Integrating Flash Animations into RoboDemo Movies

Inserting Basic Animations

When inserting an animation into your movie, you first need to decide whether you wish to display the animation on its own slide (Animation Frame), or on top of an existing slide (Animation).

• Use the Animation Frame option when you need to add stand-alone content, for example, adding an introduction or ending to your movie.
• Use the Animation option when you need to add content into slides in your movie, for example, custom-made animated captions, highlighters, and so on.

Inserting Animation Frames

In this first example you'll insert some Flash SWF files into a RoboDemo movie as animation frames to produce this example:

1. In RoboDemo, open Example1_rd.rd, which you downloaded as part of the sample files archive.

   You'll see that the movie consists of three slides labeled Slide 1, 4, and 5.

2. Click the second slide and select Insert > Animation Frame. Navigate to and open Example1_a_complete.swf.

   The inserted "Welcome to RoboDemo" animation becomes slide 2. By default, animations play through once, which in this case takes five seconds. If you needed the animation to play longer, for example, if it looped and you wanted to play it twice, you could change the duration by right-clicking the animation and selecting Properties > Timing.

3. Click the third slide and again select Insert > Animation Frame, then open Example1_b_complete.swf.

   The inserted animation becomes slide 3.

4. Click the final slide and select Insert > Animation Frame, then open Example1_c_complete.swf.

   The inserted animation becomes slide 5.

5. If you haven't already, display the Filmstrip by selecting View > Filmstrip.
6. In the Filmstrip, click and drag slide 5 down so it becomes slide 6.
7. Now you can save the file (File > Save) and preview it (File > Preview).

Congratulations, you've taken a standard RoboDemo movie and added 3 simple animation frames to inject a little pizzazz.

Now you'll have a look at adding animations onto the slides in our movies.

Inserting Animations

In this second example, you'll insert a Flash SWF file into a RoboDemo movie as an animation to produce this example:

1. In RoboDemo, open Example2_rd.rd.

   You'll see that this is basically the same as the first example, but I've deleted the "Welcome" animation frame.

2. Double-click slide 3 to open it in the Edit window.

3. Select Insert > Animation, navigate to and open "Example1_a_complete.swf".

   The New Animation dialog box displays, showing a preview of the selected animation and its statistics displaying next to it. Below are the Play Options, which include:

   • Continue movie while playing animation plays an animation until it has finished. Objects on the current and subsequent slides display while the animation plays. This option lets you display an animation over multiple slides.
   • Pause frame while playing animation stops all objects on a slide while the animation plays. No new objects are added or existing objects removed until the animation has finished.
   • Stop playing when frame ends plays the animation for the duration of the current slide, objects on the slide display while the animation plays. The animation disappears at the end of the slide, even if it hasn't yet finished playing.
   • Show for X seconds plays an animation for the specified number of seconds, regardless of the duration of the animation. Objects on the frame display while the animation plays.
   • Appear after X seconds plays the animation after the slide displays for the specified number of seconds.

4. Select Continue movie while playing animation, leaving all other options at their defaults, and then press OK.

   The animation appears on the slide. While it appears opaque, it will become transparent when played back. Because the animation is the same size as the slide, the animation fills the whole slide.

5. Drag the sizing handle at the top of the animation down slightly to resize the animation to 400 x 270 pixels. This prevents the welcome message from displaying too close to the caption "Slide 3."

6. Now you can save the file (File > Save) and preview it (File > Preview).

   Notice how the animation appears on slide 3 and fades out on slide 4.

Now you'll have a look at using interactive and nonlinear animations.

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