Creating A Disco Advert In Flash (part 2)

Creating a disco advert Task 2 –Shape Tweening

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You should have some circles in your Flash document. We need to lock them to keep them safe. Look at your timeline and click on the dot below the padlock.

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Now add a new layer. Click on the Insert Layer button at the bottom of the timeline.

Time for some Shape Tweening. This is the term that animators use when they use computers to ‘fill in the gaps’ Draw a circle on the stage. Try using a funky fill.

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Don’t worry about drawing over your existing circles. You’ve protected them. Move your new circle to the middle of the stage. Click on the ‘Selection tool’ [black arrow] and then move your circle to the middle.

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Hover near ‘Layer 2’ on your timeline. Right-click and click ‘Insert Frame’

Keep going – you’re nearly at the Shape Tween – grove on down!

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Press the ‘F5’ key about 10 times – this will make the circle display for longer.

Right-click on the final frame and select ‘Insert Keyframe’:

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You now have a Keyframe. This copies what was in the frame before, but allows you to change the object. Click on your circle to select it. You’ll know when because it will look like it has lots of teeny-tiny dots all over it. Click on ‘Modify’ > ‘Transform’ > ‘Scale’

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Drag the corners of your circle as far as you can. Once you’ve dragged one corner to the edge of the screen, drag the opposite corner.

Click back on the first dot – the one in Frame 1: Look at the bottom of your screen. You should see the ‘Properties’ panel. On the Properties panel there is a drop-down box labelled ‘Tween’.

Click on the drop-down box and select ‘Shape’

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You have now created a Shape Tween. Flash has animated the shape from a small to large size. To make your effect stand out more, change the background colour to black. Click in a blank area of your stage. The grey part would be ideal. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see the standard Properties panel:

See the part that says ‘Background’? Well – click it and change it to black.

Excellent.... Press ‘File’ > ‘Publish Preview’ > ‘Flash’ to test out your progress.

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Extension work 

If you feel you’ve mastered this skill, try adding in an additional Shape Tween. Insert a new Keyframe at the end of your animation and then repeat the above steps.

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If you change the colours it can work really well.

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Also – think – how could you make the circle go from really large to small? How would you need to change the above instructions?