Summary

Congratulations! You've learned the fundamental skills of motion tweening. It's fun making Flash do all the work, especially after last hour's frame-by-frame animations. Look back at what you learned this hour, and you'll see that it is pretty simple: Just set two keyframes, specify how you want Flash to tween, and you have a motion tween! Although it is simple, when you add easing, rotating, and all the ways you can modify a symbol instance (scale, rotation, skew, position, color effect, and filter), you have numerous possibilities.

Just because the tasks this hour were fairly simple doesn't mean the motion tween is for simple effects. Actually, you should always consider motion tween before you choose shape tweening (covered next hour). Although some situations require a shape tween, motion tweens are always more efficient, and when used creatively can be very effective and natural looking.

Finally, I don't want to end on a sour note, but I do want to remind you of some of the points discussed last hour. Specifically, a few strategically placed keyframes (presented frame-by-frame) can often be just as effective as or even more effective than a computer-generated tween. The best animators think in keyframes. It's fine to employ Flash to come in and tween certain segments, but it's a skeleton of well-placed keyframes that makes a good animation.