Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 1002004 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Exploring Timeline Effects

There are a variety of effects available in the Flash authoring environment. The following describes and shows the Timeline effects that install with Flash.

Assistants

These effects generally duplicate and arrange the graphics or text that you select on the Stage. The effects can be useful if you need to create static patterns or drawings for an interface, or to animate later on.

Copy to Grid:
Duplicates your selection by a specified number of columns and rows, at a set distance. A grid generates, similar to Figure B.1.

Distributed Duplicate:
Duplicates and offsets selected graphics. You can choose a color to transition to, number of copies, amount of offset, and set the final _alpha level.

Effects

These static and animated effects manipulate a selection on the Stage in a variety of ways, such as duplicating and offsetting the selection to create the appearance of blurs and shadows, while other effect segments the selection to make it appear to explode. They're useful when you want to create quick prototypes, or are not familiar with creating animation or graphics.

Blur:
Blurs the selection according to the settings you specify. Alpha, position, and scaling are applied to the object.

Drop Shadow:
Adds a drop shadow to the selection.

Expand:
Animates the selections by expanding, contracting, or a combination of both. Essentially, this motion tweens objects in relation to each other with an optional setting that can "squeeze" an object. This effect works best with more than one object.

Explode:
Animates an instance so it appears to "explode." This effect segments the instance, and tweens it away from the center-point of the instance in an ark, while scaling and fading the segments (Figure B.2).

Transform and transition

The transform and transition effects let you create and control effects that animate selections on the Stage. They are handy when you are not familiar with creating animation, or need to create a quick prototype.

Transform:
Lets you make many adjustments for the scale, rotation, alpha, color and position of a selection (with easing). You can apply a combination of effects to a single instance by making simple settings in a dialog (Figure B.3).

Transition:
Adds a wipe transition (in or out) by fading, wiping, or adding both effects concurrently.

You can find Timeline effects and other extensions for the Flash authoring environment for download on the web (some are free; others are not.) Check out the following links for a place to start:

[www.macromedia.com/software/flash/extensions/]

[www.macromedia.com/cfusion/exchange/]