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Flash Learning Guide

Animation Learning Guide for Flash CS4 Professional

Adobe Flash CS4 Professional offers several ways to include animation in your projects. The Animation Learning Guide for Flash explains how to use all of these animation types in Flash CS4 Professional, including the new and improved way of creating and editing motion tweens using the timeline and Motion Editor. Explore the sections below to dive into whatever topic interests you.

Note: This learning guide introduces animation in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional and provides you with tools for developing your skills. Always consult Flash CS4 Professional Help first when learning to use new features in Flash.

Overview
Start things off right with this overview of changes made to animating in Flash CS4.

Frame rates
Learn why it's important to think about the frame rate when working with animations.

Timelines and keyframes
Use timelines, keyframes, and layers to best effect for your animation projects.

Frame-by-frame animation
View multiple frames of a frame-by-frame animation using the onion skin tools.

Motion tweens
Create movement with Flash, as well as minimize file size, using motion tweens.

Motion tween manipulations
Learn about moving, splitting, joining, and reversing motion tweens in Flash, and more.

Motion paths
See how manipulating motion paths can achieve special results in your animations.

Motion Editor
Customize and duplicate animations easily using the Motion Editor.

Preset and custom eases
Apply easing to make tweens appear more realistic.

Motion presets
Add animations easily and create a custom preset to reuse throughout your documents.

Using ActionScript 3
Reference an existing motion tween or copy the animation from a tween span to ActionScript 3.

Shape tweens
Make one shape appear to change into another over time, or create color and gradient animations.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this learning guide, you'll need the following software and files:

Flash CS4 Professional

Flash Player 10

Sample files:

Prerequisite knowledge

You should have a basic knowledge of the Flash workspace.

Read Creating a simple document in Flash CS4 Professional if you are brand new to Flash and need a quick overview of its core features and workspace.

Read Motion migration guide for Flash CS4 Professional if you have used animation in earlier versions of Flash and want to learn how to migrate your skill set.


Printable version

Note: The ActionScript samples in the Animation Learning Guide for Flash are written in ActionScript 3 and must be used within an ActionScript 3 file. See the Flash 8 version of this article for samples that can be used in an ActionScript 1 or ActionScript 2 file—or if you have not upgraded yet to the latest version of Flash.

Where to go from here

There's a lot more that Flash can do, even when it comes to animation. You can use scripted animation in your SWFs, use inverse kinematics to move characters around, or learn about specific animation techniques on blogs or from your friends. Here are a few places you might want to start:

  • Creating animation in ActionScript 3.0: Learn more about scripted animation using ActionScript 3.0 code.
  • Animating with the Bone tool: Learn about using IK (inverse kinematics) to create a bone structure that can be animated just by dragging things around the Stage.
  • Flashthusiast: Learn about more animation techniques on Adobe's Flash motion blog, maintained by the people on the Flash team who bring you motion. Read about motion, ask questions in the comments, or even suggest things you want to see in future versions of Flash.

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Pablo at international design agency Vasava talks about the new animation
timeline and inverse kinematics in Flash CS4 Professional.



About the authors

Jen deHaan was raised by wolves in the deep woods of the Canadian north. Later in life, Jen worked with Flash as a deseloper, then wrote about Flash for five versions, and then worked on stuff that didn't include much Flash. She came to her senses in 2007 by rejoining the fabled Flash team at Adobe as a QE, focusing on the good stuff—Motion (on timelines). Jen enjoys long walks in the rain pondering how many times she can use the word Flash in a bio, and admits that after numerous years in California she is no longer addicted to Tim Horton's coffee.

John Mayhew is a hopeless software developer, and has been for a very long time, but he still loves it. John likes being able to launch an app, demo a feature, and show people exactly what he creates for a living. Along the way he has worked for several small companies and consulted for many years. Among the more notable companies John worked for are Micrografx (ABC FlowCharter and their Graphics Suite offering) and Macromedia (mobile authoring tools), which eventually led him to the Flash authoring team. He has focused for the last few years on creating a simple, yet more powerful animation system in the Flash authoring tool. Achieving both of those goals has proven to be quite a challenge. You can see if John and his colleagues achieved those lofty ambitions in Flash CS4 Professional.