Summary


  • The Flash authoring environment includes several features that have been adapted from tools that are used for creating traditional animation. Onion skinning, keyframes, and tweens are the digital equivalents of layered transparent cels, keyart, and manual inbetweens.

  • There are three basic ways to create animation: frame-by-frame animation; two types of interpolated animation (Shape and Motion tweens); and script-controlled, auto-rendered Timeline Effects. Most projects will require a combination of all three types of animation.

  • You can use Shape tweens only to interpolate primitive shapes (including broken apart text), and you can use Motion tweens only to interpolate editable text, symbols, bitmaps, or groups. The new Drawing Objects in Flash 8 can be Shape tweened or Motion tweened.

  • You can apply new Flash 8 Filters only to Movie Clips, Button symbols, and text, but they are easier to edit and less likely to break than Timeline Effects.

  • Tweens add less to file size than frame-by-frame animation because Flash calculates the difference between the keyframes rather than having to store unique artwork for every frame in a sequence. However, tweens can be very processor intensive if complex transitions or alpha layers need to be interpolated and rendered.

  • You can modify the pace of tweened animation by extending or shortening the span of the tween and also by adjusting the Easing settings to create acceleration or deceleration in a sequence.

  • The new Custom Easing panel in Flash 8 (invoked by clicking the Edit button in the Property inspector) makes it possible to go beyond the Ease In and Ease Out settings available directly in the Property inspector. This opens a whole range of new possibilities for controlling the interpolation of properties in a tween. Properties can be set to progress along a single curve, or their individual curves can be modified to create more sophisticated tween effects.

  • You can modify and re-render Timeline Effects from the Settings dialog box that is invoked with the Edit option, unless you have opened them in Edit mode from the Document window or have manually adjusted the rendered frame span in the Timeline. Manually editing a symbol or frame span rendered by a Timeline Effect will "break" the Edit option, but leave you with all the editing options that you can use to modify standard symbols and tweens.




Macromedia Flash 8 Bible
Macromedia Flash8 Bible
ISBN: 0471746762
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 395

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