bravemouse

We call the document created while working in Flash, a "movie".  It is also often called a ".fla", after the file extension used when you save a Flash movie. To create a new Flash movie, go to File > New A "new document" dialogue box will open, asking you to choose from a whole lot [...]

The movie you edit in Flash is also called an ".fla".  To put that movie on-line you need to "publish the .fla".  That means you make a copy of the movie in a special format called  a .swf, which can be easily placed on-line. What are the .fla and .swf formats for? A .fla is [...]

This post is about the most basic parts of the timeline – the frames.  There are a couple of different types of frames, and it is crucial that you know what they are called. As you read through this post, try creating each time of frame,  moving them around, and deleting them. First, you need [...]

How to create a simple Frame by Frame animation Select the first frame in the timeline. Draw something in it. Select a frame further down in the timeline. Insert a Keyframe Insert > Timeline > Keyframe. You will see that the new keyframe you inserted is an exact duplicate of your first keyframe. It contains [...]

Shape tweening is used in the following situations: An element changing from one shape to another: square to circle, cow to pig, star to screwdriver etc. An element changing colour or transparency. A simple way to figure out when to use a shape tween, is this: Shape tweening is used to apply the kinds of [...]

To create a shape tween you draw the first and last frames of your animation on the timeline, and then let Flash insert the steps of animation in between. Select a blank keyframe,("frame 1" in this example) and draw the first shape. Make sure this shape is not grouped. Insert a keyframe further on in [...]

When you draw in Flash, you create vector images – very like the images you create in other vector programs like Adobe Illustrator, for example. A vector graphic is defined according to its geometric characteristics: the precise direction and curve of the line, the precise area of the fill. These are defined by anchor points.  [...]

The most useful drawing tools in Flash are the  Brush tool, the Selection Tool, and the Subselect tool.  There are many other great tools,  but for this introduction lesson, I'm going to focus just on these. The Brush Tool The Brush tool creates fills and will be the colour that is in the "fill colour" [...]

One of the most used panels is the Properties Inspector, which you will find at Window > Properties Try this out. Create a drawing on the stage.  Use the selection tool to select various parts of the drawing, and the stage itself.  You will notice that the Properties panel changes depending on what is selected. [...]

You may already have discovered Flash's strange way of dealing with overlapping shapes.  Try it out: Draw a shape. Draw another shape partly over it. Select one of the shapes and move them. Do you see how the shapes "eat" into one another? Grouping a shape in flash is a good way of making it [...]

Changing the colour and shape of an ungrouped shape. You can easily change the colour of a ungrouped shape by selecting it, and then clicking on the Fill Colour or Stroke Colour boxes. Find the Fill Colour and Stroke Colour boxes just below the Tools in the Tools panel. You can also find the Fill [...]

When you open a new Flash movie, by default there is only one layer in the timeline. What are layers for? Many animation effects need your content to be separated out into layers: for example, a Motion Tween will not work if there is more than one grouped shape on the layer. Layers allow you [...]