Adobe 38039927 User Guide - Page 243

Creating Animations

Page 243 highlights

238 Chapter 13: Creating Animations Animated graphics add an exciting, sophisticated look to your website. In Fireworks, you can create animated graphics with banner ads, logos, and cartoons that move. For example, you can make your company mascot dance across a page while the logo fades in and out. One way to create animations in Fireworks is by creating symbols and changing their properties over time to produce the illusion of motion. A symbol is like an actor whose movements you choreograph. The action of each symbol is stored in a frame. When you play all the frames together in a sequence, you get animation. You can apply different settings to the symbol to gradually change the content of successive frames. You can make a symbol appear to move across the canvas, fade in or out, get bigger or smaller, or rotate. Because you can have multiple symbols in a single file, you can create a complex animation in which different types of action occur all at once. The Optimize panel lets you set optimization and export settings to control how your file is created. Fireworks can export animations as animated GIF or Adobe Flash SWF files. You can also import Fireworks animations directly into Flash for further editing. This chapter contains the following topics: • "Building animation" on page 238 • "Working with animation symbols" on page 239 • "Working with frames" on page 242 • "Tweening" on page 246 • "Previewing an animation" on page 246 • "Exporting your animation" on page 247 • "Working with existing animations" on page 248 • "Using multiple files as one animation" on page 249 Building animation In Fireworks, you can create animation by assigning properties to objects called animation symbols. The animation of a symbol is broken down into frames, which contain the images and objects that make up each step of the animation. You can have more than one symbol in an animation, and each symbol can have a different action. Different symbols can contain differing numbers of frames. The animation ends when all the action of all the symbols is complete. To build an animation using animation symbols in Fireworks: 1 Create an animation symbol, either by creating a symbol from scratch or by converting an existing object into a symbol. For more information, see "Creating animation symbols" on page 239. 2 Use the Property inspector or the Animate dialog box to enter settings for the animation symbol. You can set the degree and direction of movement, scaling, opacity (fading in or out), and angle and direction of rotation. For more information, see "Editing animation symbols" on page 240.

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238
Chapter 13: Creating Animations
Animated graphics add an exciting, sophisticated look to your website. In Fireworks, you can create animated
graphics with banner ads, logos, and cartoons that move. For example, you can make your company mascot dance
across a page while the logo fades in and out.
One way to create animations in Fireworks is by creating symbols and changing their properties over time to produce
the illusion of motion. A symbol is like an actor whose movements you choreograph. The action of each symbol is
stored in a frame. When you play all the frames together in a sequence, you get animation.
You can apply different settings to the symbol to gradually change the content of successive frames. You can make a
symbol appear to move across the canvas, fade in or out, get bigger or smaller, or rotate.
Because you can have multiple symbols in a single file, you can create a complex animation in which different types
of action occur all at once.
The Optimize panel lets you set optimization and export settings to control how your file is created. Fireworks can
export animations as animated GIF or Adobe Flash SWF files. You can also import Fireworks animations directly
into Flash for further editing.
This chapter contains the following topics:
“Building animation” on page 238
“Working with animation symbols” on page 239
“Working with frames” on page 242
“Tweening” on page 246
“Previewing an animation” on page 246
“Exporting your animation” on page 247
“Working with existing animations” on page 248
“Using multiple files as one animation” on page 249
Building animation
In Fireworks, you can create animation by assigning properties to objects called
animation symbols
. The animation
of a symbol is broken down into
frames
, which contain the images and objects that make up each step of the
animation. You can have more than one symbol in an animation, and each symbol can have a different action.
Different symbols can contain differing numbers of frames. The animation ends when all the action of all the
symbols is complete.
To build an animation using animation symbols in Fireworks:
1
Create an animation symbol, either by creating a symbol from scratch or by converting an existing object into a
symbol. For more information, see “Creating animation symbols” on page 239.
2
Use the Property inspector or the Animate dialog box to enter settings for the animation symbol. You can set the
degree and direction of movement, scaling, opacity (fading in or out), and angle and direction of rotation. For more
information, see “Editing animation symbols” on page 240.