Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guides)

Animating Color Effects

Tweening is not just about changing the position of an item on the Stage. You can also tween changes in the color of symbol instances.

To change a symbol's color over time:

1. Create a new Flash document.

2. On the Stage, place a symbol in Frame 1.

3. In the Timeline, select Frame 5, and choose Insert > Keyframe.

   Flash duplicates the contents of Frame 1 in a new keyframe.

4. With Frame 5 as the current frame, select the symbol and change its color.

   (To change the color of a selected symbol, set new parameters in the Color section of the Property Inspector. For detailed instructions on editing symbols, see Chapter 6.)

5. Select any of the frames in the first keyframe span (1, 2, 3, or 4), and choose Insert > Create Motion Tween.

   Flash recolors the object in three transitional stepsone for each in-between frame (Figure 9.13).

   Figure 9.13. You can change the color of a symbol rather than its position in a motion tween. Flash creates transitional colors for each in-between frame.

Tip

• You can tween a change in an object's transparency to make that object appear to fade in or out.