25 November 2007 - 22:06: EgyptUrnash replied...
First I opened up Illustrator and just drew some B&W stuff. Quick, off-the-cuff stuff with no real intent. I kept zooming out and in, until it got so huge that I'd actually sprawled off the limits of the canvas into this weird grey area - you can draw into it, but you can't really edit anything drawn in it. Then I got it into Flash. Just exporting the vectors didn't work, partially due to it being a lot of data, partially due to it being impossibly huge. I ended up doing several bitmaps. In Flash, I registered all these bitmaps at the same size, stuck 'em into one symbol, then did some keyframes to create one long zoom in. Finally, I dug in code I had lying about and built the scrollbar. It's a pretty simple thing that does a gotoAndStop() based on where it's dragged to in the bar. I've thought of doing things in that method; I was even in discussion to do a website intro in a manner based on that. I've toyed with the idea of doing comics that way but really, I'm not interested in online-only comics - I've done so much stuff that's wholly digital that all my comics efforts are aimed at being able to PRINT!

27 November 2007 - 15:49: raypist replied...
wow, thanks for the prompt response. thats real cool. so you draw in illustrator then bring it to flash? ive just started doing animation. so far i do all the drawings and frames in illustrator, export as swf, then drop them in the flash timeline. i was going to ask you (yes, you specifically) if there was any advantage to learning how to draw in flash. it seems like a pain in the ass to learn how to draw again.

28 November 2007 - 20:43: EgyptUrnash replied...
What can I say, I never actually poke at the main site here these days. Most of the animation I do starts on paper, to be honest. I had traditional animation training and I still prefer to start with a bunch of paper and a pegbar. Depending on my mood and the look I want I'll (a) clean up on paper, then use Toon Boom to batch-trace and color the stuff, (b) use TB to clean up in the computer, or (c) use Illustrator for cleanup. I've also occasionally roughed stuff out in Flash and then brought it over to AI for cleanup. It depends on my mood and the project. I really try to avoid drawing in Flash if I can help it as its tools always produce really ugly shapes, and drop out the first half-second of my strokes on a regular basis. Also, do NOT try to transfer your pen tool skills over to Flash; Flash operates under the delusion that it's not a vector tool, and if you force the issue by trying to poke at it with the pen tool, it will make sure that you're very very very sorry.

28 November 2007 - 22:34: raypist replied...
okay, ill stick with drawing in AI. my real life drawing skills (what i had anyway) have decayed significantly. i feel much more comfortable with the mouse. the joy of humor cartoons is you can get away with any drawings as long as the joke is funny (or offensive). thanks for the tip, i dont feel as guilty about not learning all the flash tools now.