Flash CS4: Motions Preset panel (Part 1)
While there are many new outstanding features in Flash CS4 that are cool and flashy (e.g. Object-based animation model, 3D transformations, Inverse kinematics with the Bones tool, Adobe Media Encoder with H.264 support, and much more) don’t overlook a very simple feature that will save you a significant amount of time during the animation process: the Motion Presets panel.
The Motion Presets panel allows you to save as a preset your animation and apply it to an object on the Stage. Additionally, we’ve provided a library of prebuilt animations that you can preview before applying.
You can easily define a motion preset by simply right-clicking on any object that has a tween applied to it, and choose Save As Motion Preset. To use a motion preset, simply select any symbol on the stage, choose a preset from the Motion Presets panel, and click Apply.
I like to create complex Flash animations that involve numerous layers and staggered timelines. Having the ability in Flash CS4 to quickly apply a motion preset to multiple layers increases my productivity significantly.
Here are the steps I use when applying a motion preset to multiple layers:
Step One: Select the layer that has the motion that you’d like to create a preset from
(View image) and from the Motion Presets panel (Window>Motion Presets) click the Save selection as preset icon (View image). Name your preset.
Step Two: Select the layers that you’d like to apply a preset to (View image) (Shift-Click to select a range of layers, Control/Command-click to cherry-pick a non-contiguous selection of layers). Select the preset and click the Apply button (View image).
Here's what the final step should look like: (View image).
Next week I’ll discuss distributing motion presets and creating a preview for a custom preset.
Cheers!
Rick Miller
Comments
Hi Rick,
Nice post! This is definitely one of my favorite new features. FYI for next week's post: After watching a tutorial from Lee Brimelow on the topic, I created an extension to automatically generate a preview for a custom motion preset. You can find it here.
Might be of interest.
Posted by: Justin Putney | November 12, 2008 11:17 PM
can I use the new tween engine in CS4 to create an animation and then publish that to a flash 8 file?
J. Huyghe
http://www.hotdigital.net
Posted by: Jerry Huyghe | December 7, 2008 7:17 PM
Jerry,
You can use the new tween engine and publish to Flash Player 8.
Posted by: Justin Putney | March 2, 2009 3:35 PM
Hey, there are default motion presets! My motion presets panel is blank, so I imported them. The panel display is still blank - no text list of files, just the message 'Preview not available'. I have closed Flash and even restarted the machine, but still the panel display is blank. If I try to import the defaults again I get the message that they already exist.
Using default and custom presets should be so much easier than this. Any suggestions of what I need to do?
Thanks VERY much.
Sue.
Posted by: Sue B | April 15, 2009 4:38 PM