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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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If you’re looking for more up-to-date information on this topic, please visit our Flash article, podcast, and store pages.

In past guide updates, I have explained how you can create vector and bitmap still images using Flash's sister product, Fireworks. Fireworks and Flash share a lot of features and a similar interface. If you are used to working with Flash’s design tools, then you may want to stay with Fireworks for the simple reason that you may not have the time to learn another product.

In this section of the guide, you are going to learn how to create animation with Fireworks and export the animation sequence for use on the Web as either an animated GIF or Flash movie.

Animation

There are two popular formats of animation on the Web. The most widely used is CompuServe's GIF format, but Flash is giving GIF a run for the money.

GIF animation received mainstream adoption when Netscape included it in the Navigator 3.0 browser (quickly followed by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3.0). Unlike JPEG images that support a photo-realistic color spectrum, GIF images support only 256 colors, the most basic color spectrum for Web browsers. However, GIF images support two key features that make them perfect for the Web: transparency and animation. You can specify that a color from the GIF palette be transparent in a Web browser. This provides the illusion of irregularly-shaped images, such as buttons. The second big win for GIF image formats is the ability to layer two or more images on top of each other to create simple animations.

Flash shares many of the same features of GIF. It can support animation, but not color transparency in the Web browser. The advantage Flash boasts is the ability to support JPEG-quality images in a more compact animation.

Using Fireworks as an animation tool

Fireworks provides a series of tools that enable an animated movie to be quickly created. The most important tool for creating animation is the Frames Inspector, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Frames Inspector

The Frames Inspector allows an animation to be created in Fireworks.

Any animation in Fireworks must have two or more frames. Frames can be added by choosing Add Frames from the Frames Properties (the small arrow in the top right-hand corner of the inspector). Choosing Add Frames opens a dialog box that asks how many frames you would like to add and where in the movie you would like them to appear. The default is for one new frame to appear directly after the current frame.

Creating an Animation

To create a new animation, Fireworks opens a new movie and sets the canvas settings to 500 by 500 pixels. Open the Frames Inspector and you’ll see just one frame. You can't do animation in just one frame; you must have at least two frames. But, before we create a second frame, let's plan what kind of animation is going to be created. Planning any type of multimedia presentation will always shorten the length of the project.

On a piece of paper, sketch out the various frames you would like to see in the animation. This is called story boarding. On the Fireworks canvas, add the first set of images that will occupy frame one. For this exercise you can use your name. Make the font size 40 points for the first frame.

From the Frames Properties menu, choose Add Frames, then add five frames. This creates five new frames directly after frame 1. You will have six frames in total.

Select Frame 2 from the Frames Inspector. Your name has disappeared. This is because the images created in frame 1 only occupy frame 1 of the movie. We have not added them to frame 2.

Select frame 1 and highlight your name. Copy and paste your name into frame 2. With frame 2 selected, change the size of the font to 36 points. Copy your name in frame 2 and paste it into frame 3 and resize the point size to 30. Repeat these steps for the remaining frames, decreasing the font size each time. You should now have six frames with your name displayed in ever-smaller point sizes.

Now that the animation has six frames, how can it be viewed? Fireworks has a set of VCR-like controls for play, stop, fast forward, and rewind. These controls are located in the bottom right-hand corner of the window. Figure 2 shows the controls.

Figure 2: VCR-like controls

These controls play and stop animations.

Click the white Play button. The animation can be stopped at any time by clicking the black, square Stop button. Use the Frame forward controls to move frame by frame through the animation.

Distribution to Frames

Creating animation frame by frame can be tedious. A faster solution is it to use a feature in Fireworks called Distribute to Frames. This allows for objects on the canvas to be created quickly into an animation. To use Distribute to Frames, the canvas must contain two or more objects.

Create a new file in Fireworks. On the stage, draw a Star. With the ALT key held down, select the star with the mouse. New copies of the star will be created each time the mouse button is released while the ALT key is held down. Create six or seven stars.

Press CTRL+A to select all of the stars that have been created. In the Frames Inspector, choose Distribute to Frames from the properties menu, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Distribute to Frames

A duplicated star shape is automatically distributed to eight frames.

The new frames are created in the order in which the original star graphics were created. In each frame will be one star. Click the Play button to view the animation.

Shared Layers

An image can be shared throughout an animation. This is great for backgrounds that must appear on every frame.

Open the Layers Inspector, add a new layer, then add a background image to this layer (it should be called Layer 2).

In the Layers Inspector, double-click Layer 2. The Layers dialog box opens, allowing the name of the layer to be changed. What is important is the "Share across frames" checkbox at the bottom, as shown in Figure 4. If this checkbox is selected, any objects in this layer will be shared throughout the animation.

Figure 4: Share Across Frames

Selecting the checkbox allows any images in this layer to be shared across all frames.

Play the animation and notice that the background is now shared throughout the animation. The only caveat with this feature is that a layer has to be shared throughout every frame of an animation. Groups of frames cannot be selected as sharing a layer.

Play that again, Sam...

The playback speed of each frame can be controlled from the Frames Inspector. Double-clicking any single frame will open the properties dialog for the frame. As shown in Figure 5, the default frame delay is 7/100 of a second.

Figure 5: Frame Delay

Changing the fraction will modify how long the frame pauses on the screen. The smaller the fraction, the shorter the time spent on the screen.

The frame delay can be manually changed. For instance, modifying the number to 100/100 will cause the frame to pause for one whole second, 1000/100 will cause the frame to pause for 10 seconds, etc.

Along the bottom of the Frames Inspector is a GIF Animation looping button. By default the animation is set to No Looping. Clicking the GIF Animation looping button opens a drop-down menu of choices for animation looping. Increasing the number of times an animation loops does not increase the size of the file.

Get it on the Web!

Animation does need some subtle modifications to allow it to be exported to the Web. This can be easily done through the use of the Optimize Inspector, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Optimize Inspector

The Optimize Inspector must have the GIF settings changed to Animated GIF for the movie to play correctly after export.

With the Optimize Inspector open, choose Animated GIF from the Export File Format drop-down menu. At this point, a transparency can be applied using the "Choose type of Transparency" drop-down menu.

With the export settings confirmed, choose File > Export. Choose where on your hard drive you would like to save the animation. When the file has been saved, open your favorite Web browser, choose File > Open, and locate your new animated GIF. The animation now plays in your browser!

Your animation can also be exported from Fireworks as a Flash movie. With your animation open in Fireworks, choose File > Export Special. From here a second list of options appears. Choose Flash SWF as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Flash SWF Save and properties

A Flash SWF file downloads faster than an animated GIF.

Flash has advantages over GIF. To begin with, Flash movies are generally smaller than animated GIF movies. Since more animation can be created in a smaller file, Flash files can be downloaded faster, resulting in increased user satisfaction. Flash movies can also be "loaded" into other Flash movies. This has to be done with ActionScript in Macromedia's Flash 4 or above. The end result, however, is that the graphics can be controlled with Fireworks and the scripting can be controlled by Flash, both tools doing what they do best.

Final Word

Animation can make the difference for any site. In a recent Web site competition in Wisconsin, one of the designers was surprised to see that the sites that won all leveraged animation. Used creatively and carefully, the impact of animation can make the difference between a dull site and a site with impact.

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