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Chapter 4. Applying More Advanced Animation

In This Chapter

• Creating zoom and fade effects

• Creating a custom motion path

• Creating fade outs and fade ins

• Copying and pasting motion

• Creating gravity and inertia effects with easing

• Morphing graphics with shape tweens

• Animating poses with the IK and Armature tools

• Masking artwork and animation

• Previewing a movie

With motion and shape tweens, creative animation possibilities are limited only by your imagination. You'll no doubt want to explore what's possible, and in this chapter, you get started with some popular animation effects, such as fades and transformations. In addition, we show you how to use new features, such as Inverse Kinematics (IK), which give you new and unprecedented abilities to create sophisticated animation with less effort.

Creating Transformations

Some of the most common effects, such as zooms, flips, leans, and spins, are all different types of transformations, or changes to a symbol's dimensions, rotation, or skew. You can perform transformations on a symbol from the Tools panel, Transform panel, or Modify menu, and combine transformations for many animation possibilities.

Follow these steps to create a zoom-in effect:

1. On the first frame of a new layer, create an interesting shape on the stage with one of the Shape tools.

2. With the shape selected, choose Modify

   
   Convert to Symbol.

   The Convert to Symbol dialog box appears.

3. Enter a ...