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How to make animation in Flash. Animation Basics in the Flash Editor

Free software to create flash animations using ready-made applets.

Many of you, I think, have ever tried to create your own sites (or maybe you even own a very popular portal).

One way or another, everyone was faced with the problem of the effective design of their web pages. And as static HTML is slowly becoming a thing of the past, many are now turning their attention to popular technologies such as JavaScript and Flash. They allow you to create beautiful animated dynamic pages with advanced functionality.

It will not be difficult for a specialist to make a small animated flash-banner, however, what should the rest of the uninitiated do? If a scrupulous study of programming languages is not included in your immediate plans, then you can, as always, resort to using specialized software. Today we will get acquainted with the basics of working in the program Advanced effect maker.

This utility allows you to create all kinds of flash and JavaScript effects, and both their own "from scratch" and based on ready-made templates! Advanced Effect Maker is available in several editions, which differ in the number of ready-made effects and the degree of user freedom. Let's compare the maximum and free configuration:

Comparison of the free version of the flash editor Advanced Effect Maker Free Edition with the commercial version of the Commercial Edition

The biggest disadvantage free version programs - the presence of a kind of preapploader, which allows you to switch to viewing some ready-made effects only after clicking on the created banner. This is where all the differences basically end :).

Program installation

Installation of Advanced Effect Maker takes place in a standard way, so let's go straight to working with the program:

At the first launch, we will be prompted to familiarize ourselves with the license agreement. To accept it, click the "I agree" button. After that, you can start studying the utility interface:

Interface and work with the editor

In spite of English, everything is simple and clear here. The Advanced Effect Maker window is divided into two parts. On the left, there are only two large buttons: the first to enter the gallery of available effects, and the second to add additional applets (if you want to buy them;)). On the right side, we see a catalog of available templates with subsections and a preview window, as well as an effect editing area.

To start editing the desired template, just click on its image, and if you just want to see how it works, then click the "Preview" inscription under the picture:

When you open the desired effect, a message about an existing file may appear. If this happens, then we simply ignore it by pressing the "Ok" button:

If the template has opened successfully, we will be able to see several tabs that contain all sorts of settings:

Program settings and animation creation

The first tab is "General". It contains General settings project. Usually these are dimensions (width - width and height - height), name (file name), quality of the future file (quality), and also the mode of the flash movie window (window mode).

The second tab - "Color", as the name implies, is responsible for the colors used in the project. Everything is very clear here, so let's move on to the next one - "Messages":

Here we have two fields. In the first field (on the left) we enter the text that we need to display with a special effect, and in the second - the link that the user will follow by clicking on our banner. The advantage of Advanced Effect Maker is that we can enter an unlimited number of lines of text (as well as links), but the main disadvantage is the lack of support for the Russian language :(.

The next two tabs are used to manage fonts (Fonts) and animation properties (Others), respectively. One caveat: if you want to use alternative TTF-fonts, they will have to be converted first for compatibility with Advanced Effect Maker. To do this, call the Convert Fonts tool from the Tools menu and, having selected the desired font, press the Convert button:

When all the changes have been made, we can click the "Create Applet" button. After that, two files will be created in the project destination folder: SWF (direct animation) and HTML (contains instructions for embedding the resulting animation into the code of your page:

Saving work results

However, this is not all. With Advanced Effect Maker you can create your own effect based on an existing one, or completely "from scratch"! To do this, go to the "Tools" menu and activate the "Plugin Maker" item:

Here you will first need to set a name for the new project, as well as some other parameters (optional). After that, you can click the "Create Applet" button, and we will go directly to the effect editor window:

There are several buttons here that allow you to enter some standard functions... The only problem is that all the necessary variables and values will have to be entered manually by yourself, and here you already need some programming skills in ActionScript or JavaScript :(.

conclusions

Advanced Effect Maker can appeal to novice web designers, as it allows you to effortlessly create quite effective banners, animated menus, slideshows, and even small games (such as tags). The disadvantage in the form of a preapploader (if there is one in the selected effect) can be eliminated using special SWF file decompilers (including free ones);).

Good luck in all your endeavors and creative success!

P.S. You are allowed to freely copy and cite this article, provided that you indicate an open active link to the source and preservation of the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny.

There are several types of animation. You can animate the position or shape of a shape by moving the points, thereby transforming it into another shape. You can also animate the properties of this shape, such as color, transparency, position and gradient settings, color, thickness and stroke type. This is all about the figures drawn in work area or inside symbols and called Shape tween... During the animation, you can use either keyframes or time-lapse animation. Key animation, of course, is simpler, since not all frames need to be changed, some of them, between the key ones, change automatically. But, sometimes there is a need for frame-by-frame animation. When to use which one is up to you.

Motion tween- the second way of animation. Used to animate characters such as Graphic, Movieclip and Button... Other properties are available here. Using Motion Tween, you can animate the position of symbols, their scaling, rotation, as well as the parameters found in the selector Color panels Properties... These include: luminance, symbol shading, transparency, and the Advanced set of options, which combines the previous three. When key animation is supported Easing, that is, animation with acceleration and deceleration, which is very useful for realistic animation of characters, and any other objects that need to move realistically.

Shape tween

Draw a rectangle on the Stage with a black stroke and a 2-3px line width. If it draws with a fill, select it with a single click and delete. For now we only need a stroke.

In the timeline, right-click on the newly created frame and select Create Shape Tween... The keyframe turns green. Next, select with a click, frame 10 on the same layer and press "F6" to create a second keyframe.

If you did everything correctly, the timeline will show this:

This is your first animation, congratulations! But, two keyframes, there is still no animation. Click on the timeline at frame 10 and select it. Together with it, everything that is in the work area on this frame will be highlighted. Deselect the shape and move the mouse cursor to the upper horizontal line of our rectangle so that an arc icon appears next to the cursor. This will allow the segments of the shape to bend. Grab the middle of the segment and drag it down a little so that it curves. now you can see what happened. Drag the Playhead through your 10 animation frames and watch the shape transform.

Here's what I got. If I have explained something incomprehensibly,. You can complicate the animation by adding more fill. But you need to do this on a different layer. The fact is that when constructing keys in complex geometry (and two identical shapes lying on top of each other are very complex geometry, ask any 3D designer), the program looks for the shortest paths for transformations, therefore, distortions are inevitable.

Easing

Compare these seemingly similar animations. Do you see the difference?

Yes, near corners, the object slows down. This is possible thanks to the function Ease that can be applied to a keyframe, regardless of the animation type, Shape tween or Motion tween... It is done like this: select a keyframe, in the panel Properties appears like this:

First parameter Ease- this is our motion smoothing. If you set the value there to 100, the animation will start linearly and end with deceleration, if -100, on the contrary, it will start linearly and end with acceleration. Intermediate values are also possible. It all depends on how strong the effect should be.

there is a button next to it Edit... If you click it, a graph like this will appear:

It can be used to fine tune the behavior of the animation. If you've used a setup like this, you know how it works. The vertical is the percentage of the animation, the horizontal is the frames in which it occurs. In this way, you can set several points for changing the speed of the animation and adjust them according to your needs. If you uncheck the box Use one setting for all properties, separate adjustment of various parameters becomes available. Such as position, rotation, scaling, color and filters.

Animation along the way

This type Motion tween animation is the movement of an object along a path that you previously built on a separate layer using the tool Pen, for example. So, we create new layer and draw with a pen, some kind of crooked. I got it like this:

Now we need another layer with graphic object on it and Motion tween- animation to attach this path to it. The object can be taken from the previous example. Then, on the layer with the path, you need to right-click and select the item Guide... The layer icon will change and it will become a path layer. Next, we need to drag our artwork layer under the path layer. So that he becomes under him and a little to the right. Something like this:

There is an alternative way to create a Guide layer. You need to right-click on the layer with the graphic object and select from the menu Add Motion Guide... In this case, the Guide layer will be created automatically.

Now we need to set up the animation at two keyframes. The fact is that since our object is attached to a path, animation is possible only within this path. Wherever you move the object, it will still remain on it. So, our task is to set the start and end points of the animation. Select the first keyframe of the animation and move the object to the start point, then the second keyframe and move the object to the endpoint of the animation.

02/07/15 5.3K

Have you ever wondered what is hidden behind the beautiful animation of banners on the Internet? Or newfangled cartoons created with computer technology? Most often, they are based on "flesh", or rather, this is how the name is translated from English Flash technology... Today we are going to talk about flash animation for a website:

Flash technology

The multimedia framework was developed by Macromedia. But after its absorption (merger), all rights to the technology were transferred to the new owner - Adobe Systems.

Region modern use Adobe flash :

The creation of web applications is a fairly new direction. Includes full or partial use of Flash to create websites. With partial application, this technology creates individual elements design: various interactive menus, animated buttons, etc.

Compared to conventional resources on html based Flash sites have some features that limit their use. This includes the high cost of development, demanding server resources, long download times with slow Internet connections, and some other aspects:

Implementation of multimedia capabilities - for listening to audio and playing video on sites, media players created on the basis of Flash are often used. Their development includes the use of one of the scripting languages (usually JavaScript):

In online advertising, the technology is most often used to create animated banners. They imply not only the playing of multimedia advertisements, but also some kind of interaction with the user based on the game.

Flash development framework and toolkit

To create Flash animations, the traditional tools from Adobe are most often used:

Adobe Flash Professional - a program for creating interactive animation (animator);
Adobe Flash Builder - an environment for creating a web application interface;
Adobe Flash Player- a player integrated into the browser for playing Flash.

In addition to it, a number of multimedia content of this type can be played third party applications... The most popular of these are Gnash, QuickTime, and a few others:

This technology allows you to display any type of graphics ( raster, vector, 3D). And also supports streaming relaying of audio and video data. Specially for mobile devices a lightweight version of Flash Lite was developed.

The main standard for Flash files is the SWF extension. The abbreviation stands for Small Web Format. Video recorded in Flash has file extensions FLV, F4V.

The development of interactive animation on flash is based on Vector graphics... It is thanks to this that it was possible to implement support for the multimedia platform and the independence of the animation quality from the screen resolution.

The file size of the flash application is the same for all users regardless of technical characteristics screen (resolution).

Flash interactive animation is based on morphing (vector type), in which there is a slow flow between keyframes. To play data, a flash player is used, the work of which is in many ways similar to the work virtual machine JavaScript. The software component of the technology is implemented using the ActionScript language.

The disadvantages of the technology include the following points:

Heavy load on CPU client machine. This is due to the low efficiency of the flash virtual machine, which is embedded together with the player into the user's browser;
High probability of errors - Flash animation can be played with a high probability of errors. Moreover, failures in Flash playback negatively affect the operation of the entire client application (browser). This is due to insufficient control of fault tolerance program code when creating flash applications;
Failure to index - All text content displayed in Flash content does not participate in the indexing process. This limitation is especially problematic for those resources that are based on this technology.

Overview of Third Party Flash Creation Software

Sothink SWF Quicker was taken as a prototype application for demonstrating the basics of creating Flash. According to many professionals, the program is the most understandable and easiest to learn.

In addition to creating and editing, the flash editor "knows how" to work with all other types of web animation (GIF, HTML and other standards):

After installation, go to the friendly interface of the program. Unfortunately, after wandering through all the nooks and crannies of the interface language switcher, we did not find it.

In order to understand how to make Flash animation in this application, we will use the built-in templates. The "New From Template" dialog box appears immediately after starting the program. In addition, it can be called through the main menu item "File". Among the proposed options, we have chosen to create a banner:

In the next window of the wizard, from the drop-down list, you need to select a template according to which the animation will be created. Below it is a small frame in which the selected template is played:
In the next steps, you need to set the dimensions of the banner and enter 5 phrases of text that will be played in the animation. In addition, you must specify the address of the resource to which the user will be led by clicking on the banner:
After compiling the project and closing the wizard window, you can view the resulting video in the built-in player. To do this, click on the green arrow at the top:
After closing the player, let's take a closer look at the application interface. Please note that it consists of two main windows: the upper one is intended for editing the time interval of the video, and the lower one is a normal graphics editor. Each of the elements is located on a separate layer, which can be modified using the standard tools located on the side panel:

- http://photoshop.demiart.ru). Also in the editor it is quite convenient, if you are able, to draw your own images (frames).

Before creating Flash animation, you can practice on gif-animation in order to understand the principles of creating animation in a simple form. This is recommended for. Need to install Easy program GIF Animator Pro and open yours created with graphic editor or a drawn image and then try to create animation... Even if you only have one image, you can do a simple animation(the program provides some " standard options"Animation). And when there are several frames of the same size, then you can make gif- animation... To do this, they need to be added by. The functions of the program also include setting the desired time.

When the principle of creating animation is clear, you can already start creating Flash-animation. For correct work with it, it is recommended to first install latest version Adobe Flash Player (by link http://get.adobe.com/ru/flashplayer). Then you need to install the program Macromedia Flash Professional. The program also contains frames separately and indicate desired settings... The functions are much wider than in Easy GIF Animator Pro, animation you can work out much more professionally, install, etc. To improve your skills, it is also advisable to study some lessons (follow the link http://flash.demiart.ru).

note

Answer: The point is, to create animation, you need additional program an interpreter that works with pictures in the "gif" extension. There are many such programs, but we will take with you the UnFREEz program, the utility of which performs only one function.

Helpful advice

It is quite easy to create, display and store animations in this type, which has allowed gif animation to remain one of the most common animation formats on the Internet. You can create animation in this format using specialized animation software or make animation directly online by uploading your photos as frames to create an animated avatar.

If you need to use any flash template that was downloaded from the Internet, but you are not satisfied with some of its details, you can edit it. There are specific tools for this task, namely a Flash application that edits a SWF file created in Dreamweaver.

You will need

Computer, Flash application, Dreamweaver application, Internet access

Instructions

If you have both Flash and Dreamweaver installed, you can use the SWF file in your Dreamweaver document, and then use the Flash application for it. WITH using Flash you cannot directly edit the SWF file. The FLA file is edited, that is, the original document, and then it is again into the SWF file.

Dreamweaver requires a Property inspector (Window> Properties). In a Dreamweaver document, you must do one of the following. Click on the tab of the SWF file to select it. Then click the Edit button located in the Property inspector.

Right-click on the tab of the SWF file, and then select the command in context menu"Change in Flash application". Dreamweaver then gives focus to the Flash application, and it tries at the selected SWF location of the source FLA file. If the source Flash file is not found, the user can specify its location manually. If the SWF file or FLA -file, you can free them in Dreamweaver.

In Flash, edit the FLA file. When you're done editing, you can click Finish. Flash will then generate a FLA file and then re-export it as a SWF file. The focus then shifts to the Dreamweaver application. You can update the SWF file without closing Flash by choosing File> Update For Dreamweaver.

To view the updated file in your document, you must press Play in Dreamweaver, or you can use the F12 key to view the page in a browser window.

Animation with Adobe Flash Professional

Adobe Flash Professional CS3- the advantages and functionality of this program can be described for a very long time. This program is the undisputed leader in the flash technology environment. Adobe Flash Professional is used by both professional website developers and flash designers.

With the help of this program, even the most sick fantasy can be realized in flash. In general, if you decide to create professional animated flash files, then Adobe Flash Professional is exactly the program you cannot do without.

The volume depends on the version from 500 Mb.

On this moment Adobe Flash Professional CS5 - a new version programs for working with animation and multimedia.

OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7

Screenshot of the program:

download Adobe Flash Professional CS3

Perhaps for a novice web master, creating a flash animation using Adobe programs Flash Professional will seem like something difficult and out of reach.

In this case, do not despair and give up what you started. Try your flash ideas with Swishmax.

Swishmax - flash editor

SwishMAX- this is alternative program with friendly and simple interface to create flash-animation that is less functional than the previous one, but at the same time allows you to get a good quality result. The main advantage of the bottom flash editor is its ease of use. Even a novice user, having video lessons at hand, will be able to create professional flash videos with its help in a short time.

Size: 9.27 MB.

The interface language is Russian.

Operating system: Windows 98 / Me / NT / 2000 / XP

Screenshot of the program:

download Swishmax

Alligator Flash Designer

Next flash program is even simpler, both in functionality and in the content of the interface. The capabilities of this flash editor allow you to easily create a flash banner for a website in a matter of minutes.

There are more than 130 effects: fade, zoom, rotation. Animated drawings, shapes or text, and even sound can be easily added to your Flash animation.

Here you can also specify OnClick or OnOver.

Size: 5.3 MB.

The interface language is Russian.

OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7

Screenshot of the program:

download Alligator_Flash_Designer_7.0

Another program that is not a flash animation editor, but its capabilities are necessary for a novice web designer.

Flash decompiler trillix

Flash Decompiler Trillix - the main purpose of this program is to export SWF files back to FLA format with one click of the mouse. Extracts all Flash objects from a SWF file and saves them to a FLA file, which can be further edited in Flash.

The advantage of Flash Decompiler is editing sounds, images, colors, gradients, lines, dynamic texts and links without converting to FLA.

Size: 7.27 MB.

The interface language is Russian.

OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7

Screenshot of the program:

download Flash Decompiler Trillix

October 13, 2014

How to make animation in Flash. Animation Basics in the Flash Editor

Comparison of the free version of the flash editor Advanced Effect Maker Free Edition with the commercial version of the Commercial Edition

Program installation

Interface and work with the editor

Program settings and animation creation

Saving work results

conclusions

Shape tween

Easing

Animation along the way

Flash technology

Flash development framework and toolkit

Overview of Third Party Flash Creation Software

Animation with Adobe Flash Professional

Swishmax - flash editor

Alligator Flash Designer

Flash decompiler trillix

Password recovery