SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX

Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

In this unit we shall study about……

• What is Animation?
• Different Types of Animations
• Use of Animation
• Introduction to flash environment:
• How to Use Frames and Keyframes in Flash?
• Timeline

 What is Animation?

Definition:
• The simulation of movement created by a series of pictures is animation.
• Animation is a method of photographing successive drawings, models, or even puppets to create
an illusion of movement in a sequence.

• Because our eyes can only retain an image for approx 1/10 of a second, when multiple images
appear in fast succession, the brain blends them into a single moving image.
• In traditional animation, pictures are drawn or painted on transparent celluloid sheets to be
photographed.
• Early cartoons are examples of this, but today, most animated movies are made with computer-
generated imagery or CGI.
• To create the appearance of smooth motion from these drawn, painted, or computer-generated
images, frame rate, or the number of consecutive images that are displayed each second, is
considered.
• Moving characters are usually shot “on twos” which just means one image is shown for two
frames, totaling in at 12 drawings per second.
• 12 frames per second allow for motion but may look choppy. In the film, a frame rate of 24
frames per second is often used for smooth motion.

 Different Types of Animation:

• Traditional Animation
• 2D Animation (Vector-based)
• 3D Animation
• Motion Graphics
• Stop Motion
1) Traditional:
➢ This is one of the oldest forms of animation in film.
➢ It’s sometimes called cel animation.
➢ As mentioned above, in traditional animation, objects are drawn on celluloid transparent
paper.
➢ In order to create the animated sequence, the animator must draw every frame. It’s the same
mechanism as a flipbook, just on a grander scale.
➢ Traditional is most often 2D animation.
➢ Aladdin, The Lion King, and other earlier cartoons are the best examples of this.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 1 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

➢ In the earlier years, the animator would draw on a table that had a light inside of it, so the
creator could see his or her previous animation. While the traditional style is not nearly as
prevalent today, drawings are generally done on tablets. And manual coloring hasn’t been
used by Disney since The Little Mermaid in 1989.

2) 2D (Vector):
➢ 2D animation can fall under traditional animation like most early Disney movies —
Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, etc.
➢ But there is something called Vector-based animation that can be 2D without being
traditional.
➢ With Vector-based, the motion here can be controlled by vectors rather than pixels.
➢ Images with familiar formats like JPG, GIF, BMP are pixel images. These images cannot be
enlarged or shrunk without affecting image quality.
➢ Vector graphics don’t need to worry about resolution. Vectors are characterized by pathways
with various start and end points, lines connecting these points to build the graphic.
➢ Shapes can be created to form a character or other image.
➢ Vector-based animation uses mathematical values to resize images, so motion is smooth.
➢ They can re-use these creations so the animator doesn’t need to keep drawing the same
characters over and over again. You can move around these vectors and animate that way.
➢ This is also helpful for animators who aren’t the best drawers.

3) 3D :
➢ Today, 3D or computer animation is the most common type. But just because computers
have stepped in instead of actual drawings, it’s not necessarily easier.
➢ The computer is just another tool, and 3D animation is still a long, intense process.
➢ In 3D animated movies, the animator uses a program to move the character’s body parts
around.
➢ They set their digital frames when all of the parts of the character are in the right position.
They do this for each frame, and the computer calculates the motion from each frame.
➢ Animators adjust and tweak the curvatures and movements their characters make
throughout.
➢ From Toy Story in 1995 to current 3D animation, 3D animation has become the dominant
style in animated films.
➢ 3D animation is also unique in that, unlike 2D or other traditional methods, the character’s
entire body is always visible.
➢ If a character turns to the side, the animator only needs to draw the side profile in 2D
animation, but in 3D, the entire body still needs to be visible.
➢ So again, even though computers are being used, with new technology comes with way
more considerations.
➢ Whether you are using drawing in 2D or computing in 3D, animators and filmmakers alike
look to storyboards to plan out each frame.
➢ Unlike live- action, animation movies can’t rely on camera tricks in a shot.
➢ Storyboards are the lifeline for creating animation. Here are the storyboards used for
Disney's classic animated feature Aladdin organized in StudioBinder’s storyboard tool.
Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 2 of 18
 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

4) Motion Graphics:
➢ Motion Graphics are pieces are digital graphics that create the illusion of motion usually
for ads, title sequences in films, but ultimately exist to communicate something to the
viewer.
➢ They are often combined with sound for multimedia projects.
➢ They are a type of animation used mostly in business, usually with text as a main player.
Below are a few examples of motion graphic animation, using the top trends of today.

5) Stop Motion
➢ Stop motion encompasses claymation, pixelation, object-motion, cutout animation, and
more.
➢ But the basic mechanics are similar to the traditional style like a flipbook.
➢ However, instead of drawings, stop motion adjusts physical objects in each frame.
➢ If moved in small increments, captured one frame at a time, the illusion of motion is
produced.
➢ Whether puppets, clay, or even real people, these manual adjustments can make it a long,
hard process.
➢ Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and The Nightmare Before Christmas are all great
examples of stop motion films.
➢ Stop motion is definitely an older form of animated storytelling, especially compared to 3D
computer animation. But the process of animating pictures dates back way before Disney or
Pixar.

 The Uses of Animation

➢ Animation; the word “ANIMATE” comes from the Latin verb “ANIMARE” means to make alive
or to fill with breathe.
➢ Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images to create an illusion of movement. The
most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program.
➢ In simpler word, animation means giving life to our imagination.

➢ Animation is not just used for entertainment, Animation has different uses and it is a vastly
used. Some uses of animation which are described below:

1) Education
2) Entertainment
3) Advertisement and Marketing
4) Scientific visualization
5) Creative Arts
6) Gaming
7) Simulations
8) Architecture and Engineering
9) AR and VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality)
10) Entertainment and Media

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 3 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

1) Education:

• As we all know that people use to remember pictures or

images more than text, So Animation is the only and the
best way to understand the main motive of any education
and it helps everyone to growth in their practical life.
• Animation is used in education because it makes children
watch the animation and not get bored with it allowing
them to intake information.
• Animation in education has brought a paradigm shift
from static, conventional content to more dynamic study
methodologies.
• The advent of simple whiteboard animation has brought success to many educational YouTube
channels as well.

2) Entertainment:

• The biggest use for animation is for entertainment.

• Animation is used on the TV, on your phones, and
all over the internet.
• In television, animation is mostly used to occupy
children, as is gives them something to laugh about
and keep them entertained for long periods of time.
• Programs such as Tom and Jerry are created to
make the children laugh, and tell the audience that
just because you are bigger than someone else.
• Many movies these days are created using
animation. Films like Shrek and Finding Nemo gained a massive profit from people watching the
film and buying the merchandise.
• Animation isn’t just for children. Programs like Family Guy and American Dad are animations that
get adults laugh.

3) Advertisement:

• Animation plays a big part in advertisement.

• Many big companies use animation in some
kind of way to attract the audience.
• An example of animation in advertising is the
Dancing Pony Advert by the phone company
‘Three’. This advert attracted millions of
people all over the world to their website and
in return they gained a massive profit.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 4 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• Animation is also used for advertisement on the web.

• Many games companies create cool looking animations to attract the audience to play the game or
visit the website.
• Without animation in adverts, advertisement would be incredibly boring.
• One of the most creative and unique ways of advertising products and services is through
animation.
• Many global brands have shifted their focus from running ads on TV to short animated social
media ads and animated banners.
• Motion graphics on websites is the current trend to grab user attention.
• In addition to that, animation offers the ability to be unusual and unique to stand out from
competitors.

4) Scientific visualization:

• Animation is used to create models that are essential for

research and study.
• Animation allows you to create 3D, realistic models that allow
diagrams etc. to show accurate representations of an object.
• An example of this is an X-ray.
• Doctors use this to get an accurate look at bones etc. so that
problems can be fixed quicker and more efficiently.

5) Creative Arts:

• Animation is also used in creative arts to

show and produce the skills needed to
achieve a grade for example an IT course is
creative arts, which is a specified skill in
creativity.
• They would use animation in their work and
much of it for presenting to the class they
would use various diagrams and animations
to get a topic across the class in presentations.

6) Gaming:

• In gaming Industries most of the things depends on

animation. Without model a programmer can’t program a
game and everything in the scene starting from modeling,
Texturing, Rigging, lighting etc. all are done by the
Animation students or professionals.
• It would be an impossible task to find an industry where
animation is as extensively used in the gaming industry.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 5 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• It is an industry where everything is dependent on animation as most 3D characters for games are
created with animation.
• In recent times, the growth prospects in the gaming industry are as bright as in the entertainment
sector. When you join a gaming course, you also get trained in the principles of animation.

7) Simulations:

• Simulations are mostly used in the military for

weapons training and to train for certain events.
• Pilots also use simulations to practice their flight
training without having to spend money on fuel
and equipment.
• Simulations are also used for practicing events
and to get a predicted outcome for something.
• For example, when NASA is planning on putting
a rocket in space, they will use simulations to get
a predicted outcome of what might happen.
• This is essential because it can potentially save
lives and resources.

8) Architecture and Engineering:

• 3D Animation has opened up new avenues for interior

decorators.
• There is software specifically designed for this purpose,
and they allow the Interior Designers to see the layout of
the rooms virtually.
• Architecture finds them useful as with its design the
building they are planning to build beforehand and
present them to the clients.

9) AR and VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality):

• AR and VR both are technologies that bridge the physical

and virtual worlds.
• In AR, virtual elements overlay the physical world’s
atmosphere on the screen.
• In VR, users are surrounded by the virtual environment
both of which rely heavily on the quality of animation
used to provide an amazing immersive experience.

10) Entertainment and Media:

• There was a time when animation was a

luxury limited to huge movie studios like
Disney. But now it has evolved from Sunday
morning cartoons to Oscar-winning movies.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 6 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• And not just that, it is finding new platforms where it has never been featured before like the
news, social media and even UI elements of apps and websites.
• The ability to grant people an effective medium to communicate their stories, works, products
and services to the world has led animation to be a major part of such huge industries.
• The Animation market size is rising exponentially it’s safe to assume that the future is looking
very bright for the Animation industry.
• Moreover, with the advent of Metaverse, the demand for skilled 3D animators has increased
drastically.

 Introduction to flash environment:

❖ Flash 8 Interface
• Flash 8 counts with the most handy and intuitive environment or working interface.
• Moreover it has an advantage because it is similar to other Macromedia programs
(Dreamweaver, Freehand, Director), it makes easier to assuming Flash, and faster its
management and control.
• We will see this after opening Flash 8 for the first time:

❖ Menu Bar

• The Menu bar is aimed to make easier the access to different program features. It is similar to
any other web or graphic designer program, although it has some particularities. Let's see the
main Submenus you can access to:

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 7 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• File: It allows creating, opening and saving archives… Import has exceptional power; it
inserts to the current movie nearly all types of archives (sounds, videos, images and even
Flash movies) or the Publication Settings option from which you can modify the
characteristics of the publications. It also enables to configure the printing pages, print them,
etc…
• Edit: It is a classic menu that allows you to Cut, Copy, Paste… objects or as well images or
frames; it also allows you to customize some of the most common options of the program.
• View: Apart from, typical Zooms, it allows you to move the frames and scenes. It also
includes the possibility to create a grid and some guides. These ones can be selected from
submenu Grid and Guides from where you can configure its options.
• Insert: It permits you to insert objects into the movie, as well as new frames, layers, actions,
scenes…
• Modify: The option Transform permits one to modify the graphics existing in the movie,
and the option Draw Bitmap allows to modify current graphics in vector maps (this theme
will be studied further). Other options allows you to modify characteristics of the animation
elements Smooth, Optimize or of the same movie (Layer, Scene…).
• Text: Its contents affect the edition of text. It will be further handled in more details
• Commands: Allows administrating the Commands (group of saved sentences that allows to
emulate what user can introduce to the edition environment) that we had saved in our
animation, to obtain other news from the Macromedia page or execute what we already have.
• Control: From here you modify the properties of the movie reproduction Play, Rewind, Test
Movie....
• Window: In addition to the classical options of distributing the windows, this menu includes
shortcuts to ALL the Panels.
• Help: From here we can access to all the help that Macromedia offers to us, from the current
manual up to the Action Script, going through tutorials, guided lections etc…

❖ Timeline

• The Timeline represents a simple mode of visualization. It consists of two parts:

1. The Frames that are limited by vertical lines (forming rectangles)
2. The Numbers of frames that allow us to know the assigned number of each frame, its
duration and when it will appear in the movie.
• Moreover, there are some tools on the bottom to work with Onion paper and its information
about the Number of current frame (1 in the image), the frame Speed (12.0 in the image)
and the Time of the movie (0.0 in the image).

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 8 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• On the definition level, the Timeline represents the succession of frames in the Time. The
Flash movie will not be only the frames that appear on the Timeline one after another in the
order established by the same Timeline.
• In order to know more about the Timeline and the different types of frames that exist visit
our Advanced Page.

❖ The Layers

• The concept of the Layer is basic to manage Flash efficiently. Because of its importance we
will dedicate an entire unit to it. Even so, let's see great characteristics of the layers.
• A Layer could be defined as one independent movie of only one level. That is to say, one
layer contains its own Timeline (with endless frames)
• The objects that are at one Layer share a frame and due to this fact they can "get mixed up"
among themselves. Frequently it could be interesting, but other times it is convenient to
separate the objects in order that they do not interfere among them. For this, we will create as
many layers as necessary. Furthermore the use of many layers gives place to a good-ordered
movie and of easy use (for example, it is convenient to fix the sounds at one independent
layer called "Sounds"). We will see the advantages and disadvantages of using layers in the
Unit 8.

❖ The Working Area

• The Working Area consists of numerous parts, let's see them:

• The most important part is the Stage, we will draw and fix different elements of our movie.
The Stage has very important properties, due to the fact that they coincide with Document
Properties, in order to access them, right-click on anywhere on the Stage with no objects and
then on Document Properties:
• Add metadata to your files so they can be indexed in the search engines. For this fill the Title
and Description fields.
• Dimensions: They fix the size of the movie. The smallest size is of 1 x 1 px (pixels) and the
biggest one is of 2880 x 2880 px.
• Match: It causes the coincidence of the movie with the selected size
• Background Color: The color selected here will be the one of the entire movie.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 9 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

❖ The Views or Zooms

(Click the picture to play video in new window)

• The Zoom Tool is used to approach or move away the object view, allow including
more or less zone of the Work Area. Every time we click in the Zoom Tool we duplicate the
percentage indicated in the Zooms Panel.
• Zooms Panel: It is a set of direct accesses to the View's submenus. They are very useful and
help to accelerate the work when they are used correctly.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 10 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• The Zoom effect consists in moving the "view" near to further away from a fixed place. In
fact, you only make larger or smaller the object size, so that it seems that we've approached
or moved away from it.
• It is very useful to see more precisely some of the points of an animation (mainly graphics)
and to be able to fix some parts that are not visible from a distant point of view. By the way it
turns out useful to see the animation from a distance to have a global vision of it. Let's see
how Flash works with Zooms.

❖ Zoom Panel

• You can access to all the Zooms functions from the Menu View. In any case, Flash includes a
fast accessible submenu to these commands. Let's see what they consist in
• Show Frame: It shows the contents of the global current Frames. The frame size is extended
up to fill an entire Work Area. If there are objects outside the Work Area, you will not see
them.
• Show All: It shows all the movie objects inside the Work Area, adapting the frame size to the
necessary space for them to fit in. In case that all the objects are situated on the left frame
side, the right one will not be visible.
• As we can see, both of the selections are useful, but they have its disadvantages. In order to
give us a total freedom, Flash allows us to select the Stage size.
• 25%, 50% ...: It shows the frame with the size that we put in % , where 100% is the referent
size, its original size.

❖ The Panels

• The Panels are command sets grouped according their function (for example, all that makes
references to the actions, will be in the "Actions" Panel). It's mission is to simplify and
facilitate the commands use.
• All of them will be studied deeply during the course. Even so, we'll name them and
summarize the functions of most of them.
• Align Panel: It places the objects like we indicate to it. It is very useful.
• Color Mixer Panel: Using this panel we'll create the colors that we like more.
• Color Swatches Panel: It allows us to select a color quickly and graphically. (Including our
creations).
• Info Panel: It shows the size and the coordinates of the selected objects, with the possibility
of modification. It is very useful for exact alignments.
• Scene Panel: It modifies the attributes of the scenes that we use.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 11 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• A Scene is only a portion of the Timeline, including everything (layers, frames...).

• Its main aim is to ORGANIZE the movie, so that the parts with no connection could be one
after another (following in the Timeline). This way, if we divide the movie in 3 scenes, we
will get 3 timelines, 3 groups of layers and 3 groups of frames, that we will see and edit
apparently in 3 different movies.
• We must not forget that in spite of being apparently 3 different movie, they have the same
Timeline and after the end of the first will begin the second and so on...
• The Scenes can be added, deleted, edited...from the Menu Scene that you can access from
Window >> Other Panels >> Scene
• Transform Panel: It scales, shrinks, rotates... the selected objects
• Actions Panel: It is very helpful when you use Action Script and associate actions to our
movie.
• Behaviors Panel: They allow one to assign to certain objects a series of characteristics
(behaviors) that later could be stored to be applied to other objects fastly and efficiently.
• Components Panel: It allows us to access to the already constructed and ready to be used
Components that Flash provides. The components are "intelligent" objects with characteristic
properties and many utilities (calendars, scrolls etc...)
• Strings Panel: Flash 8 contributes multi-language base to our movie through this panel.
• Help Panel: Macromedia gives us help and accessible advises from this panel.
• Properties Panel: With no doubt it is the most used panel and the most important. It shows
us the properties of the object selected at this moment: border, background color, line type,
characters size, typography, objects properties (if there are interpolations...), coordinates, size
etc... It is fundamental, you must never forget about it.
• Movies Explorer Panel: It allows us to access to all the movie contents easily and quickly.

 How to Use Frames and Keyframes in Flash?

• Flash is one of the best animating tools which has been used in various projects including
movies and games.
• It has a lot of features that make the animation process faster and easier.
• There are a number of versions of flash available in the market but the current version is
known as Adobe Animate which was launched in 2021 and has cloud support.
• One can use flash for personal as well as for commercial production after purchasing it from
Adobe’s official site.
• Animation can be done in flash using traditional as well as modern animation styles.
• Including code for various purposes or tasks is also possible in flash as it allows code
insertion.
• It uses vector-based style for its objects which mean objects pertain to their quality when
zoomed so these are zoom independent.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 12 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

1) Frames: (Insert Frame use F5)

• The frame can be defined as a blank paper on which one needs to create a figure having a
position. Similarly, on the second frame, another figure will be created, and following this
principle, a lot of figures will be drawn on different frames.
• These frames are then run one by one and each figure will be visible which will give an effect
of motion, that’s how animations are made.
• To make animations 24 frames per second are run to get smooth animations. 30 frames per
second can also be used for more smooth animations.
• Frames are represented as rectangular boxes on the timeline. Frame pointer points to the
current frame one is working on.

• Frames are considered as the soul of any animation as these frames are used to organize and
control the complete animation.
• The numbering of frames has been given already for guidance. 24.00 fps has been written
below the timeline which means by default 24 frames are running in a second to give
animation effect.

❖ Inserting a frame on the timeline

• To insert a new frame click on any rectangular box on the timeline and right-click, a list will
appear with different options just click on insert frame.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 13 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• After clicking on the insert frame below change will be seen in the timeline it means frames
have been inserted till this frame.

• The shortcut key to insert a frame is F5.

❖ Moving a Frame

• The frame can be moved to the left or right by inserting or deleting a frame.
• For example, to move a frame to right, add new frames which are exact copies of the same
frame, this can be done by pressing the F5 key which will insert the new frame exactly to the
old one and hence move the frame to the right.
• To move a frame to left just delete the frames in the middle.

❖ Deleting a frame

• A frame can be deleted by selecting the frame and right-clicking on the selected frame, a list
will be appeared to choose the delete frame.

• A frame can also be deleted by pressing the Shift + F5 key.

2) Keyframes: (Insert KeyFrame use F6)

• Keyframes are the frames that contain figure or symbol which is different from the previous
ones.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 14 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• This is the part that makes the animation like making a walk cycle by giving some specific
keyframes while other frames are helping in making animation smoother.
• Keyframes have a significant difference from one another while frames do not have much
difference in them.
• Keyframes are represented by a black-filled or solid black circle on a frame.

❖ Inserting a keyframe on the timeline

• To insert a new keyframe on the timeline click on any rectangular box on the timeline and
right-click, a list will appear with different options just click on Insert Keyframe.

• After clicking on Insert Keyframe below change will be seen in the timeline it means the
keyframe has been inserted.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 15 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• But this is a blank keyframe because it does not have any drawing on it once something will
be drawn on the blank keyframe it will be represented by a circle filled with black color.
• So let’s draw a line on the drawing screen and see the keyframe changing from white to black.

• The shortcut key to insert a Keyframe is F6.

❖ Deleting a keyframe

• A keyframe can be deleted by selecting the keyframe and right-clicking on it, a list with
different options will appear, click on a clear keyframe to delete that keyframe.

• The shortcut key to delete a keyframe is Shift + F6.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 16 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

3) Blank Keyframes: (Insert Blank KeyFrame use F7)

• Keyframes also have blank keyframes which is being represented by an empty circle on a
frame. These blank frames can be added to make some figure or drawing, once a drawing or
figure has been created then these blank frames become keyframes.
• Inserting a blank keyframe on the timeline
• To insert a blank keyframe on the timeline click on any rectangular box on the timeline and
right-click, a list will appear with different options just click on Insert Blank Keyframe.

• After clicking on Insert Blank Keyframe below change will be seen in the timeline it means
Blank Keyframe has been inserted.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 17 of 18

 SHREE SWAMINARAYAN COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper: FC 602 Animation using Flash MX
Unit-1: Introduction
Jay Ganesh Jay A mbe Om N amah Shivay Bapa Sitara m Jay Kas hta bha nja n dev Jay Saraswati M aa

• The shortcut key to insert a Blank Keyframe is F7.

 The Timeline:

• For a complex piece of software, Flash is based on a surprisingly simple principle— the old-
fashioned slideshow.
• A slideshow consisted of a stack of slides loaded into a tray, a projector that displayed one slide
at a time, and a human to run the show, determining the order in which the slides appear and how
long each stays on screen.
• A Flash animation is really nothing more than a souped-up slideshow.
• In Flash, the picture-containing slides are called frames, and instead of a person controlling the
slide projector, you have got the Timeline.
• The Timeline is what determines what order your frames appear in and how long each frame
stays onstage. If you’ve decided to organize the images on your frames into separate layers, the
Timeline is also where you specify how you want your layers stacked: which layer you want on
top, which one beneath that, and so on.
• In addition to letting you put together a basic, plain-vanilla, frames-run-left-to-right, layers-run-
bottom-to-top animation, the Timeline also lets you create spiffy effects, such as looping a
section of your animation over and over again and creating tasteful fades.
• The first time you run Flash, the Timeline appears automatically. But if you don’t see it, you can
display it by selecting Window → Timeline or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.

• The Timeline keeps track of all the frames that make up your animation, as well as what order
you want them to appear in.
• Clicking a specific frame (or dragging the playhead to a specific frame) tells Flash to display the
contents of that frame on the Stage for you to examine or edit.

Prepared By: Madhav K. Dave Page 18 of 18