Articles Index
Flash Tip: Flash vs. Flash Player - What's the Difference?
When referring to "Flash", sometimes it can be a little unclear what we're referring to--the Flash software, or the Flash player.
Animation Tip: Anticipation
Using anticipation can engage the viewer more, making them lean forward in the chair in (wait for it) anticipation of what's about to happen; it can also be used to surprise them, when the moment of anticipation tells them one action is about to happen only for the animation to take a completely different direction.
Animation Tip: Roughs vs. Finished Art
One basic mistake novice animators often make is to try to work with complete artwork from the very first sketch.
Animation Tip: Line Weight
Animators use numerous tricks to help convey depth, light intensity, and light direction; one such trick involves line weight.
Animation Tip: Walk vs. Run
One of the most basic principles of animation is the walk cycle; it's often the first thing beginning animators will tackle, and mastering the walk cycle - which is a breakdown of the basic stages of a single step - is one of the first hurdles in mastering the art of animation. But what about the run cycle?
Animation Tip: Layering
There are times when you may have a long stretch of animation in which only one part of a character or object moves, but find yourself stuck redrawing the static parts over and over and over again. You can avoid that by layering cels, and animating parts of your character atop a single cel containing the static parts
Flash Tip: Manual Software Updates
Updates usually introduce crucial software patches and bug fixes that can enhance performance and eliminate errors.
Animation Tip: In-Between Trick
When hand-drawing frame-by-frame animation, sometimes it can be difficult to guesstimate the proper placement of lines between one keyframe and the next.
Flash CS5 Tip: The Elapsed Time Slider
Just below the timeline and to the right of the onion-skinning and fps information, Flash CS5 has a convenient little counter that lets you know, down to the tenth of a second, how much time has elapsed in your animation at the frame you have selected.
Flash CS5 Tip: Tabbed Files
Sneaky little Flash tabs hide between the timeline and the stage.
Flash CS5 Tip: Flash Help Search Shortcut
Search the Flash help file right from the main interface.
Flash CS5 Tip: Expanding Panels
Ever wonder what that extra bar of buttons next to Flash CS5's right-hand panel menu is for?
Getting to Know Flash CS5: What are ActionScript 3.0 Methods?
Methods are the means by which you tell Flash to perform certain actions on certain objects.
Getting to Know Flash CS5: What are ActionScript 3.0 Objects?
The term object can refer to just about anything in Flash - but primarily, it refers to something with a name.
Flash Tip: Reducing Flash Movie Filesize
Flash movies are improving in quality, but with greater quality comes larger file sizes.
Changing ActionScript Versions in an Existing Flash Document
There are ways to switch between versions of ActionScript even after a document's been created.
Flash Troubleshooting Tip: Animated GIFs Exporting as Static
One of the easiest (and most easily rectified) mistake when publishing GIFs from Flash is accidentally publishing a static GIF when you want an animated one.
Flash Tip: Using the Info Tab to Scale and Move Objects
When you need to move or scale something to a precise size or location on the Flash stage, you can use the Info Tab
Flash Tip: Removing a Tween
We always talk about how to insert and modify various types of tweens, but never how to remove one.
Flash Tip: Reverse Timeline Frames
It's possible to switch the order of Flash timeline frames without manually moving them
Flash Tip: Changing Frame Size in the Timeline
You can shrink or enlarge your Flash timeline frames.
Flash Tip: Disabling & Enabling Tinted Timeline Frames
You can turn off the default shading on Flash timeline frames.
Flash Tip: Add Swatch
You can save custom-defined colors from your Flash palette to the Swatches panel.
Flash Tip: Opening Additional Library Panels
Flash library getting a little cluttered? Need too many symbols from too many separate libraries? Just create a new library window.
Flash Tip: Smoothing and Straightening
Flash compensates for clumsy drawers with the Smooth and Straighten functions.