Week 3 & 4 - Learning Flash

We have now learnt some basic elements of operating Flash, getting some hands on time with the software. By going through sets of instructions and taking notes from demo's, we have made a range of animations, using varying techniques.

Firstly, the Rolling Ball. But before we could start this, we needed to learn the workspace. We learnt about similarities between the Adobe Flash tools and the Adobe Photoshop tools as well as the difference between the Scene and the Symbol creator.

Starting by creating a New Symbol, we created a ball, which when returning to the scene appears in our Library. Any symbols or elements we make or import can be inserted into to the scene from here. Next we had to set Key frames (start and end points for the motion), highlight the required frames and apply Motion tweening (the automatic process of the computer adding in the frames between key frames, so you don't have to) as well as rotation rules (how many times and in which direction the ball will rotate).

This creates the rolling ball. I felt this went well and with free time, I practised this exercise about 4 times. We then applied a shadow, which meant including new symbols, applying their own tweening rules between key frames. With this mastered, I added more shadowed balls, to practice higher complexity animations, using Layers and Group Folders to keep things separate and organised.

Slightly harder was creating the Bouncing Ball. This involved the concept of motion guides. Flash makes the user create any motion rules on a separate, special layer, with the option to link the element and the motion guide later. Using the Pen tool, a curved motion path can be drawn (converting points to make them realistically bend). Key frames are then applied, and in frame one, the element is coupled with the start of the motion guide and the last frame, the element is moved to the end of the motion guide.

Like before a tweening rule must be applied, but this time selecting to option to make it link to the path. now when played, the element sticks to the motion path you have set.

To add a level of realism, Easing is used to either make an element gradually speed up or slow down. Splitting the sequence in 2 with a 3 keyframe, a speed up rule is applied to the first half, while a slow down rule is applied to the second. This gives the impression that the ball gathers with pace on the descent, and on it's ascent, gravity slows it back to a holt.

Lastly, we imported external images into Flash. Using Timeline Effects you can control how these images work. I tested Transform and Transition rules, making images spin, fade out and in etc. This can be used to create a sort of slideshow feel.

With a few more elements to learn we are nearly ready to apply our own creativity to Flash.