Assignment #8– 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:  In this assignment I had to use Adobe Flash to create a 120 frame animation.  The assignment was to create balls move and have a picture in the center that would move around at the end.  I made sure each was 12 frames long.  I had five layers that included four different colored balls and Kylie Jenner.  I went with a pink theme so I set the stage as a bubblegum pink.  I made different colored balls by using the circle tool.  I then placed them in each corner.  I added classic tweens to each layer and also added keyframes so the balls could move at different times.  I made all the balls move to the center first and then one by one back to corners.  To get Kylie Jenner in the animation, I first took her to Adobe Photoshop to cut out the background.  After that, I put her into Flash.  I used the subselection and Free Transform Tool to rotate, shrink, and enlarge her in each frame.    To save it, I saved it into documents, then saved it as a QuickTime. After that, I dragged it into Vimeo and then copied and pasted the link into my blog.  I think I did a good job on this assignment.  I really enjoy using Flash and can’t wait to use it more.