I'm not sure I understand the question. The templates are exactly what you're after ( and as I mentioned you can use dantes fla files as templates -
Dante's Lovely Ladies - Official Goodbye).
You don't need a drawing tablet but you do need animate cc. Swf are output files only so you never work with those. The fla files are exported to swf once they're finished.
Could also add that if you don't have animate you can make a head in inkscape which is free and I'll convert it for you. Costumes won't work since you have to get the alignment right between parts.