Advanced Flash Animation
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In the last tutorial we learned how to make a ball bounce. Big whoop. While this might entertain your two-year-old son, your nine-year-old dog, or your 90-year-old grandfather (it might actually give him a heart attack if you use the right combination of colors), it really is for the amateurs. In this tutorial we are going to get sued by Emeril Lagasse and WHAM! Kick it up a notch.
We're not just going to make balls bounce, we'll make 'em spin and maybe even blow up. There's no telling what we're going to do, so put on your hardhat, kiss your baby good-bye, and let's get to work.
For the first sample, we'll dive right in. We learned before how to make symbols, so go ahead and make a rectangle in frame one, and turn it into a symbol. Next, create a keyframe in frame 20 and drag the rectangle to the other side of the screen. Next, right-click on frame five and choose Insert Tween.
Now this is where things get tricky. In your property Inspector, you will notice a pull-down menu that reads Rotate. It gives you several options:
None: Does not rotate the object at all
Auto: Simply allows the object to slide to the side
CW: Rotates the object in a clock-wise fashion
CCW: Rotates the object in a counter-clockwise fashion
Choose CW first and press Enter. Now run the movie and watch as your rectangle rotates across the screen. Pretty nifty right? Now go back and choose CCW. Imagine what would happen to your grandfather if he saw your animating skills now!
If you look above the rotate drop-down menu, you will notice an option to change the Ease. Easing allows you to change the speed of the tween. If you choose -100, your animation will start off slow and accelerate rapidly to its end (much like Grandpa's heart). If you choose 100, the opposite will occur.
Next: Working with Defined Paths >>
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