Need some advice

[Dragonis]

Im VERY bored at the moment and want to try my hand at creating something a little less static. So i have decided to give animation a go. I was wondering what would be a good program to use, and where could i get it? It also needs to be able to play music, and i want a set number of frames spread EVENLY over a period of time that i decide. Im going to try to create a basic animation music video with a twokinds theme. suggestions? (im a quick study, so it doesnt have to be simple to use, though it will help)

[avwolf]

I'm a Flashcrafter myself, and I know it can do all the things you ask. Unfortunately, Flash isn't a cheap solution, though Adobe does offer a 30-day free trial. There are cheaper, but less featureful, products out there that can produce SWF files as well, encompassing most of the functions of Flash, including the ones you've highlighted. Sothink Quicker comes to mind, though it's a bit more expensive than it used to be.

[Dragonis]

Anything free spring to mind? im happy if it will allow me to use a number of cells that have been drawn by me. i dont mind taking the long and sometimes tiresome path, it at least gives me something to do.

[avwolf]

Well... You could possibly do it by hand via Flex (the Flash SDK; it's released for free, but you don't have a graphical environment and no timeline: you're writing code that instructs it what to do). There might even be an Open Source solution to the whole thing, but I haven't tried most of those to offer recommendations (being as I have Flash CS3 Professional, I don't have a particular need to look for alternatives ). Otherwise there's likely other options, say from a video-editing perspective.