How and with what to create flash animations. About the simplest animation in Flash
Working with frames in multiple layers
Frame section settings
Beginning of work
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The first frame of the layer is marked with an empty circle. This means that both Frame 1 and Layer 1 are empty - there are no objects inserted on the layer. Let's paste any object onto the layer "Layer 1". You can view the created animation by pressing the Enter key. Usually the background layer is locked to prevent it from being changed by adding a padlock icon.
You can add or remove simple frames. Removing frames:
Adding Frames: Or you can click on any frame between the 1st and 30th frames and select Insert Frame from the context menu. Last updated: December 2014 |
Download flash from the site Can different ways. But some of them are quite cumbersome, some require the use of plugins, programs and websites. Meanwhile, there is a very elegant and simple method, the implementation of which does not take much time.
First, let's define why we need a flush at all, and what it is. Flash is a multimedia presentation made using the program Adobe Flash or . These files are called flash movies, although they can be much more than a movie.
They can be entire mini-programs: banners that react to the visitor’s mouse movement, small games, so-called flash games, tests with results, and so on.
Or they can really just be video or audio clips.
The standard extension for flash files is SWF. And when we come across such videos on websites, we cannot download them as easily as pictures, with the right mouse button. You'll have to work a little harder.
Download flash from the site
Go to the website page that contains the flash file you need. After that:
Open the page code
Right-click on the page and select View page code . Two more options to open the page code: click Ctrl+U, or write before the page address view-source:
Look for the SWF video address in the code
To do this, enable search using hotkeys Ctrl+F, and enter in the search field .swf. Then press Enter .
Find the address itself, which will look like:
http: //site.ru/papki/rolik.swf
or like this:
/papki/rolik.swf
If you have the second option, then the address is relative, not absolute. It must be placed to the left of the address home page site.
Checking the address
Paste the address of the flash video into the address bar of any browser in a new tab. A video should appear.
Make the address a link
If the video appears, copy the address into a notepad and make it a link, that is, add the appropriate code to it.
As a result, the inscription in the notepad will look like this:
Download the flash video to your computer
Open the saved file in the browser. There will be a link inside it. Right-click on it, select Save link as... or Save via link..., and save the flash video on your computer.
To watch, either open it in a browser, or use a flash player, for example Macromedia Flash Player .
Other options
Although the option described above seems to me the most interesting, I will still give other ways to save flash on your computer.
- Using the site http://save2go.ru. Enter the address of the page on which your flash movie is located and click Save from site . A link to the video will appear below. Right-click and select Save link as... or Save via link... .
- Using a browser plugin, e.g. Downloadhelper For Firefox .
- Using download programs, for example, Download Master. First you need to find the address of the flash video, and then insert it into the downloader.
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Have you ever wondered what lies behind the beautiful animation of banners on the Internet? Or the newfangled cartoons created with the help of computer technology? Most often they are based on “flesh”, or more precisely, this is how the name is translated from English Flash technologies. Today we will talk about flash animation for the 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.
Area of modern application of Adobe Flash:
- Creating web applications is a fairly new direction. Implies full or partial use of Flash to create websites. When partially applied, this technology creates individual design elements: various interactive menus, animated buttons, etc.
Compared to conventional resources html based Flash sites have some features that limit their use. These include the high cost of development, demands on server resources, for a long time downloads on a slow Internet connection and some other aspects:
- Implementation multimedia capabilities– to listen to audio and play video on websites, they often use media players created based on Flash. Their development includes the use of one of the scripting languages (usually JavaScript):
- In online advertising, technology is most often used to create animated banners. They imply not only the playing of multimedia advertising, but also some kind of interaction with the user on a game basis.
Flash Development Basics and Tools
To create flash animation, 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 web application interfaces;
- Adobe Flash Player is a browser-integrated player for playing Flash.
In addition to this, a number of devices can play multimedia content of this type. third party applications. The most popular ones are Gnash, QuickTime and some others:
This technology allows you to display any type of graphics ( raster, vector, 3D). It also supports streaming relay of audio and video data. Especially for mobile devices a lightweight Flash version Lite.
The main standard for Flash files is the SWF extension. The abbreviation stands for Small Web Format. Video recorded in Flash has the file extensions FLV, F4V.
The development of interactive animation in Flash is based on vector graphics. It is thanks to this that it was possible to implement support for a multimedia platform and independence of animation quality from screen resolution.
The flash application file size is the same for all users, regardless of technical characteristics screen (resolution).
Interactive animation in Flash is based on morphing (vector type), in which there is a slow flow between key frames. To play back data, a flash player is used, the operation of which is in many ways similar to that of 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 the central processor of the client machine. This is due to the low efficiency of the Flash virtual machine, which is built into the user’s browser along with the player;
- High probability of errors - playing Flash animation may occur 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 over the fault tolerance of the program code when creating Flash applications;
- Failure to index - All text content displayed in Flash content is not indexed. This limitation is especially problematic for those resources that are created on the basis of this technology.
Review of third-party Flash creation software
As a prototype application on which we will demonstrate the basics Flash creation, was taken by Sothink SWF Quicker. According to many professionals, the program is the most understandable and easiest to learn.
In addition to creating and editing, the flash editor “can” work with all other types of web animation (GIF, HTML and other standards):
After installation, go to the user-friendly interface of the program. Unfortunately, after wandering through all the nooks and crannies, we did not find an interface language switch.
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 offered options, we chose to create a banner:
In the next wizard window, 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 top one is for editing the time period of the video, and the bottom one is a regular graphics editor. Each of the elements is located on a separate layer, which can be modified using standard tools located on the sidebar.
Using Scenes
As you know, Flash allows you to create quite complex films that can contain interactive elements, animation, clips, etc. Naturally, there is a need to store and search for various elements of the film. If you're working on a large, complex project, it makes sense to break it down into several manageable chunks, each containing a specific sequence of events (animation, user interaction, etc.). This will make the work much easier. The role of such fragments in Flash films is played by scenes. They are logically completed miniature films, which together make up a single Flash film. When creating large projects, using scenes can save significant time.
What is a stage
Creating a scene is an effective technique that makes it possible to divide a specific project into separate manageable fragments. Each scene, as already mentioned, is a miniature film. The number of Flash movie scenes used is limited only by the computer's memory capacity. Scenes are played sequentially, in the order specified in the Scene panel and, being independent, at the same time are closely interconnected. There is never any noticeable delay between them during playback. The possibilities for using scenes are varied and almost limitless. For example, when working on a website project, you might implement sections and subsections as scenes. Recently, short animated Flash films, the content of which can be divided into logical parts through scenes, have become increasingly popular on the Internet.
Scene panel
The list of scenes contained in a movie is accessed using the Scene panel.
on), which opens when you call the command Window\u003e Design Panels\u003e Scene (Window\u003e Design Panels\u003e Scene). This panel allows you to view a list of available scenes
and establish the order of their playback in the film - it is determined by the order of the scenes in the list. In addition, using the Scene panel, you can duplicate, add, delete, and move scenes within the list.
The Options menu in the Scene panel contains only three commands: Maximize Panel, Close Panel, and Help.
Scene panel
Edit panel
The Edit panel is located above the timeline, below the main menu of the program. To open the panel, use the Window > Toolbars > Edit command. You have already used this panel when working in the Symbol Editor window to exit symbol editing mode (see Chapter 6). In this section we will talk about functionality Edit panels related to working with scenes.
The Edit panel contains the name of the current scene (in the figure, the current scene is Scene 2). You can switch to another scene using the Edit Scene button located on the right side of the Edit panel, and the name of the selected scene will be displayed in the line. The functionality of the Edit Scene button is described in the "Switching Between Scenes" section.
Edit Scene Button Menu
Creating and manipulating scenes
As already mentioned, the Scene panel, which opens using the Window > Design Panels > Scene command, is designed for working with scenes. In this section, you will learn how you can use this panel to add, duplicate, rename scenes, and change their order.
Adding a scene
As the complexity of a project increases, you will constantly need to add new scenes to distribute logical pieces of its content. You can do this using the Scene panel. To add a scene, follow these steps:
Make sure the required document is open. Select Window > Design Panels > Scene to open the Scene panel.
Click on the Add Scene button, which is located in the lower right corner of the panel, or call the Scene command from the Insert menu. After these actions, the name of the new scene will appear in the Scene panel window. By default, each new scene is assigned a name with a sequence number, which is one more than the name of the scene selected on this moment(eg Scene 1, Scene 2, etc.). The name is placed in the list accordingly.
Select a new scene from the Scene panel and create its content. When you create a new scene, Flash switches to it automatically.
List of scenes in the Scene panel
Deleting a scene
You can delete a scene this way.
Open the Scene panel by calling Window > Design Panels > Scene. Select the scene you want to delete.
Click on the Delete Scene button located in the lower right corner of the panel. To confirm deleting the scene, click the OK button in the dialog box that opens.
Scene duplication
In previous chapters, we already talked about creating duplicates of various elements. As for copying animation, and especially a complex project with big amount scenes, then this process would be quite cumbersome without the duplicate function that allows you to create exact copies any scene by pressing just one button.
Open the Scene panel by activating the command Window > Design Panels > Scene (Window > Design Panels > Scene), and select the scene that you want to duplicate.
Click the Duplicate Scene button located in the lower right corner of the Scene panel.
The name of the duplicate scene appears in the Scene panel window. Note that it consists of the name of the original scene and the word soru (copy).
Duplicate scene
Renaming scenes
Because the default names assigned to duplicate and new scenes differ only in their sequential number, it is difficult to identify the scene when searching for specific content. Therefore, in large projects it is advisable to assign special names to scenes that characterize their content. The process of renaming a scene will not take you much time.
Open the Scene panel by choosing Window > Design Panels > Scene and double-click the scene name you want to change. This will allow you to edit the scene name.
Enter a new name and press Returt/Enter or double-click outside the Scene panel.
Renaming a scene in the Scene panel
Changing the order of scenes
The order in which scene names are placed in the Scene panel determines the order in which scenes are played in the movie. Scene names in this panel can be moved, setting the order in which the scenes are played regardless of the order in which they were created.
Open the Scene panel by choosing Window > Design Panels > Scene.
Place the mouse pointer on the name of the scene that needs to be rearranged, press the left mouse button and, while holding it, move the pointer to the desired location on the panel. Notice that as you move the pointer, a blue line appears to indicate the possible new position of the scene name in the list.
Moving a scene in the Scene panel
Switch between scenes
You can use the following navigation tools to switch between different movie scenes while working on a Flash project.
Scene panel. To jump to the desired movie scene, click the scene name in the Scene panel. Recall that the name of the selected scene is displayed in the Edit panel.
Edit Scene button. When you click this button, located on the right side of the Edit panel, you get access to a menu with the names of all the scenes in the movie. To go to the desired scene, select the corresponding menu item.
Movie Explorer panel. This panel, which can be opened using the command Window > Other Panels > Movie Explorer, displays the hierarchical structure of the movie (see Chapter 8) and allows you to search for scenes, characters and character instances, and also replace text and fonts.
Scenes are represented in the Movie Explorer panel as higher-order hierarchical elements. To jump to a specific scene, find its name in the Movie Explorer panel and click on it. By default, this panel displays the contents of only the selected scene. To view the contents of all scenes simultaneously, activate the Show All Scenes command in the Options menu of this panel.
Movie Explorer panel with scene list
Scene testing
To test the created movie directly in the Flash development environment, you need to press Return/Enter, but in this case, viewing options will be limited to the selected scene. Sequential playback of all scenes is possible only after the film is published; the Flash environment is no longer required. To test, follow these steps:
To test an individual scene, select it in the Scene panel and press Return/Enter, or after selecting a scene, open the Control menu and activate the Test Scene command.
To test a movie, call the Test Movie command from the Control menu or use the key combination Cmd/Ctrl+Return/Enter. This will open a new window in which all scenes of the movie will be played in the sequence defined in the Scene panel.
You can also play all scenes in a movie by selecting Play All Scenes from the Control menu.
Managing scenes with ActionScript
Scenes can greatly simplify the overall organization of movie content. The predetermined sequence of playback of scenes determines the linearity of films. But in addition to the advantages (for example, simultaneous playback of two scenes is excluded), linear films also have disadvantages associated with the inability to change the order of playback of scenes. To solve this problem, you use ActionScript scripts (specifically frame actions) to control scenes.
You'll learn more about ActionScript and using frame actions in Chapter 13. This section introduces some of the actions you can use to control scenes.
gotoAndStopO - when called of this action the movie jumps to a specific scene and frame and stops playing the movie.
gotoAndPlay() - Calling this action causes the playback head to move to a specific scene and frame (movie playback continues from that frame).
play O - this action allows you to continue playing the movie after stopping.
stop O - using this action you can stop playing the movie.
