Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004

1. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Lesson 4 Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

2. Objectives • Define the storyboard workflow within FreeHand in preparation for creating Flash animations. • Use the Page tool to storyboard an animation. • Use the Blend command to morph between two objects. • Use the Release to Layers command to create an animation. • Use brush strokes as an animation technique. • Use the Controller to test sophisticated animation techniques. • Export a SWF (Flash) file. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

3. Use a storyboard to define your animation • A storyboard is a collection of keyframes that make up an animation, or a movie, as it is called in Macromedia Flash MX 2004. • A keyframe defines an event within an animation, such as a color or title change. • Each page in a Macromedia FreeHand MX document is considered to be a keyframe. • Each layer within a page is an individual frame for a specific scene. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

4. Use the Navigation panel Use the Navigation panel to define hyperlinks to other pages and object animation behavior when setting up your storyboard. Using this panel in FreeHand gives you the chance to test your animation before exporting it to Flash. You can assign a name to each link. You can specify what action to take for some event. You can specify the page and object the action and event pertain to. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

5. Work with the Page tool • You can use the FreeHand Page tool to manipulate pages without menus or dialog windows. • Pages can be resized, moved within the document window, duplicated, and reoriented. • The Page tool can be used to organize your pages so the storyboard reflects the proper sequence for the animation. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

6. Use the Blend command for morphing effects • The Blend command lets you select two different objects on a page. • You set options to control the blend, and then FreeHand creates a series of new objects between the two selected objects. • The effect is that of one object morphing or transforming into the other object. • The FreeHand blend is an editable object that can be modified like other FreeHand objects. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

7. The Release to Layers command • The Release to Layers command is used to convert a document into an animation. • This command automatically places each group in the illustration on its own separate layer. • When importing the animation into Flash, each layer becomes one animation frame. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

8. Use the Release to Layers panel Open the Release to Layers panel by clicking the Xtras menu, then the Animate option, then the Release to Layers option. Click the list arrow for the Animate list box and select the option you want to use, then click the OK button. When the OK button is clicked, many new layers will be created and numbered, depending on how many objects are in the illustration. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

9. Create animations using the brush stroke feature • Using the brush stroke feature to create an animation allows you to control: • The size of the individual frames. • The spacing of the frames. • The offset of the frames. • The rotation of the frames. • Using the brush stroke feature allows you to create a more complex graphic than by using Blend/Release to Layers. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

10. The Edit Brush dialog box Select a symbol to use for the brush stroke and drag it onto a page. In the Edit Brush dialog box (Click Modify/Brush/Create Brush), with the object selected, define a name for the stroke to be created and set other options as desired, then click OK. Note the preview of your stroke in the bottom of the dialog box. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

11. Create an effect using the brush stroke After closing the Edit Brush dialog box, delete the selected symbol (a box in this case) from the page. Use the spiral tool (in this example) to create a spiral design on the page. Once the spiral is created, apply the brush stroke you created to the spiral to produce the object to the right. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

12. Use the Controller to play back and navigate the animation • The FreeHand Controller allows you to play, rewind, stop, and navigate through your animation. • Set your animation options in the Movie Settings dialog box: • Click the Window menu, click Movie, then Movie Settings. • Display the Controller toolbar: • Click the Window menu, then Toolbars, then Controller. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

13. The Controller toolbar The Controller toolbar gives you control over the playing of your animation. Click the Test button to display the preview window with the first frame of the animation. Click the Settings button to reopen that dialog box and change options. Click Play to start the movie. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

14. Export to Flash • Once your animation is done and tested in FreeHand, it can be exported to Flash and incorporated into a Web page. • Click the File menu, then Export to open the Export Document dialog box. • Click the Setup button to specify other options. • Set your desired options and then click Save to save the file in SWF format. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

15. The Setup window for export options When you click the Setup button in the Export Document dialog box, the Setup dialog box shown at right appears. You can set many options in this window that affect how your animation is exported to Flash format. The Optimization section controls how artwork is compressed for transfer to the Web. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4

16. Summary In this lesson, you learned to: • Define the storyboard workflow within FreeHand in preparation for creating Flash animations. • Use the Page tool to storyboard an animation. • Use the Blend command to morph between two objects. • Use the Release to Layers command to create an animation. • Use brush strokes as an animation technique. • Use the Controller to test sophisticated animation techniques. • Export a SWF (Flash) file. Designing Scenes for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 – Lesson 4