There is something about tutorials on how to draw/animate/flash that really annoys me. I'm of the belief that animation, even in flash, is a form of art. And in art there is no right or wrong way to do things. So when someone has a tutorial, or a help book, or anything else, that 'teaches' them how to animate or draw, its really just teaching them how to copy someone else's work.
As a person who has never used a tutorial in my life, and never hopes to, the amount of stuff like this out there and the amount of people using it really cuts me deep. How can someone be expected to produce something original or entertaining if everyone is essentially following the same set of instructions.
Just like when we all learned to write, we strived to get our letters looking like the letters at the top of the page. Similarly a person doing a tutorial will strive to get his or her work looking like that in the example. Now I'm not saying that every person who has learned to draw/animate/flash produces the same work as everyone else who has. Just as everybody has different handwriting despite the fact that we all write the same letters.
But can you imagine the variation and creativity of people's handwriting if they had been told to work it out for themselves, with no examples to go from? The limits are endless.
The same thing applies to artistic things. When you follow a guide book on things such as these, you aren't developing your style, you are taking someone else's.
So I beg all of you, please, learn by doing. Try things out. Mess things up. Submit a thousand flashes that people hate and then finally get that one that people love, that is truly your own. You will be better for it.
Note: I know some smart ass is going to point out the fact that making up a new alphabet for every person would be an inefficient writing system, but that is not the point, and you know it.
fluffkomix
okay nvm delete my other comment i figured it out.
yes we did all write striving to make it look like the letters at the top of the screen, but eventually over time we all formed it to make it our own style.
if we all had learned to draw from a book like the one's you're talking about we would all start off the same but then eventually form our own style from it.