Tweens and Frame by Frame Animations

Frame by Frame Animation

A frame by frame animation is a animation in which you change the animation by hand, yourself. For example: You create a animation of a ball bouncing. You may start of with creating a black circle from the tools section.

That could look something like this. In the timeline you can then right click on the space in the same layer, next to the frame with a black circle in it. A black circle will mean that you have drawn something in that frame while a blank one will mean the frame is empty. When right clicking you will find a screen that pops up looking like this:

Now I would recommend clicking on Insert Keyframe. This will give you a new frame with exactly the same displayed on it. If you go on the black arrow, the first object in the tool bar, you can highlight all of the object and move it where you want it to go. Now you can continue this for a few frames and then, when you play the video (bottom left on timeline) the ball will appear to be moving.

CLASSIC TWEEN

Now to do the same thing, there is also a way easier way. It is called the classic tween and the purpose of it is to get from one frame to another smoothly. Lets say we still have the same first frame as before but now

1. We make the second frame, not right next to it but about 20 spaces away. Like this:

2. Click insert keyframe. The timeline will now show two frames, away from each other.

3. Move the ball in the second frame into the desired end position. This is how I would end it:

4. When you have done this, go ahead and right click on the space in between the two frames.

5. When this screen shows up, click CREATE CLASSIC TWEEN as shown. The timeline will now look like this.

Now when you play your animation, the ball will smoothly move to the end position, almost like a frame by frame animation.

SHAPE TWEEN

This is another tween. It will change a shape into another gradually, and if the two objects are different colours, it will also gradually change the colour. Let’s continue with our ball, in the small position at the bottom left of the screen.

1. For this to work, create a new frame exactly 1 spot behind the last frame. Make sure that the selected object has not converted into a symbol by:

1. Selecting it all
2. Clicking on modify at the top of the screen
3. Clicking the option break apart until you can’t click it anymore

2. About 20 spots away, create a new, black keyframe

3. In this keyframe, insert a new object, you can also change the colour.

4. In between the two frames, right click and select shape tween. The timeline should now look like this:

To see the video of what I have created so far with these two tweens, look at this video on youtube:

MOTION TWEEN

A motion tween is completely different from all the other tweens. This tween moves an object. First of all, it is important for everyone to know that this tween has to be on a separate layer. When starting, therefore right click on the already existing layer and click Insert Layer

1. In this new layer, insert a frame where the other animation ends and carefully copy it to make sure it looks the same.
2. Now create a new frame and move the object to its end position.

3. Right click in the space between

4. Click insert motion tween

5. When you have this you can now click into the space that turned blue and move the shape into a certain position at that point. This will tell the program where the shape should be at that point in the tween. Continue this in a few different places.

6. You will see a line from the middle of where the shape was before to the place the shape is now. You can curve these lines to make the shape move even more.