Movie Symbols

Animate a symbol

Experiment with selecting and deselecting the symbol instance on the stage. Now you can be in one the following mode

• On the stage (or outside it) – when you make no selection. Properties Inspector shows main file properties such as stage size and frame rate
• Movie symbol (mvTube) selected . Properties Inspector shows it’s name – you may find text on the Properties Inspector panel - “Instance of mvTube”
• You are inside Movie symbol and grTube selected. You will see it’s properties and name on the Properties Inspector
• You are inside grTube and may select it’s lines and fills and their properties will be shown on Properties Inspector

It is very important to know where you are when you edit complicated symbols. You may use a small button on the Scene Bar with the icon of various shapes and the tool tip “Edit Symbols” to make sure where you are.

Now we will animate the tube.

• Make sure you are inside the Movie Symbol (it’s called sometimes movie clip). At the Properties Inspector you need to see Scene1 – mvTube.
• Extend the timeline to 8 frames. It’s timeline of the mvTube – not the main one.
• Enter the keyframe at the last frame and one more in the middle.
• Shrink a tube a bit in the middle keyframe
• Insert motion tween between first, middle and final keyframes. You understand now why we created a Graphic symbol first – it could be animated inside movie.
• Return to the main timeline (Scene 1) you will see that it is still one frame
• Test your movie. It may be something like that. Even though main timeline is only one frame animation of the symbol is OK – it’s timeline is absolutely independent

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