Flash CS3, the latest version of Flash is out and available to everyone. If you haven't already upgraded you might be wondering if you should spend the money on the latest version. The full price is a hefty $700, but you can upgrade for $200 if you own a previous version of Flash.

I have upgraded from Flash 8 to Flash CS3 and have compiled a list of the new features and my opinions about them in regards to how they relate to creating cartoon animation in Flash.

• Adobe Interface:
Since Adobe bought out Macromedia, this latest version tries to incorporate the same look and feel across all of the Adobe products. You can move your windows and panels differently in order to make more space on your screen. Nothing wrong with that, but not the greatest reason for upgrading.
• New Drawing Tools: The Pen tool has more ways to modify lines. The Oval Tool and Rectangle Tool have new controls. You can adjust the curve of the corners for rectangles and can pop out the center of an oval or only show portions of it. Great if you want to make a pie chart, but that's about it. These tool changes are more suited to graphic designers rather than artists and animators.
• Photoshop and Illustrator Import: If you use these other programs and import artwork into Flash on a regular basis, then you will like the new ability to have greater control over which layers are imported and whether you want them to arrive as symbols or not. Since I create all of my art in Flash and don't use these programs, these features won't even get used.
• Copy Motion Tweens: Although I haven't personally found a use for this yet, I believe it will come in handy at some point. You can select tweened animation on a layer and copy the movement and tween information and then apply it to another symbol by copy and pasting. You can also copy and paste the info onto the new symbol as action script code instead if you like, but you better have sharp coding skills in order to edit it.
• Action Script 3.0 The new action script code is so different that it's like learning a new language altogether. That may not be a big deal if you just want to make cartoons, but if you want to add a simple "replay" button at the end of your film...look out! What was once just two clicks is now a gigantic nightmare! With the new code you'll need to click around 20 different times in various categories and type in 6 different names or titles. Luckily this can all be avoided by changing your version of Action Script code back to version 2.0 and it will work easily again.

Ryan is a professional animator and artist. Over the last ten years, he has worked with such studios as Warner Bros. and Dreamworks on various film projects. As co-owner and art director of Cartoon Solutions, Ryan has won many awards for his short films and television commercials featuring Flash animation. Now his Flash tutorial videos can help you to acquire the same skills to improve your Flash animations.

Cartoon Solutions has many Flash CS3 tutorial videos, some of which are absolutely free!

Three Full Flash CS3 training courses are available as well:

• Flash CS3 Drawing Course: Contains 17 Flash tutorial Videos to help you improve your drawing skills as well as help you create your own character in multiple views with mouth positions and eyeblinks.
• Flash CS3 Animation Course: Contains 15 Flash tutorial Videos that teach traditional animation principles and techniques in the Flash environment. Learn about smooth, high quality animation, acting, dialogue and cycles while creating your own multi-scene animation.
• Flash CS3 Master Course: Combines the Flash Drawing Course and the Flash Animation Course for a complete course that covers all aspects of drawing your own characters and animating them, at a discounted price.

• Character Animation using Symbols
• Animating dialogue using the "Mouth Comp" system
• Creating an Explosion Strobe Effect
• Changing the colors of a Symbol

• Animating a Walk Cycle
• Building a Character for Animation
• Creating Mouth Positions
• Drawing Character Faces
• Drawing with the Brush Tool

• Flash CS3 Video Tutorials
• Flash CS3 Training Curses