Frame-By-Frame Animation; Layers In Animation; Creating Keyframes - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING FLASH Use Manual

Frame-by-frame animation

Frame-by-frame animation changes the contents of the Stage in every frame and is best suited to
complex animation in which an image changes in every frame instead of simply moving across the
Stage. Frame-by-frame animation increases file size more rapidly than tweened animation. In
frame-by-frame animation, Flash stores the values for each complete frame. For information on
frame-by-frame animations, see

Layers in animation

Each scene in a Flash document can consist of any number of layers. As you animate, you use
layers and layer folders to organize the components of an animation sequence and to separate
animated objects so they don't erase, connect, or segment each other. If you want Flash to tween
the movement of more than one group or symbol at once, each must be on a separate layer.
Typically, the background layer contains static artwork, and each additional layer contains one
separate animated object.
When a document has several layers, tracking and editing the objects on one or two of them can
be difficult. This task is easier if you work with the contents of one layer at a time. Layer folders
help you organize layers into manageable groups that you can expand and collapse to view only
the layers relevant to your current task. See "Using layers" in Getting Started with Flash.

Creating keyframes

A keyframe is a frame where you define changes in the animation. When you create frame-by-
frame animation, every frame is a keyframe. In tweened animation, you define keyframes at
significant points in the animation and let Flash create the contents of frames in between. Flash
displays the interpolated frames of a tweened animation as light blue or light green with an arrow
drawn between keyframes. Because Flash documents save the shapes in each keyframe, you should
create keyframes only at those points in the artwork where something changes.
Keyframes are indicated in the Timeline: a keyframe with content on it is represented by a solid
circle, and an empty keyframe is represented by an empty circle before the frame. Subsequent
frames that you add to the same layer have the same content as the keyframe.
To create a keyframe, do one of the following:
•
Select a frame in the Timeline and select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe.
•
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) a frame in the Timeline and select
Insert Keyframe.
162 Chapter 9: Creating Motion
"Creating frame-by-frame animations" on page 171.