Operation Manual

242 Creating Animations
Attributes
The attributes (colour, transparency, effects) of an object
are mirrored to the same object on subsequent keyframes
on your storyboard.
Applying actions (keyframe animation)
Selected objects can be assigned an event and corresponding action. The use of
actions provides an interactive experience in response to a user's mouse
up/down/press/release, key press/up/down, roll over, etc. As a typical example,
an event such as a mouse press on an object can initiate an action such as a jump
to a particular keyframe, e.g. an important point in your animation that could
indicate contact details, important messages, etc.
Actions are grouped into a tree menu structure whose categories include:
• Advanced: Begin/End blocks, apply conditions, create variables,
variable control.
• Browser: navigate browser to URL, navigate frame to URL, open
browser with URL.
• Effect: named object control (hide, show, recolour).
• Position: move objects by pixel or to screen areas.
• Pre-loader: rewind animation, object stretch.
• Sound: increase/decrease volume, play/stop sound, set volume.
• Timeline: go to marker, animation frame, animation playback control
(stop, play, rewind).
DrawPlus makes use of ActionScript, a language specifically designed for Adobe
Flash applications, to allow a high level of interactivity between the exported
Flash SWF and the user (e.g., a web visitor).
When an action is applied from the menu you may be prompted for a parameter
setting (pixel width, colour, etc) but you can alter parameters at any time—
without having to view underlying ActionScript code.