Specifications

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CHAPTER 14
Creating Graphics: Making
Animations with Easing
(Flash Professional only)
This tutorial guides you through the process of using the tweening tools in
Macromedia Flash Basic 8 and Macromedia Flash Professional 8. Tweening
is the process of animating a graphic by setting starting and ending values
for its properties and letting Flash calculate the values in between. The
term tween comes from “in between.”
A simple example of a tween would be to place a graphic at the top of the
Stage and then add several frames to the Timeline and move the graphic to
the bottom of the Stage in the last frame. By letting Flash fill in the
position values for the frames in between, you can easily create a smooth
animation of the graphic from the top of the Stage to the bottom.
Flash Professional also lets you exercise fine control over how the tweened
property values are calculated, so you can easily create more complex
animations. By using the Custom Ease In / Ease Out window, you can
control the speed at which the changes to properties are applied at the
beginning, middle, and end of your animations. Careful use of this
window can yield visually compelling results.
This tutorial takes you through the process of creating an animation by
tweening different properties of a graphic using the various tweening
controls in the Flash authoring environment.
After examining the completed animation, you’ll begin by opening a starter
Flash document and end by publishing the document for web playback.
The tutorial should take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
Before you take this tutorial you should read Chapter 2, “Flash Basics,” in
Getting Started with Flash.