Making a Flash Movie

Introduction
In this assignment, you will learn some basic skills of Flash MX to make a morphing movie.

Here is a free online tutorial you can take a look and learn a couple of extra skills.

Requirements

  1. In the movie, you will draw four images, a title for the movie and your name.
  2. The images you will draw should be category-related. You will draw three images belonging to the same category and one image that is not related to the category. This can be used as a game for students to learn what classification is by catching the image that does not belong.
  3. Here a few examples:
    Theme one: Stationery (pencil, paper, penholder, scissors, ruler and staple).
    Theme two: Fruit (apple, banana, watermelon, and grapes).
    Theme three: Furniture (desk, chair, bed, and case).
    Here are more themes: animal, facial expressions, traffic signs, tools, transportations, and concept (e.g., shapes, seasons, living things).

Morphing Drawing (Lines and Fills)

Prepare your Flash Program
- Open a new Flash document - Choose New and Flash document
- Make sure to go to Window Menu to choose/click Tool, Timeline, Toolbars - Controller, Properties - Properties, Color Mixer and Color Swatches

Basic Techniques
Keyframe is used to start the first image and how many frames are need to run the image
Blank Keyframe is used to start a new image for morphing
Blank Keyframe is used not to show words in word layer
Shape Tween is used to morph the image

Important advice:
Please follow the number of frames indicated in the instruction exactly as it is.
If you think your Shape Tween is not working properly, do the following: 1) delete the Tween, 2) grab the little square over the circle, 3) insert Tween to test.
Finish the image layer first, title and name layer second.

Layer One: Images

For your First Two Image

  1. On the Stage, Click “Layer” to change it to “morph”.
  2. Click frame 1, draw the first image.
  3. In the Timeline select Frame 20 and insert a Keyframe.
  4. In the Timeline, in Frame 50 insert a Blank Keyframe and draw the second image.
  5. In the Timeline choose any frame between Frame 20 and Frame 50 - In the Properties menu choose Shape in Tween.
  6. In the Timeline select Frame 70 and Insert a Keyframe.
  7. Save your flash file as “morph” in your edu290 folder.
  8. (This step can be skipped) In Control click Loop Playback and click Play to test the first part of the movie.

For your Third Image

  1. In the Timeline select Frame 100 and Insert a Blank Keyframe.
  2. On the Stage, draw the third image.
  3. In the Timeline choose any frame between Frame 70 and Frame 100 - In the Properties menu choose Shape in Tween.
  4. In the Timeline select Frame 120 and Insert a Keyframe.
  5. Save your flash file.
  6. (This step can be skipped) In Control click Loop Playback and click Play to test the movie.

For your Fourth Image, Follow the Same Format:

  1. At Frame 150, insert a Blank Keyframe and draw the fourth image.
  2. In the Timeline choose any frame between Frame 120 and Frame 150 - In the Properties menu choose Shape in Tween. At frames 170, insert Keyframe
  3. (This step can be skipped) In Control click Loop Playback and click Play to test the movie.

You will draw your four images at frames 1, 50, 100, and 150.

Layer Two: Title and Your Name

Layer Two, Add a Movie Title and Your Name
  1. Insert -Layer - Name it as “title”
  2. For the movie title and your name: Click Frame 1, type your title on the upper left corner and your name at lower right corner. Click Frame 170, insert a Keyframe.
  3. (This step can be skipped) In Control click Loop Playback and click Play to test the movie.

Publish your Movie (when you have completed the image layer and your name layer)

  1. In File - choose Publish Settings - Choose "Flash" and "html", click "Publish" first and "OK" second.
  2. In edu290.html, you need to link “Flash Movie” to “morph.html” and remember to blank the link.
  3. When uploading your file, make sure you will upload edu290.html and edu290folder only.
    See the sample table.
Assignments Explanations
My Flash Movie I have used Flash MX to design a morphing movie where I drew four faces with different emotions. Click Flash Movie on the left to see the movie.

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Mon, Nov 10, 2008