Flash 101 - Part 2: Lights, Camera, Flash!

Coming Up Next...

The last time out, I took you on a guided tour of the Flash toolbox, and showed you how to use the various drawing and painting tools available in Flash 5.0. This time, I'll be getting up close and personal with some of the other things you need to know before you start animating - things like symbols, frames and the library. I'll also explain the various types of animation available in Flash, and walk you through the process of creating and exporting a movie to your Web site.

Translation: don't go anywhere!

Putting Together The Timeline

Now, this may come as a surprise to those of you new to the world of animation, but animation doesn't just spring into existence. An animation sequence is created by stringing together multiple static images, and displaying them in rapid succession. If they are displayed quickly enough, the illusion of movement is enough to fool the human eye.

Flash animation works in much the same way. A Flash movie is composed of multiple frames (organized across different "layers"), which you can view, edit, delete and otherwise manipulate to your heart's content. This manipulation takes place via the Timeline, which is by far one of the most-used components of the Flash work area.

When you first start Flash up, the Timeline typically appears above the main work area (you can alter its position if you like, though why you would want to is a mystery to me.) If you take a close look at it, you'll see that it's actually composed of two different things - layers and frames. The layers run vertically along the left side of the Timeline, while the frames within each layer run horizontally across the timeline, from left to right.

One Big Mac And Fries, To Go!

Layers in Flash can best be described as a method of organizing elements of a... nah, scrap that. In order to understand the concept of a Flash layer, you need simply look at your average Big Mac. A Big Mac is composed of layers - there's the meat layer, followed by a strip of lettuce, followed by a layer of tomatoes and onions, followed by a slice of cheese, followed by a... oh, you get the idea.

Each layer can be removed and manipulated independent of the other layers. This is true of both Flash layers and a Big Mac.

A new Flash movie contains a single layer; you can add as many as you like. You can also copy, rename and delete layers. In order to modify a layer, you need to first activate it by clicking once on it (a pencil icon will appear on the layer). Once the layer is active, you can draw, paint and manipulate objects on it.

Layers are transparent by default, and you can use the three control buttons on each layer to alter layer visibility, "lock" the layer to prevent changes from being made to it, and display the elements on a layer as outlined (rather than filled) objects.

The icons at the bottom left of the Timeline are used to insert new layers, and delete existing layers.

Copyright Melonfire, 2000. All rights reserved.