Ladies and Gentlemen; this is Flash, but not as you know it.

I'd like you to take a moment... take off those cool VR spex you bought yesterday for a second... and just imagine a World where Flash was free.

Pretty difficult, huh? I mean, sure, it's not that expensive. But a few, like myself, have been out of touch with this tool due to its inadvertence, and my unwillingness to submit to Flash and its really complicated interface. Heck, even watching Animator vs. Animation was enough for me to dismiss the interface entirely.

So the other day, I took a step back from all my little schemes for World Domination, and went looking for an Animation Tool that was; A) Free, and; B) would allow both the use of colour and a paint-like interface. This is where most of you go “Aaah, he found Flash’s trial, and now he wants it.” However close you would be if you thought this, you are, indeed, wrong.

Screenshot - Import settings (sound in particular)

No, I came across a free beta program called Pencil. A step back from " Paint"? Not at all (I struggle to find the point of making an article about a worse version of Paint); It is, in fact, very much like Flash, if not simpler and more raw. Yes, from the screenshots (scattered throughout this article as links), it does seem to have limited features and such. But as a frequent animator who’d like to move on from Pivot Stickfigure Animation and Easytoon (not entirely though), I was blown away with what Pencil had to offer for free. Originally designed and developed by Patrick Corrieri as one of the only Animation tools to be on offer for free for the Mac, the program was taken on by Pascal Naidon and his Qt coder, and several new features were introduced. Even now, the program is still being enhanced; it now supports tablet features, such as pressure-sensitivity. This enticing program now allows the creation of .swf files as well, which is also an original production of Flash.

Screenshot - tablet settings

Yes, when I found this beta program, I thought I’d hit the sweet spot. I was left in the dark at points, not having been supplied with much offline instruction, but I was able to gradually understand many of the features myself, through experiment. Eventually, I even finished my first key-frame animation; and I was happy. In my reluctance to accept Flash as a worth-the-money program, I had taken on a very, very similar idea in the form of a very very similar program, and completely overlooked my ignorance. In a way, I don’t regret doing so; I’d much rather stick to this and save my money than take a bite out of my bank account for Flash.

Screenshot - Onionskin animation technique

I was disheartened, however, to discover the lines in the README supplied:

"Pencil is now an animation software and its name is likely to change in the future."

We all know what happens when a free software like this changes its name: It loses the “free” title. I knew at once that eventually, when Pascal rightfully believes the software’s good enough, it would gain a price tag. That’s not going to stop me checking the site for updates, though: I’m going to get the most out of this program up until that point, and we’ll see if it’s worth the money afterwards.
So in conclusion; I can’t tell you how much time you have to download this, but it won’t be free forever. SO:

Are you an animator with Flash? Good for you.
Are you an Animator without but wanting Flash, or are keen to start animating? Download Pencil. PLEASE.

Pencil Site