Chapter 8 – Part IInteractive Multimedia Authoring with Flash:

Animation

“Computers and Creativity”Richard D. Webster, COSC 109 Instructor

Office: 7800 York Road, Room 422 | Phone: (410) 704-2424e-mail: webster@towson.edu

109 website: http://pages.towson.edu/webster/109/

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What is Multimedia Authoring?

Process of multimedia production– Assembling media elements– Adding interactivity– Export project for distribution to end users

• Final product can be:– played back in a Web browser– a stand-alone executable

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Common Types of Multimedia Production

• Business presentations• Advertising kiosks• Games• Educational: training and tutorials• Use of multimedia authoring program

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Multimedia Authoring Program

• Allow you to combine text, images, audio, video, animation into an interactive presentation

• May have its own scripting language– to add interactivity

• Examples:– Adobe Flash/ActionScript– Adobe Director/Lingo

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Multimedia Production Process

1. Collect media elements2. Assemble media elements3. Add interactivity

– By scripting or computer programming– Example: Use ActionScript in Flash

4. Export the project into a format that your target audience can play

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Media Elements

• Often created outside of the multimedia authoring program

• In Flash:– Use pencil and brush tools– Create vector graphics

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Types of Media Elements Supported by Adobe Flash

• Bitmap images– Photoshop (PSD), BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF

• Vector graphics– Flash Movie (SWF), Adobe Illustrator

• Digital Video– QuickTime (MOV), AVI, Flash Video (FLV)

• Digital Audio– WAV, MP3, AIFF, AU

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Export the Project

• Web playback– SWF file– Smaller size than stand-alone– Playable in a Web browser that has the Flash player– Windows, Mac OS, and Linux

• Stand-alone version• Mobile apps

– AIR app for iOS– AIR app for Android

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Animation

• Like video• A sequence of images

– Create illusion of movement when played in succession

• Commonly used in multimedia projects• Animation sequence is created as a sequence

of frames• Usually on a timeline

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What a Timeline Looks Like in Adobe Flash

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Frame numbers

A layer with a seqence of frames

Details about timeline is covered in Sections 8.5.3 and 8.6, which are in the next two Powerpoints.

Types of Techniques to Create Animation in Multimedia Authoring Program

• Frame-by-frame• Tweening• Scripting

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Frame-by-Frame

• By explicitly placing different visual content for each frame

• Each frame is a keyframe– A frame in which the content is explicitly specified.– Different from a frame in which the content is

interpolated between frames.• Like flipbook animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH97UerMW6Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO8MlSjo0T0

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Frame-by-Frame Example

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Frame: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Frame-by-Frame Example

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Frame 1

Frame 2

Frame 3

Frame 4

Frame 5

Frame 6

Frame 7

Frame 8

Frame 9

Animationplaying 2 fps

Tweened Animation

• Content in frames between 2 keyframes is interpolated

• These interpolated frames are called in-between frames.

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Continuing with the Bird Example

In tweened animation,– what you need to do:

• create 2 keyframes: frames 1 and 10• only explicitly place the bird at x=11 in frame 1 and x=20 in frame

– what the computer does for you:• Creates all the in-between frames automatically• place the bird at x=12 in frame 2• place the bird at x=13 in frame 3• ...• place the bird at x=19 in frame 9

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Example of Bird Tweening Position

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Frame 1

Frame 2

Frame 3

Frame 4

Frame 5

Frame 6

Frame 7

Frame 8

Frame 9

Animationplaying 2 fps

What can be tweened?

• Position (shown in the bird example)• Rotation• Size• Color• Opacity• Shape

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Tweening

• Both “Classic tween” and “Motion tween can be used to animate symbol instances.

• “Shape tween” is used to animate shapes

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Example of Shape Tweened Bird

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Frame 1

Frame 10

Frame 20

Frame 30

Frame 40

Frame 50

Frame 60

Frame 70

Frame 80

Animationplaying 30 fps

Example of Shape Tweened Bird

• Position (tweened)• Rotation • Size (tweened)• Color• Opacity (tweened)• Shape (tweened)

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Animationplaying 30 fps

Animation by Scripting/Programming

• Does not rely on a sequence of frames on timeline

• Dynamic:– Animation can be programmed to respond to the

user's interaction– Animation can be different in a different play

through

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Frame-by-Frame vs. Tweened vs. Scripted

Frame-by-Frame Tweened Scripted

Rely on a fixed sequence of visual content on timelineAlways same animation every time you playDynamic and interactive

Require scripting

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Frame-by-Frame vs. Tweened vs. Scripted

Frame-by-Frame Tweened Scripted

Relative work in general required in creating the visual content

longest shortest

Choice of animation involving complex or organic motion such as walking and dancing

may be

Choice of animation involving continuous motion that can be interpolated

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Animation Frame Rate

• Playback speed of the animation• In frames per second (fps)• Too low: choppy• Too high:

choppy if the computer is not fast enough to process and display the frames

• Maximum rate in authoring programs– not exceed the frame rate setting– not guaranteed to maintain the frame rate

(slower computer may play at frame rate lower than the setting)

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Adjusting Speed of a Frame-based Animation

Suppose you have a frame-based animation and want to change its playback speed.

General Strategy: Avoid eliminating frames if possible• To speed up:

– Increase frame rate if possible and keep the number of frames (preferred)

– Keep the frame rate but reduce the number of frames (not preferred)

• To slow down:– Keep frame rate but add more frames (preferred)– Reduce frame rate but keep the number of frames

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Example of Adjusting Speed

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Frame 1

Frame 2

Frame 3

Frame 4

Frame 5

Suppose you have this 5-frame animation and you want to slow it down.

Example of Adjusting Speed

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Suppose you have this 5-frame animation and you want to slow it down.

If you reduce the frame rate and keep the same frame number:

Example of Adjusting Speed

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Suppose you have this 5-frame animation and you want to slow it down.

If you reduce frame rate and keep the same frame number:

If you keep the frame rate and add more frames:

Flash - Most Essential Workspace Elements

• Tools• Stage• Timeline• Property Inspector• Library

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Tools Panel

Contains tools to• select the visual content• modify the content (like using the appropriate

tools to draw vector graphics)– draw– scale– rotate– erase

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Most Essential Workspace Elements

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Stage

Stage• Where a Flash movie plays

• Background color can be set:– in Property Inspector, or– by choosing Modify > Document...

• Area outside of the stage:– Gray color– Objects placed there will not be visible when the movie

plays.– Note that if a graphic is in the gray area outside the stage,

that graphic will not be visible when the movie plays33

Most Essential Workspace Elements

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Timeline

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Timeline and Keyframes

• Timeline– A stack of layers

• Content in a layer cover the ones beneath it

– A series of frames across• A circle in a frame: a keyframe

– A solid circle in a frame:a keyframe with content on the stage

– An empty circle in a frame: a keyframe without any content on the stage

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Keyframes in Flash

In this example:1. Which frames are keyframes?

2. Which keyframes have content on the stage?

3. Which keyframes do not have content on the stage?

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Frames and Keyframes

• Any non-keyframes frames subsequence to a keyframe has the same content as that keyframe

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Frames and KeyframesExamples

Keyframe: frame 1Frames 1 – 4 has the same content as in frame 1 in Layer 1 on stage

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To Create Keyframes in Flash

Do any of the followings:• Select a frame in the Timeline and select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe

• Select a frame in the Timeline and hit the F6 key

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a frame in the Timeline and select Insert Keyframe.

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To Convert a Keyframe into a Regular Frame

Do any of the followings:• Select a frame in the Timeline and select Insert > Timeline > Clear Keyframe

• Select a frame in the Timeline and hit the Shift-F6 keys

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a frame in the Timeline and select Clear Keyframe.

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To Insert Frames in Flash

Do any of the following:• Select a frame in the Timeline and select Insert > Timeline > Frames

• Select a frame in the Timeline and hit the F5 key

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click a frame in the Timeline and select Insert Frame.

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To Remove Frames

Do any of the following:• Select a frame in the Timeline and hit the

Shift-F5 keys

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a frame in the Timeline and select Remove Frames.

Most Essential Workspace Elements

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Property Inspector

Property Inspector

• Displays the information and properties that can be edited

• If a frame on the Timeline:– displays the frame property– If the frame selected is a keyframe, you can also assign a frame

label and a tweening to that frame.

• If an object on the Stage is selected:– displays the object’s properties that you can edit, e.g.,

• x and y• width and height

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Property Inspector

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This object on stage is selected. Its x, y, width and height are

displayed and can be changed by entering different numbers.

Most Essential Workspace Elements

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Library

Library

• Stores symbols, imported bitmaps, and sounds to be used in the project.

• Symbols are explained in Section 8.6 and next Powerpoint.

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