Adobe Flash Professional

Adobe Flash CS4 Professional offers several ways to include animation so that you can make things move in your SWF files. For example, you can create tweened animations using the Timeline and Flash workspace, apply motion presets to a selection on the Stage, or, if you’re so inclined, even make instances animate using ActionScript code.

If you have used previous versions of Flash, you will quickly notice that the way you animate has changed in Flash CS4. Don’t be scared. First of all, it’s easy. Secondly, there are many advantages to the new motion model, and you can do a lot more in your animations.

So if you’ve used animation in earlier versions of Flash and need to understand the changes, why they occurred, and migrate your skillset, then go read Motion migration guide for Flash CS4 Professional. If you just need to know how to use the animation features of Flash CS4, read on.

Creating animations with Flash CS4

There are several ways to create animations in Flash:

• Create motion tweens and eases
• Create frame-by-frame animations
• Apply motion presets
• Use tween instances
• Copy ActionScript 3 code and apply it to instances in your document
• Create shape tweens
• Use inverse kinematics
• Write ActionScript code