Well, no recommending anything illegal, first of all.
The sad truth is, Adobe doesn't offer anything for people who are starting out, beyond that 30 day trial. Flash is an extremely powerful program, yet most people only want to use it for a percentage of what it's capable of (and admittedly, I'm one of them).
Sometimes you can get a massive educational discount through your school (though that;s probably mostly colleges), but for starting out, Flash 6 is perfect. You can definitely get it for cheap, through ebay or Amazon or somewhere else like that.
Lets face it, though, there's clearly a demand and Adobe is not meeting it. And it really, really makes me mad at them for it. Most starting artists are going to be pirating Flash because they can't afford it, and there's no stripped down version that's, say, 100 bucks, and is for only animating and simple programming.
I honestly might try to get in touch with someone at Adobe and discuss this with them...
I'm a business, I bought Flash CS3 just because I have an Intel Mac, all my software that I use to work is bought and paid for, so I can't have any sort advocation of piracy in my forum.
That being said, Adobe is clearly sucking at delivering a product that is highly in demand.
Doodle, sketch, draw, design, fill notebooks with elaborate scenes, funny character designs, and gameplay ideas.
Find your own personal style and run with it. Craft characters and stories that you love.
Enjoy your own work, and don’t be afraid to show it off. Create.
