To see the finished animation before you start: click here.
1. Open up new Flash document: File > New
2. Open up LIBRARY: Window > Library
The Library is one of the most important components in making a Flash animation.
This is where you will store all your graphics, text, and sounds. Flash refers to all the items in the Library as "Symbols".
From the Library you will access and re-use the items.
3. Go to the library window,
click on "Options" and a new window will open.
Select: "New Symbol"
4. When the window opens, change the name from "Symbol 1" to whatever you like.
See Graphic 1.
Select "Graphic" and then click "OK"
If you make a mistake or forget to select something - it can be easily changec by going to the Library Symbols window > Options and then select Properties.
5. A new white rectangle window on the stage will open.
Notice in the top left hand corner of the stage and layers window that there are two tabs:"Scene 1" and "The name of your symbol".
See Graphic 2.
Scene 1 is where the movie is compiled, put together.
The symbol you are working on is just a graphic to be used in your flash movie.
6. Making sure I am working on the "dog" symbol I click on the "dog" tab in the top left hand corner.
Notice that this blank window looks just like the "Scene 1" window.
7. Now I am going to draw the dog.
One must consider the animation before proceeding to draw.
Anything that moves independently from the other parts of the drawing MUST be separate Symbols.
For this lesson here, I will animate a dog moving his eyes and wagging its tail.
So I need three (3) different symbols:
1) The dog body;
2) The tail;
3) The two eyeballs (I will only make one eyeball but re-use the Symbol on different layers.)
8. In the dog Symbol stage I make sure their are three layers, by clicking on the "+box" in the layers area.
I then name the layers: body, tail, eyeball.
Clicking on layer "body", I draw the dogs body.
See Graphic 3.
9. After completing the dog body, I go to the layers area and click the "lock" icon to lock the body layer so I won't draw or erase it when working on the other layers.
10. Next I click on the "tail" layer to select it, then in the drawing area I draw the tail.. See Graphic 4.
11. I then lock the "tail" layer, Select the eye layer and move on to draw the eyeball in the eye layer.
MAKING SYMBOLS OF EACH OF THE PARTS OF THE DOG.
12. In the layers section hide layers "tail" and "eyeball" by clicking on the respective layers and then clicking the eye icon at the top. This hides the art on those two layers.
13. Select the body layer. Unlock it. Then go to the top of the page to the command INSERT > CONVERT TO SYMBOL.
A "Symbol Properties" window will open. Name the symbol and select "graphic" then OK.
14. Now do the same individual action for both the tail and eyeball. Hide the layers you don't want in the symbol, click on the layer of the symbol you do want, then go to the top of the page to the command INSERT > CONVERT TO SYMBOL.
15. Finished! Now you have a dog and symbols that make up the three graphic parts to make the animation.
See Graphic 5.
To see the finished animation:
click here.
What software do I use to draw my characters?
In this case drew the dog body (shown left), then will move to the "tail" layer to draw the tail, and finally the "eye" layer to draw only one of the eyeballs.
Note how I locked the body layer so that there is no chance of mistakenly erasing or overdrawing it.
Also shown is the Library with all the symbols.
Note how there is only one eyeball symbol, but two different eyeball layers.
I re-used the eyeball for both eyes - scaling it down in size for the dog's right eye.
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