Animating Sprites



 




 About Animation - Tweening
Creating Animation

Animation is the process of creating movement. Director provides several ways to create animation:

1. Tweening
2. Step Recording
3. Real-Time Recording

An important part of animation on Director involves the use of keyframes. A keyframe contains specific information about a sprite, such as its position on the Stage, size, background or foreground color, or rotation or skew angle. The animation occurs when you change the keyframe information about a sprite over a series of frames.

 

Tweening

Tweening is a traditional animation term that describes the process in which a lead animator draws the animation frames where major changes take place, called keyframes. Assistants draw the frames in between. To tween an animation, you place keyframes in the sprite that correspond to the major change points sprite properties. Tweening occurs between two keyframes that contain the before and after property settings of a sprite. As you place key frames in the sprite, Director automatically tweens the sprites between the keyframes. You can set as many keyframes within a sprite as there are frames in its span. By changing the number of frames between keyframes, you can control the smoothness of the animation.

 

To specify tweening properties for a sprite, you use the Sprite Tweening dialog box.

To open the Sprite Tweening dialog box:

1. Select a sprite.

2. Choose Modify > Sprite > Tweening.

By default, Director will tween the following sprite properties:

*Location on the Stage

*Size

*Rotation angle

*Skew angle

*Foreground and background colors

*Blend percentage
Note: If you want any of these properties not to be tweened, Choose Modify>Sprite>Tweening and deselect specific tweening properties.

To Tween A Sprite


1. To tween a sprite, first select the initial keyframe

2. Set the sprite's properties - its location, rotation, size, etc.


3. Select the ending keyframe. Set the sprites properties at the way you want them to look at the end of the tween.

"Fade in" "Fade out"

To make a sprite appear to "fade in", tween its blend property from 0 (in the first keyframe) to 100 (in the lasy keyframe. To make it appear to fade out, do the opposite).

 
To Create a keyframe and change a sprite property at the same time:
1. Select a sprite, choose Edit > Edit Sprite Frames, and click on one of the frames.
2. Another way is to change the properties of the sprite on the Satage, Director creates a keyframe in the     Score.

 

Adjusting Motion

When you tween a sprite's location so that it moves around the Stage, the path that the sprite follows is known as a motion path. Keyframes within the path are represented by colored circles;regular frames are represented by black dots.

1. Turn the path display on and off from the view menu

2. Adjust the motion path by dragging any of the keyframe circles.
 

 
Adjust the curature of a sprite's motion path
1. Preview the sprite's motion path in the preview pane of the Sprite    Tweening dialog box.
2. Linear settings produce straight-line motion
3. Extreme settings cause the sprite to curve outside of the positions set by     its keyframes.



Accelerating and decelerating sprites

To change the acceleration or deceleration of a sprite:

1. Use one of the tweening methods to create a moving sprite.

2. Select View > Sprite Overlay > Show Paths to see how far the sprite moves between each frame.

3. Select the sprite and select Modify > Sprite > Tweening.

4. Use the Ease-In and Ease-Out sliders to specify the percentage of the sprite’s path through which the     sprite should accelerate or decelerate.

5. Select one of the following speed settings:

    Sharp Changes moves the sprite between keyframe locations without adjusting the speed.

    Smooth Changes adjusts the sprite’s speed gradually as it moves between keyframes.


To create a circular path for a sprite

1. Create a new sprite by dragging a cast member to the  Stage or Score.

2. Insert three keyframes in the sprite plus the default first keyframe, this makes a totla of four     keyframes. Leave the end frame aline - don't turn it  into a keyframe.

3. If the sprite's motion path isn't visible on the  Stage, chhose View>Sprite Overlay> Show     Paths to turn it on.

4. On the Stage, position the sprite's keyframes as corners of a diamond.

5. Select the sprite in the Score and choose Modify>Sprite>Tweening
   The Sprite Tweening dialog box opens.

6. Select the Continuous at Endpoints check box. That option closes the  path.

7. Drag the Curvature slider to the right to make the sprite's path resemble a circle.

Use the path preview on the left side of the Sprite Tweening dialog box as a guide.

8. Click OK

9. Fine-tune the circular path, if necessary, by dragging the keyframes  (represented by     circles) to new locations on the Stage.
 
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