| When you define a motion tween as you learned to do earlier in this chapter, you must convert any raw shapes to a symbol or group and set the Tween property of the frames involved. Flash assists you with those tasks when you use the Create Motion Tween command. To use the Create Motion Tween command 1. | Open a new Flash document.
The document has one layer and one keyframe by default. (Starting with a new document makes it easier to see what happens when you use the Create Motion Tween command.)
| 2. | Using the drawing tools, create a shape on the Stage.
The shape winds up in keyframe 1 of layer 1.
| 3. | In the Timeline, select keyframe 1.
| 4. | Choose Insert > Timeline > Create Motion Tween.
Flash selects your shape and converts it to a symbol, giving it a default name. Flash sets the Tween property of keyframe 1 to Motion in the Frame Properties tab of the Property inspector.
| 5. | In the Timeline, select frame 10.
| 6. | Choose Insert > Timeline > Frame.
Flash adds frames containing a dotted line, indicating a broken tween (Figure 9.35). The tween sequence requires an ending keyframe.
Figure 9.35. Adding frames after choosing Create Motion Tween results in a temporarily broken tween, indicated by the dotted line in the Timeline. 
| 7. | In frame 10, reposition the graphic on the Stage.
Flash creates a keyframe in frame 10, with the symbol in its new position. The tween arrow now appears in the keyframe span (Figure 9.36). Note that frame 10's Tween property is set to Motion in the Properties tab of the Property inspector. If you want subsequent frames to be tween frames, leave the property as is; otherwise, you must change it.
Figure 9.36. After you create a motion tween over a range of frames, reposition the frame's content in the last frame to convert that frame to a keyframe and complete the tween. 
| 8. | To end the tweening sequence, select keyframe 10.
| 9. | In the Properties tab of the Property inspector, from the Tween pop-up menu, choose None.
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 Tips
If you choose Insert > Timeline > Keyframe in step 6 of the preceding task, you won't see the broken-tween line in the Timeline, because that command duplicates the content of the preceding keyframe. Flash considers the tween to be complete when it finds an ending keyframe with content. Nevertheless, your tween will still seem to be broken (it won't do anything) until you go into the ending keyframe of the sequence and make a change to its contentfor example, reposition it or change its color or size. If the Properties tab of the Property inspector isn't active, you can remove tweening status from a selected frame by choosing Insert > Timeline > Remove Tween.
Dissecting Flash-Created Motion Tweens When you choose Insert > Timeline > Create Motion Tween, Flash selects all the graphic elements in the active layer and converts them into one big symbol named Tween 1, Tween 2, and so on, based on the number of tweening symbols already created in the Flash document (Figure 9.37). It's a good idea to rename the tween symbol more meaningfully using the techniques described in Chapter 7. If the layer contains a single symbol, the Create Motion Tween command sets the Tween property for the keyframe span but doesn't rename the symbol or make a new copy in the library. Figure 9.37. The Create Motion Tween command turns graphic elements in the selected frame on the currently active layer into a symbol and names the symbol Tween 1, Tween 2, and so on. 
In addition, the Create Motion Tween command sets the Tween property of frames in the currently selected keyframe span to Motion. |
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