Flash CS4 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Advanced Animation Techniques

In This Chapter

• Using motion presets

• Manually editing motion paths

• Editing animations

• Copying motion

• Using visual aids

In Flash CS4, animation took a quantum leap forward. In addition to changing the manner in which you create animation, the designers of Flash gave animators some bells and whistles that they can use to create sophisticated animations. New to Flash CS4 is the Motion Presets panel. The panel has some impressive presets that enable you to take your animations to the next level. And, if you create an animation of your own that you want to use again, you can add it to the panel.

The new Motion Editor is another tool you can use to create a sophisticated animation. From within the Motion Editor, you can control all phases of the animation, including property changes. You can also manually edit a motion path using the Subselection tool. You can even copy motion and apply it to other objects in your Flash project. If you prefer shape tween animations (also known as morphing), there's something for you in this chapter as well. In this chapter, we show you some advanced animation techniques and show you how to edit your animations.

Using Motion Presets

The Motion Presets panel is a welcome new addition to Flash CS4. If you're not the best animator in the world, you can apply a preset from the Motion Presets panel to an object in the workspace ...