| Paint objects in 3D Flash Animator are vector images - they are not
recorded as a pattern of pixels but as mathematical equations. This has the
advantage that the images can be created very precisely but the disadvantage is
that vector images are always like drawings or cartoons and can never look like
photographs. Another disadvantage is that the vector graphics have to be created
in the program - they cannot be imported from a different one. You have used
vector graphics before if you have ever used the drawing tools in Microsoft
Word, but unfortunately you cannot make a drawing in Word and then import it
into 3d Flash Animator since the two programs are not compatible. Let's draw a stick man and then make him jump using a morph event.
Morphing means changing the shape of something and in 3D Flash Animator
paint
objects can be morphed more easily than bitmap images because paint objects may
be defined by many points whereas bitmap images are defined only by their four
corners.
Make a new movie called 'stick man' with dimensions 320 x 240 pixels. Choose Add
an Element>Paint an Image and this window will appear:
As you can see, this is rather complicated! Fortunately we
are only making a stick man. Click the 'Add a Line Segment' button
and add this shape to the movie, near the bottom of the movie window (you
will need to click the 'End the Current Line' button
to finish the line): |
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Finish the stick man by adding a filled circle for the head,
using the 'Filled Circle' tool  (you can
choose a different fill color for the head, if you like, within the paint
properties window). Your stick man should now look something like this : |
 |
It's time to tell the computer to record this initial position for the stick
man, before we make him jump. In the movie properties window, choose Add an
Event>Morph Selected Elements through Key Positions. As you can see, the
morph event is set up very much like the Move event - click the 'Add a new
position' button  to record the initial
position of the stick man. Now we need to move the man into his 'jumped'
position - choose the 'Move Selected Object' button
at the left of the screen and drag the head a couple of centimeters higher than
it used to be (notice how the 'onion skin' helps you judge this). Note also that
there is another button 'Move ALL selected objects' but we don't need to choose
that one because all the shapes that we have created form a single paint
object.
Choose the 'Move a Point' button
at the left and move the points on the man until you have changed his
shape into this:
In the morph properties window, click the 'Add a new position' button
again to record this new position. Note that by default the morph is set
to take 1 second - change this delay value if you like. |
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When you play the movie you should see the man jump (every 10 seconds) but he
only rises - he does not fall. Click the 'Show Position 1' button (the left one
here:  to show the initial position if the
man, then click the 'Add a new position' button
for a third a final time (It's easy to confuse the 'Add a new position' button
with the 'Show position' button as they both look like a running man, so be
careful.) Run the movie and you should see the complete jump now, but it's not
very smooth and there is a long delay between jumps. To smooth the motion,
select the middle position and turn on the 'curved path' option
 .
There is a long delay between jumps because the jump lasts only 2 seconds
(unless you changed the delays) but the movie repeats only every 10 seconds. In
the movie properties window, change the Time (duration) setting to 3 seconds.
Your movie should play very smoothly now, but it's not as nice as the stick
man demo in Samples>Advanced>Stick Man. Check out the demo, and if
you have time try to make your stick man movie even more brilliant than it
already is, but try to include any buttons yet for that is the subject of a
later lesson....
Save and close your movie before you move on. |
and drag to create two more lines (right arm and leg) like this:
