This is a simple animation tutorial for flash, to complete this tutorial you will need macromedia flash.
To begin with open up flash, for our tutorial we are going to create a simple pong style tutorial, so let’s begin when you open up flash you will be greeted with this screen.
I have put three arrows to the first lot of tools we shall use to create this animation, first click the size settings; this will open up a box like below
Fill in the sections like my diagram, so we set the background to black and the size to 300 px and the frame rate too 25 per second, then click ok.
This will change all the setting on the main screen, like where the two arrows that we didn’t use are pointed too, I pointed to them to let you know what at any stage if you want to change the frame rate or even the background colour you can by this tools quick and easy.
Lets start my creating the first object, we will create the ball, now in the tool box on the left hand side choose the oval tool and change the paint bucket colour (fill) to white, while holding shift left mouse button click and make a small circle, then choose layer one double click on the name rename it to ball and press CRTL and G to group the object. Look below for arrows to all the tools needed and how the object will look.
Now we have our ball lets add another layer, which can be found below the layer section, ill put an arrow to it on the next image, once you have the new layer, left click to select it use the rectangle tool to create a nice rectangle shape, make sure its white and draw one on the screen, then rename the layer and once again group the object, below is a image with arrows to all the tools you will use.
Right now lets duplicate the paddle by using the copy tool, left click on the paddle 1 press CTRL and C, then create a new layer, select the layer press CTRL and V, then rename the layer paddle 2. Now we have everything we need to begin the animation, moving on to the next step.
Time to animate! Right we are going to create a very simple animation, something to ease you in, once you know the rough ideas you will be able to go out there on your own and create your own animations.
Select the ball and in the layer options go to where it says 10 and select the box, this should turn it blue like below,
Right click in the square and choose insert key frame now do this for the other two layers so you have something like this below,
Now select the ball and move it to the paddle on the right, look below
Please make sure that you move the ball while frame 10 is selected! This is very important, and if you can’t move the ball as close as you want you can use the arrow keys to guide it in closer.
Now create a key frame in frame 30 on all the objects, you should know how to do this now, once you have done that, make sure you have key frame 30 selected and move the ball to the other paddle then move to the next step.
Now in frame 40 create a key frame in all the layers again, select key frame 1 on the ball layer right click and select copy frame then move to key frame 40 in the ball layer and right click and select paste frame, this will put the ball back into the start position.
Next step right click any where between then frame 1 and 10 in the ball layer and select create motion tween, do this any where between 10 and 30 then 30 and 40, you should have something like this.
Now we have the animation complete, if you want to view the animation go to the top menu and select CONTROL > TEST MOVIE and a pop up will appear and show you your animation!
Well done hope this gave you a few simple tips and ideas for your own animation, take care.
Thanks, Art