Assignment #7– Flash Animation Exercise 2: Four Corners

Students learn the basic tools and use of Flash timeline, frames, key frames, and tweens to create a 120 frame (10 second) animation. The animation must have at least 5 layers (1 layer for each ball, and a layer for an object that will appear, spin and disappear, the show up again at the very end), and use tweens to create synchronized animation that has 4 different colored balls or objects positioned in the 4 corners of the canvas that close to the center either individually or at the same time, then pause and split back out to the original 4 corners position. When the balls split away at the end, an object will appear, spin, disappear, and show up again at the end.

Students who finish early, are challenged to add additional layers, objects, backgrounds and animation to their exercise. Images can also be brought in from the web using this process: JPG images found on the web should be in approximate size to the canvas, opened in Photoshop, manipulated if necessary, backgrounds masked, and then the remaining areas other than the image made transparent. The file must be saved as a PNG, then Imported to the Library in the Flash file, a new layer created for it, then dragged from the library, and finally sized and positioned on the canvas to work with the rest of the design. Files are saved as native Flash files and exported as .mov files when completed.

Reflection- Since I have already had Digital Media, I embellished on this Flash assignment. I used the eclipse and rectangle tools for the background and objects, and brought in the flower png for the end. I made the first part of the animation with keyframes and classic tweens, and then I added the flower part. I used blank keyframes to make the circles disappear, and keyframes to bring in the flowers. I think I did pretty well on this assignment, and I like my animation.