Yes! I've taken my first step in the world of animation!

I've just purchased ToonBoom Studio 4.0 yesterday, tried it out, and yes, I recommend it for any individual trying to practice animation. (Or someone who just wants to animate for fun.) It provides all the tools you need (just like flash), exports on .swf (just like flash) and is a whole lot cheaper than Flash. (Assuming Flash is still between $400-$700. ToonBoom was only $100 where I got it at.) So yes, with ToonBoom, you can create any Flash animation with even more tools, such as a lip synchronizer.

One thing I love most about this program is that when you import the audio, it splits the (purple) sound-strip into "cells", so when you click above it in the timeline, you can hear the syllable in that certain cell. That way you can draw in the mouth on the character and you know exactly what position the mouth should be!

Many of the cartoons you see on TV, (such as RobotBoy) were made with ToonBoom products. (Imagine that! x3) So using it is pretty cool. At first it's a little confusing but all-in-all, it's a great program to use and, in my opinion, better than Flash!

Well, as of now I'm currently working on an animation with TBS. I'll post t later when I'm done. =3

Pencil

Pencil

Pros: Pencil is probably one of the best beginner 2D Animation programs out there. It has a very simple layout, enabling even children to get the hang of it. It can produce both bitmap and vector graphics, enabling you to chose which kind you want to work with. Also, it exports .SWF files. It's freeware, which is kind of suspicious at first but it actually isn't that bad. If you would like to learn the feeling of using animation programs, I suggest you try this out first before Flash.
Cons: Even though you have an audio layer, when you export or preview it, it does not make sound. Also, if the paths aren't entirely correct, it'll be hard to fill in color because you'll get a pop-up message saying it's out of boundary. If you want to rearrange layers you can't, and if you'd like to use a layer for say, a background, you're going to have to make a new layer and then copy and paste the background. Sorry folks, no copying frames allowed.

All in all, it's great to use if you've either never used any animation programs before or if you're in Elementary School.

An Introduction

Hello there. My name is Kyrie, a 14-year old student. I usually spend my pastimes animating my thoughts using different programs. My dream is to one day become a 2D animator, either for a major studio or one founded by me.
My inspiration all started when I saw a video on YouTube where this guy animated a whole 4-minute cartoon by sketching each and every frame on paper, scanning it in, coloring all frames with photoshop, and assembling them using Adobe After Effects. Not only is that tedious and hard, it is also amazing once completed. So I tried my own animations using just photoshop and Windows Movie Maker. It didn't turn out like I wanted it.
But three months later, I meet this girl over deviantART named Lara, whom also animates traditionally. We talk about our animations and share skills. I really learned a lot from Lara. One thing I learned was that Flash was the best animation program out there. To this day, we're best friends and we both have dreams of being professional animators. We plan to go to college together to study 2D animation, and we even tried combining our animations to make a feature-length movie. (We failed at that, though. =P)
But even after discovering Flash, since the program is overpriced, I've been trying to find other alternatives to Flash. So far, I've been experimenting with different programs. Have I found one as good as Flash yet? Not yet..