Creating Animations Using Adobe Flash CC.

The purpose of the pole vault animation using Adobe Flash is to supplement my e-learning course.  Adobe Flash CC is a program that can create elaborate animations with the different tools and the timeline function.  I will use a basic stick figure to animate the progression of the pole vault.

Procedure

1)   Begin by choosing the actionscript selection in the main screen.

2)   Once in the actionscript blank storyboard, choose a background color.

3)   Draw a figure for your animation.

4)   Insert a keyframe (right click, select insert keyframe) in each 5-second interval within timeline.

5)   Draw a figure with a different motion of the vault within each keyframe.

6)   Press play button to test out animation and adjust speed.  If you want to make animation go slower, space out each interval between keyframes further apart. 

7)   Finalize animation by publishing project. 

Conclusion

            Adobe Flash CC is great for making simple animations because it is user-friendly and the timeline is easy to manage.  The menu and tool bars are accessible and I had no problems deciphering the purpose of each tool.  Animations can be customizable with many different items and color schemes for to develop creative ideas.    A designer can save time by cutting and pasting different figures onto a scene.  I found aligning objects or figures to be very useful to make sure the animations flows smoothly.  The problem I had with Adobe Flash is that in order to view published work the web browser must have an Adobe Flash player.  It might be difficult to publish and share an animation with others who do not have a browser capable of playing Flash projects.  The problem can be solved by screen capturing the animation through Camtasia or a film-editing program.  Once screen captured, the animation clip can be shared through youtube or saved as a movie file. 

            I enjoyed the process of creating an animation using Adobe Flash because it was easy to build and the accessible tools in the program made it quick to set up.  Adobe Flash CC is an efficient program to create simple animations. 

Reference Guide

Inserting a Keyframe by righting clicking a point on timeline and chose “Insert Frame            

 Design your figure by choosing a specific tool on the tool bar.

Adjust tempo of your animation by setting up certain keyframes on timeline.