Animation basics – Adobe Flash Professional CC 2014 v.13.0 User Manual
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Animation basics
Note:
Motion tweens
Classic tweens
Inverse Kinematics poses (deprecated with Flash Professional CC)
Shape tweens
Frame-by-frame animation
Types of animation
About frame rates
Identifying animations in the Timeline
About layers in tweened animation
Distributing objects to layers for tweened animation
Creating tweened animations by distributing objects to keyframes
Additional resources
Like most things in Flash, animation does not require any ActionScript. However, you can create animation with ActionScript if you choose.
Types of animation
provides several ways to create animation and special effects. Each method provides you with different possibilities for creating engaging animated
content.
Flash supports the following types of animation:
Use motion tweens to set properties for an object, such as position and alpha transparency in one frame and again in another
frame. Flash then interpolates the property values of the frames in between. Motion tweens are useful for animation that consists of continuous
motion or transformation of an object. Motion tweens appear in the Timeline as a contiguous span of frames that can be selected as a single
object by default. Motion tweens are powerful and simple to create.
Classic tweens are like motion tweens, but are more complex to create. Classic tweens allow for some specific animated effects
not possible with span-based tweens.
Inverse kinematic poses allow you to stretch and bend shape objects and
link groups of symbol instances to make them move together in naturalistic ways. Once you have added bones to a shape or a group of symbols,
you can change the position of the bones or symbols in different keyframes. Flash interpolates the positions in the in-between frames.
In shape tweening, you draw a shape at one specific frame in the Timeline, and change that shape or draw another shape at
another specific frame. Flash Pro then interpolates the intermediate shapes for the frames in between, creating the animation of one shape
morphing into another.
This animation technique lets you specify different art for each frame in the Timeline. Use this technique to create an
effect that is like the frames of a film being played in rapid succession. This technique is useful for complex animation where the graphic elements
of each frame must be different.
The following video tutorial provides further explanation of the different types of animation:
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About frame rates
The frame rate, the speed the animation is played at, is measured in number of frames per second (fps). A frame rate that’s too slow makes the
animation appear to stop and start; a frame rate that’s too fast blurs the details of the animation. A frame rate of 24 fps is the default for new Flash
documents and usually gives the best results on the web. The standard motion-picture rate is also 24 fps.
The complexity of the animation and the speed of the computer playing the animation affect the smoothness of the playback. To determine
optimum frame rates, test your animations on a variety of computers.
Because you specify only one frame rate for the entire Flash Pro document, set this rate before you begin creating animation.
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