Working With Layers and KeyFrames. Understanding KeyFrames.

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Before we go any further, we have to discuss the timeline and layers. Using this part of Flash, and understanding animation and everything else about Flash is essential.

Let’s Open a new Flash File. Go to the File menu>New File.

Look at the top of Flash, and notice the Timeline. Notice the 5 the 10, the 15, the 20. Those are frames. By default, Flash runs at 12 frames per second. If you want to change the frame rate, click on a bare portion of the stage and then look in the property inspector.
Here are KeyFRame Settings

In the property inspector, notice here you can change the background color, the frame rate (fps) and the width and height of the Flash document. This is how you change the Frame Rate.

You can only have one frame rate in each Flash movie. You can’t have 6 or 92 different frame rates in your project. Just one. Your frame rate can go as high as 120 fps. That will make your animation really smooth, but it will increase you file size by 10 fold, so be careful. If you are burning a project to cd or dvd, crank the frame rate up to 30, but for the internet, keep it between 12 and 18. On the other hand, this is America, so do what you want.

We are going to create a very Basic animation. We have a few goals to accomplish here.

1. What is a keyframe?
2. Inserting keyframes
3. Moving keyframes
4. What is a static Frame?
5. What is a frame block?
6. Moving Frame blocks
7. Manipulating the color of a graphic symbol.
8. Publishing a swf file.

I wish someone had explained all of this to me a long time ago. 

In your new file, look in layer 1. Notice there is a little square with a white circle in it. That is what you call a blank keyframe. Flash is saying to you, “Hey, you want to put something on the stage, I’m ready. Bring it on.”

This is a Blank Keyframe

To put anything on the stage, or anywhere else, there must be a blank keyframe. Whenever you create a new layer, flash puts in a blank keyframe. I call them freebee keyframes.

We are going to make a graphic symbol. We are going to take that one graphic symbol and use it 4 times in 4 different layers. Then we are going to make a basic animation so that we see each one of our  four, graphic symbols at a time in a looping animation.