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Dear Friend,
Hello, & welcome back to FIREWIRE,
your friendly guide to the exciting world of web-design
& web-solutions! In the previous newsletter of Flash
5 Tutorial Series we had discussed about the Movie Properties,
Scenes,.Key Frames, Rulers, Group & Ungroup, Overlay,
Align Panel & Trace Bitmap. Let’s continue with
Layers, Motion Guide, Masking, Onion Skin, & Snapping.
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Layers help us to organize elements and add depth to
the movie. We can edit the objects in one layer without
affecting the other layer. Layers are very helpful with
multiple animations.
| Stacking |
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Layers
can be stacked. The items placed in the top layer
appear in front of items placed on the bottom
layer. Layers can be added using the "+"
symbol .They can be deleted by using the Dust
bin icon and to rename them double-click on the
layer.
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Show / Hide All Layers: This option is
denoted by an 'eye' symbol. When pressed 'on'
in the corresponding layer, the layer is hidden.
It is pressed back to make the layer is visible.
If not pressed in the corresponding layer but
on the icon itself, all layers have the effect.
- Lock
/ Unlock All Layers: This option is denoted
by a lock symbol. When pressed 'on' in the corresponding
layer, that layer becomes uneditable or the
objects in the layer cannot be moved or worked
upon. If pressed on the icon itself and not
in the corresponding layer, all the layers are
locked.
- Show
All Layers as Outlines: This option is denoted
by a square shape without any fill. If the icon
is pressed, all the objects in all the layers
show only the strokes of their shapes but when
pressed in one particular layer or layers, only
that/those layer(s) show the outlines of their
objects.
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Properties can be modified from Modify menu. There
are three types of layers. They are: |
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Normal:
All the objects will appear in the movie.
Guide:
It is used as reference and for alignment. It
won't appear in the final movie.
Mask:
It hides the layer which is linked to it.
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Motion
Guide is basically a path that we draw to an object
to follow during a motion tween. The motion tween
is invisible outside of the authoring environment
and it is placed in a special layer above the
layer of the object that we are tweening.
Motion
guide is indicated with a guide icon to the left
of the name. A normal layer, which is linked to
a motion guide layer, becomes a guided layer.
The guide layer is not available in the final
movie.
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Mask
is a way of selection to show or hide the objects
in flash movie. Decide with the type of masking.
For example, Sphere mask on a text.
In
the above example create a text in the first frame
of first layer. Place a sphere in the tenth frame
of second layer (place sphere over the text).
Specify mask for the sphere by right-clicking
the sphere layer.
We
can see the sphere mask effect on the text.
In
the above example create a text in the first frame
of first layer. Place a sphere in the tenth frame
of second layer (place sphere over the text).
Specify mask for the sphere by right-clicking
the sphere layer.
We
can see the sphere mask effect on the text.
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Onion
skin is used to position and edit frame by frame
animation. The frame animations can be controlled
using the onion skin. It is mainly used to view
the path of the animation in dimmed manner and
it won't be available for the final movie. The
onion skin is selected and it Onion Skin Markers
will be displayed on the timeline.
| Onion
Skin (Only the outline of image) |
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In
the path of the animation , only the outline
of the images will be displayed. The markers
of onion skin is altered by selecting onion
skin marker modifiers. The options available
are:
| Always
show markers: |
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It
will show the onion skin markers,
even if onion skin is not selected.
The marker will, always be shown on
the timeline of the frame.
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| Anchor
Onion: |
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Used
to lock the onion markers. The markers
can be moved only after the locking
it.
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| Onion
2 or 5: |
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Will
show onion skin for only 2 or 5 frames
either at the end or in the beginning
of the path of the animation.
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| Onion
all: |
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Will
show onion skin for all the frames
of the animation.
Perform
an animation and select the onion
skin and run the file, you can notice
all the frames i.e. onion skin help
us to verify the path of the animation.
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"Snap to object" icon , which
is found in the options sections of the
arrow tool, is used to automatically align
elements with one another. Snapping can
also be turned on by clicking the options
found under the view menu.
If
the snap modifier for the arrow tool is
on, a small black ring appears under the
pointer when an element is dragged. The
small ring changes to a larger one, when
the object is within the snapping distance
of a grid line.
While
moving or reshaping an object, the position
of arrow tool on the object, provides a
reference point for the snap ring.
Snapping
is useful for snapping shapes for motion
paths for animation.
The
tolerance of snapping can be adjusted by
selecting the editing preferences.
Snapping
is also possible for the grid or to the
guides.
Regards,
All accompanying logos,
brands and product names are trademarks
of their respective companies.
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