Flash® animation refers to an animated movie or clip created using Adobe® Flash® software (formerly Macromedia® Flash®). Flash® animation can be created using Timeline in the Flash® workspace or with the help of ActionScript® code.
The most basic example of a Flash® animation is the tweened animation method. In the tweened method, the appearance of movement is created using the start and ending keyframes. The user creates an animation effect by varying the size, color and rotation of the object between the keyframes.
Tweened animations in Flash® have several options including motion tweens, shape tweens and traditional frame-by-frame animations. In a motion tween, Flash® tweens the size, color and rotation of an object between two keyframes. The shape tween effect makes one shape appear to change into another between two keyframes. The effect is similar to morphing and also allows users to tween multiple shapes at one time.
A frame-by-frame Flash® animation is used for creating complex animations. The user modifies the movement of the image in every frame.
There are several simple animation effects available in Flash®. One of them is the Timeline effect. There are three types of Timeline effects such as blur, expand and explode. Users can employ Timeline to animate an object in a few easy steps. The object is selected and any one effect is applied to it. The parameters can be changed to modify the effect. Timeline allows users to create animation easily.
These methods are used to create basic Flash® animations. However, animations can also be created using the ActionScript® language. ActionScript® allows users to create more complex animations and provides more flexibility to users. They can “script” animations using different coding techniques and use pre-built classes and simpler codes to create animations with ease.
Today, many users create Flash® animations with ActionScript® codes to improve the consistency and performance of the animation. A Flash® animation created using ActionScript® code, reduces the file size of the completed application. It also reduces the work load of the animator because the code can be implemented quickly and reused in other instances.
Flash® animations are mainly displayed on the Internet. They are often referred to as online toons or webtoons. A Flash® animation is mainly saved in .swf file format. Flash® files are generally smaller in size, ensuring quick download times. The fact that Flash® can only allow the creation of two dimensional animations is not true. Nowadays, an online Flash® animation tutorial also teaches how to create three dimensional animations with ease.