XP Tutorial 3 Creating Animations XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Elements of Animation Layers are used to organize the content of your document. A guide layer is a special type of layer that may be used to align objects on other layers to the objects on the guide layer. A mask layer contains a graphic object through which the content of a masked layer shows. A masked layer is below the mask layer. Frames contain the content for an animation and represent a particular instant in time. A keyframe is a frame that represents a change in the content from the previous frame. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX The Timeline The Timeline, which appears above the Stage in the Flash program window, is used to control and coordinate the timing of the animation by determining how and when the frames for each layer are displayed. Refer to Figure 3-4 in your textbook for the Elements of the Timeline. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX The Timeline XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX The Playhead The playhead indicates which frame is currently being displayed. The playhead is represented in the Timeline by a red rectangle with a red vertical line below it. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Changing the View of the Timeline Tiny, Small, Normal, Medium, and Large Tinted Frames Preview Preview in Context XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Organizing Layers Using the Timeline To select a layer you click it in the Timeline. To delete a layer, you select it and then click the Delete Layer button at the bottom of the Timeline. To add more layers, you can click the Insert Layer button on the Timeline. Layer Properties XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Layer Folders A layer folder is a container in the Timeline in which you can place layers. Layer folder Layers inside folder XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Scenes and Multiple Timelines Scenes provide a way to break up a long or complex document into smaller sections that are more manageable. Scenes can be added, deleted, and moved using the Scene Panel XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Multiple Scenes in One Document XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Creating Animation With frame-by-frame animation, you create the content for each individual frame. With tweened animation, you create the content for the beginning and ending frames, and Flash creates the content for the in-between frames. Quicker and easier to create XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Timeline Effect Dialog Box XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Adding a Timeline Effect Draw a marquee around the objects to which you wish to apply the timeline effect. Click Insert on the menu bar, point to Timeline Effects, and then select the effect you wish to apply. Apply your settings in the dialog box, and then click the OK button. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Frame-by-Frame Animation If your animation is to have 15 frames, you have to create the content for each of the 15 frames. Some of the content can be the same from one frame to the next, but other content can be slightly modified, to give the appearance of motion. For each place in the animation where you need an object to change, you add a keyframe. Once all keyframes are added, you can test the animation. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Frame-by-Frame Animation XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Testing a Documents Animation Once you create a document with animation, you need to test it to make sure it works correctly. Scrubbing is testing the animation by dragging the playhead with the mouse pointer back and forth through the frames. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Testing a Documents Animation To test the documents animation within the program window, click Control on the menu bar, and then click Play. To test a few frames of animation, scrub by dragging the playhead along the Timeline header. To test the animation in a Flash Player plug-in window, click Control on the menu bar, and then click Test Movie. To test the animation in a Web page, click File on the menu bar, point to Publish Preview, and click Default - (HTML). XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Tweened Animation You do not have as much control with tweened animation as you do with frame-by-frame animation. Motion tweening can be used to create an animation where the object changes its position, rotates, scales in size, or even changes in color. Shape tweening is used to change a shape into another shape over time XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Motion Tweening In order for an object to be animated using motion tweening, the object must be a symbol. If you have more than one object, Flash groups them and tries to animate them together. If an object is not to be part of a motion tween, then it should be placed on a separate layer. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Motion Tweening XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Graphic Symbol Animations You create a graphic symbol animation the same way you create a movie clip animation. Once a graphic symbol animation is created, instances of the symbol can be created on the Stage in the same way you create instances of movie clip symbols. You can specify whether you want the instances animation to play continuously, play only once, or play only one frame. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Graphic Symbol Animations Graphic instance properties in the Property Inspector Graphic instance play options XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Copying Animation Click the name of the layer in the Timeline to select the frames in the animation you wish to copy. Click Edit on the menu bar, point to Timeline, and then click Copy Frames. Insert a new layer, name it, and then select it in the Timeline. Click Edit on the menu bar, point to Timeline, and then click Paste Frames. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Repositioning Frames within a Layer Click and drag the mouse pointers through the frames you wish to reposition. Once you have selected the frames, release the mouse button to complete the selection. Drag the selected frames so that the first frame starts where you would like. Drag the playhead back to the first frame and press the Enter key. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Inserting Graphic Symbol Instances and Changing their Starting Frame Insert a new layer, name it, and then select it. While still in this layer, drag two instances of the symbol from the Library pane onto the Stage. Select one instance of the symbol. In the Property inspector, change the value in the First text box to the new starting frame. Click an empty area of the Stage and then press the Enter key to test the animation. XP New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash MX Testing the Entire Documents Scenes Click Control on the menu bar and then click Test Movie. When you are finished viewing the animation, click File on the menu bar, and click Close. Dont forget to save your work.