Software Trials - Flash

To understand how to create a Flash animation I will be using You Tube to find a tutorial which I feel will enable me to create a basic animation to ensure that I am familiar with the controls and functions. I shall view a few tutorials and once I found one that is presented clearly both vocally from the narrator and the quality of the video I will re-watch it again before following the steps needed to make the project.

Sunrise Animation

Tutorial Videos:

Step 1: After opening Flash I first created several layers. I achieved this by clicking on the button at the bottom of the Layers window as circled in the image below. I created five new layers. When a new layer appears in the it is named as Layer 1, Layer 2, etc. To change the name of the layer I simply double clicked and typed in the name of the layer which I required. In this instance, Sky, Sun, Ground, Clouds, Tree.

Step 2: Ensuring that I have the correct layer selected, on the tools on the left hand side I chose the rectangle and then selected the shade of blue I wanted for both the line and fill colours prior to drawing my rectangle.

Step 3: Again ensuring that I have the correct layer selected, in this instance the layer for the sun, I then chose the oval shape. I can find this shape under the rectangle tool and by holding the mouse button. A sub-menu with other options appears and it is from this sub menu in which I selected the oval tool. I then chose the colours I wanted from colour palette before drawing the shape to represent the sun.

Step 4: To be able to animate the shapes that I have created so far, and will be adding to the scene, I have to change them into symbols. This is achieved by selecting the object and then pressing F8. A Convert to Symbol dialogue box appears where I can name the symbol and in this instance convert the object to a graphic. This needs to be done on every object.

Step 5: To create the ground I followed the same procedure as in Step 2 and Step 4 respectively.

 Step 6: To create the clouds I followed the same procedure as in Step 3 and in Step 4 respectively.

Step 7: Within the clouds there are some blue lines that need to be removed. The removal of these lines is accomplished by clicking on the selecting tool in the top left hand corner (or pressing V), then clicking on the blue line that I wanted removed and then pressing delete.

Step 8: As there are three objects making up the cloud I want to select them all. To do this I use the Selection Tool draw a box which selects all of the clouds. It must be noted however, that to avoid selecting the other layers when doing this by going to the top of the Layers window and clicking on the Padlock icon locks all layers so that they can’t be moved or selected unintended. Then the layer that I want to work on I can click on the padlock only for that layer so I can work upon it.

Step 9: To make the tree I used the brush tool to paint the trunk for the tree.

Step 10: I then followed the procedures as in Step 2 and Step 4 respectively to create the leaves for the tree.

Step 11: To animate the symbols I first select the duration, in this instance 60 frames, and highlight them for all the layers. I then right click and select Insert Frames.

Step 12: I first position the Sun where I want it to start, in the bottom left hand corner, behind the ground. To make it easier for me to see the starting position, I have hidden the ground layer and to do this, just above the Layers window there is an Eye icon, and in similar manor to the Padlock, by pressing this turns on or off the visibility of the layers. If I am to click on the on the dot under the Eye icon of the layer I wish to hide a red ‘X’ appears signifying that the layer is turned off and therefore is invisible.

To make the Sun move from the bottom left to the top right of the scene I have to insert a key frame. To do this I right click on the frame which I want the sun to finish animating, and select Insert Keyframe.

Step 13: I then move the sun by dragging it to the position to the desired finishing position, the top right.

 Step 14: To make the sun animated I must now insert a Motion Tween. This is done by clicking anywhere in the time line on the layer of the sun and selecting Motion Tween in the Properties box. By pressing Enter the sun should animate from the bottom left hand side of the scene to the top right hand corner of the scene. I can now tell the Motion Tween is active by the line running across the timeline.

Step 15: I then follow the same procedure in Step 14 to create the Motion Tween for the clouds. What I also want to achieve is that the sun can be seen through the clouds and to do this I select the two Key Frames and then in Properties I changed the colour to Alpha and dropped the opacity to 50%.

Step 16: To test the animation before exporting I pressed CONTROL and ENTER. I felt the movie moved too fast and when I looked at the frame rate it was 25 frames per second.

Step 17: In the centre of the screen I double clicked on the 25fps and a dialogue box appeared. Here I was able to reduce the frame rate to 12fps which I feel makes this basic animation the right speed. See below for the final video.

Step 18:  To export the animation I go to File > Export > Movie (or CONTROL + ALT + SHIFT + S)

Step 19: I then choose the location to where I want the file exported to and what format the animation I want it. On this instance I have chosen a .mov file as I intend to upload this to my blog.

Step 20: The last step needed is to (if required) to change the Export Settings. I decided to opt for the default version as at this stage I am only trialling the software to decide if my final product is going to be made using Flash.

THE FINAL VIDEO