Archive for ‘new stuff’

October 6th, 2009

Scaling and moving new motion tweens in Flash CS4

by Jen deHaan

A “FAQ” about new motion tweens is how to scale the entire animation after you have created it. New motion tweens “auto-keyframe”. This can be very helpful when animating, because it saves you a step – you can just make your changes and everything tweens nicely. However, it also means that you need to think about things when you need to revise the entire animation. You don’t use “Edit multiple keyframes”, since you really only have one keyframe at the beginning of the animation. So I’ll go over a few of the things you may encounter.

1. Moving an entire animation with a motion path.
If you have a motion path, this is easy – you select the motion path (click it, or marquee-select over your instance), and then drag it to a new location on the stage or use the X-Y hot text for the path.

2. Moving an entire animation without a motion path.
If you do not have a motion path and do not want a motion path, you need to make sure your playhead is at frame 1 of the tween span, and then move the instance to a new location. Make sure you haven’t accidentily placed any position keyframes. If you do have a path, delete it or go to the Motion Editor and right-click the X and Y motion paths and choose “Reset Property” (or click the Reset button for Basic motion if you don’t have rotation applied).

3. Scaling an entire animation that doesn’t have Scale X or Scale Y animated.
You can scale the tween with the motion path. Just go to the first frame of the tween, and select the instance and path using the Free Transform Tool (hold Shift to multi-select), or use the Transform panel for each selection. Scale it as you do any path or instance, and because you’re at the first frame the changes will apply across the entire tween.

4. Scaling an entire animation that does have Scale X or Scale Y animated.
If you have previously scaled anything in the tween, doing this is applied to the first keyframe and the tween would animate to the earlier scaling (the auto-keyframing feature can be a detriment in this situation, especially when it comes to scaling due to the percentages being reset – for this reason Motion Presets also won’t help). In this situation, I recommend scaling using the Motion editor:
1. Go to the Scale X and Y properties in the Motion Editor.
2. Press the Alt key while dragging the curve in each graph up and down. This scales the entire scale animation at the same time (same as edit multiple keyframes).
3. If you need to proportionally scale the motion path for the tween as well, select the path on the Stage and use Free Transform or enter a new value in the Transform panel.

May 5th, 2009

Great extensions that work with new motion tweens in Flash CS4

by Jen deHaan

Justin Putney at Ajar Productions has created some amazing extensions that you can use with Flash CS4 and the new motion model to help with your tweens or create them. Justin’s extensions are not only useful, but well implemented and documented on his blog.

For some helpful detailed info about the extension creation, check out this post on the Ajar Productions site.

For information/download for the MotionSketch extension, which records/creates a tween based on you drawing in Flash (!), see this post.

For the Motion Blur extension, which analyzes the movement of your tween and then creates a motion blur. see this post.

Many thanks to Justin for your hard work, and excellent extensions.

May 5th, 2009

Migrating from Classic Tweens to New Tweens? Check out this new article

by Jen deHaan

We wrote an article to help you migrate your skills and tweens from old to new in Flash CS4. It accompanys a new Animation Learning Guide on the Developer Center (they go hand in hand, lots of cross links) – and since it is now out, so is the migration article.

Check them out here:

* Motion Migration Guide for Flash CS4

* Animation Learning Guide

Let us know what you think!

December 18th, 2008

Flash CS4 lets you show grids on top of your artwork

by Jen deHaan

A frequently requested item for Flash is the ability to see a grid over your artwork on the Stage. Flash CS4 now lets you do just that using a new option in the Edit Grid dialog. Let’s look at the change, which you might not have noticed yet because it’s turned off by default. Keep reading to learn how.

December 10th, 2008

Flash CS4 example: Spray Brush, Tween instance, new motion, AS3, fancy JSFL… Profit!

by Jen deHaan

In the previous blog entry, I linked to a new JSFL that automatically gives instance names to selected instances in a smart way. You can go read about and download the JSFL from this page. This entry shows you how to use this command along with some of the new features in Flash CS4.

November 24th, 2008

Lists of keyboard modifiers in the Flash CS4 motion model – lets you do more stuff

by Jen deHaan

That’s right – do you want to do more “stuff” with your tweens? Often you have to know what keyboard modifiers to use, because functionality is not revealed in any other way. These modifiers are all documented, but I thought I would put them down in a handy list you could reference or print out (or whatever you want to do).

MOTION EDITOR

  • Add a control point: Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click (Mac) on the curve or dashed line on the graph.
  • Remove a control point: Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click (Mac) a control point.
  • Select multiple control points on a graph: Hold Shift and click each control point.
  • Convert a control point between smooth and corner: Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) the control point to extend or pull in the handles of a control point. This works on all control points except on the X, Y, and Z (spatial) properties.
  • Move a curve up and down on a graph without changing the keyframes time values: Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) the curve between any two control points.
  • Separate handles on a control point: Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) a handle. This makes the handle move independently. Release the Alt key and drag the opposite handle past 180 degrees to make both move together again.
  • Move a control point to a different frame and retain its value: Make sure the control point is DESELECTED, and then hold Shift and drag it to a new frame. Or select the control point and don’t release the mouse button, then hold Shift and drag it to a new location.
  • Change values by steps of 10: Hold Shift while scrolling the hot text.
  • Change values by steps of 0.1: Hold Ctrl while scrolling the hot text.

(Also note that you can do basic math in the hot text as well – to enter 25, you can enter 20+5.)

TWEEN SPANS (in Timeline)

  • Select a single frame in a tween span: Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click (Mac) a frame in the tween span.
  • Select multiple frames in a tween span: Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Cmd-drag (Mac) frames in the tween span.
  • Extend the length of a tween span without stretching the animation: Shift-drag the end of the tween span to the right.
  • Make the tween span shorter without stretching the animation: Shift-drag the end of the tween span to the left (removes keyframes you drag over).
  • Duplicate a span: Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) the span to a new location on a timeline.
  • Duplicate tween frames: Select frame(s) within a span (Ctrl/Cmd-click or drag) and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) the frames to a new location on a timeline.
  • Insert empty frames between two adjacent tween spans: Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) while dragging the breakline between the spans.

November 20th, 2008

Flash CS4: How to ease between keyframes using new motion tweens

by Jen deHaan

In Flash CS3, you could set easing on each keyframe in your animation to apply easing between two instances. Because there is only one instance per tween span, you cannot ease the same way using the new motion model. In order to apply an easing effect to a motion tween, you need to use a custom ease or modify curves in property graphs using the Motion Editor. Keep reading to learn how to ease between keyframes using a custom ease.

November 20th, 2008

Flash CS4: Modifying and applying a custom ease in the Motion Editor

by Jen deHaan

You can then edit the custom ease using the standard bezier editing controls found in other property graphs in the Motion Editor.
To apply the custom ease to a property, you select the custom ease’s name from the Ease menu in the property you want to apply it to. The property graph updates with a dashed curve that displays the actual tweened values after the ease is applied, as it does for the preset eases you can apply using this Ease section of the Motion Editor. Keep reading to learn how to create custom eases.

November 20th, 2008

So is Flash CS4 perfect, or not?

by Jen deHaan

If you think Flash CS4 is perfect, doesn’t need to change, or don’t care about Flash at all then you can quit reading this and go back to Flash and tween something.

If you don’t think it’s perfect then keep reading. Actually, even if Flash is perfect this post still applies… so please keep reading anyway :)

Adobe’s Product Improvement Program is what this post is on, because it might not be obvious from the option’s name but it’s a) not a survey, b) doesn’t require any work, and c) pretty darn important. Essentially you can opt into this program that sends anonymous information (the info it sends is pretty much like the list you see in the History panel) about what features you use in Flash. Big deal? Yup. It tells us what features you actually use. And that then helps us know what’s most important to you. Which is good. You help influence what gets attention in Flash. You, personally. You affect the future.

So your good deed of today is to go make sure this is turned on. Go to Help > Adobe Product Improvement Program in the main menu, and in the window that opens read the info and click Yes Participate if you agree with the stuff it says. And then create a whole lot of new motion tweens. Please. I’ll promise to upload more FLA files if you do!

November 17th, 2008

Liveblogging MAX 2008 Day 1 General Session Keynote – Click Refresh!

by Jen deHaan

So get ready for yet another liveblog, this year from Flashthusiast (as I can’t stick with the same blog it seems). I hope my battery lasts the morning.

The excitement is in the air. It’s palpable. We’re listening to Panic at the Disco of all things. People who are not me are taking pictures. Runes and MAX video stuffs are playing on giant monitors. Pretty – well, very – good setup, and us employees are allowed in the big room this year.

And it starts!

We have a turntable slideshow from some guy called Mike. A DJ guy in a suit.

We have videos playing — It’s Sean K and Tony D from the Flash team (whoo!) … and a bunch of other people on video… Grant Skinner and other Adobe enthusiasts I suppose. Duane N. Yep, Adobe enthusiasts.

And *now* it starts!

More after the jump!