Introduction to Flash MX 2004:Drawing, Timeline, & Simple Animation

Lloyd Rieber

Workshop ObjectivesBy the end of the workshop, you should be able to:

• How to create and modify simple graphics.• Understand the difference between the fill and stroke

of a flash graphic.• Know the difference between symbols and instances of

symbols.• Know how to make a symbol (by pressing F8).• Know the function and importance of keyframes to

Flash animations and how to insert a keyframe on the timeline (by pressing F6).

• Create and test a simple movie.

Drawing with Flash

• Exploring the various drawing tools– Unique drawing features

• When modifying graphics…– Remember, each graphic has two parts: a fill

and a stroke (its outline)

Simple Animation

• Concept of a keyframe• Concept of tweening• The difference between symbols and instances of

symbols• Common function keys

– F8 — creates a symbol of an object selected on the screen.

– F6 — creates a new keyframe– F5 — creates a new blank keyframe

Animation Tricks

• Rotating objects

• Scaling objects

• Fading objects (via alpha)

Creating Movies for the Web

• There are two main types of Flash files:– Authoring and editing: .fla– Published movies: .swf

• You can’t edit .swf files!

• Testing your movie actually creates a “.swf” file

• One button publishing– Also creates a “.swf” file and a HTML page

which points to the .swf file.