Cell animation basics

Hi All:
I am completely new to Flash and to animating generally. But
I understand some of the underlying basics. I have created and
scanned a series of drawings on acetate creating a Christmas card
with a chicken and an egg. I don't think I need to tween - just
need to go from one layer to the next! I have tried 3 times now to
import each cell into a separate layer and to create a rough
animation using the timeline and keyframes. I have read several
online tutorials and purchased a used Teach Yourself Flash 8
primer.
But I cannot get anything to work, i.e. cells don't seem to
line up, can't see them animate using the Play Handle. None of my
sources will explain to me exactly how to manipulate the timeline
for my purposes nor how to deal with layers such as mine (already
produced offline and lined up pixel to pixel in PS, etc).
Can someone please recommend a free online tutorial which
explains animating cells - but also starts from the beginning - do
this, then do that?
Thanks!
Using Flash 8 Pro.

Tansle,
> Sorry to be such a pest - but I can't believe how
finicky
> this app is!
No worries. :) And you'll understand Flash in time. Like
anything
else, it just takes practice. I've been unicycling for four
or five years
now, but I still remember learning how to ride (and falling,
and falling,
and falling!). Unicycles are finicky too.
> I have created an animation which despite the document
> being set to 803 x 1086 pixels ... insisted on being
published
> at ~200 pixels across.
Did you test this as embedded in an HTML page? If so, it may
be that
the HTML was coded in such a way as to resize the SWF, in the
same way that
HTML can be coded to resize a JPG.
> While trying to align my background/nest,using the
Property
> inspector, I found that these incorrect dimensions were
shown
> next to the alignment dimensions and if I changed them
the
> document would publish to its correct size.
Aha. Then maybe this was simply an incorrect setting on your
background
image? As you discovered, that's easy enough to fix. You can
use the
Property inspector to adjust dimensions, and you can also use
the Transform
panel (or simply resize things by hand with the Free
Transform tool).
> 1)Is there any way of changing about 25 instances at one
time
> to publish to a specific size?
If the background image doesn't change, then you only need a
single
instance of that image on the Stage (one keyframe in frame 1,
and simply
frames after that). You might be able to affect numerous
instances at once
if the original Library asset is sized incorrectly: changing
its dimensions
in the Library will effect every instance of that asset. For
example, if
you have a background symbol in the Library -- a graphic
symbol, say -- that
contains your imported image, your image might be sized to
50%. In such a
case, the graphic symbol displayed at full size (100%) would
only display
the image at half size. Makes sense, right? In that scenario,
you could
enter the timeline of the graphic symbol, set the image to
100%, and then
the symbol would show the image at 100% wherever it appears
in a timeline
(unless the symbol itself is resized somewhere). The
principles of this
symbol hierarchy are important in Flash.
> 2) When published, the document image does not fill the
window.
> I can see the edge of the 600 x 811 pixel document. If I
Modify>
> Document the document to 600 x 811 it fills it more but
not fully.
What you're seeing inside Flash may not be exactly what you
see when the
SWF is embedded in your HTML page. Flash will try to show you
as much of
the SWF's content as possible, but if you resize the SWF
window, you may
indeed see letterbox or pillarbox rectangles -- in the same
way that
widescreen content has letterbox rectangles on a standard TV.
Embed that
SWF in an HTML file at the dimensions of your FLA document,
and all should
be well. Based on your notes earlier, that might be 803 x
1086. At this
point, you're saying 600 x 811. Whatever the FLA document's
boundaries are,
that should be the embedding dimensions of your HTML code.
Anything else --
especially a different aspect ratio -- may show edges or
content that should
be hidden by those edges.
> a) How do I make a document that opens into a window the
same
> size as my document?
That requires JavaScript inside the HTML document.
Dreamweaver features
a built-in code snippet for exactly this endeavor: Behaviors
panel (in
Dreamweaver) > Open Browser Window.
> b) Since the document does not fill the window and I had
to tweak
> pixels, the left edge of the flash document is uneven -
I see a pixel of
> one alternating instance over and over again at the end
(because it
> crosses the edge of the frame).
>
> Can I get rid of this really annoying effect?
Either keep tweaking your pixel placement or make sure to
embed your
content at the proper aspect ratio. You could also experiment
with masking
the entire movie, but that would probably be overkill.
> 3) My background doesn't show up. ... All instance were
supposed to
> be from scanned graphics that I used PS's Background
Eraser tool on
> and saved as a copy to jpg. Are they not transparent
enough?
The JPG format doesn't support transparency. Export your
Photoshopped
images as PNGs instead (use PNG 24 for smooth edges).
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

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allow me to sum it up for anyone who will look at this and for me too.
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contributions would be appreciated
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I wanted to ask before I start. It'll take a loooong time, I know.

... I want "Disney-smooth. ...Disney? that WAS the company doing cell anim, right....?
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I can' recommend any good book (I'm sure, there are many), my knowledge is a collection from the last 30y I'm interest in that topic...-
happy painting, "Disney smooth" (<< I like that term!) is 24 paitings per second (doing that with video, you do 25/30fps)... maybe that is the true reason why the gave up that part of the company... besides: a shame! they earn enough money with the productions of Pixar...
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