tool you can turn the object into a stamp? i dident!)
-there are also higher or lower versions of flash but flash 8 is the most common ;) try out: flash cs3 for dummies and Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Dummies
more books to read
if you have read these books and think that you cant find anymore check your local library website.
if you have read a great book on this subject tell me about it! i would love to read it.
EVEN MORE BOOKS TO READ
here are some books for you to read that i dident want to bother reviewing.
-The animation book
-the animators workbook
-cartoon animation
-timing for animation
-The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
-So You Want to Work in Animation & Special Effects?
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VIDEO TUTORIAL
i have also made a small video that shows you what i do when i animate a simple cartoon.
teaches you about:
-easing (gradual speeding up and slowing down)
-quick ways to make production go by faster( like instead of drawing things many times over just make it a symbol)
-and more little fun facts as the video goes along

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MORE TUTORIALS ONLINE
want to learn more stuff? check out these links:
-newgrounds tutorial collection
-actionscript main
-ABS tutorial section
-tutorialized.com (flash section)
-angry animator tutorials
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CONCEPT 1:learn to draw!
- im not the best artist ever. and thats what is holding me back the most! if you want to animate your little cartoon cvharecter you made. or you want to animate regular humans. or even stick men! you need to be able to draw them in every angle and in every pose! before you animate 1 frame i recomend you make a whole 2 pages of just drawings of your new charecter! its no goood just being able to draw it in profile.
-another thing is that if you ever want to work with disney you should be able to draw realistically. because everythign below that will be a peice of cake!
say you got hired to be an animator for king of the hill. would you be able to do it?
CONCEPT 2 :get the mirror out!
-if you want you try out a movement that you have never animated before get in front of a mirror (or even video camera if you want) and do the movement many times in front of it. if you have a video camera you can even play it in slow motion. but you can just act out the slow motion if you want.
-i remember when i was 10 years old and i wanted to learn how to do a walk cycle. (this was before i had internet!) i was the only person i knew who animated. i decided i would study how i walk. so i walked in front of my fairly big mirror in my bathroom over and over again until i was sure how to do it!
CONCEPT 3 :easing. speeding up and slowing down
-are you having the problem of your animation looking like this? it looks like hes not alive and is just a robot.here is the same movement but fixed with easing. want to know what was wrong? when the motion started it started at its highest speed. real things start slow then speed up. and the slows down when it gets near the destination. heres what i mean.in the wrong one the ball just starts moving. while in the right one the ball starts off slow then speeds up. both loops are the same length in the end though.
-there are SOME times where easing is not needed. like when the moving object is a robot. or when a crazy driver hits a wall with a car.
CONCEPT 4 :anticipation
-this is a tad hard to explain. so i will be a cheater and quote a bit from animation unleashed.
-"A main action always begins with a counter move in the opposite direction this preperatory movement is called anticipation"
-anticipation is like storing energy for a hard release. like how before someone punches they pull their fist back and then swing. the most important part of anticipation is that it is ALWAYS in the opposite direction of the action. and anticipation is always proportionate to the action. so if its a small action you will need almost no anticipation. but a bigger action needs a big anticipation .
CONCEPT 5 :practice makes perfect!
-i know, i know! everyone says it, but i want to enforce it!
-if you are discouraged because you arent as good as so and so or you stopped animating for a long time and now your rusty. you need to never give up! some people are fast learners, or some people have practiced longer than you, and some people are born with talent. if you arent THATS FINE! because as long as you are trying your hardest and you are determined to be the best. you will be the best you can be!
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ok, i have written for a long time. and done alot of research. i REALLY hope i have pointed you t oa good book or given you a good link or taught you something you dident know. but if you dissagree with ANY of this stuff please tell me imidiately.
-if you need any specific help please PM me or leave a comment or email me at farfenwafle@gmail.com
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please please PLEASE tell me any concepts you know. or tell me any helpful information.(it seems fair after all this work i have done)