Introduction to Flash MX 2004: Drawing, Timeline, & Simple Animation Lloyd Rieber

Workshop Objectives By the end of the workshop, you should be able to: How to create and modify simple graphics. Understand the difference between the fill and stroke of a flash graphic. Know the difference between symbols and instances of symbols. Know how to make a symbol (by pressing F8). Know the function and importance of keyframes to Flash animations and how to insert a keyframe on the timeline (by pressing F6). Create and test a simple movie.

Drawing with Flash Exploring the various drawing tools –Unique drawing features When modifying graphics… –Remember, each graphic has two parts: a fill and a stroke (its outline)

Simple Animation Concept of a keyframe Concept of tweening The difference between symbols and instances of symbols Common function keys –F8 — creates a symbol of an object selected on the screen. –F6 — creates a new keyframe –F5 — creates a new blank keyframe

Animation Tricks Rotating objects Scaling objects Fading objects (via alpha)

Creating Movies for the Web There are two main types of Flash files: –Authoring and editing:.fla –Published movies:.swf You can’t edit.swf files! Testing your movie actually creates a “.swf” file One button publishing –Also creates a “.swf” file and a HTML page which points to the.swf file.