How To Animate In Macromedia Flash Mx 2004

Macromedia Wink MX 2004 Department four: Flash Blitheness

In this department, you volition acquire:

Creating motion tweens
Creating frame by frame animations
Using motility guide layers
Create shape tweens
Adding timeline effects

Creating Animation

Introduction to Flash Animation

Despite all the newer features that make information technology possible to develop Rich Net Applications in Flash, at its heart, Wink is an animation tool. As such, it relies on the Timeline, which controls what the user sees on the screen (though this is no longer truthful in Flash MX Professional person). Creating animations in Flash is very similar to creating cartoons on paper and and then shuffling the newspaper to simulate movement. Each frame on the Timeline would represent one of those pieces of paper. As the playhead moves from frame to frame, the user sees whatever objects appear on the frames. With pocket-size differences in the objects in each frame, the objects appear to movement and change shape.

Of class, this is a very simplistic explanation of Flash's power. In reality, you no longer have to create minute variations for a moving graphic—Flash tin take two graphics and plot the steps required to gradually motion from the beginning to the second. This is called "tweening". ("Tweening" stands for "in between", referring to the middle frames Flash fills in for you lot.)

For complex animations in which it'due south important to show specific changes (like facial expressions), it'south better to add the graphic for each frame manually. But for simpler animations, Wink can non only fill in middle frames for you, only likewise morph an object's shape over the form of several frames, and plot a course of movement across the Stage based on lines or curves you lot draw. Wink'south built-in Timeline effects let you add pre-designed animation furnishings to objects on the Stage.

You aren't limited to graphics in Flash, either. You can introduce and fade out sounds and video, "change screens" (move to a new frame) based on user input, and control how objects are blithe on the Stage based on user input or other events. For instance, you tin can write a standoff-detection script that tells Wink to move the playhead to a unlike frame (to brandish a new animation) when two objects collide or motility too close to each other. Animations can be "nested" or embedded in other animations, which are nested in other animations and and so on, creating extremely complex but compact moving picture clips that can exist used over and once more.

Creating Motion Tweens

A motility tween is created by placing two instances of an object, each with different properties (color, size, position, etc.), several frames apart and then instructing Flash to fill in the heart frames. The motion tween displays a gradual change from the starting time object'south example to the second.

The start and end object instances are placed on special frames chosen keyframes, which you'll insert into the Timeline. A keyframe is simply a frame used to concur objects that represent changes in the animation (such as a new graphic) or deportment that control the picture.

To create a motion tween:

On the Timeline, select the layer and frame where yous desire the animation to starting time. In a new Flash document, you can select the first frame of Layer 1.
Place a starting object (for example, an instance of a grapheme) on the Stage. You lot should position it where y'all want the object to appear at the beginning of the blitheness.

On the Timeline, click a dissimilar frame on the aforementioned layer, several frames away from the starting frame.

In the new frame, insert a keyframe: from the Insert menu, select Timeline and then Keyframe. Or, right-click and select Insert Keyframe from the shortcut menu, or just press F6 on your keyboard.

The keyframe appears equally a blackness circumvolve within the frame:

When you insert a keyframe, Flash copies the objects on the Stage from the final keyframe and pastes them into each subsequent frame through the new keyframe. If you click on any frame between the two keyframes, you'll come across your object selected on the Stage:

The magic of animation is simply altering those objects. In frame-by-frame animation, you would select each frame in plow, create a new keyframe, and then move or replace the object. However, in a simple animation, Flash tin make these private changes for us based on the objects in the start and ending keyframes.

Right-click on any frame between the two keyframes and, from the shortcut carte du jour, select Create Movement Tween (this command is also available from the Insert Timeline submenu).

Wink indicates the motion tween with a forrad pointer leading from the first keyframe to the 2nd:

Remember, nosotros oasis't changed our object on the Stage, then the movement tween doesn't do u.s. much good—our car isn't going anywhere. Nosotros need to add together our ending instance of the object. We'll employ the aforementioned graphic on the Phase, but we'll motility it to a unlike location, then the blitheness will appear to show the car moving from ane point to the next.

Click the second keyframe on the Timeline to select it:

On the Stage, motion the object to a new location:

We tin can change other properties of the object, too, depending on the effects we desire to achieve. For example, to make the car gradually fade out every bit it drives away, change its Blastoff value to 0%:

The car is at present invisible in the final keyframe. On the Timeline, elevate the playhead back to frame 1. The machine, as information technology reappears on the Phase, moves backward to its starting position:

Test the movie by pressing Ctrl+Enter on your keyboard (or Cmd+Return for Mac users).
Notice that Flash automatically starts playing the blitheness…which continues to loop. When the playhead reaches the end of the Timeline (effectively, the last frame containing an object), it returns to the beginning and starts playing the blitheness all over once again. Y'all can tell Flash not to loop—but to stop when the animation is finished—by adding a end() activeness to the last keyframe:
1. On the Timeline, create a new layer and name it "Deportment". It's standard practice to keep lawmaking on a dissever layer created but for that purpose.

1. On the Deportment layer, insert a keyframe at the same location as the 2d keyframe on Layer 1 (for us, that's frame five):

1. Now, open the Actions panel (if necessary, select Deportment from the Evolution Panels submenu in the Window menu). Make sure the electric current selection displayed in the lower left-manus list box displays the correct layer and frame (Actions: Frame five). This location should too appear on the tab at the bottom of the Script pane.

1. In the Actions console, click the Global Functions folder to open information technology. Then click the Timeline Command folder to see a list of functions related to the Timeline.

Annotation:

If you can't see the listing boxes on the left side of the Actions console, click the arrow button on the left side of the Script pane.

1. Double-click the stop office to add information technology to the Script pane.

Flash inserts the code:

This is the only code you demand to stop the electric current animation. Y'all could accept just as easily typed it into the Script pane: stop();

On the Timeline, Flash inserts a small "a" into the keyframe, which tells you that an action appears on that frame:

Y'all can always adapt the length of an animation by clicking and dragging the second keyframe to a new location in the Timeline:

Flash automatically adjusts the motion tween to accommodate the new frames. If you practice accommodate the Timeline, be sure to drag the keyframe with your cease action to the new location:

Creating Frame-by-Frame Animations

As mentioned earlier, yous employ frame-by-frame animation when a graphic changes in every frame. Although it'due south more fourth dimension-consuming (and results in a larger file size) than tweening, frame-by-frame animation is essentially created the aforementioned way as tweened animations:

Click the layer and frame where you desire the animation to begin.
Insert a keyframe by pressing F6 on your keyboard.
Add the starting graphic to the Stage, in the position where you want it.
Click the next frame on the same layer and insert some other keyframe (F6) to copy the graphic from the terminal frame, or insert a blank keyframe (F6) if y'all want to add a new graphic.

For case, if you're animating a comic confront, the 2nd graphic might show the eyebrows slightly raised and the optics subtly widened. If the animation shows the aforementioned epitome in motion, nudge the position of the graphic.