Adobe Flash

Create a Timeline Animation in Flash

Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8 provide powerful tools for creating animation. Most simple animation in Flash is done using a process known as tweening. Tweening is short for "in between" and refers to filling in the frames between two keyframes so that a graphic displayed in the first keyframe changes into the graphic displayed in the second keyframe.

There are two types of tweening that you can create in Flash?a motion tween and a shape tween. The main difference between motion tweening and shape tweening is that motion tweening operates on grouped objects or symbols, and shape tweening is used with objects that are not symbols and are ungrouped.

First, you'll open the start file for the lesson and set up your workspace to use an optimal layout for taking lessons.

  1. To open your start file, in Flash select File > Open and navigate to the file:
    • In Windows, browse to boot drive\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash 8\Samples and Tutorials\Tutorial Assets\ Creating Graphics\Timeline Animation and double-click animation_start.fla.
    • On the Macintosh, browse to Macintosh HD/Applications/Macromedia Flash 8/Samples and Tutorials/Tutorial Assets/Creating Graphics/Timeline Animation and double-click animation_start.fla.
    The Timeline Animation folder contains completed versions of lesson FLA files for your reference.
  2. Select File > Save As and save the document with a new name, in the same folder, to preserve the original start file.
  3. Select Window > Workspace Layout > Default to modify your workspace for taking lessons.
  4. In the Stage View pop-up menu, in the upper-right side of the Timeline, select Show Frame to view both the Stage and the workspace.
  5. If necessary, drag the lower edge of the Timeline (Window > Timeline) down to enlarge the Timeline view. You can also use the scroll bar to scroll through the layers.