Building My Own Flash Puppets: A few tips.

Yesterday, I started my long journey to making my own Flash Puppets after studying those made by others on Deviantart. Right now, working on Dapplewood's (well, the model that would be for a speculative Elementary Schoolboy in the EG universe) puppet, there are quite a few things I've learned that I would like to share for those who like to make their own puppets.

Note: This is for those who use Illustrator in their workflow. I'm certain those who use Flash/Animate CC fully to make their puppets have their own workflow.

1) If using duplicates of some parts (the hands and eyes for example), label the Illustrator layers as **Far and**Near (E.G. MainEyeFar, Hand Near). Naming them as Left and Right is unnecessary as you might do a turntable.

2) Plan out a hierarchy for the symbols. As Flash/Animate doesn't have a good layer parenting system, it's best to write out a puppet's hierarchy when you convert Illustrator parts to symbols. Symbols can be symbols with others. A good example of this is the arm; hand symbol can be symboled with the lower arm, and the two combined symbols can be combined with the upper arm to make one whole arm.

My current plan is to have a symbol that combines all the facial features for the front view at least.

3) Save Early and Save Often: Even under a different name and more animator friendly UI, it still has an issue with crashing.