Welcome,
Many people feel they want to learn animation and want to do those animated effects. Most people think animation is very hard, but the fact is it isn’t at all. I thought that if I created a tutorial it would help people ion this situation to understand these basics of animation and how easy it really is once you spend some time with the piece of software you use whether it’s Macromedia MX Flash or something else, I use ImageReady, part of Adobe Photoshop and is very useful for animating. I wrote this tutorial for beginners wanting to learn the basics of Animation. It will hopefully help you with the wide variety of key features when using ImageReady for animating. Below are 2 basic key things in which are essential for you to know for Animating. They should tell you what each term means and what can be achieved using them.
Frames - Frames are the main things you need when animating, they represent each step of an animation and can be used to create various effects. One Animation contains many frames, allowing it to change from image to another. Each frame consists of a picture and can be combined with another frame to animate a switching between 2 pictures.
Motion Tweening - Motion Tweening is a valuable technique also when it comes to animating. It allows to automatically move, transform or add another effect on an image. When 2 frames are motion tweened it uses the amount of frames you input to create a moving picture, this then creates the effect you want. The more frames you have in an animation determines how precise the animation it, whereas if you have less frames it will be pretty basic and simple. Finding the motion tween in ImageReady button is easy to find, it looks like 3 circles and appears next to the new frame in the animation toolbar. If for some reason the animation toolbar isn't there, then going to window>Animation should bring it back up.
When creating animations, effects can be created by using the motion tween. Say if you wish to fade an image out, then it is a useful effect. This can be done by creating a new frame then selecting the new frame. Then setting the layer with your image you want to fade out to 0 opacity. Then by clicking the motion tween button you can set the amount of frames you want (remember the more frames the more precise it will be). Once you have done this you can click ok, and then press play to view your animation. Other effects like moving an image and transformation can be done as well with just abit of experimenting and using the motion tween.
The best way to learn animation is to experiment with your own methods and eventually with abit of practice, you can get better. I hope this tutorial helped you in all ways possible to allow for you to understand some of the basics when animating.
Have Fun and thank you for reading,
Jake (aka Burgin).
