Chapter 9

Classic Tween

Flash has three tweens, Classic, Motion and Shape. All three are ways to create animation.
This particular chapter discusses Classic Tween. The older versions of Flash call Classic
Tweening "Motion Tween". But the Flash has created new features and renamed the tweens.

What does tweening look like? See the Flash movie below. Flash creates the moving aspect
of the red heart on the stage. (before we talk about Classic Tweening I wanted you to see it).

For your Flash education, it is very important to learn Classic Tweening. It is equally
important to remember this use to be called Motion Tween in CS3 and older versions.
Understanding that Flash has a new Motion Tween brings you current with the software changes.

How do you create a classic tween animation? It is very simple:
1. Draw you object on the stage. In this example it is a red heart.
2. Add a keyframe (F6), say on frame 50.
3. Click in the middle of the layer, right click and choose Classic Tween. Or you can
choose Insert>Classic Tween (see image below).
4. While still on frame 50, use the arrow tool and move the heart to a new location on the stage.
5. Press enter to test movie.

When you create a Classic Tween, you will have a solid line going through the layer with a blue
background. If you created the Classic Tween incorrectly, it will be a broken line. The main idea
with Classic tweening is to locate the object (heart) on the first and last frame and let the software
do the rest.

Motion Guides
Motion guides are lines you draw on the stage, the object (heart) follows the exact path
of that line, HOWEVER, the line is invisible when you press control+enter.
You can, with precision, choose exactly where you want to your object to go. Keeping
the heart example in mind, let me take you step by step to insert a motion guide.

1. Create the classic motion tween as referenced earlier in the notes.
2. Select the layer by clicking the pencil icon next to the layer name. This selects the entire layer.
3. Right click and choose "Add Classic Motion Guide". (see image below)
4. You will now see a layer above the motion tween layer. This layer has only ONE purpose, to
hold the line you are about to draw. Now, draw the line on the stage. This line is the path the
heart will follow.
5. Go back to the motion tween layer. Click on frame 1 and move the red heart to the beginning of
your line, next go to the last keyframe of the classic tween layer, click it and relocate the red heart to the
other end of the line. Make sure the registration point is on the line.
6. Press Control+Enter to test your movie. You will see the line is now invisible.
7. See image below.

Select layer, right click and choose Add Classic Motion Guide.

End of Notes.