The Flash Opening Window

Timeline Layers

Stage Toolbox Symbol Library

Instance

Properties Panel

Flash Tutorials:
The Timeline organizes and controls a documents content over time in layers and frames. Like films, Flash documents divide lengths of time into frames. Layers are like multiple film strips stacked on top of one another, each containing a different image that appears on the Stage. The major components of the Timeline are layers, frames, and the playhead. Layers in a document are listed in a column on the left side of the Timeline. Each object on the stage should have its own layer. Frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer name. The Timeline header at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers. The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage. As a document plays, the playhead moves from left to right through the Timeline. The Timeline status displayed at the bottom of the Timeline indicates the selected frame number, the current frame rate, and the elapsed time to the current frame. Note: When an animation is played, the actual frame rate is displayed; this may differ from the documents frame rate setting if the computer cant calculate and display the animation quickly enough.

Parts of the Timeline A. Playhead B. Empty keyframe C. Timeline header D. Guide layer icon E. Frame View pop-up menu F. Frame-by-frame animation G. Tweened animation H. Scroll To Playhead button I. Onion-skinning buttons J. Current Frame indicator K. Frame Rate indicator L. Elapsed Time indicator

The Timeline shows where animation occurs in a document, including frame-by-frame animation, tweened animation, and motion paths. Controls in the layers section of the Timeline let you hide, show, lock, or unlock layers, as well as display layer contents as outlines. You can drag frames to a new location on the same layer or to a different layer. Frames

Function Key -- F5 insert frame; F6 insert keyframe

Just About All You Ever Wanted To Know Frames in the Timeline When the Timeline opens: It displays one layer with hundreds of little boxes. Each box corresponds to a single frame. You can make those frames bigger or smaller by clicking the pop-up box at the end of the line of frame numbers (it has what looks like a little Frankenstein scar). In the single layer, the first box is outlined in black and contains an empty circle. That first box is a blank keyframe. The rest of the boxes are outlined in gray. Boxes with gray outlines are called "protoframes" - they're placeholders. Every fifth protoframe is tinted gray; the rest are white. A frame with an empty circle means it is a blank keyframe with nothing in it. Put something in it, and the empty circle changes to a black circle, which indicates a keyframe.

An exercise that explains this: 1. Open a new Flash document. This default Timeline appears - one layer and one blank keyframe in Frame 1. 1. Click on the gray protoframe for Frame 10. 2. From the Insert menu, choose Timeline > Blank Keyframe (right-click the mouse and select Insert Blank Keyframe from the menu). An empty rectangle appears in Frame 9, and a black line separates Frame 9 from Frame 10. The rectangle indicates the last frame of content for the previous keyframe, and the black line shows

where content from one keyframe ends and another begins. Notice that the gray-outlined protoframes 2 through 9 are white. 3. Click on Frame 1 and, on the Stage, draw a ball (in the tools bar, select the circle tool). Notice that the empty circle in Frame 1 changes to a black circle, and Frames 1 through 9 - the in-between frames - are tinted gray. This means that Frame 1 has a keyframe with content, and the shading means that the content appears in all the frames from Frame 1 through Frame 9. The empty rectangle signals the last frame that displays Frame 1's content. Frame 10 still has a blank keyframe that indicates it's empty. Click on it to see what happens on the Stage. 4. Now, click on Frame 5 and insert a Blank Keyframe. This removes all the content from that frame, and all the frames in-between Frame 5 and Frame 10. This shows that when you insert a keyframe, you're changing what comes before and what comes after, not just the individual frame that you've clicked on. Note: There are two commands for creating keyframes. When you Insert a Blank Keyframe, you make a keyframe that's empty so that you can change the contents of the Stage completely. When you insert a Keyframe, it duplicates the content of the preceding keyframe. 5. Click on Frame 3 and choose Insert > Timeline > Keyframe. The contents of Frame 1 are duplicated in Frame 3. The empty rectangle in Frame 4 signals that it's the last frame in which the content from the previous keyframe in Frame 3 appears. 6. Click on Frame 1 and delete the ball. 7. Click on Frame 3. The ball's there. When you create a new keyframe as you did in Frame 3, the content becomes completely separate from the previous keyframe's content. What you do in Frame 1 does not affect the content in Frame 3. How to Add Frames It's easy - and depends on whether you want to add a few frames, or a whole bunch of frames. An Exercise that explains this: 1. Open a new Flash file. 1. Insert a Keyframe in Frame 10. (Flash automatically inserts a Blank Keyframe, because there's no content in Frame 1.) 2. Click on Frame 1, and draw a ball on the Stage. 3. You want to increase this movie by one frame, so click on your arrow tool and then click on one of the inbetween grey frames, and choose Insert > Timeline > Frame. The empty rectangle moves to Frame 10, and the empty circle moves to Frame 11, indicating that this movie clip grew by one frame. A short-cut is to hit F5 as many times as you want frames. 4. Another way [useful for increasing a span by many frames at a time - say 10 or more -- rather than just a few]: Say you wanted this span to grow by five more frames. Click and drag five in-between frames (DON'T include a keyframe or blank keyframe). 5. Choose Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. 6. Click outside the frames on the Timeline to deselect the frames you copied. 7. Click on one of the in-between frames. Choose Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames. The span of in-between frames is increased by five frames. If you want to add five more, just Edit > Timeline > Paste again. If you did this to one of a series of spans, for example, all the other spans would be pushed along the timeline. In other words, making one span grow doesn't decrease the length of the othersit just shoves them along the timeline. 8. Flash automatically inserts a keyframe at the insert point. If you don't want it, click on it and choose Modify > Timeline > Clear Keyframes. How to Delete Frames Note: Flash has two ways to delete frames - Clear Keyframe and Remove Frames. They're a little confusing. The way to figure out which one to use is to ask yourself why you want to eliminate a frame. If you want to eliminate a frame because you want to reduce the length of the movie, then select a frame, and choose Edit > Timeline > Remove Frames, or Shift-F5.

If you want to remove the status of a keyframe (and therefore, its content), and keep the movie the same length, then select a keyframe or blank keyframe and choose Modify > Timeline > Clear Keyframe (or hold down the mouse and select Clear Keyframe from the menu). Clear Keyframe changes a keyframe or a blank keyframe into an in-between keyframe. It removes the content it contained. The new in-between frame displays the content of the previous keyframe. An Exercise that explains this: 1. Open a new Flash file. 1. Insert a Keyframe in Frame 10. 2. Click on Frame 1 and draw a ball on the Stage. All the frames between Frame 1 and 9 contain the ball. 3. Click on Frame 5 and insert a blank keyframe. Only the frames between Frame 1 and Frame 4 contain the ball now. 4. With Frame 5 still selected, draw a square on the Stage. Play the movie, and see a ball in the first four frames, and a square in the next five frames. 5. But you've decided that you don't want that square after all. You only want the ball to appear in all the frames. Click on Frame 5, then choose Edit > Timeline > Remove Frames . The keyframe doesn't disappear; the movie clip just shortens by one frame. 6. So, click on Frame 5, then choose Modify > Timeline > Clear Keyframe (or hold down the mouse and select Clear Keyframe from the menu that appears)_. The keyframe and its content disappear, the frame becomes an ordinary in-between frame again, and picks up the content from the previous keyframe (Frame 1). You can, of course shorten a movie clip by removing several frames at once by clicking and dragging over the in-between frames to be deleted, then choosing Edit > Timeline > Remove Frames. (You can't do this by choosing Edit > Cut Frames - that just inserts a blank keyframe and a bunch of empty frames.) You can also eliminate a particular graphic or image altogether by including the keyframe and all of its associated inbetween frames by selecting them all and choosing Edit > Timeline > Remove Frames.

About tweened animation

Flash can create two types of tweened animation: In motion tweening, you define properties such as position, size, and rotation for an instance, group, or text block at one specific time, and change those properties at another specific time. Convert object to a symbol (movie clip). You can also apply a motion tween along a path. In shape tweening, you draw a shape at one specific time, and change that shape or draw another shape at another specific time. Do not convert to a symbol. Flash interpolates the values or shapes for the frames in between, creating the animation. Note: To apply shape tweening to groups, instances, or bitmap images, break these elements apart (^B). To apply shape tweening to text, break the text apart twice (^B)(^B) to convert the text to objects. Tweened animation is an effective way to create movement and changes over time while minimizing file size. In tweened animation, only the values for the changes between frames are stored. To quickly prepare elements in a document for tweened animation, distribute objects to layers. For video tutorials about Flash animation, see the following: Creating shape tweens: www.adobe.com/go/vid0124 Creating motion tweens: www.adobe.com/go/vid0125

Publishing your movie File -> Publish Settings

Select filename and location -swf file is for plugging-in to web page -- html creates a new web page with the flash movie. Check the desired box. Then Publish

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Manage frames and keyframes in the Timeline

You can perform the following modifications on frames or keyframes: Insert, select, delete, and move frames or keyframes. Drag frames and keyframes to a new location on the same layer or on a different layer. Copy and paste frames and keyframes. Convert keyframes to frames. Drag an item from the Library panel onto the Stage to add the item to the current keyframe. Flash offers two different methods for selecting frames in the Timeline. In frame-based selection (the default) you select individual frames in the Timeline. In span-based selection, the entire frame sequence, from one keyframe to the next, is selected when you click any frame in the sequence. You can specify span-based selection in Flash preferences. Insert frames in the Timeline To insert a new frame, select Insert > Frame. To create a new keyframe, select Insert > Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) the frame where you want to place a keyframe, and select Insert Keyframe from the context menu. To create a new blank keyframe, select Insert > Blank Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) the frame where you want to place the keyframe, and select Insert Blank Keyframe from the context menu.

Select one or more frames in the Timeline To select one frame, click the frame. If you have Span Based Selection enabled, clicking one frame selects the entire frame sequence between two keyframes. To select multiple contiguous frames, Shift-click additional frames. To select multiple discontiguous frames, Control-click (Windows) additional frames. To select all frames in the Timeline, select Edit > Timeline > Select All Frames.

Copy or paste a frame or frame sequence Do one of the following: Select the frame or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select the frame or sequence that you want to replace, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh) and drag the keyframe to the location where you want to paste it.

Delete a frame or frame sequence Select the frame or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Remove Frame, or right-click (Windows) the frame or sequence and select Remove Frame from the context menu. Surrounding frames remain unchanged Move a keyframe or frame sequence and its contents Drag the keyframe or sequence to the desired location. Change the length of a tweened sequence Drag the beginning or ending keyframe left or right. To change the length of a frame-by-frame animation sequence, see Extend the duration of a keyframe animation Press Alt (Windows) and drag the keyframe to the frame that you want to be the final frame of the sequence. Convert a keyframe to a frame Select the keyframe and select Edit > Timeline > Clear Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) the keyframe and select Clear Keyframe from the context menu. The Stage contents of the cleared keyframe and all frames up to the subsequent keyframe are replaced with the Stage contents of the frame preceding the cleared keyframe. Add an item from the library to the current keyframe Drag the item from the Library panel onto the Stage. Specify span-based frame selection 1. Select Edit > Preferences. 2. 3. 4. Select the General category. In the Timeline section, select Span Based Selection. Click OK.

Creating and animating masks: www.adobe.com/go/vid0127

Types of symbols
Each symbol has a unique Timeline and Stage, complete with layers. You can add frames, keyframes, and layers to a symbol Timeline, just as you can to the main Timeline. When you create a symbol you choose the symbol type. Modify -> Convert to symbol select type. Use graphic symbols for static images and to create reusable pieces of animation that are tied to the main Timeline. Graphic symbols operate in sync with the main Timeline. Interactive controls and sounds wont work in a graphic symbols animation sequence. Graphic symbols add less to the FLA file size than buttons or movie clips because they have no timeline. Use button symbols to create interactive buttons that respond to mouse clicks, rollovers, or other actions. You define the graphics associated with various button states, and then assign actions to a button instance.

Use movie clip symbols to create reusable pieces of animation. Movie clips have their own multiframe Timeline that is independent from the main Timelinethink of them as nested inside a main Timeline that can contain interactive controls, sounds, and even other movie clip instances. You can also place movie clip instances inside the Timeline of a button symbol to create animated buttons. In addition, movie clips are scriptable with ActionScript.

Select objects with the Selection tool

The Selection tool selection marquee. Note: To select the Selection tool, you can also press the V key. To temporarily switch to the Selection tool when another tool is active, hold down the Control key To select a stroke, fill, group, instance, or text block, click the object. To select connected lines, double-click one of the lines. To select a filled shape and its stroked outline, double-click the fill. To select objects within a rectangular area, drag a marquee around the object or objects to select. To add to a selection, hold down the Shift key while making additional selections. To select everything on every layer of a scene, select Edit > Select All, or press Control+A. Select All doesnt select objects on locked or hidden layers, or layers not on the current Timeline. To deselect everything on every layer, select Edit > Deselect All, or press Control+Shift+A To select everything on one layer between keyframes, click a frame in the Timeline. To lock or unlock a group or symbol, select the group or symbol, and then select Modify > Arrange > Lock. Select Modify > Arrange > Unlock All to unlock all locked groups and symbols. lets you select entire objects by clicking an object or dragging to enclose the object within a rectangular

Select objects with the Subselection tool

When you select a shape, line, or fill with the Subselection Tool, it allows you to see and edit the paths that make them up, including the individual vector points and their "handles". You can select one or more vector points and drag them about, or you can select a single vector point and by dragging the "handles" about, adjust the curves to either side of the point to change your shape.