One of the best books I know of has been made into a DVD set:

http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

I recommend the book, I have never seen the movies, so I cant say if they are good or not.

There's an app for iOS too. It has interactive examples and videos. It allows you to flip through some of the examples. I have the book too, but the app is so much better.

You can animate with Photoshop. It's not the easiest software to do it in, but you already have it and some artists are able to create some amazing things with it. Here's a list of animation software I have used. All great in their own way.

ToonBoom Animate (expensive, but probably the best)

ToonBoom Studio (lighter version of the above)

Flash (my Favorite)

After Effects (great puppet tools and for special effects)

Maya (3d)

3ds Max (3d)

FlipBook (mainly hand drawn animation)

Anime Studio (popular & affordable)

TVPaint (expensive)

Animation HD (iOS app)

AnimationDesk (iOS,Mac,Android)

Free:

Synfig Studio (Mac, Windows, Linux)

Pencil (Mac, Windows, Linux)

It's fair use. The red cross symbol has been in use long before American National Red Cross adopted it. Johnson & Johnson used the symbol on their band-aid products, Switzerland flag is an inverted red cross logo, the Knights Templar used a red cross, the U.S. military uses it.... The list is endless.

Red Cross Symbols

It's ok to use. Just don't use the words "American Red Cross" with it or "Band-Aid." I'm certain those are trademarked.

--Edit--

The following games use the red cross icon:

Tomb Raider

Doom

Team Fortress

Worms

Delta Force

GTA Advance

Call of Duty

Hmmm... It's looks 3d, but it's pixelated. A lot of the art assets appear to have been scaled up too, especially the baby looking thing toward the end of the video.

What I'd do is model it in 3d like jojoe said, render a pan, and scale it down to pixelate it to save space. You may need to touch it up depending on what software you use. You only need half the frames of the animation and then flip the frames to complete the pan animation.

<img src="http://sebastianchamplain.com/temp/blazingStarTiles.png" border="0" />

In addition, you can save space by only animating the base to where it meets the pillar. Make the pillar a tiled sprite and have it scroll with the base animation. Then you can flip the base to make the top support. If you want to save more space, I'd stop the animation when it got close to the edge of the screen and just let the last still frame scroll off the edge. I doubt anyone would notice it's missing a few frames at the end because the player's eyes are going to be focused around the ship and what's scrolling in from the right.

Does Scirra have an example for a C2 curriculum or plan to provide one for their education bundle?

Also, are any advance users willing to share their's?

Thanks!

LittleStain

That's good to hear. I assumed you didn't mean any harm by it. The fact is though, it does, if only on a subconscious level. The humor of the joke was created at the expense of new users, more or less, insulting their intelligence. And to be perfectly honest, I don't mind you poking fun and joking about other adults. They can handle it.

What I don't think you are taking into account is that there are a lot of children who visit this site, who want to make games, who also ask a lot of questions and they may not know how to search or find the answers they need. They might see your comment and similar comments by others, and find them discouraging. It might be an afterthought to you, but children tend to be very sensitive to those things.

Again, I understand you didn't mean anything by it, but I'd like to be more encouraging to younger users and for schools to adopt C2. I'm hoping you feel the same way.

edit: typo

LittleStain

I'm sure you mean it in good fun, but your comments come across to me as being very condescending. Not everyone's mind is wired like a programmer. That's the draw of C2. No programming required.

I think it would be better to encourage new users instead of mocking them. Only good things can come from it.

Congratulations! I wish you continued success! :)

After some thought, I agree with KazaaMafia (Johxn's idea is good too). I think the simplest thing you can do is find someone to host your game, like the arcade here or maybe Newgrounds, and then create a games page for it on your Wordpress blog. Maybe on the page you can explain what the game is, include some screenshots of it and then link a play button to the actual game. It may feel more seamless that way.

Update:

Just found this link. Maybe it will help you?

C2 Wordpress Plugin

Sebastian

Thanks for the color tweak. I didnt see that at first because my phone. Didn't show the detail, now that I am on my computer i can see the inside lines colored and outside black. That looks great.

Glad to be of assistance! I can't wait to see how your game turns out.

I created a shooter game from the beginners tutorial and want to show it on my blog. However, I can't figure out how to publish to Wordpress. It is a paid blog not the free ones.

Can you upload a .PHP file to your Wordpress theme in a paid account? It's been close to decade since I last used Wordpress, but this might work.

1) Open up the index.html in an editor, and add the following to the very top:

<?php

/*

Template Name: ChooseYourOwnTemplateNameHere

*/

?>

2) Whatever you chose for your template name, rename index.hmtl as that with the extension .PHP

3) Upload all the files for your game to your current Wordpress theme.

4) Create a new page in your Wordpress dashboard for your game.

5) Change the template name to the one you created for your game in the page options.

Great art style!

I think I like "A" the most. Have you thought about a combining "A" and "C" with the outer lines black and the inner lines colored?

<img src="http://sebastianchamplain.com/temp/sandy.png" border="0" />

I don't mean to nitpick, but the combination of mole and hints of hair from behind her left cheek looks like stubble to me. Maybe consider removing the mole or place it on the other side of her face? Maybe extend the hair longer? If not, I'm sure people like me will figure it out.

I really like your overall design. It's both strong and appealing. Good luck with your game!