LightSpeed Basic Animation in Flash 8 for Beginners | Part-3

z Basic Animation in Flash 8 for Beginners

Now that you know about the various constituents of a Flash movie, the two types of basic animations and the tools required to make up a good Flash Animation, this blog post will tell you about various methods of customizing objects in Flash 8, and much more! If you're new here or visiting after a long time, consider visiting the Part-1 of this series and the Part-2 of the series. 

Let Us Get Started

Changing the Color or Transparency of an Instance of Symbol

You know that an instance is an occurrence of a symbol. Each time you insert a symbol in a Flash movie, you create an instance of that symbol. 

You can modify the colour properties of a particular instance or change its brightness or transparency. 

Changing the Color Properties of an instance of a symbol

1. Use the Selection Tool (Arrow) to select an instance of the symbol. 

2. Click the drop-down menu arrow for colour in the Property Inspector window, choose Tint, and change the percentage.  

(Pro-Tip- A higher percentage gives a lighter colour, and a lower rate gives a darker colour.)

Changing the transparency of an instance of a symbol

1. Use the Selection Tool (Arrow) to select an instance of the symbol.

2. In the Property Inspector window, click the drop-down menu arrow for colour and choose Alpha.

3. Change the percentage as desired.

(Pro-Tip- A higher percentage gives a more transparent instance of the symbol. A lower rate gives a less transparent and more opaque instance of the symbol.)

Text Tool

Flash 8 allows you to add text to the Stage in your movies. You can set various attributes for text: style, font, size, color, alignment, etc. You can also create special effects by manipulating text, just like you manipulate other objects.

The Text Tool is used for inserting text on the Stage. Here are the steps to use the Text Tool:

1. Select the Text Tool. 

2. Click on the Stage and start typing. Notice that this creates an expanding one-line text block. As you type, the block gets wider. If you want the text in the next line, just press ENTER.

3. You can also set the width of the text block. To do this, just resize the text block manually. You will notice that the width is now fixed. Words wrap to the next line when they reach the edge of the text block.

4. To format the text, select the text block and use the Property Inspector to set the font, font size, color, and other attributes for it.

5. To change the orientation of the text: Select the text block and use the Property Inspector to adjust text orientation from horizontal to vertical, or vice-versa.

Grouping Outlines and Fills

When you draw an object, say a rectangle or a circle, Flash 8 creates two objects: one is the outline, and the other is fill. 

To move the object to a new position, you need to select both the fill and the outline. If you do not select both, only the selected part will move. 

To solve this problem, it is good to group the outline with the fill and make the drawing a single object.

The steps to Group the outline and the fill are:

SHORTCUT Select the outline and the fill (entire object) using the Selection Tool. Press CTRL + G. OR Select the outline and the fill (entire object) using the Selection Tool. Then go to the Modify Tab in the menu (top of the page) and click on Group in the drop-down menu.

Converting Text into Basic Shapes

Flash 8 has a unique feature to convert text into a basic shape. You can then reshape a character using the Selection Tool. You can also fill characters with a gradient. However, after converting text to a basic graphical shape, you can no longer edit it as a text. 

SHORTCUT

Select the text using the Selection Tool. Press CTRL + B. Press CTRL + B again.

OR

1. Select the text using the Selection Tool. 

2. Select Modify Tab in the menu (top of the window). Click Break Apart. This breaks the single text block into multiple text blocks. Each character has its own separate text block. 

3.  Select Modify Tab in the menu (top of the window). Click Break Apart one more time. The characters can now be converted into basic shapes. They cannot be considered text anymore. You can no longer change the font, font size, etc. 

4. Click outside the converted text to deselect the shapes. 

Now you can manipulate these shapes like any other shape. Move the pointer to the edge of one of the characters and drag to reshape it. You can use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill this reshaped character with another colour or gradient.

DONE!!!

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