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Basic
Motion Tween
written by Chris Georgenes |
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| This tutorial demonstrates how to create a very
basic motion tween in as few steps as possible. I have seen countless
tutorials about how to make this basic flash animation, and almost
all of them include several unnecessary extra steps, and in some
cases, omit necessary ones.By the end of this tutorial you will
have made the following animation: |
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- Use any of the shape tools or drawing tools to create a shape
- doesn't matter what it is - just keep it simple for now.
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| 2. With the arrow tool (black arrow) select your
shape (or CTRL + A). We must convert our shape to a symbol before
applying a motion
tween. If we apply the motion tween first, Flash will automatically generate
a symbol with our shape and give it a generic name ("tween 1").
This makes it difficult to keep our symbols organized and to locate later
as our Flash movie becomes more complex. Convert the shape to a symbol
by hitting the "F8" key, or, from the drop down menu, Insert > Convert
To Symbol. In the "Convert To Symbol" dialog box type in a unique
name for your shape and choose it's behavior (I chose "Graphic" for
this example). For more information on symbol behaviors, hit the "F1" key
and search help documentation. We now have what is referred to as an "Instance" of
our symbol on the stage. |
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| 3. Next, select a new frame further down the timeline
(I chose frame 20). Doesn't matter right now which frame you
choose, it will be easy to edit that later. With this 2nd frame
selected (it should now be shaded), hit the "F6" key
or from the drop down menu, Insert > Keyframe. You should
now have 2 keyframes on your timeline and the frames between
them should be shaded gray. Each keyframe contains it's own instance
of our symbol. |
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| 4. With the arrow tool and the playhead still on
your 2nd keyframe, click and drag your symbol to a new location
anywhere on the stage. |
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| 5. Right click (Windows) or Command click (Mac)
anywhere between the 2 keyframes and from the drop down menu
choose "Create Motion Tween." |
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| Done! Now test or playback your movie to see your
shape move across the stage. |
I hope this lesson helps you. I have provided the source file for you to download
and play around with. If you have any questions feel free to drop me an email
or IM me: |
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Download source (Flash MX) |
