Creating a Flash Animation
Creating Animated Text
Open Flash
Select the Text tool
Type your text. (For example, type: I am a superstar!)
Select the Arrow tool
Select the text; right click; select “convert to symbol”
Name it, select “graphic”, select “ok”
Notice the frames in the timeline toolbar
To create your first animated text (e.g. I am a superstar!):
o Click on frame 1 in the timeline toolbar; using the mouse, position the text in the spot on the
page where you want the movement to begin
o Click on another frame (e.g. frame 5); right click; select “insert keyframe”; reposition the
text to where you want it to move to from Frame 1
o Do this 5 more times or so
o Preview it. In the “Control” menu, select “Play”. Notice how jagged the movements are.
o Smooth out the movements by using motion tweening. On the frame timeline, click in
between the first two keyframes; right click; select “create motion tween”
o Repeat for all keyframes
To create your second animated text (e.g. So are you!):
o Create a 2nd layer to work in (in the “Insert” menu, select “layer”)
o Select the layer by clicking on layer 2 with the mouse.
o Create your 2nd text using the steps above; set the animation using keyframes and tweening
Save as a Flash file in your network area
DO NOT CLOSE FLASH!
Export it:
o In the “File” menu, select “export movie”.
In the “Save in” drop down menu, select the Internet folder in your network area.
Enter a file name.
Make sure your “Save as type” says “Flash Movie (*.swf)”
Click on “save”, and then “ok”.
Exit out of Flash
Inserting the Animation Into Your Dreamweaver Website
Open Dreamweaver
Open a new (or existing) Dreamweaver document
Go to the location in the Dreamweaver document where you want to insert the Flash animation
In the “Insert” menu, select “Media”, and then “Flash” (or on your Common toolbar at the top
of the screen, press the icon
Select it & centre it
Re-save your Dreamweaver file
Try it out! Hit F12 on your keyboard.
In trouble? Don’t panic!
Ctrl-Z is “Undo” in Flash and Dreamweaver.
Continually hitting Ctrl-Z will bring you back to a place that you recognize in your website.