Working With Existing Animations - MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS MX 2004-USING FIREWORKS Use Manual

Animation export formats
After you create and optimize an animation, it is ready to export.
Animated GIFs give the best results for clip art and cartoonlike graphics. For information about
exporting animated GIFs, see
You can export the animation as a Flash SWF file, and then import it into Macromedia Flash. Or
you can skip the export step and import your Fireworks PNG source file directly into Flash. This
option gives you the most control over how your animation is imported. You can import all layers
and frames of your animation if desired, and then further edit them within Flash. For more
information, see "Working with Macromedia Flash MX 2004" in Working with Other
Applications on the Fireworks Support Center at www.macromedia.com/support/fireworks.
You can also export frames or layers from your animations as multiple files. This can be useful
when you have many symbols on different layers for the same object. For example, you can export
a banner ad as multiple files if each letter of a company name is animated in a graphic. Each letter
is separate from the others. For more information about exporting layers or frames to multiple
files, see "Exporting frames or layers" on page

Working with existing animations

You can use an existing animated GIF file as part of your Fireworks animation. There are two
ways of using the file: you can import the GIF into an existing Fireworks file, or you can open the
GIF as a new file.
When you import an animated GIF, Fireworks converts it to an animation symbol and places it in
the currently selected frame. If the animation has more frames than the current movie does, you
can choose to automatically add more frames.
Imported GIFs lose their original frame delay settings and assume the frame delay of the current
document. Because the imported file is an animation symbol, you can apply additional motion to
it. For example, you can import an animation of a man walking in place and then apply direction
and motion properties to have the man walk across the screen.
When you open an animated GIF in Fireworks, a new file is created and each frame in the GIF is
placed in a separate frame. Although the GIF is not an animation symbol, it does retain all the
frame delay settings from the original file.
After the file is imported, you need to set its file format to Animated GIF to export the motion
from Fireworks.
To import an animated GIF:
Choose File > Import.
1
Locate the file and click Open.
2
Click Yes to add additional frames to your animation.
3
If you click Cancel, only the first frame of the animated GIF is displayed. Although the whole
document is imported, you must add additional frames to view it.
To open an animated GIF:
•
Choose File > Open and locate the GIF file.
"Exporting an animation" on page
251.
250.
Working with existing animations 223