Creating Animation > Creating animation overview

Creating animation overview

You create animation by changing the content of successive frames. You can make an object move across the Stage, increase or decrease its size, rotate, change color, fade in or out, or change shape. Changes can occur independently of, or in concert with, other changes. For example, you can make an object rotate and fade in as it moves across the Stage.

There are two methods for creating an animation sequence in Flash: frame-by-frame animation and tweened animation. In frame-by-frame animation you create the image in every frame. In tweened animation, you create starting and ending frames and let Flash create the frames in between. Flash varies the object's size, rotation, color, or other attributes evenly between the starting and ending frames to create the appearance of movement.

Tweened animation is an effective way to create movement and changes over time while minimizing file size. In tweened animation, Flash stores only the values for the changes between frames. In frame-by-frame animation, Flash stores the values for each complete frame.

For an interactive introduction to animation, choose Help > Lessons > Animation.

Note: You can also create animation by using the Set Property action. See ActionScript Help.