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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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Up to this point, you’ve been creating animation using frame-based and tween animation techniques, which you can only view before publication by testing and previewing them. This is called a linear frame-by-frame view.

As an animator, however, you need to see more than just one frame at a time, especially when you need to move animated objects over the stage. The technique that allows you to view multiple frames of an animation sequence at once is called onion skinning.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the onion skinning tools available in Flash.

History of Onion Skinning

Onion skinning is a technique with roots that go back to the early 1920s when Disney animators would create each frame of their animations on different transparent sheets, or gels. These early animators came up with onion skinning as a way to ensure that these individual gels lined up properly to create a seamless animation.

The onion skinning process starts with the first frame of the animation where the animator draws an outline of the animated character, to which no color is added. A second gel is laid over the first. In the second gel, the animator re-draws the animation, but moves the character slightly into the position necessary for frame two of the animated sequence. The advantage of this process is that you can see the previous position of the animation you’re drawing through the transparent gels.

The process is repeated by adding additional gels—one on top of the other. Each gel is a frame of the animation. By holding the gels to the light, you can see all of the positions of the animated character in one view.

Figure 1

Color is not added during the initial onion skinning phase. It’s a lot faster to modify an outlined character than one that’s been fully colored if you need to make changes to your animation sequence.

Color is added when the outlined onion skin sequence meets the satisfaction of the animator and is ready to be finalized. The onion skin preview technique is also used on the final colored gels.

Figure 2

For Disney, onion skinning became a technique that allowed animators to see, in one view, all of the individual positions for an animation during a set of frames. This helped to ensure quality in animation for the early designers.

Using Onion Skin Tools in Flash

Onion skinning is still a valuable technique for modern animators. In Flash, you use the onion skinning tools positioned in the timeline panel to view and control your animated objects as they move across the stage. The following image shows Flash’s onion skinning tools.

Figure 3

You can perform two types of onion skinning techniques in Flash: full color and outline. Unlike the Disney artists of yore, however, you don’t have to worry so much about creating individual cells, so the outline technique is not as vital. Modern animation tools, such as motion tweens, make creating animated objects across a scene very easy.

Select the button highlighted in the following image to view the full-color onion skin view.

Figure 4

Flash still provides an outline view of your drawing objects. Select the button highlighted in the following image to view the animation sequence in onion skin view.

Figure 5

Both onion skin techniques reveal a new set of tools alongside the playback head in the timeline. The tools, which look like brackets, indicate the start and end point of the frames you are viewing in onion skin view. You can see these brackets in the following image.

Figure 6

As you’ll see in the next image, these positions represent themselves graphically on the stage.

Figure 7

Your animated objects can be moved and re-positioned with the onion skinning view turned on. This gives you control of your animation as it moves through time.

Summary

Unlike early Disney animators, you don’t have to work with multiple sheets to draw your animation sequences. In Flash, you create your animation in frames along the timeline instead of using gels. Although technology has advanced since those early days of animation, Flash animation artists still use the onion skinning technique first used by Disney animators to view and control the position of animated objects as they move across time.

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