Flash Motion Tweening

This lesson will teach you how to create a "motion tween" by taking one shape and moving it to create an animation. Motion tweening is a term used in Macromedia Flash to refer to the transition from one position or location to another.

Tween Setup

Before we can create our tween we are going to need the shape that will be used in this Flash animation. First, create a simple oval like the one we have below in frame 1 of the timeline.

Convert to Symbol

Next, select the arrow tool and right click on the oval. Choose Convert to Symbol from the menu. When the conversion pop up appears name the shape My_Shape, select "type:" Graphic and be sure that the centered orientation is chosen from Registration.

Altering Our Symbol

We are now going to take our existing symbol and rotate it to create our Flash animation.
Select frame 25 in the timeline window and insert a KeyFrame.

With the circle selected, choose Window < Transform to open up the transform window. Here we will change the orientation of the circle to create a spinning effect! Leave the size the same, but change the Rotate to 170 and press ENTER (for some reason this window doesn't have a preview feature)

Create the Motion Tween!

Right click anywhere from frame 2-24 on the Timeline window and select create motion tween. You will now see a solid arrow starting at frame 1 and continuing to frame 25 as we have below.

Control < Test Movie, you've now got a nice spinning red oval!

Posted in: Flash