Unit 15. Effects on Animations

Introduction

    If the shape and motion tweenings don't seem enough to you, and you want to make more complex animations, you can combine motion tweenings with the effects and transformations of symbols.

       Once understood all the techniques of this unit, we'll be ready to make all type of animations in Flash. We'll only have to put a little bit of imagination because, as we've seen and we'll see, the program will make our work enormously easier.

Effects on the Motion Tweening

   In order to describe all the effects that we can apply on a motion tween previously created, with no need to touch any symbol, we will be focused in the Properties Panel, when we select a Frame that displays Motion-tweened animations, the attributes of the animation for modifying it will appear in this Panel.    

      In the field <Frame Label > we can name the tweening that will help us to identify it in the time bar. It will appear throughout all the frames that compose it.

  Scale : This square, when activate, allows gradual increase/decrease of the initial object size when its dimensions are different from those in the object in the final position of the animation.

           All the motion tweenings that we've done until now had this option activated although we haven't indicated it specifically. By default, Flash activates it because it's the most usual. Otherwise, we could find out an animation like the following one.

        As we see Flash displaces the position, but the change of  the size takes place abruptly in the last frame.

        Accelerate: This slider bar allows us to determine the acceleration of the first animation section. We can choose values between -100 and 100. If the value of acceleration is negative the symbol will be moved slowly and then the tween will be accelerated progressively towards the end of animation. If this value is positive it will cause an opposite effect.

           We can, for example give the impression that an object, for example a car, starts, is speeding up gradually (value -100) and later it's slowing down and reducing its speed until the stop.

           There exist many other applications like this one. In order to understand it better we recommend you to make Exercise Accelerating Motion.

       Rotate: This option is very interesting because it gives the possibility of applying a rotation to the object in motion.

           It presents us a submenu with four options:

       None. With this we indicate to Flash to prevent rotation of any symbol in motion.

       Auto. By marking this option we rotate the object in that direction, which requires the least motion. If it is expended the same to do it on one side or on the other, or in other words, when the initial and final image are in the same position (as far as a rotation is concerned), the activation of this option does not have any effect.

       This option is the one that is marked by default and for this reason we haven't seen until now an object rotating in our tweenings. In order to have obtained effect we must have rotated the last image of the tweening.

       Here we can see how apply this technique.

       As we can verify, this result has been obtained in the shorter way, since the frame 6 has gradually passed from its previous position to the one, which the frame 1 occupied, otherwise the frame 6 would have passed the 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 previous positions being the length of the motion much more larger.

       Counterclockwise (before CCMR). It allows us to make the number of complete rotations in the opposite direction of the watch needles, that we indicate in the right square. In any case the final image will always suffer a rotation.

       In case that the final image had rotation, this would be added to it.

       Clockwise (before CMR). It makes the same that the previous option but in the direction of the needles of the clock (rightwards).

Let's see a right rotation example in a motion tweening.

We see the result on the right.

      Orient to Layout: If we activate this box, when the tweening is by motion guide, Flash will cause that the symbol is oriented by the guide, rotating to orient itself in the same position that the line is.

           In order to understand better this concept, let’s remember the last animation of the theme 13, in which the airplane made some kind of "looping". It turned out rather odd to see the animation because the airplanes don't go reverse gear and, in this case and in many others, it is not advisable that the objects move only on the stage leaving the symbol itself motionless, as if it were levitating.

           We'll solve this with this command, and the result would be this.

      Synchronize (Sync): With this we avoid that the last graphical symbol loop, included in our movie with an animation in its internal timeline, is reproduced, when the number of frames, which occupies in the main line isn’t frame multitude that the instance contains.

      Adjust: If we activate this option, the center of the instance (identified with a cross) will be adjusted inevitably to the guide that we have marked in the corresponding layer.

           In fact if we try to move the instance in the animation frame, Flash will place it on the guide automatically.