reading for Module 4

Video links

Watch some successful assignments using Shape Tween animation:

http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/Ajarabo/F_online/projects_ShapeTween/Frameset_shape.htm

Things that you should know when you Work with shape tweens.

REMINDER CHART. To make a Shape tween happen you need to have all those things rightly set:

You begin by placing a "IN" keyframe and a "OUT" keyframe, in the same layer on Stage, to mark the 2 poses you want to animate from and animate to.

(those are just 2 keyframes along the timeline, but we call them IN and OUT to make things clear and underline that you first need to set the begining and then the end of it)

The content of those 2 layers need to be Raw shapes and raw lines, no content should be grouped. No symbols.

If some of the content is grouped you should break it first (Apple_B, or command_B on a PC).

Once you have set an IN and an OUT keyframe, select the IN Keyframe, right click and select "Shape tween".

That will create a green band with an arrow between both, IN and OUT keyframes, up in the Timeline area.

If the arrow, instead of looking like a clean line, looks like a dotted line, you need to check out the elements in both, IN and OUT keyframes. You probably have some groupped element in one of them that can not get calculated and the program is complaining about it.

You can SHAPE tween several shapes and lines in one operation (by having all that content in one layer) but this simplest strategy is
NOT going to give you good control over the morph effect.

If you want to better control the visual effect of the tween, you need to divide the content on several layers.
so you end with several simple shape tweens happening at the same time, that produce 1 visual effect on Stage.

This is what we call a "complex shape tween".
Below you can see an example of a complex shape tween that uses 5 layers of shapetweens plus frame by frame work to create a great effect: from kitchen to space.
Notice how well structured the layers are.

Notice how structured is the Timing in this piece:

There is Action, then a little pause, then Action again.

You need to use pauses (of half a second or more), right before something important happens.

A pause is also necessary at the end of a story (a second or more there).

If you are using text as an element of your Shape tween you need to break down the text to get the morph effect to work.

If you break down a word (select and click Apple_B), it will get divided into a series of individually grouped letters.
To get all the text to become a raw shape, you need to break it down again.

After you break it down twice, you will see the letters selected with the tyipical "moire pattern" of raw selected objects.

Once the text is broken you could apply a line around your raw-shaped text to create a different effect to your text.

Links

Consult the related pages in my website (they illustrate the same examples used in your assignment-sample files).

http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/Ajarabo/F_online/shapetween1.htm

http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/Ajarabo/F_online/shapetween2.htm

More on Timeline manipulation. Using options on the right-click menu to manipulate animation on the Timeline

You can follow the image/text tutorial below or watch my training Movie (i provided the link also in module 3).

The movie expalins how to copy/paste in place, how to Copy and Paste frames of an Animation (a sequence of frames in one or several layers).
You will also wee how to use the Edit Multiple frames tool to alter a sequence of frames (position, rotation, scale...)

http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/ajarabo/F_online/A_MOODLE_FILES/Training_movies/copy_paste_frames.mov

	Do you know how to copy/paste a consecutive series of keyframes? ( I call it a "chunk of Animation", as opposed to just the content of one keyframe) You might be used to do the typical copy/paste with the [Apple_C, Apple_V] or [Control_C, Control_V] commands, but now you need to copy/paste Animation, with keyframes,frames and tons of artwork.
	TO copy/paste animation You need to use the right-click menu(there are also short-cuts for it, but the right-menu might be more secure for you guys now). 1. To COPY Animation, first SELECT the section of Animation on the timeline, on one or several layers (see left)

	2. Once the selection has been defined and you have a "highlighted section" on the Timeline, RIGHT_Click on the last frame of the selected frames and choose"Copy Frames" from the menu. If you are not an expert mouse-user ( a video-game player is) or you are using a very crappy mouse-device, just selecting frames over the timeline will require practice. Notice That if you DRAG the mouse AFTER YOU RELEASE the cursor, you will displace keyframes, instead of selecting them. If that happens, press the [Apple_Z] or Comman_Z] combinations to undo the damage. NEVER do this type of operation without having saved the Project, please!!!

	3. To PASTE an Animation CREATE a new layer (easier) OR find a clean spot on a pre-existing layer (with nothing on the layer from the current frame) then, Make a keyframe (F6), Right-click on the empty keyframe and choose "Paste frames".

	Notice that Flash created the new layers needed to match the structure of the copied material. Notice also that the new layers have been named like the copied ones, But the one that we called NEW_LAYER is still called the same. (if we haven't changed the name, the layer would have been called Eyes)


	REVERSE ANIMATION. Once you have highlighted a "chunk of Animation" (the original one or the pasted one, depends on your needs) You can right-click on the last frame and select "Reverse Frames". This will change the order of the keyframes respecting the timing and you will get The motion backwards. THIS is a great trick for creating LOOPS!

Using the Edit Multiple frames tool. This is the tool you need to use to modify a "chunk of animation all at once". It is very useful when you modify the size of the Stage AFTER all the animation is done and you have to move or resize everything...