AO3: Create an animation
Now you need to create the animation you have designed. Remember that you should aim to make this the best you can. Also that it must be at least 15 seconds in length - 30 seconds if you are aiming for Merit or Distinction. There is lots of help on this page - there are several explanations of some of the techniques you will use - and some tutorials to help you to use Flash for this work.
To achieve a Pass the animation must be at least 15 seconds in length. It must make use of basic graphic techniques and tweening. It must be saved or exported in a suitable file format.
To achieve a Merit the animation must be at least 30 seconds in length. It must make good use of basic graphic techniques, frame rates, looping and tweening. It must be saved or exported in a suitable file format.
To achieve a Distinction the animation must be at least 30 seconds in length. It must make good use of basic graphic techniques, frame rates, looping and tweening. Everything must work as intended. It must be optimised and saved or exported in a suitable file format.
Some things to remember:
Basic graphic techniques:
These include drawing/editing shapes, use of colour, lines, text, importing objects. Also cutting, copying and pasting
Tweening:
This includes motion tweening and shape tweening (see below)
Frame Rate:
If the frame rate is set to 12fps (frames per second) you will need to have at least 180 frames for it to last 15 seconds - 360 frames for a 30 second animation
If you change the frame rate per second to 10fps then you will need 150 frames for a 15 second animation - 300 frames for a 30 second animation
Looping:
By default looping is set to "on" so when you save the animation as a Flash file it will automatically run over and over again when on a web page. BUT you MUST show a screenshot of the dialog box in a screenshot to prove that you have set looping yourself - otherwise you will NOT be able to achieve a Merit or Distinction.
Using sound:
You can add sound to a new layer in Flash - if you use an mp3 file it is likely to last much longer than the animation you are making - so you will need to delete the last part to make the file fit - this can be done within Flash and can be seen below.
As an alternative to using an mp3 file you may want to add other short sound clips - for example .wav files - which can be put on a single layer or on several different layers - and made to play to emphasise a point in your animation.
The tutorial below includes some basic instructions for adding sounds to your animation
There are some royalty and copyright free sound clips on this page of the website - click here and you should be able to download one or two to use
Motion guides:
You can use motion guides to position objects and move them around on your animation "stage"
Exporting in a suitable file format:
You must make sure that your animation is published/exported in a format suitable for use in a web page.
Optimising:
Part of the process of publishing your animation will include making choices about the file size - remember - the smaller the final file size the faster it will download and work when the web page is displayed. However, the smaller you make the file size - the less clear will be the images used in the animation - you have to try to find a suitable compromise between small file size and good quality - something which all web developers try to do with their web sites.
Some help is available if you click the tutorials below (you will need speakers or headphones):
Setting the size of the animation "stage" and the frame rate
Tweening text (remember to break apart the text and then break apart each letter so the shape tweening will work properly)
Inserting an image (clip art) first by importing it to the Library then by selecting it from the Library
Adding a sound clip (.wav file or .mp3 file) to a new layer - remember that the sound clip could be longer than the length of your animation
Exporting the file in a suitable format - and optimising it for use on a website
The following tutorials do not require headphones - they are text based - all are from the website www.kirupa.com:
Creating a Simple Motion Tween (
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