Flashthusiast

Motion:FAQ

This page is a placeholder for frequently asked questions about new motion in Flash CS4. Also, please submit general feedback in the comments of this page.

How do I select frame(s) on a tween span?

Hold the Ctrl or Cmd key and select the frame on the tween span, or drag across multiple frames to select more than one frame.

How do I move those diamondy “keyframes” on a tween span?

Hold Ctrl or Cmd key and select the frame with the diamond on it, and then drag that frame to a new location.

I have a great curve in the Motion Editor, and I want to reuse it. How?

Right-click the graph that contains the curve, and choose Copy Curve. Go to another graph and right-click again and choose Paste Curve. Note that pasting applies to non-spatial properties.

Why do X, Y, and Z properties not have bezier handles in the Motion Editor?

The X, Y, and Z properties control the position animations of your motion tweens, and are called spatial properties. These graphs control where your instance appears on Stage, and are used to generate the motion path on Stage. You can edit the motion path on the Stage to update the graphs in the Motion Editor, and vice versa. To enable stage editing of spatial properties, it is necessary for the properties to add keyframes to all graphs at the same time. If you change what frame a keyframe resides on, both keyframes move together. Because the motion model has a lot of control over the spatial property graphs, handles are not available on the property keyframes in these graphs because they’re controlled by Flash (you can hold Alt and change a control point between a corner and smooth point). You should try to edit your motion paths on Stage for the best results.

I’m having trouble scrolling in the Motion Editor using the scroll wheel. What gives?

The hot text (value) and menu controls in the Motion Editor (similar to other controls in Flash and other Adobe Products) respond to the scroll wheel. Therefore, if you have your mouse over these areas while you scroll, you active and modify those controls instead of the panel itself. Make sure you scroll outside these controls if you intend to scroll the panel instead of modify values. I’ve gotten quite used to scrolling over the large graph area of the panel when I want to scroll the content instead of change values.

I want to drag a keyframe and have it retain the same value. How?

This is possible if you 1) Deselect the keyframe you want to drag. 2) Hold Shift. 3) Start dragging the keyframe to a new frame. It will then retain the same value (you will see an orange line extend across the same value.) Note: You have to follow this order of operations. Otherwise Flash is waiting for you to click another keyframe - you can hold Shift to select multiple keyframes in a graph too.

The Motion Editor is slow to select and drag keyframes.

This can occur if you have very long tween spans on certain machines. If possible, you may want to split the tween span into multiple spans to speed up performance.

I want to insert frames into or remove frames from a tween span. How?

It’s super easy. Select the frames you want to remove, or the number of frames you want to insert within the span (Ctrl/Cmd+drag to do so). Then F5 to insert frames, or right-click and choose Remove Frames.

My animation doesn’t move to a new FLA file as expected. What now?

There are edge cases where animations may not move as expected the first time you try. If you have issues moving animations between FLA files, select the frames you want to move by using Copy Frames / Paste Frames.

I don’t want to stretch an animation when I make the tween span larger, I just want to make the span longer on the Timeline. Pray do tell how I accomplish this.

To make the span longer without stretching the animation, hold Shift and then drag the end of the span.

Animating is so much faster! What do I do with all this spare time?

Go out and get some fresh air.