I wanna make a short 5-10 minute animation but I have very little experience with making them. Does anyone know any good programs that I can use? Any tips? Anyone know anything about flash? I appreciate all your help.

Thanks

Hmm, depends exactly what you want to do. EX: Im pretty familiar with flash, and Im pretty sure a smart filmmaker could find a way to meld it with video. I had thought about making a sort of angel and devil type thing with animation with like a guy in the story suffering from sort of emotional problems of sorts, but I dont see a need since animation can be pretty, but how much of a purpose does it really serve. So back to the point, I would suggest flash.

Thanks.

Flash would totally work. You can export flash files in QT format to go directly into your NLE.

Other options:
After Effects is sorta like flash. ...well, the animation parts of flash. South Park was originally done in AE (not that their animation is extrodinary). It doesn't have paint tools, however. If you want paint tools for animating, check out commotion or combustion. As a video editor, I think the learning curve is easier going to these apps compared to flash. What the heck is "tweening" anyway? Just call it interpolation!

joren

If you want to do an animation use flash. i've got o' lot o' experience. The drawing tools are very good to use and they have a huge spectrum o' colors. It takes a while to learn. For instance, you must use Walking cycles, layers, etc. or else it takes up a whole lot o' memory. Also, the flash program is like 500 buckaroos but my friend got it off of Kazzaa for free. There is also a trial version for free(30 days)
Flash mos' definitly. Big ups to Brooklyn. As B.I.G would say "In shoot-outs stay low and keep firing/ keep extra clips for extra hits".