|
Written by Rawpulse
|
|
Friday, 24 March 2006 |
|
Learn to make a basic shape tween
The shape tween is one of the most basic effects Flash can create. It involves changing a shape into a different shape. To view an example of this, click here.
So, open Flash. Change the frame rate if you wish, although it's not terribly important. If you want to, it is possible via the Properties menu at the bottom. 25 is a good number. Having more frames will make the end file slightly larger, but the animations will be smoother.
Once you've set the frame rate, select the Rectangle Tool. On layer 1, frame 1, draw a square. To make a perfect square, hold shift while you drag the mouse cursor. The color and size doesn't really matter. Position the square to the left hand side of the stage.
Now, we need to add a keyframe further along in the timeline. Because our frame rate is set to 25, if we want the animation to last a second, we must place the keyframe on frame number 25. We want it to be longer than a second, so add a keyframe to frame 40. To do this, right click on frame 40 and select "Insert Keyframe"
Now, by this stage we will have two keyframes. One on frame 1, and 1 on frame 40. Now, select frame 40. Your square will be selected. Press the delete key to delete the square. It will still be found on the first frame, but we are now replacing it on frame 40. Select the circle tool, and draw a similar sized circle. Position it to the right hand side of the stage.
Now we need to add the shape tween. This is done so we do not need to animate the frames between 1 and 40. Flash does it for us. Select any frame betwen 1 and 40. Then go to the Properties menu. You will notice a Tweek drop down box. Select Shape from the box, as follows.
You're done! Test your movie by pressing Control + Enter. It should look like this. You could expand on this with different shapes and sizes.
|
