Animation Learning Guide for Flash: Motion tween manipulations

Using the tween layer context menu

Tween layers have a special context menu that contains many ways to manipulate tweens. The following list provides an overview of the context menu, and the following sections describe how to use these commands as necessary. To access this menu, right/Control–click a frame in a tween layer (see Figure 22).

Figure 22. The tween layer context menu. As you might have predicted, it spawns when you right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) a frame on a tween layer. What's dimmed or active depends on what you have selected.

• Remove tween: Removes the motion tween from the selected tween span.
• 3D tween: Adds or removes the 3D properties of a tween (you can see them in the Motion Editor). 3D is automatically activated if you use a 3D tool with the instance before or after you add the motion tween. If this option is dimmed, check that you are targeting Flash Player 10 and ActionScript 3 in Publish Settings and that your instance is a movie clip. For more information on creating 3D tweens, see Working with 3D art on Adobe TV.
• Convert to Frame by Frame Animation: Just like the name says, this option converts the currently selected span into a frame-by-frame animation. For information on what frame-by-frame animation is, see "Creating frame-by-frame animations."
• Save as Motion Preset: Saves the currently selected span as a Motion Preset. To learn about motion presets, read Animation Learning Guide for Flash: Motion presets.
• Insert Frame: Inserts the number of selected frames into the tween span (if you select five frames of the span, five frames are added to the span at the first selected frame).
• Remove Frames: Removes the selected frames from the tween span or static frames. If an entire span is selected, it removes the entire span.
• Insert Keyframe: Lets you choose what type of property keyframe to insert from a submenu. For example, you can insert a rotation property keyframe using this menu. For information on property keyframes, read "Keyframes and property keyframes."
• Insert Blank Keyframe: You can use this option to insert a blank keyframe on an empty frame. This option is dimmed if your selection is within a tween span.
• Clear Keyframe: If used within a tween span, you can select from a submenu to remove a type of property keyframe from the the currently selected frame(s). The option will not remove the keyframe at frame 1, which is needed. Outside of a tween span, you use this option to remove the selected keyframe(s).
• View Keyframes: Use this option to choose which kinds of property keyframes you would like to see on the selected tween span. The default setting is All, but you can choose to one or more types of property keyframes.
• Cut/Copy/Paste Frames: Use this option to cut or copy some or all frames from a tween span, and paste them to a new location. For an overview on copying and pasting animation, read "Copying and pasting animation and properties."
• Clear Frames: You can use Clear Frames to turn the selected frames into blank frames. If your selection is in the middle of a tween span, it will create two individual tween spans around the blank frames.
• Select All Frames: Use this option to select all frames on a timeline.
• Copy/Paste Motion: Use these options to copy all of the properties of the selected motion, and paste it to another instance. For an overview on copying and pasting animation, read "Copying and pasting animation and properties."
• Copy Motion as ActionScript 3: Use this option to copy all of the properties of the selected motion as ActionScript, and then assign the code to an instance in your document. For an overview on copying and pasting animation, read Copy ActionScript 3 from timeline animation.
• Copy/Paste Properties: Use these options to copy the property keyframes from a individual frame and paste property keyframes at a different frame. You need to have one frame selected to use this option. For an overview on copying and pasting animation, read "Copying and pasting animation and properties."
• Paste Properties Special: Use this option after you have copied the properties of a selected frame and want to paste only some of the properties onto a different frame. For an overview on copying and pasting animation, read "Copying and pasting animation and properties."
• Split Motion: Use Split Motion to turn a single tween span into two tween spans. This option is available when you select a single frame. To learn about Split and Join motion, read "Splitting and joining tween spans."
• Join Motions: Use Join Motions to turn contiguous tween spans into a single tween span. This option is available when you select two or more contiguous tween spans. To learn about Split and Join motion, read "Splitting and joining tween spans."
• Reverse Keyframes: Use this option to reverse the keyframes for all of the properties of a selected tween span. To learn about reversing animation, read "Reversing motion and keyframes."
• Motion Path > Switch keyframes to roving/non-roving: Use this option to switch the keyframes of a selected span between roving and non-roving. For information on roving keyframes, see "Using roving keyframes."
• Motion Path > Reverse Path: The Reverse Path option reverses the keyframes for the motion path, which affects how the instance tweens along it. For more information on reversing animation, read "Reversing motion and keyframes."

Note: If an option in the tween context menu is not active (dimmed) in this menu, it may mean that you need a different kind of selection – such as a single frame selected, two adjoining spans, and so on. If you're not sure what you need to do, continue reading in the "Selecting spans and frames" section next.

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