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Jen deHaan

Jen deHaan

Adobe
flashthusiast.com

John Mayhew

John Mayhew

Adobe

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Using the Motion Property inspector
  3. Creating and removing motion paths
  4. Editing motion paths
  5. Orienting animation along
    a motion path
  6. Using roving keyframes
Created:
4 May 2009
User Level:
Beginner
Products:
Flash

Animation Learning Guide for Flash: Motion paths

When you position-tween an instance across the Stage, you see a motion path for that animation appear on the Stage. The motion path is a line that represents the spatial movement of the tweened instance, and it has dots (sometimes called tween dots or frame dots) that represent the target objects position along the path at frames on the timeline—either single frames, or groups of frames if you have a long tween span selected. The tween dots not only signify frames, but can help you see the instance's position as affected by any applied easing or 3D.

Requirements

To make this most of this learning guide, you need to install the following software and files:

Flash CS4 Professional

Sample files:

Prerequisite knowledge

A basic knowledge of the Flash workspace.

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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.