If you're a fan of "Avatar" - the animated Nickelodeon series, not the M. Night Shayamalan epic fail of the movie - or any sort of supernatural action series, then you've probably witnessed the awesome flash of lightning effect before. Whether emanating from the hands of a superhero - or supervillain - or shooting out of a mutant's eyes, the lightning effect is super cool and also super doable at home using Apple iMovie.
This tutorial shows you how to use the deco tool available to users of Adobe Flash CS5. The deco tool can create both static and animated images, and this tutorial demonstrates how you can use the deco tool to quickly create a skyline picture in Adobe Flash.
This animation can be very useful to create banners, and shows you how to use ActionScript 3 and the timeline function of Adobe Flash CS3 to set the background of mountains and a moon. Then create a few flying bats and animate them to fly across the screen in a loop!
Add an extra level of security to your website by creating your own dynamic 'Buy It Now' button for PayPal-using visitors to your website. Coding this button is very easy, and you can even animate it to draw more attention to your webstore.
Add shine to your buttons and other basic shapes when you're animating in Adobe Flash CS3! Shiny buttons can add more depth to your project and give it more of a professional appearance. This tutorial shows you how to make shiny buttons for your next Flash animation.
This clip presents an overview of how to convert a movie file into a high-quality animated GIF within Adobe Photoshop. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular raster graphics editing software or a seasoned professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.
Once you've created a walking animated character in Flash, if you want them to look realistic you're going to have to give them a shadow. This video will show you how to do just that using the same movie clip as your character, which is the easiest way to do it. Don't let your character be afraid of their shadow. Watch this video.
Learn how to create a simple cracking animation when working in Blender. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial. For more information, including step-by-step instructions, take a look!
This is an introductory video for those looking to enter the exciting and profitable world of 3D graphics. It walks you through the first few steps of creating 3D animations using Apple's 3D modeling software Cheetah3D. You will learn how to animate and model simple images, and afterwards be well on your way to creating more advanced and salable 3D images.
Learn how to animate twinkling stars in Adobe Flash CS3, CS4, or CS5 very easily. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular Flash-development platform or a seasoned web developer looking to better acquaint yourself with the new features and functions of the latest iteration of the application, you're sure to benefit from this free software tutorial. For more information, and to get started making your own Flash-based twinkling starscapes, watch this video guide.
Learn how to use a movie clip symbol in Flash to repeat or reuse an animated library item. This free video software tutorial will walk you through the entire process. For detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started creating movie clip symbols within Adobe Flash yourself, watch this handy designer's guide.
Learn how to use After Effects CS5 to create a simple growing vine animation. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with CS5's new features, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, and to get started using this neat effect in your own AE projects, watch this free video guide.
Motion tweens are an important part of creating digital animation, and they work differently in Flash CS4 than in previous versions. This video tutorial teaches you how to use the new motion tweens to create great animation in adobe Flash CS4. It is much more intuitive than it was before. Digital animation has never been easier to create.
Flip book animation is a very cool video effect that is relatively easy to make. Check out this tutorial and learn how to make your flip book come alive as an actual cartoon! In this video, graphic designer and author, Alan Lastufka, shows you how to make your very own mini animated film using paper, pencil and some fancy editing technique. If you have a couple of hours to kill, why not make a flip book cartoon and impress your friends?
For anyone interested in creating a slideshow with stationary photos, follow the steps in this video tutorial. The video shows how to take multiple images to create an animated slideshow in Flash, with fluid transitions between each image change. Using this technique can add motion to pictures and added interest. By following these steps, you can learn how to take your photos to the next level with a professional touch in a matter of minutes.
One of the first things you may want to know when learning how to animate in Flash is how to orient an object to a path — the path, in turn, serving as a sort of metaphorical track for your Flash element.
For all those who have always wanted to sketch a dragon, here is one video which will give you step by step instructions on how to draw one. Dragons are creatures who breathe fire through their noses. The video is a quick watch and learn tutorial and anybody with a desire to possess a dragon sketch can master it in minutes. Use the sketch in comic book illustrations, animate it, or use it as a design on your favorite t-shirt.
Dissect the object of its parts. Select the curves to rotate, model or scale the whole character. The Maya hot keys are as follows: W translates, R scales and E rotates.
This web design software tutorial covers Bezier curves and animation in Flash. Paul Wyatt explains how to create Bezier curves as a motion guide, and animate a butterfly in Flash.
This video editing software tutorial outlines using keyframes in Final Cut Pro. Keyframes enable a video editor to have different properties of a clip change over time (a la animation). If you are new to animating in software packages or Final Cut Pro, this tutorial will help get you started.
This video editing software tutorial shows you how to export an image sequence from Final Cut Pro. This isn't usually the format people export in, but if you are planning on using the frames for animating or further editing, you may want to export your work on a per frame basis. If this is the case, watch and learn how to export an image sequence from Final Cut Pro.
This Houdini 9 tutorial shows you how to roll and unroll a surface without using expressions. Learn how to roll a surface with the Wireblend tool in Houdini 9. Once you create the rolled surface, you can also animate it.
Discover how easy and fun it is to set up your iGoogle homepage through this short animated product tour.
This new software turns still photos into talking animations! You can record audio and animate a photo to make these photorealistic animations.
This is one more cool illusion by maricv84, one where you slide a transparent sheet with black bars overtop a cryptic image to create an animated effect.
Reddit is home to tons of fun and unique content. A starting point for the various memes and videos that eventually make it into your Facebook feed, you could seriously spend all day just browsing different subreddits and not get bored.
Tired of squinting over your laptop? There are several ways to turn a big-screen TV into your new computer monitor and enjoy video games, web content, and photos like never before.
Before there was Gray's Anatomy, physicians and medical students used anatomical flap books to explore the inner workings of the human body—a scientific illustrated guide that takes its name from the moveable paper flaps that can be "dissected" to reveal hidden anatomy underneath. Similar to pop-up books, these instructional tools mimic the act of human dissection, allowing doctors and students to study the intricacies of the body normally concealed by flesh.
You can use the FreeForm plugin to create the look of cloth blowing in the wind - like an animated ribbon, or a banner waving in the wind. The key is in designing the displacement map to get a truly realistic effect.
You can simulate the look of fluids using the FreeForm plugin for Adobe After Effects. Play around with the color, viscosity and opacity of your liquid, and animate a container filling up as well. This tutorial covers everything you'll need to know!
Are you a fan of those old-school animated stop-motion movies? You can make your own easily, and the best way to get started is to make some durable, bendable puppets.
Having a badass player card / emblem will make you much better at Call of Duty Black Ops. Or at least look cooler while you kill the same number of people. This video will teach you how to make a Spongebob Squarepants emblem so you can express your love of children's animated programming with the shooter community.
Learn how to create layer and text animations in After Effects CS5 by altering position, rotation, opacity and scale parameters.
There's a reason that even today, almost 80 years since Walt Disney debuted his first animated motion picture, "Snow White," the classic Disney Princesses are still so popular with young girls everywhere. Rapunzel, Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine all share a strong will, lots of courage, and, admittedly, hotness.
This tutorial can work for anything you want to make swing, but it focuses on how you can make a chain swing back and forth when using the Blender 3D animation software. It also explains some of the artist concepts behind the process of animation.
Start with a new project, and then use the curves toolbox to create a pile of guts sitting on the floor. Then you can go in and use all the texture editors to add that special offal texture and create a realistic looking pile of guts!
In this clip, you'll learn how to use the AnimatedTransition class to create transitions between visual states in your Silverlight apps. Whether you're new to Microsoft's popular web application framework or a seasoned web developer merely looking to improve your chops, you're sure to find benefit in this free MS Silverlight programming lesson. For more information, including a complete demonstration and detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
After you've already modeled your dragon (or any other winged creature) in the 3-D modeling and animation software Blender, you can then set it to fly! This tutorial shows you how to apply a flight animation to your new Blender projects.
Make your own small .gif animations on a Mac! This tutorial shows you how to use GifBuilder Carbon to take small movie clips and render them into your own .gif animations! This will work for any movie file except Windows Media Player formats.
Motion tweening is one of the core techniques used to create Flash animations in Adobe CS5. This video demonstrates how an animator can use tweening together with the motion editor available in Creative Suite 5 to perfect any animated Flash projects.
