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Adobe Animate 2021: The Absolute Basics [#1] | Beginners Tutorial

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How to use the Bone Tool to create animation

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Learn how to use the Bone Tool to bring your characters to life with natural and dynamic movement.

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If you're new to Adobe® Animate, and are looking for explanations of basic terms and tasks, check out the Animate Visual Dictionary below. Each page includes the definition of a key concept with accompanying visuals and links to more information.

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Basic terms and tasks with visual dictionary in Animate

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If you're new to Adobe® Animate, and are looking for explanations of basic terms and tasks, check out the Animate Visual Dictionary below. Each page includes the definition of a key concept with accompanying visuals and links to more information.

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Adobe Animate documents divide lengths of time into frames similar to films. Frames are at the core of any animation, dictating each segment of time and movement. The total number of frames in your movie, and the speed at which they are played back, together determine your movie's overall length. A brief description of some of the concepts on frames is explained below for your reference.
Frames
In the timeline, you work with the frames to organize and control the content of your document. You place frames in the timeline in the order you want the objects in the frames to appear in your finished content.
Keyframe
A keyframe is a frame where a new symbol instance appears in the timeline. A keyframe can also be a frame that includes ActionScript® code to control some aspect of your document. You can also add a blank keyframe to the timeline as a placeholder for symbols you plan to add later or to explicitly leave the frame blank.

Using keyframe you can set a position, add anchor points, actions, comments and so on.

Span
Span-based frame selection allows you to select a range of frames between two keyframes with a single click.
Static frame span
In static frame span, same content is available for entire duration of span. You can use this type of span whenever you need to display graphics for fixed amount of time.
Tweened frame span
In tweened frame span, the content changes within the span for each frame. You can use this type of span for animations.

To insert a new frame, select Insert > Timeline > Frame (F5).

To create a keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe (F6), or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the frame where you want to place a keyframe, and select Insert Keyframe from the context menu.

To create a blank keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the frame where you want to place the keyframe, and select Insert Blank Keyframe from the context menu.

The filters and color effects used to be applicable only to movie clips and graphic symbols. With the advanced layers, filters and color effects can now be applied to a selective frame(s), which in turn applies to all its content including shapes, drawing objects, graphic symbols, and so on. Layer effects can also be tweened using classic, shape, and IK tweens across frames.

For more information, see Applying layer effects.

You can select frames by using two methods provided in Animate. You can also label frames to organize its contents.

Animate offers two different methods for selecting frames in the timeline. In frame-based selection (the default), you select individual frames in the timeline. In span-based selection, the entire frame sequence, from one keyframe to the next, is selected when you click any frame in the sequence.

Single or multiple frames selection

To select one frame, click the frame.

To select multiple contiguous frames, drag the cursor over the frames, or Shift-click additional frames.

To select multiple non-contiguous frames, Control‑click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) additional frames.

To select all frames in the timeline, select Edit > Timeline > Select All Frames.

Span based frames selection
As a prerequisite for span based selection, you can specify span-based selection in Animate timeline by clicking the hamburger icon at the upper-right corner and selecting Span Based Selection menu item.

To select a whole span of frames (motion tween or inverse kinematics) click on frame.

To select multiple spans, click on each of them while holding the Shift key.

You can label frames in the timeline as a way of helping organize its contents. You can also label a frame in order to be able to refer to that frame in ActionScript by its label. That way, if you rearrange the timeline and move the label to a different frame number, the ActionScript will still refer to the frame label and will not have to be updated.

Frame labels can only be applied to keyframes. A best practice is to create a separate layer in the timeline to contain your frame labels. Using separate layer for labels enables you to organize content and keyframes better.

To add a frame label:

Select the frame you wish to label in the timeline.

With the frame selected, enter the label name in the Label section of the Property inspector. Press Enter or Return.

As a best practice, create a separate layer for all labels in the frame.

Click the hamburger icon at the upper-right corner of the timeline section.

A pop-up menu appears.

Select the Span Based Selection from the pop-up menu.

Select multiple objects of any layer on the stage.

Right-click anywhere on stage, and select Distribute to KeyFrames.

A keyframe and the span of regular frames that follow it are known as a keyframe sequence. The timeline can contain any number of keyframe sequences.

To copy or paste a frame or frame sequence, do one of the following:

Select the frame or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select the frame or sequence that you want to replace, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames.

Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) a keyframe to the location where you want to copy it.

Select the frame or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Remove Frame, or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the frame or sequence and select Remove Frame from the context menu.

Select the keyframe and select Edit > Timeline > Clear Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the keyframe and select Clear Keyframe from the context menu.

Control-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Macintosh) the beginning or ending frame of the span to the left or right.

To change the length of a frame-by-frame animation sequence, see Create frame-by-frame animations.

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Adobe Animate documents divide lengths of time into frames similar to films. Frames are at the core of any animation, dictating each segment of time and movement. The total number of frames in your movie, and the speed at which they are played back, together determine your movie's overall length.

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Use the anchor points of the connecting segments in the asset to display direction handles, which consist of direction lines that end in direction points. The angle and length of the direction lines determine the shape and size of the curved segments. Move the direction points to reshape the curves.

After selecting an anchor point, direction lines appear on any curved segments connected by the anchor point. A smooth point always has two direction lines, which move together as a single, straight unit. When you move a direction line on a smooth point, the curved segments on both sides of the point are adjusted simultaneously, maintaining a continuous curve at that anchor point.

To view detailed information on using transformation anchor in animations, see Use the Stage and Tools panel in Animate and Animation basics.

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Use the anchor points of the connecting segments in the asset to display direction handles, which consist of direction lines that end in direction points. The angle and length of the direction lines determine the shape and size of the curved segments. Move the direction points to reshape the curves.

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See all the latest Adobe Animate how-to tutorials, video tutorials, and hands-on projects.

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Inverse kinematics (IK) is a way of animating objects using bones chained into linear or branched armatures in parent-child relationships. When one bone moves, connected bones move in relation to it.

Inverse kinematics lets you easily create natural motion. To animate using inverse kinematics, you simply specify the start and end positions of bones on the Timeline. Animate automatically interpolates the positions of the bones in the armature between the starting and ending frames.

You can use IK in the following ways:

By using a shape as a container for multiple bones. For example, you can add bones to a drawing of a snake so that it slithers realistically. You can draw these shapes in Object Drawing mode.

By chaining symbol instances. For example, you can link movie clips showing a torso, arm, lower arm, and hand so that they move realistically in relation to each other. Each instance has only one bone.

Bone tool animation in action

There are 4 ways that Animate can draw bones on the Stage:

Solid. This is the default style.

Wired. Useful when the solid style obscures too much of the artwork beneath the bone.

Line. Useful for smaller armatures.

None. Hides the bones to show only the artwork beneath them.

To set the Bone Style, select the IK span in the Timeline and then select the style from the Style menu in the Options section of the Properties panel.

Note: If you save a document with the Bone Style set to None, Animate automatically changes bone style to Line the next time you open the document.

When you add bones to symbol instances or shapes, Animate creates a new layer for them in the Timeline. This new layer is called the pose layer. Animate adds the pose layer to the Timeline between existing layers to maintain the previous stacking order of objects on the Stage.

You can add IK bones to movie clip, graphic, and button instances. To use text, convert it to a symbol first. The symbol instances can be on different layers before you add bones. Animate adds them to the pose layer.
Note: You can also break text apart (Modify > Break Apart) into separate shapes and use bones with the individual shapes.
As you chain objects, consider the parent-child relationships you want to create, for example, from shoulder to elbow to wrist.

Select the Bone tool from the Tools panel.

Click the symbol instance that you want to set as the root bone of the armature. Click at the point where you want to attach the bone to the symbol.

By default, Animate creates the bone at the location of mouse click. For a more precise way of adding a bone, turn off Auto Set Transformation Point for IK Bone Tool (Edit > Preferences > Drawing). With Auto Set Transformation Point turned off, the bone will snap to the symbol transformation point when you click from one symbol to the next.

To add another bone to the armature, drag from the tail of the first bone to the next symbol instance.

It's easier to place the tail precisely if you turn off Snap To Objects (View > Snapping > Snap To Objects).

To create a branched armature, click the head of an existing bone where you want the branch to begin. Then drag to create the first bone of the new branch.

An armature can have as many branches as necessary.

Note: A branch cannot connect to another branch except at its root.

To reposition the elements of the completed armature, drag either the bones or the instances themselves.

Dragging a bone moves its associated instance without allowing it to rotate relative to its bone.

Dragging an instance allows it to move as well as rotate relative to its bone.

Dragging an instance in the middle of a branch causes the parent bones to articulate with joint rotation. The child bones move with no joint rotation.

After you create an armature, you can still add new instances from different layers to the armature. Drag a new bone to the new instance and Animate moves the instance to the pose layer of the armature.

You add bones to a single shape or to a group of shapes that are on the same layer. In either case, you must select all the shapes before adding the first bone. After you add bones, Animate converts all the shapes and bones into an IK shape object and moves the object to a new pose layer.

After you have added bones to a shape, the shape has the following limitations:

You cannot merge an IK shape with other shapes outside it.

You cannot rotate, scale, or skew the shape with the Free Transform tool.

Editing the control points of the shape is not recommended.

Create a filled shape or shapes on the Stage.

The shape can contain multiple colors and strokes. Edit the shapes so they are as close to their final form as possible. Once you add bones to a shape, the options for editing the shape become more limited.

If the shape is too complex, Animate will prompt you to convert it to a movie clip before adding bones.

Select the entire shape on the Stage.

If the shape contains multiple color areas or strokes, drag a selection rectangle around the shape to ensure that the entire shape is selected.

To add another bone, drag from the tail of the first bone to another location in within the shape.

The second bone becomes a child of the root bone. Link areas of the shape with bones in the order of the parent-child relationships you want to create. For example, link from shoulder to elbow to wrist.

To create a branched armature, click the head of an existing bone where you want the branch to begin. Then drag to create the first bone of the new branch.

An armature can have as many branches as necessary.

Note: A branch cannot connect to another branch except at its root.

Once the shape becomes an IK shape, it has the following limitations:

You can no longer transform (scale or skew) the shape.

You cannot add new strokes to the shape. You can still add or remove control points from the existing strokes of the shape.

You cannot edit the shape in place (by double-clicking it on the Stage.)

The shape has its own registration point, transform point, and bounding box.

On-stage controls allow you to easily make rotation and translation adjustments on the stage with the help of guides that show the rotation range and precise control. The on-state controls also allow you to continue working on the stage without having to go back to the property inspector to adjust rotation.

The bone tool on-stage controls described in the image work as follows:

1. To start working with the on-stage controls, select the bone and use the head of the bone.

2. To view the on-stage controls, roll-over the head of the bone. The head turns in to a four-way arrows or a plus symbol (X and Y axis) inside a circle. The arrows represent the translation attributes and the circle represents rotation attributes.

3. Click on the head of the bone and select the circle to edit rotation or select the plus symbol to edit translation attributes.

4. To see the presence of interactive handles for rotation and translatsion at anytime, roll over the head of the bone.

5. When you click on either the rotation or translation option, the on-stage controls to set the constraints are displayed.

To work with the rotation controls, do the following:

1. Click the bone head to see the rotation and translation tools.

2. Roll over and click the circle that represents the rotation tool. The circle turns red.

3. Click on the lock icon to enable free rotation. Lock icon turns to a dot.

4. Moving the cursor away from the center shows you one end of the rotation radius. Click on the point on which you want the rotation to start.

5. Move the cursor within the circle again to select the other end of the rotation radius. Click where you want that point to be.

6. Confirm the radius definition by clicking on the circle.

Note: When you edit the rotation that you have already defined, you can increase or decrease the borders by clicking on the line and dragging.

You can use the translation controls as follows:

1. Roll over the plus sign with four-way arrows and click on it to select the translation controls.

2. Click on the lock to enable the translation controls. The lock icon turns into a dot.

3. Click on an arrow head and drag it to the point to which you want the extend the range of movement.

You can't edit IK armatures if the pose layer includes poses after the first frame of the Timeline. Before editing, delete any additional poses after the first frame of the armature in the Timeline.

If you are simply repositioning an armature for animation purposes, you can change positions in any frame of the pose layer. Animate converts the frame to a pose frame.

To select an individual bone, click the bone with the Selection tool. Shift-click to select multiple bones.

To move the selection to adjacent bones, click the Parent, Child, or Next/Previous sibling buttons in the Property inspector.

To select all the bones in the armature, double-click a bone.

To select an entire armature and display the properties of the armature and its pose layer, click a frame in the pose layer containing the armature.

To select an IK shape, click the shape.

To select a symbol instance connected to a bone, click the instance.

To reposition a linear armature, drag any bone in the armature. If the armature contains connected symbol instances, you can also drag an instance. In this way you can rotate the instance relative to its bone.

To reposition a branch of an armature, drag any bone in the branch.

All the bones in the branch move. Bones in other branches of the armature do not move.

To rotate a bone with its child bones without moving the parent bone, Shift-drag the bone.

To move an IK shape to a new location on the Stage, select the shape and change its X and Y properties in the Property inspector. You can also Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) the shape.

Do one of the following:

To delete an individual bone and all of its children, click the bone and press the Delete key.

You can select multiple bones to delete by Shift-clicking each bone.

To delete all bones from an IK shape or symbol armature from the Timeline, right-click the IK armature span in the Timeline and choose Remove Armature from the context menu.

To delete all bones from an IK shape or a symbol armature on the Stage, double click a bone in the armature to select all bones. Then press Delete.IK shapes revert to normal shapes.

To move the location of either end of a bone within an IK shape, drag the end of the bone with the Subselection tool.

Note: The Subselection tool does not work if there are multiple poses in the IK span. Before editing, delete any additional poses after the first frame of the armature in the Timeline.

To move the location of a bone joint, head, or tail within a symbol instance, move the transformation point of the instance. Use the Free Transform tool. The bone moves with the transformation point.

To move an individual symbol instance without moving any other linked instances, Alt-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Macintosh) the instance, or drag with the Free Transform tool. The bones connected to the instance lengthen or shorten to accommodate the new location of the instance.

You can add, delete, and edit control points of the contours in an IK shape using the Subselection tool.

To move the position of a bone without changing the IK shape, drag the endpoint of a bone.

To display the control points of the IK shape boundary, click the stroke of the shape.

To move a control point, drag the control point.

To add a new control point, click a part of the stroke without any control points.

To delete an existing control point, click to select it, and then press the Delete key.

Note: An IK shape cannot be transformed (scaled or skewed).

By default, the control points of a shape are connected to the bone that is nearest to them. You can use the Bind tool to edit the connections between individual bones and the shape control points. In this way you can control how the stroke distorts when each bone moves for better results. This technique is useful when the stroke of a shape does not distort as you want when the armature moves.

You can bind multiple control points to a bone and multiple bones to a control point.

To highlight the control points connected to a bone, click the bone with the Bind tool.

The connected points are highlighted in yellow while the selected bone is highlighted in red. Control points connected to only one bone appear as squares. Control points connected to more than one bone appear as triangles.

To add control points to a selected bone, Shift-click a control point that is not highlighted.

You can also Shift-drag to select multiple control points to add to the selected bone.

To remove control points from the bone, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh) a control point that is highlighted in yellow.

You can also Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) to remove multiple control points from the selected bone.

To highlight the bones connected to a control point, click the control point with the Bind tool.

The connected bones are highlighted in yellow while the selected control point is highlighted in red.

To add other bones to the selected control point, Shift-click a bone.

To remove a bone from a selected control point, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh) a bone that is highlighted in yellow.

To create more realistic motion of IK armatures, you can control the freedom of motion of specific bones. For example, you can constrain two bones of an arm so that the elbow cannot bend in the wrong direction.

By default, each IK bone is assigned a fixed length when the bone is created. Bones can rotate around their parent joint and along the x- and y-axis. However, they cannot move in ways that require the length of their parent bone to change unless you enable x- or y-axis motion. By default, bone rotation is enabled and x- and y-axis motion is disabled.

You can also limit the speed of motion of a bone to create the effect of weight in a bone.

In armatures with strings of connected bones, you cannot contrain the motion of the last joint in any branch of the armature. To give the appearance of contraint of the last joint, use bones with movie clips and connect the last bone to a movie clip that has its alpha property set to zero. Then constrain the next-to-last bone instead of the last one.

Examples:

For an arm, you could constrain the degrees of rotation of the elbow so that it cannot rotate beyond the normal range of motion of a forearm.

To enable a character to move across the Stage, turn on X or Y translation on the root bone. Turn off rotation when using X and Y translation for more accurate movement.

You set these properties in the Property inspector when one or more bones are selected.

To enable a selected bone to move along the x- or y- axis and change the length of its parent bone, select Enable in the Joint: X Translation or Joint: Y Translation section of the Property inspector.

A two-headed arrow appears perpendicular to the bone on the joint to indicate that x-axis motion is enabled. A two-headed arrow appears parallel to the bone on the joint to indicate that y-axis motion is enabled. Enabling both x and y translation for a bone simplifyies the task of positioning the bone when rotation is disabled for the bone.

To limit the amount of motion enabled along the x- or y-axis, select Constrain in the Joint: X Translation or Joint: Y Translation section of the Property inspector and enter a value for the minimum and maximum distance the bone can move.

To disable rotation of the selected bone around the joint, deselect the Enable checkbox in the Joint: Rotation section of the Property inspector.

This checkbox is selected by default.

To constrain rotation of a bone, enter minimum and maximum degrees of rotation in the Joint: Rotation section of the Property inspector.

The degrees of rotation are relative to the parent bone. An arc appears on top of the bone joint indicating the degrees of freedom of rotation.

To make a selected bone stationary relative to its parent bone, disable rotation and x- and y-axis translation.

The bone becomes rigid and follows the motion of its parent.

To limit the speed of motion of a selected bone, enter a value in the Joint Speed field in the Property inspector.

Joint speed gives the bone the effect of weight. The maximum value of 100% is equivalent to unlimited speed.

Two bone properties can be used to add springiness to IK bones. The Strength and Damping properties of bones give real physical movement to IK Bones by integrating dynamic physics into the Bones IK system. These properties allow easier creation of physics-enhanced animation. The Strength and Damping properties give bone animation life-like movement that is highly configurable. It is best to set these properties before adding poses to a pose layer.

Strength: The stiffness of the spring. Higher values create a stiffer spring effect.

Damping: The rate of decay of the spring effect. Higher values cause the springiness to diminish more quickly. A value of 0 causes the springiness to remain at its full strength throughout the frames of the pose layer.

To enable springiness, select one or more bones and set the Strength and Damping values in the Spring section of the Property inspector. The higher the Strength, the more rigid the spring becomes. Damping determines the rate of decay of the spring effect, so the higher the value, the faster the animation ends.

To turn off the Strength and Damping properties, select the pose layer in the Timeline and deselect the Enable checkbox in the Spring section of the Property inspector. This allows you to see on Stage the poses you have defined in the pose layer without the effect of the Spring properties.

The following factors affect the final look of your bones animation when working with the Spring properties. Experiment with adjusting each of these to acheive the final look you want.

The Strength property value.

The Damping property value.

The number of frames between poses in the pose layer.

The total number of frames in the pose layer.

The number of frames between the final pose and the last frame of the pose later.

You animate IK armatures differently from other objects in Animate. With armatures, you simply add frames to the pose layer and reposition the armature on the Stage to create a keyframe. Keyframes in pose layers are called poses. Because IK armatures are typically used for animation purposes, each pose layer acts as a tween layer automatically.

However, IK pose layers are different from tween layers because you cannot tween properties other than bone position in the pose layer. To tween other properties of an IK object such as location, transform, color effects, or filters, enclose the armature and its associated objects in a movie clip or graphic symbol. You can then animate the properties of the symbol using the Insert > Motion Tween command and the Motion Editor panel.

You can also animate IK armatures with ActionScript 3.0 at runtime. If you plan to animate an armature with ActionScript, you cannot animate it in the Timeline. The armature can have only one pose in the pose layer. That pose must be in the first frame in which the armature appears in the pose layer.

Keeping all the on-stage controls always enabled can result in inadvertantly altering the positioning and the properties of your armature. After creating bones and armature for animation, you can turn off the armature editing controls and hints by selecting the Hide armature editing controls and hints checkbox in the property inspector.

IK armatures exist on pose layers in the Timeline. To animate armatures in the Timeline, insert poses by right-clicking a frame in a pose layer and selecting Insert Pose. Use the Selection tool to change the configuration of the armature. Animate automatically interpolates the positions of the bones in the frames between poses.

1. In the Timeline, if needed, add frames to the pose layer of the armature to make room for the animation you want to create.
You add frames by right-clicking (Windows) or Option-clicking (Macintosh) a frame in the pose layer to the right of any existing frames and choosing Insert Frame. You can add or delete frames later at any time.

2. To add a pose to a frame in the pose layer, do one of the following:

Place the playhead in the frame where you want to add the pose and then reposition the armature on the Stage.

Right-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh) the frame in the pose layer and choose Insert Pose.

Place the playhead in the frame where you want to add the pose and then press the F6 key.

Animate inserts a pose into the pose layer in the current frame. A diamond-shaped pose marker in the frame indicates the new pose.

3. Add additional poses in separate frames to complete the animation to your satisfaction.

4. To change the length of the animation in the Timeline, hover the mouse cursor over the last frame of the armature until the Resize cursor appears. Then drag the last frame of the pose layer to the right or left to add or remove frames.
Animate repositions the pose frames in proportion to the change in duration of the layer and reinterpolates the frames in between. To resize the armature span in the Timeline without affecting the location of the pose frames, Shift-drag the last frame of the armature span.

When you finish, scrub the playhead in the Timeline to preview the animation. You can see the armature positions interpolated in between the pose frames.

You can reposition the armature in the pose frames or add new pose frames at any time.

You can edit the location of poses in the following ways:

To move a pose to a new location, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) a pose and then drag the pose to a new location in the armature.

To copy a pose to a new location, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) a pose and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) the pose to a new location in the armature.

Cut, copy and paste. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) the pose you want to cut or copy and choose Cut Pose or Copy Pose from the context menu.

Then Ctrl-Click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) the frame in the armature span where you want to paste and choose Paste Pose from the context menu.

To apply tweened effects to IK object properties other than bone position, enclose the object in a movie clip or graphic symbol.

1. Select the IK armature and all of its associated objects.
For an IK shape you can simply click the shape. For linked sets of symbol instances, you can click the pose layer in the Timeline or drag a selection marquee around all of the linked symbols on the Stage.

2. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Macintosh) the selection and choose Convert To Symbol from the context menu.

3. In the Convert To Symbol dialog box, enter a name for the symbol and choose either Movie Clip or Graphic from the Type menu. Click OK.
Animate creates a symbol with its own timeline containing the pose layer for the armature.

4. To use the new symbol on the main timeline of your FLA file, drag the symbol from the Library to the Stage.
You can now add motion tween effects to the new symbol instance on the Stage.

You can nest symbols containing IK armatures within as many layers of other nested symbols as necessary to create your desired effect.

You can use ActionScript 3.0 to control IK armatures connected to shapes or movie clip instances. However, you can't control armatures connected to graphic or button symbol instances with ActionScript.

Only armatures with a single pose can be controlled with ActionScript. Armatures with more than one pose can only be controlled in the Timeline.

1. With the Selection tool, select a frame in a pose layer containing an armature.

2. In the Property inspector, choose Runtime from the Type menu.

The hierarchy can now be manipulated with ActionScript 3.0 at runtime.

By default, the armature name in the Property inspector is the same as the pose layer name. Use this name to refer to the armature in ActionScript. You can change the name in the Property inspector.

Easing is adjusting the animation speed in the frames around each pose to create more realistic motion.

1. Select either a frame between two pose frames in the pose layer or a pose frame.

Intervening frame:Ease affects the frames between the pose frames to the left and right of the selected frame.

Pose frame: Ease affects the frames between the selected pose and the next pose in the layer.

2. In the Property inspector, select a type of ease from the Ease menu.

Simple eases: Four eases that slow the motion in the frames either immediately after or before the selected frame.

Start and Stop eases: Slow the motion in the frames immediately after the prior pose frame and the frames immediately before the next pose frame.

Note: These same ease types are available in the Motion Editor when you use motion tweens. You can view the curve of each type of ease in the Motion Editor when you select a motion tween in the Timeline.

3. In the Property inspector, enter a value for the Strength of the ease.
The default Strength is 0, which is equivalent to no easing. The maximum value is 100, which applies the most significant easing effect to the frames preceding the pose frame. The minimum value is -100, which applies the most significant easing effect to the frames immediately after the preceding pose frame. When you finish, preview the eased motion on the Stage. Scrub the playhead in the Timeline between the two pose frames where you applied the ease.

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Inverse kinematics (IK) is a way of animating objects using bones chained into linear or branched armatures in parent-child relationships. When one bone moves, connected bones move in relation to it. Inverse kinematics lets you easily create natural motion. To animate using inverse kinematics, you simply specify the start and end positions of bones on the Timeline.

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Use this article to learn about Stage and Tools panel when working with graphic content in Animate.

The Welcome screen also offers quick access to Help resources. You can take a tour of Animate, learn about documentation resources, and find Adobe Authorized Training facilities.

To hide the Welcome screen, select Don't Show Again.

To show the Welcome screen, select Edit > Preferences (Windows®) or select Animate > Preferences (Macintosh®), and select Welcome Screen from the On Launch menu in the General category.

The Stage is the rectangular area where you place graphic content when creating Animate documents. The Stage in the authoring environment represents the rectangular space in Flash Player or in a web browser window where your document appears during playback. A default black outline represents the outline view of the stage.

To change the view of the Stage as you work, zoom in and out. To help you position items on the Stage, you can use the grid, guides, and rulers.

Note:

You can also use multi-touch gestures in compatible devices.

To zoom in on an element, select the Zoom tool in the Tools panel, and click the element. To switch the Zoom tool between zooming in or out, use the Enlarge or Reduce modifiers (in the options area of the Tools panel when the Zoom tool is selected) or Alt‑click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh).

To zoom in so that a specific area of your drawing fills the window, drag a rectangular selection on the Stage with the Zoom tool.

To zoom in on or out of the entire Stage, select View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out.

To zoom in or out by a specified percentage, select View > Magnification, and select a percentage from the submenu or select a percentage from the Zoom control at the upper-right corner of the document window.

To scale the Stage so that it fits completely in the application window, select View > Magnification > Fit in Window.

To crop the content that flows outside the stage, click the Clip the Content Outside Stage icon .

To show the contents of the current frame, select View > Magnification > Show All, or select Show All from the Zoom control at the upper-right side of the application window. If the scene is empty, the entire Stage appears.

To show the entire Stage, select View > Magnification > Show Frame or select Show Frame from the Zoom control at the upper-right corner of the document window.

To show the workspace surrounding the Stage, or to view elements in a scene that are partly or outside of the Stage area, select View > Pasteboard. The pasteboard appears in light gray. For example, to have a bird fly into a frame, initially position the bird outside of the Stage in the pasteboard and animate it into the Stage area.

Note:

Only stage content is visible in the final output.

Note:

You can also use multi-touch gestures in compatible devices.

Animate introduces a new Rotation tool that lets you rotate the Stage view temporarily, to help you draw and paint at a particular angle, without permanently rotating the actual objects on stage as the Free Transform tool does. You can quickly rotate the Stage, regardless of which tool you have currently selected, by holding down the Shift and Space keys together, and then dragging your mouse to rotate the view.

To rotate the stage using the Rotation Tool

Once the Pivot point is set, you can drag the mouse to rotate the stage view around the pivot point.

The Scale Content option in PI allows you to scale the contents on your stage according to the stage size. When stage is resized with this option selected, content resizes in the same proportion as the stage.

The Scale Content option in advanced settings is now directly accessible from PI. When stage is resized with this option selected, content resizes in the same proportion as the stage.

PI and Document Settings dialog box contain a Link option to increase the stage dimensions proportionately. By default, the height and width properties of the stage are unlinked. If you click the Link button and enable linking, as you modify the values of either height or width properties, the value of the other property is changed proportionately.

If you select the Scale Content option, the stage dimensions are automatically linked and disabled. This is because content scaling makes sense if stage dimensions are modified proportionately.

In the following example, the stage measuring 550x400 is proportionately scaled to 750x600 from the anchor point at the bottom right corner of the stage:

Note:

You can also use multi-touch gestures in compatible devices.

When rulers show, they appear along the top and left sides of the document. You can change the unit of measure used in the rulers from the default of pixels to another unit. When you move an element on the Stage with the rulers displayed, lines indicating the element's dimensions appear on the rulers.

To show or hide rulers, select View > Rulers.

To specify the rulers' unit of measure for a document, select Modify > Document, and select a unit from the Ruler Units menu.

When rulers show (View > Rulers), you can drag horizontal and vertical guides from the rulers onto the Stage.

When you create nested timelines, draggable guides appear on the Stage only when the Timeline in which they were created is active.

To create custom guides or irregular guides, use guide layers.

To display or hide the drawing guides, select View > Guides > Show Guides.
Note: If the grid is visible and Snap to Grid is turned on when you create guides, guides snap to the grid.

To turn snapping to guides on or off, select View > Snapping > Snap to Guides.
Note: Snapping to guides takes precedence over snapping to the grid in places where guides fall between grid lines.

To move a guide, click anywhere on the ruler with the Selection tool and drag the guide to the desired place on the Stage.

To remove a guide, use the Selection tool with guides unlocked to drag the guide to the horizontal or vertical ruler.

To lock guides, select View > Guides > Lock Guides or use the Lock Guides option in the Edit Guides (View > Guides > Edit Guides) dialog box.

To clear guides, select View > Guides > Clear Guides. If you are in document-editing mode, all guides in the document are cleared. If you are in symbol-editing mode, only guides used in symbols are cleared.

To set Color, click the triangle in the color box and select a guide line color from the palette. The default guide color is green.

To display or hide guides, select or deselect Show Guides.

To turn snapping to guides on or off, select or deselect Snap To Guides.

Select or deselect Lock Guides.

To set Snap Accuracy, select an option from the pop‑up menu.

To remove all guides, click Clear All. Clear All removes all guides from the current scene.

To save the current settings as the default, click Save Default.

Display or hide the drawing grid

Turn snapping to grid lines on or off

The menu bar at the top of the application window contains menus with commands for controlling functionality.

The edit bar, at the top of the Stage, contains controls and information for editing scenes and symbols, and for changing the magnification level of the Stage.

Resetting toolbar

Fill color and Stroke Color

The fill color and stroke color section of the tool bar has been modified similar to Photoshop and illustrator Tools panel for consistency and easy access.

Access to Brush and Eraser Modes

Now, you can also add keyboard shortcuts to Brush Modes and Eraser Modes. Create keyboard shortcuts on Mac, click Animate>Keyboard Shortcuts and on Windows, click Edit> Keyboard Shortcuts. Access these options with one press when the tool is enabled.

The tools area contains drawing, painting, and selection tools.

The view area contains tools for zooming and panning in the application window.

The colors area contains modifiers for stroke and fill colors.

The options area contains modifiers for the currently selected tool. Modifiers affect the tool's painting or editing operations.

To show or hide the Tools panel, select Window > Tools.

Animate provides Pressure and Tilt support for strokes drawn using the Paint brush tool. You can draw art and pattern strokes with variable width, dependent on the applied pressure or tilt on the stylus. For further refinement, use the Width tool to adjust the width points.

For more information, see Working with PaintBrush.

Note:

Pressure and tilt icons in the tool bar are displayed only if you have connected a Wacom pressure-sensitive tablet to your computer.

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Use the Stage and Tools panel for Animate

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Use this article to learn about Stage and Tools panel when working with graphic content in Animate. The Welcome screen also offers quick access to Help resources. You can take a tour of Animate, learn about documentation resources, and find Adobe Authorized Training facilities. To hide the Welcome screen, select Don't Show Again.

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Animation Guide also enables you to tween an object along the path, by changing the color of the object based on the color of the guide path itself. To bring about this variation, you need at least two segments in the path, that is, three minimum nodes or points as part of the path. To achieve this, while creating a Classic Motion Tween and drawing a guide path as described in the previous section of this document, use the pen tool and draw a guide path as shown below. This path has four nodes/points in three segments.

Apart from the keyframes for the initial and final positions of the object, there is no need to create any more keyframes to denote the variation in stroke color.

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Animation Guide also enables you to tween an object along the path, by changing the color of the object based on the color of the guide path itself. To bring about this variation, you need at least two segments in the path, that is, three minimum nodes or points as part of the path.

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Classic tweens are an older way of creating animation in Animate. These tweens are similar to the newer motion tweens, but are more complicated to create and less flexible. However, classic tweens do provide some types of control over animation that motion tweens do not. Most users choose to work with the newer motion tweens, but some users still want to use classic tweens. For more information about the differences, see Differences between motion tweens and classic tweens.
Before you begin:
Before working with classic tweens, keep in mind the following points:

Classic tweens are the older way of creating tweened animation in Animate. The newer, easier way is to use motion tweens. See Motion tween animation.

You cannot tween 3D properties with classic tweens.

For samples of classic tween animation, see the Animate Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. The following samples are available:

Animated Drop Shadow: Download and decompress the Samples ZIP file and navigate to the Graphics\AnimatedDropShadow folder to access the sample.

Animation and Gradients: Download and decompress the Samples ZIP file and navigate to the Graphics\AnimationAndGradients folder to access the sample.

Like most things in Animate, animation does not require any ActionScript. However, you can create animation with ActionScript if you choose.

Changes in a classic tween animation are defined in a keyframe. In tweened animation, you define keyframes at significant points in the animation and Animate creates the contents of frames between. The interpolated frames of a tweened animation appear as light blue with an arrow drawn between keyframes. Because Animate documents save the shapes in each keyframe, create keyframes only at those points in the artwork where something changes.

Keyframes are indicated in the Timeline. A solid circle represents a keyframe with content on it, and an empty circle before the frame represents an empty keyframe. Subsequent frames added to the same layer have the same content as the keyframe.

Only keyframes are editable in a classic tween. You can view tweened frames, but you can't edit them directly. To edit tweened frames, change one of the defining keyframes or insert a new keyframe between the beginning and ending keyframes. Drag items from the Library panel onto the Stage to add the items to the current keyframe.

To display and edit more than one frame at a time, see Use onion skinning.

To insert a new frame, select Insert > Timeline > Frame.

To create a keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the frame to place a keyframe. Select Insert Keyframe.

To create a blank keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) the frame to place the keyframe. Select Insert Blank Keyframe.

To delete a frame, keyframe, or frame sequence, select it and right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) and select Remove Frames. Surrounding frames remain unchanged.

To move a keyframe or frame sequence and its contents, select it and drag to the desired location.

To extend the duration of a keyframe, Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) it to the final frame of the new sequence.

To copy and paste a frame or frame sequence, select it and select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select a frame or sequence, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames. To paste and replace the exact number of copied frames on the target timeline, use the Paste and Overwrite Frames option.

To convert a keyframe to a frame, select the keyframe and select Modify > Timeline > Clear Keyframe. Or right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) it and select Clear Keyframe. The cleared keyframe and all frames up to the subsequent keyframe are replaced with the contents of the frame preceding the cleared keyframe.

To copy a keyframe or frame sequence by dragging, select it and Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) to the new location.

To change the length of a tweened sequence, drag the beginning or ending keyframe left or right.

To add a library item to the current keyframe, drag the item from the Library panel onto the Stage.

To reverse an animation sequence, select the appropriate frames in one or more layers and select Modify > Timeline > Reverse Frames. Keyframes must be at the beginning and end of the sequence.

To tween the changes in properties of instances, groups, and type, you can use a classic tween. Animate can tween position, size, rotation, and skew of instances, groups, and type. Also, Animate can tween the color of instances and type, creating gradual color shifts or making an instance fade in or out.

Before tweening the color of groups or type, make them into symbols. Before animating individual characters in a block of text separately, place each character in a separate text block.

If you apply a classic tween, and change the number of frames between the two keyframes, Animate automatically tweens the frames again. Or, if you move the group or symbol in either keyframe, Animate automatically tweens the frames again.

To add content to the first frame of the classic tween, do one of the following:

Create a graphic object with the Pen, Oval, Rectangle, Pencil, or Brush tool, and then convert it to a symbol.

Create an instance, group, or text block on the Stage.

Drag an instance of a symbol from the Library panel.

To create a tween, you must have only one item on the layer.

To modify the item in the ending frame, do any of the following:

Move the item to a new position.

Modify the item's size, rotation, or skew.

Modify the item's color (instance or text block only). To tween the color of elements other than instances or text blocks, use shape tweening.

To create the classic tween, do one of the following:

If you created a graphic object in step 2, Animate automatically converts the object to a symbol and names it tween1.

To begin the classic tween slowly and accelerate the tween toward the end of the animation, enter a negative value between ‑1 and ‑100.

To begin the classic tween rapidly and decelerate the tween toward the end of the animation, enter a positive value from 1 through 100.

To produce a more complex change in speed within the tween's frame span, click the Edit button next to the Ease field. It opens the Custom Ease dialog box.

By default, the rate of change between tweened frames is constant. Easing creates a more natural appearance of acceleration or deceleration by gradually adjusting the rate of change.

To rotate the selected item during the tween, select an option from the Rotate menu in the Property inspector:

To prevent rotation, select None (the default setting).

To rotate the object once in the direction requiring the least motion, select Auto.

To rotate the object as indicated, and then enter a number to specify the number of rotations, select Clockwise (CW) or Counterclockwise (CCW).

The rotation in step 8 is in addition to any rotation you applied to the ending frame in step 4.

Synchronize Symbols and the sync option both recalculate the number of frames in a tween to match the number of frames allotted to it. Use the Sync option if the frames in an animation sequence are not an even multiple of the number of frames in the graphic instance.

Animate allows you to work with Classic Tweens as XML files. Natively, Animate allows you to apply the following commands on any Classic Tween:

Allows you to copy Motion properties applied to any object on the Stage at a said frame.

The Motion properties are copied to the clipboard as XML data. You can then use any text editor to work on the XML file.

Allows you to export Motion properties applied to any object on the stage to an XML file that can be saved.

Allows you to import an existing XML file that has Motion properties defined.

To control the movement of objects in a classic tween animation, create a motion guide layer.

You cannot drag a motion tween layer or inverse kinematics pose layer onto a guide layer.

Motion guide layers let you draw paths along which tweened instances, groups, or text blocks can be animated. You can link multiple layers to a motion guide layer to have multiple objects follow the same path. A normal layer that is linked to a motion guide layer becomes a guided layer.

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the layer name of the layer containing the classic tween and choose Add Classic Motion Guide.

If you already have a guide layer in the timeline, you can drag a layer containing the classic tween below the guide layer. This action converts the guide layer to a motion guide and binds the classic tween to it.

To know more about animation guide based on variable width stroke and variable stroke color, see Animation Guide

The Paste Motion command lets you copy a classic tween, and paste only specific properties to apply to another object.

The necessary frames, tween, and symbol information are inserted to match the original, copied tween.

To copy a symbol's classic tween to the Actions panel or use it in another project as ActionScript, use the Copy Motion as ActionScript 3.0 command.

Ease presets are pre-configured eases that can be applied to an object on the stage.

A set of commonly used ease presets are available for Classic tween. You can select the preset from a list of ease presets and apply it to the selected property.

You can select unique ease presets for position, rotation, scale, color and filter properties of a classic tween.

Position Specifies ease settings for the position of an animated object on stage.

Rotation Specifies ease settings for the rotation of an animated object on stage.

Scale Specifies ease settings for the scale of an animated object on stage.

Color Specifies ease settings for the color transitions applied to an animated object on stage.

Filters Specifies ease settings for filters applied to an animated object on stage.

If you use HTML5 canvas document type, you can get an optimized js output file for ease presets. HTML5 canvas uses the easing functions of Tween JS while creating an output.

The Custom Ease dialog box displays a graph representing the degree of motion over time. The horizontal axis represents frames, and the vertical axis represents percentage of change. The first keyframe is represented as 0%, and the last keyframe is represented as 100%.

The slope of the graph's curve represents the rate of change of the object. When the curve is horizontal (no slope), the velocity is zero; when the curve is vertical, an instantaneous rate of change occurs.

You can save the custom eases by the click of a button and reuse them by choosing your customized ease from the custom list. Click Save and Apply in edit mode after making the changes. In the following screenshot, you can find the customized ease preset with the name MyEase1.

You can reuse the customized ease presets only within the same document type.

You can use the preset eases across multiple spans in the timeline by selecting the corresponding spans and applying the ease.

Position of the selected control point

In the lower-right corner of the dialog box, a numeric value displays the keyframe and position of the selected control point. If no control point is selected, no value appears.

To add a control point to the line, click the diagonal line once. To achieve a precise degree of control over the motion of an object, drag the positions of the control points.

Using frame indicators (represented by square handles), click where you want an object to slow down or speed up. Clicking the square handle of a control point selects that control point, and displays the tangent points on either side of it. Hollow circles represent tangent points. To position them, drag the control point or its tangent points with the mouse or use the keyboard's arrow keys.
Tip: By default, the control points snap to a grid. You can turn off snapping by pressing the X key while dragging the control point.
Clicking an area of the curve away from any control points adds a control point to the curve at that point. This action does not change the shape of the curve. Clicking away from the curve and control points deselects the currently selected control point.

If you use the Custom Ease dialog box, the edit field shows --. If you use edit or pop-up slider, the custom ease graph is set to the equivalent curve. And, the Use One Setting For All Properties check box is selected.

To copy the current ease curve, press Control+C (Windows) or Command+C (Macintosh).

To place the copied curve into another ease curve, press Control+V (Windows) or Command+V (Macintosh).

You can copy and paste the ease curve. The copied curve remains available until you exit the Animate application.

Certain types of easing curves are not supported. No part of the graph can represent a nonlinear curve (such as a circle).

The Custom Ease dialog box automatically prevents moving a control point or a tangent handle to a position that would render an invalid curve:

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Create classic tween animation in Animate

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Classic tweens are an older way of creating animation in Animate. These tweens are similar to the newer motion tweens, but are more complicated to create and less flexible. However, classic tweens do provide some types of control over animation that motion tweens do not.

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See all the latest Adobe Animate how-to tutorials, video tutorials, and hands-on projects.

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Note:

Like most things in Animate (formerly Flash Professional CC), animation does not require any ActionScript. However, you can create animation with ActionScript if you choose.

Animate provides several ways to create animation and special effects. Each method provides you with different possibilities for creating engaging animated content.

Animate supports the following types of animation:

The frame rate, the speed the animation is played at, is measured in number of frames per second (fps). A frame rate that's too slow makes the animation appear to stop and start; a frame rate that's too fast blurs the details of the animation. A frame rate of 24 fps is the default for new Animate documents and usually gives the best results on the web. The standard motion‑picture rate is also 24 fps.

The complexity of the animation and the speed of the computer playing the animation affect the smoothness of the playback. To determine optimum frame rates, test your animations on a variety of computers.

Because you specify only one frame rate for the entire Animate document, set this rate before you begin creating animation.

Animate distinguishes tweened animation from frame-by-frame animation in the Timeline by displaying different indicators in each frame that contains content.

The following frame content indicators appear in the Timeline:

A span of frames with a blue background indicates a motion tween. A black dot in the first frame of the span indicates that the tween span has a target object assigned to it. Black diamonds indicate the last frame and any other property keyframes. Property keyframes are frames that contain property changes explicitly defined by you. You can choose which types of property keyframes to display by right-clicking (Windows) or Command-clicking (Macintosh) the motion tween span and choosing View Keyframes > type from the context menu. Animate displays all types of property keyframes by default. All other frames in the span contain interpolated values for the tweened properties of the target object.

A span of frames with a green background indicates an inverse kinematics (IK) pose layer. Pose layers contain IK armatures and poses. Each pose appears in the Timeline as a black diamond. Animate interpolates the positions of the armature in the frames in between poses.

A black dot at the beginning keyframe with a black arrow and blue background indicates a classic tween.

A black dot at the beginning keyframe with a black arrow and a light green background indicates a shape tween.

A small a indicates that the frame is assigned a frame action with the Actions panel.

A gold anchor indicates that the frame is a named anchor.

Each scene in a Animate document can consist of any number of Timeline layers. Use layers and layer folders to organize the contents of an animation sequence and separate animated objects. Organizing them in layers and folders prevents them from erasing, connecting to, or segmenting each other when they overlap. To create animation that includes tweened movement of more than one symbol or text field at once, place each object on a separate layer. You can use one layer as a background layer to contain static artwork and use additional layers to contain one separate animated object.

When you create a motion tween, Animate converts the layer containing the object you selected to tween into a tween layer. The tween layer has a tween icon next to the layer name in the Timeline.

If other objects are present on the same layer as the tweened object, Animate adds new layers above or below the original layer as needed. Any objects that existed below the tweened object on its original layer move to a new layer below the original layer. Any objects that were above the tweened object on its original layer move to a new layer above the original layer. Animate inserts these new layers between any pre-existing layers in the Timeline. In this way Animate preserves the original stacking order of all the graphic objects on the Stage.

A tween layer can contain only tween spans (contiguous groups of frames containing a tween), static frames, blank keyframes, or empty frames. Each tween span can contain only a single target object and an optional motion path for the target object. Because you cannot draw in a tween layer, create additional tweens or static frames on other layers and then drag them to the tween layer. To place frame scripts on a tween layer, create them on another layer and drag them to the tween layer. A frame script can only reside in a frame outside the motion tween span itself. In general, it is best to keep all frame scripts on a separate layer that contains only ActionScript.

When a document has several layers, tracking and editing the objects on one or more of them can be difficult. This task is easier if you work with the contents of one layer at a time. To hide or lock layers you are not currently working on, click the Eye or Lock icon next to the layer name in the Timeline. Using layer folders can help you organize layers into manageable groups.

Animate automatically moves an object to its own tween layer when you apply a motion tween to the object. However, you can also distribute objects to their own separate layers yourself. For example, you can choose to distribute objects yourself when you are organizing content. Manual distribution is also useful for applying animation to objects while maintaining precise control over how they move from one layer to another.

When you use the Distribute To Layers command (Modify > Timeline > Distribute To Layers), Animate distributes each selected object to a new, separate layer. Any objects that you don't select (including objects in other frames) are preserved in their original layers.

You can apply the Distribute To Layers command to any element on the Stage, including graphic objects, instances, bitmaps, video clips, and broken-apart text blocks.

New layers created during the Distribute To Layers operation are named according to the name of the element that each contains:

A new layer containing a library asset (such as a symbol, bitmap, or video clip) receives the same name as the asset.

A new layer containing a named instance receives the name of the instance.

A new layer containing a character from a broken-apart text block is named with the character.

A new layer containing a graphic object (which has no name) is named Layer1 (or Layer2, and so on), because graphic objects do not have names.

Animate inserts the new layers below any selected layers. The new layers are arranged top to bottom, in the order that the selected elements were originally created. The layers in broken-apart text are arranged in the order of the characters, whether left-to-right, right-to-left, or top-to-bottom. For example, suppose you break apart the text FLASH and distribute it to layers. The new layers, named F, L, A, S, and H, are arranged top to bottom, with F at the top. These layers appear immediately below the layer that initially contained the text.

Select the objects you want to distribute to separate layers. The objects can be in a single layer, or in several layers, including non-contiguous layers.

Select Modify > Timeline > Distribute To Layers.

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) one of the selected objects, and select Distribute To Layers.

New in Animate
Animate automatically allows you to distribute objects to separate keyframes each. You can choose to distribute objects when you are organizing content on stage. Manually, the process is tedious and time-consuming. Distribution is highly useful when creating tweened animation by placing objects on individual keyframes. You could assign different objects or object states to individual keyframes each. In effect, when the playhead is scrubbed across these keyframes, the effect of a tweened animation is apparent.

When you use the Distribute To Keyframes command, Animate distributes each selected object to a new, separate keyframe. Any objects that you don't select (including objects in other frames) are preserved in their original layers.

You can apply the Distribute To Keyframes command to any element on the Stage, including graphic objects, instances, bitmaps, video clips, and text blocks.

New keyframes created during the Distribute To Keyframes operation are arranged according to the sequence in which the objects were selected.

If any object on the layer was left unselected when performing the Distribute to Keyframes operation, the original frames stay unaffected for such objects. The objects that are selected for distribution are assigned keyframes starting the frame immediately next to the last frame of the original content. For example, if Object1 and Object2 are on a layer that has 50 frames. If Object1 was chosen for distribution, it is placed on the 51st keyframe.

Select the objects you want to distribute to separate layers. The objects can be in a single layer, or in several layers, including non-contiguous layers.

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) one of the selected objects, and select Distribute To Keyframes.

The following article talks about working with animation in Animate:

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Note: Like most things in Animate (formerly Flash Professional CC), animation does not require any ActionScript. However, you can create animation with ActionScript if you choose. Animate provides several ways to create animation and special effects. Each method provides you with different possibilities for creating engaging animated content.

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In shape tweening, you draw a vector shape at one specific frame in the Timeline. And, change that shape or draw another shape at another specific frame. Animate then interpolates the intermediate shapes for the frames in between, creating the animation of one shape morphing into another.

Animate allows you to add shape tweens to uniform solid strokes and non-uniform fancy strokes. You can also add shape tweens to strokes enhanced using the variable width tool. Experiment with the shapes you want to use to determine the results. You can use shape hints to tell Animate which points on the beginning shape correspond to specific points on the end shape.

You can also tween the position and color of shapes within a shape tween.

To apply shape tweening to groups, instances, or bitmap images, break these elements apart. To apply shape tweening to text, break the text apart twice to convert the text to objects. See Break apart a symbol instance.

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In shape tweening, you draw a vector shape at one specific frame in the Timeline. And, change that shape or draw another shape at another specific frame. Animate then interpolates the intermediate shapes for the frames in between, creating the animation of one shape morphing into another.

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Add interactivity with code snippets in Animate

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Learn how to use the Code Snippets panel to add interactivity and object behavior when using Animate.

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Use this article to learn how to work with camera in Animate.

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Adobe Animate offers several ways to use sound. Make sounds that play continuously, independent of the Timeline, or use the Timeline to synchronize animation to a sound track. Add sounds to buttons to make them more interactive, and make sounds fade in and out for a more polished sound track.

There are two types of sounds in Animate: event sounds and stream sounds. An event sound must download completely before it begins playing, and it continues playing until explicitly stopped. Stream sounds begin playing as soon as enough data for the first few frames has been downloaded; stream sounds are synchronized to the Timeline for playing on a website.

If you are creating Animate content for mobile devices, Animate also lets you include device sounds in your published SWF file. Device sounds are encoded in the device's natively supported audio format, such as MIDI, MFi, or SMAF.

You can use shared libraries to link a sound to multiple documents. You can also use the ActionScript® 2.0 onSoundComplete event or ActionScript® 3.0 soundComplete event to trigger an event based on the completion of a sound.

You can load sounds and control sound playback using prewritten behaviors or media components; the latter also provide a controller for stop, pause, rewind, and so on. You can also use ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 to load sounds dynamically.

For more information, see attachSound (Sound.attachSound method) and loadSound (Sound.loadSound method)in ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference or Sound class in ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference.

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Adobe Animate offers several ways to use sound. Make sounds that play continuously, independent of the Timeline, or use the Timeline to synchronize animation to a sound track. Add sounds to buttons to make them more interactive, and make sounds fade in and out for a more polished sound track.

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Animate provides several methods by which you can incorporate video into your Animate document and play it back for users.

Before you start working with video in Animate, it is important to understand the following information:

Animate can only play specific video formats.

These include FLV, F4V, and MPEG video. For instructions on converting video in other formats, see Create video for use in Animate.

Use the separate Adobe Media Encoder application (included with Animate) to convert other video formats to F4V. For instructions, see Create video for use in Animate.

There are different ways of adding video to Animate, each with advantages in different situations. See below for a list of these methods.

Animate includes a Video Import Wizard that opens when you choose File > Import > Import Video.

Using the FLVPlayback component is the simplest way to quickly get video playing in a Animate file.

For instructions, see Progressively download video using a web server.

You can use video in Animate in different ways:

Progressive download from a web server

This method keeps the video file external to the Animate file and the resulting SWF file. This keeps the SWF file size small. This is the most common method of using video in Animate.

Stream video using Adobe Media Server.

This method also keeps the video file external to your Animate file. Adobe Media Streaming Server gives you secure protection of your video content in addition to a smooth streaming playback experience.

Embed video data directly inside a Animate file

This method results in very large Animate files, and is only recommended for short video clips. For instructions, see Embed video within an Animate file.

Progressive downloading lets you use either the FLVPlayback component or ActionScript that you write to load and play back external FLV or F4V files in a SWF file at runtime.

Because the video file is kept external to the other Animate content, it's relatively easy to update video content without republishing the SWF file.

Progressive downloading provides the following advantages over embedding video in the Timeline:

During authoring, you can publish only your SWF file to preview or test part or all of your Animate content. This results in faster preview times and quicker turnaround on iterative experimentation.

During playback, video begins playing as soon as the first segment of video is downloaded and cached to the local computer's disk drive.

At runtime, video files are loaded by Flash Player from the computer's disk drive into the SWF file, with no limitation on video file size or duration. No audio synchronization issues or memory restrictions exist.

The frame rate of the video file can be different from the frame rate of the SWF file, allowing for greater flexibility in authoring Animate content.

You can import a video file that is stored locally on your computer, and then upload the video file to a server after importing it to your FLA file. In Animate, when you import video for progressive download, you are really adding only a reference to the video file. Animate uses the reference to find the video file on your local computer or on a web server.

You can also import a video file that is already uploaded to a standard web server, an Adobe Media Server (AMS), or Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS).

Select File > Import > Import Video to import the video clip into the current Animate document.

To import video located on your local computer, select Load external video with playback component.

To import video already deployed to a web server, Adobe Media Server, or Flash Video Streaming Service, select Already deployed to a web server, Flash Video Streaming Service, or Stream From Adobe Media Server, and enter the URL of the video clip.

The URL for a video clip located on a web server will use the http communication protocol. The URL for a video clip located on a Adobe Media Server or Flash Streaming Service will use the RTMP communication protocol.

You can choose to:

Not use a skin with the FLVPlayback component by selecting None.

FLVPlayback component skins are slightly different depending on whether you are creating an AS2- or AS3-based Animate document.

Select a custom skin of your own design by entering the URL of the skin on the web server.

If you choose to use a custom skin invoked from a remote location, then live preview will not be available for the video on Stage.

Animate uses a relative path to point to the FLV or F4V file (relative to the SWF file), letting you use the same directory structure locally that you use on the server. If the video was previously deployed to your FMS or the FVSS hosting your video, you can skip this step.

The video skin (if you chose to use a skin)

To use a predefined skin, Animate copies the skin into the same folder as the FLA file.

The FLVPlayback component

To edit the FLVPlayback component's URL field to that of the web server or Adobe Media Server that you are uploading the video to, use the Component inspector (Windows > Component inspector) to edit the contentPath parameter.

Adobe Media Server streams media in real-time to Flash Player and AIR. Adobe Media Server uses bandwidth detection to deliver video or audio content based on the user's available bandwidth.

Streaming video with Adobe Media Server provides the following advantages over embedded and progressively downloaded video:

Video playback starts sooner than it does using other methods of incorporating video.

Streaming uses less of the client's memory and disk space, because the clients don't need to download the entire file.

Network resources are used more efficiently, because only the parts of the video that are viewed are sent to the client.

Delivery of media is more secure, because media is not saved to the client's cache when streamed.

Streaming video provides better tracking, reporting, and logging ability.

Streaming lets you deliver live video and audio presentations, or capture video from a web cam or digital video camera.

Adobe Media Server enables multiway and multiuser streaming for video chat, video messaging, and video conferencing applications.

By using server-side scripting to control video and audio streams, you can create server-side play lists, synchronized streams, and more intelligent delivery options based on the client's connection speed.

To learn more about Adobe Media Server, see www.adobe.com/go/flash_media_server.

To learn more about Flash Video Streaming Service, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_fvss_en.

When you embed a video file, all of the video file data is added to the Animate file. This results in a much larger Animate file and subsequent SWF file. The video is placed in the Timeline where you can see the individual video frames represented in the Timeline frames. Because each video frame is represented by a frame in the Timeline, the frame rate of the video clip and the SWF file must be set to the same rate. If you use different frame rates for the SWF file and the embedded video clip, video playback is inconsistent.
Note: To use variable frame rates, stream the video using either progressive downloading or Adobe Media Server. When you import video files using either of these methods, the FLV or F4V files are self-contained and run at a frame rate separate from that of all other timeline frame rates included in the SWF file.
Embedded video works best for smaller video clips, with a playback time of less than 10 seconds. If you are using video clips with longer playback times, consider using progressively downloaded video, or streaming video using Adobe Media Server.

The limitations of embedded video include:

You might encounter problems if the resulting SWF files become excessively large. Flash Player reserves a lot of memory when downloading and attempting to play large SWF files with embedded video, which can cause Flash Player to fail.

Longer video files (over 10 seconds long) often have synchronization issues between the video and audio portions of a video clip. Over time, the audio track begins playing out of sequence with the video, causing a less than desirable viewing experience.

To play a video embedded in a SWF file, the entire video file must be downloaded before the video starts to play. If you embed an excessively large video file, it might take a long time for the SWF file to download in its entirety and for playback to start.

After a video clip is imported, it cannot be edited. Instead, you must re-edit and re-import the video file.

When publishing your SWF file via the web, the entire video must be downloaded to the viewer's computer before video playback can begin.

At runtime, the entire video must fit into the local memory of the playback computer.

The length of an imported video file cannot exceed 16000 frames.

The video frame rate and Animate Timeline frame rate must be the same. Set the frame rate of your Animate file to match the frame rate of the embedded video.

You can preview frames of an embedded video by dragging the playhead along the Timeline (scrubbing). Note that the video sound track does not play back during scrubbing. To preview the video with sound, use the Test Movie command.

Select one of the following options:

Load external video with playback component: Imports the video and creates an instance of the FLVPlayback component to control video playback.

Embed FLV in SWF and play in timeline : Embeds the FLV into the Animate document and places it in the timeline.

Embed H.264 videos in timeline : Embeds H.264 videos into the Animate document. When you import a video using this option, it is placed on the stage to be used as a guide for your animation at design time. Frames from the video are rendered on the stage as you scrub through or play the timeline. The audio for the relevant frames is also played back.

Note:

When you try to publish your FLA file with H264 video content on a layer that is neither a guide layer nor a hidden layer, a warning is shown if the platform you are publishing to does not support embedded H.264 videos..

Click Browse and select the video file from your computer and click Next.

Optional: If you have Adobe Media Encoder installed on your computer and you want to convert the video to another format using AME, click Convert video.

If you're using the video clip for linear playback in the Timeline, importing the video into the Timeline is the most appropriate method.

A best practice is to place video inside a movie clip instance, because you have the most control over the content. The video's Timeline plays independently from the main Timeline. You do not have to extend your main Timeline by many frames to accommodate the video, which can make working with your FLA file difficult.

When you embed a video clip as a graphic symbol, you cannot interact with the video using ActionScript (typically you use graphic symbols for static images and to create reusable pieces of animation that are tied to the main Timeline).

Import the video clip directly onto the Stage (and the Timeline) or as a library item.

By default, Animate places the video you import on the Stage. To import into the library only, deselect Place Instance on Stage.

If you're creating a simple video presentation with linear narration and little to no interaction, accept the default setting and import the video to the Stage. To create a more dynamic presentation, work with multiple video clips, or add dynamic transitions or other elements using ActionScript, import the video into the library. After a video clip is in the library, customize it by converting it into a MovieClip object that you can more easily control with ActionScript.

By default, Animate expands the Timeline to accommodate the playback length of the video clip you are embedding.

If the video file contains audio that you don't want to import, deselect Include audio.

In the Property inspector ( Window > Properties), give the video clip an instance name, and make any modifications to the video clip's properties.

To import FLV, F4V, or H.264 videos, use the Import > Import Video or Import to Library commands.

To create your own video player, which dynamically loads FLV or F4V files from an external source, place your video inside a movie clip symbol. When you load FLV or F4V files dynamically, adjust the dimensions of the movie clip to match the actual dimension of the video file and scale the video by scaling the movie clip.

A best practice is to place video inside a movie clip instance, which gives you the most control over the content. The video's Timeline plays independently from the main Timeline. You do not have to extend your main Timeline by many frames to accommodate the video, which can make working with your FLA file difficult.

Select File > Import > Import To Library.

Select any existing video clip in the Library Panel, and select Properties from the Library Panel menu. You can also rght-click on the video file and choose Properties in the pop-up menu. Click Import. Locate the file to import, and click Open.

You can change properties for an instance of an embedded video clip on the Stage, assign the instance an instance name, and change its width, height, and position on the Stage using the Property inspector. You can also swap an instance of a video clip-assign a different symbol to an instance of a video clip. Assigning a different symbol to an instance displays a different instance on the Stage but leaves all the other instance properties (such as dimensions and registration point) intact.

In the Video Properties dialog box, you can do the following:

View information about an imported video clip, including its name, path, creation date, pixel dimensions, length, and file size

Change the video clip name

Update the video clip if you modify it in an external editor

Import an FLV or F4V file to replace the selected clip

Export a video clip as an FLV or F4V file

To control playback of an embedded video file, control the Timeline that contains the video. For example, to pause a video playing on the main Timeline, you would call a stop() action that targets that Timeline. Similarly, you can control a video object in a movie clip symbol by controlling the playback of that symbol's Timeline.

You can apply the following actions to imported video objects in movie clips: goTo, play, stop, toggleHighQuality, stopAllSounds, getURL, FScommand, loadMovie, unloadMovie, ifFrameLoaded, and onMouseEvent. To apply actions to a Video object, first convert the Video object to a movie clip.

To show a live video stream from a camera, use ActionScript. First, place a Video object on the Stage, select New Video from the Library Panel menu. To attach the video stream to the Video object, use Video.attachVideo.

See also Video and attachVideo (Video.attachVideo method) in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference, and fl.video in the ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference.

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Animate provides several methods by which you can incorporate video into your Animate document and play it back for users. Before you start working with video in Animate, it is important to understand the following information: Animate can only play specific video formats. These include FLV, F4V, and MPEG video.

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“Read this page to learn about drawing tools, vector and bitmap graphics, and creating objects with Animate.”

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Layers enable you to organize the artwork in your document. You can draw and edit objects on one layer without affecting objects on another layer. In areas of the Stage with nothing on a layer, you can see through it to the layers below.

To draw, paint, or otherwise modify a layer or folder, select the layer in the timeline to make it active. A pencil icon next to a layer or folder name in the timeline indicates that the layer or folder is active. Only one layer can be active at a time (although more than one layer can be selected at a time).

When you create an Animate document, it contains only one layer. To organize the artwork, animation, and other elements in your document, add more layers. You can also hide, lock, or rearrange layers. The number of layers you can create is limited only by your computer's memory. Layers do not increase the file size of your published SWF file. Only the objects you place into layers add to the file size.

To organize and manage layers, create layer folders and place layers in them. You can expand or collapse layer folders in the timeline without affecting what you see on the stage. Use separate layers or folders for sound files, ActionScript, frame labels, and frame comments. Using separate layers helps you find these items quickly to edit them.

To enable creating sophisticated effects, use special guide layers to make drawing and editing easier, and to make mask layers.

There are five types of layers you can use in Animate:

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Layers enable you to organize the artwork in your document. You can draw and edit objects on one layer without affecting objects on another layer. In areas of the Stage with nothing on a layer, you can see through it to the layers below.

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Color models describe the colors we see and work with in digital graphics. Each color model, such as RGB, HSB, or CMYK, represents a different method for describing and classifying color. Color models use numeric values to represent the visible spectrum of color. A color space is a variant of a color model and has a specific gamut (range) of colors. For example, within the RGB color model are a number of color spaces: Adobe® RGB, sRGB, and Apple® RGB. While each of these color spaces defines color using the same three axes (R, G, and B), their gamuts are different.

When you work with the colors in a graphic, you are actually adjusting numerical values in the file. It's easy to think of a number as a color, but these numerical values are not absolute colors in themselves-they only have a color meaning within the color space of the device that is producing the color.

Because each device has its own color space, it can reproduce colors only in its gamut. When an image moves from one device to another, image colors may change because each device interprets the RGB or HSB values according to its own color space. For example, it is impossible for all the colors viewed on a monitor to be identically matched in a print from a desktop printer. A printer operates in a CMYK color space and a monitor operates in an RGB color space. Their gamuts are different. Some colors produced by inks cannot be displayed on a monitor, and some colors that can be displayed on a monitor cannot be reproduced using inks on paper.

When creating colors for use in Animate documents, keep in mind that even though it is impossible to perfectly match all colors on different devices, you can achieve good results by considering the graphic display capabilities of the devices in use by your target audience.

Adobe Animate CC lets you apply, create, and modify colors using the RGB or HSB color models. Using the default palette or a palette you create, you can choose colors to apply to the stroke or fill of an object you are about to create, or an object already on the Stage.

When applying a stroke color to a shape, you can do any of the following:

Apply a solid color, gradient, or bitmap to a shape's fill. To apply a bitmap fill to a shape, you must import a bitmap into the current file. Select any solid color, gradient, and the style and weight of the stroke.

Create an outlined shape with no fill by using No Color as a fill.

Create a filled shape with no outline by using No Color as an outline.

Apply a solid color fill to text.

With the Color panel, you can create and edit solid colors and gradient fills in RGB and HSB modes.

To access the system color picker, select the Color Picker icon from the Stroke Color or Fill Color control in the Color panel, the Tools panel or Shape Property inspector.

The Color panel lets you modify the color palette of a FLA and change the color of strokes and fills, including the following:

Import, export, delete, and otherwise modify the color palette for a FLA file by using the Swatches panel.

Select colors in hexadecimal mode.

Create multicolor gradients.

Use gradients to produce a wide range of effects, such as giving an illusion of depth to a two-dimensional object.

The Color panel contains the following controls:

Repeats the gradient from the beginning of the gradient to the end until the selected shape is filled.
note: Overflow modes are supported only in Adobe Flash Player 8 and later.

On the Swatches tab of the Colors panel, select the color that you want to convert to a tagged swatch and click the Convert to Tagged Swatch button on the bottom part of the panel.

On the Tagged Color Definition dialog box, specify the following:

A name for the new swatch.

Choice of solid color, linear gradient, or radial gradient.

A Color by specifying either the HSB values (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) or RGB (Red, Green, and Blue)

The new tagged swatch appears in both the Colors and Swatches tabs of the Colors panel and in the Tools panel.

To unlink a shape that uses a swatch from the swatch color, select the shape and then click the Unlink button. You can select a new color from the colors panel for the shape.

On the Swatches panel, click the

button.

On the Swatches panel, select any folder and click the

button to create an empty palette.

You can drag an existing color or click the

button to add swatches to the color palette.

On the Swatches panel, select any color palette within a folder, and click the

button to create a swatch. A new swatch is created using the current selected fill color in the Colors panel. You may also select an existing swatch and click the

button to duplicate the swatch within the palette.

You can also create a swatch by selecting a folder, color palette, or swatch and selecting the Duplicate as Swatch option from the fly-out menu.

In the Swatches panel, select one of the following commands from the menu in the upper-right corner:

To append the imported colors to the current palette, select Add Colors.

To replace the current palette with the imported colors, select Replace Colors.

You can create any color using the Color panel. If an object is selected on the Stage, the color modifications you make in the Color panel are applied to the selection. You can select colors in RGB or HSB, or you can expand the panel to use hexadecimal mode. You can also specify an alpha value to define the degree of transparency for a color. In addition, you can select a color from the existing color palette.

You can expand the Color panel to display a larger color space in place of the color bar, a split color swatch showing the current and previous colors, and a Brightness slider to modify color brightness in all color modes.

Note:

Click the icon, not the Color control, or the Color Picker opens.

To select a color, click in the color space in the Color panel. To adjust the brightness of the color, drag the Brightness slider.
note: To create colors other than black or white, make sure the Brightness slider is not set to either extreme.

Enter values in the color value boxes: Red, Green, and Blue values for RGB display; Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values for HSB display; or hexadecimal values for hexadecimal display. Enter an Alpha value to specify the degree of transparency, from 0 for complete transparency to 100 for complete opacity.

To return to the default color settings, black and white (black stroke and white fill), click the Black and White button .

To swap colors between the fill and the stroke, click the Swap Colors button .

To apply no color to the fill or stroke, click the No Color button .
note: You cannot apply a stroke or fill of No Color to an existing object. Instead, select the existing stroke or fill, and delete it.

Click the Stroke or Fill Color control, and select a color.

Duplicate colors in the palette, delete individual colors, or clear all colors from the palette.

To duplicate or delete a color, select Window > Swatches, click the color to duplicate or delete, and select Duplicate Swatch or Delete Swatch from the panel menu. When duplicating a swatch, the paint bucket appears. Click in the empty area of the Swatches panel with the paint bucket to make a duplicate of the selected color.

To clear all colors from the color palette, in the Swatches panel, select Clear Colors from the panel menu. All colors except black and white are removed from the palette.

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Color models describe the colors we see and work with in digital graphics. Each color model, such as RGB, HSB, or CMYK, represents a different method for describing and classifying color. Color models use numeric values to represent the visible spectrum of color.

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See all the latest Adobe Animate how-to tutorials, video tutorials, and hands-on projects.

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See all the latest Adobe Animate how-to tutorials, video tutorials, and hands-on projects.

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Draw with vector and pattern brushes in your animations

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Create custom brushes with Capture and use them to create expressive animations in Animate.

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Watch this tutorial to learn how to draw and tween animate strokes with variable width in Adobe Animate.