Create Animation with Fireworks

Planning any type of multimedia presentation always shortens the length of the project. On a piece of paper sketch out the various frames you'd like to see appear in the animation (this process is called storyboarding). Now, on the Fireworks canvas, add the first set of images that will occupy frame one. For this sample exercise use your name, and make the font size 40 pt for the first frame.

From the Frames Properties select "Add Frames..." and add 5 more frames to the animation. This creates 5 new frames directly after frame 1, so you'll have six frames in total. Select Frame 2 from the Frames Inspector. You'll see that your name has disappeared, because the images created in frame 1 only occupy that frame of the movie: we haven't added them to frame 2.

Now, select frame 1 and highlight your name. Select "Copy", and "Paste" your name into frame 2. With frame 2 selected, re-size the font point of your name to 36. Copy your name in frame 2 and paste it into frame 3 and resize the point size to 30. Repeat these steps for the remaining frames. You should now have six frames, each containing your name, which appears in a smaller point size in each frame.

Now that the animation has 6 frames, how can it be seen? Fireworks has a set of VCR-like controls that allow animations to be played, stopped, rewound and forwarded frame-by-frame. These controls, shown below, are located in the bottom right hand corner of the program.

Select the white "Play" button. The animation can be stopped at any time by selecting the black, square "Stop" button. Use the frame forward controls to move frame by frame through the animation.

Distribution to Frames

Creating animation frame by frame can be tedious. A faster solution is it to use a feature in Fireworks called Distribute to Frames. This allows objects on the canvas to be built quickly into an animation. To Distribute to Frames, two or more objects must appear on the canvas.

Create a new file in Fireworks. On the stage draw a Star, and with the ALT key held down, select the star with your mouse. New copies of the star will be created each time the mouse button is released while the ALT key is held down. Create six or seven stars in this way.

Now, select CTRL+A to highlight all the stars that you've created, and from the Frames Inspector select "Distribute to Frames" from the properties, as shown below.

The new frames are created in the order in which the original star graphics were created. One star will appear in each frame. Select the "Play" animation control to watch the animation play.

Shared Layers

An image can also be shared through out an animation -- this is great for backgrounds that must appear on every frame.

Open the Layers Inspector and add a new layer. If this is the first layer that has been created, it'll be called "layer 2". Now add a background image to the layer. Then, from the Layers Inspector, double click on the layer named "layer 2." The layers dialog box opens, allowing the name of the layer to be changed. What is important is the check box under the layer name labeled "Share Across Frames", which is shown here. Selecting this checkbox will chare any objects in this layer throughout the animation.

Play the animation -- you'll notice that the background is now shared throughout the animation. The only caveat with this feature is that the layer has to be shared throughout every frame of an animation, so groups of frames cannot be selected to share a layer.