Help! I need to animate this movie sort of like a cartoon for example if i wanted a stick man ( example) and i want it to throw a stick then run. This is very hard because i make the man and i have to modify and modify every slide s the man can like move his hand. there must be an easier way. need answer!

example= check out www.stickpage.com

rudi_in

Thank you for posting your question to the Ask Me Help Desk.

Have you tried creating two keyframes; one with the start graphic position and one with the end graphic position however many frames apart that you want, maybe 15 to 20, and then creating a motion tween?

ittle

I thought of that but on the part when i want the guy to run. Also when i stick the circle (head) and the sticks, they automatically stick to each other. but. when i bend one it like breaks into pieces and when like something passes in front of the stickman it sticks to him. how can i not make the sticks stick together? if u did not get this im sorry.

rudi_in

Try putting your stickman and your stick in separate layers. Be sure to lock one layer as you work on the other one so that you don't mess up something you don't want to.

When you create the motion tweens for each of them separately they should not stick to each other because they are in different layers.

ittle

incredible! i never thought of that! thanks! oh and ive also seen people make the guy and then convert the stick person into a symbol. is there a reason for doing that?

rudi_in

Converting your image to a symbol allows for two things.

1.) Smaller file sizes. Flash can save the image as a single instance. Otherwise flash has to save separate instances of each stroke used to draw the image thus creating a larger file size.

2.) Objects will not animate properly unless they are converted to symbols. For example if I were to draw a circle on the stage in one keyframe and move it to another location in another keyframe and try to create a motion tween it would not work and you would see a broken arrow in your timeline. Convert it to a symbol and create the motion tween and you will see a solid line arrow in the timeline letting you know it should work properly.

ittle

ah. so for instance i would either have to:

1) make layers and make each piece of the stickmans body a symbol.

or

2) make the whole guy a symbol.

correct?

vwb101

Hello, I recently started using flash 8, I made an animation of a jar of jif peanut butter fighting a walrus with light sabers, and i used two layers so i had a problem with the sword and the sticking. but I thought of using a separate layer for swords and i guess I was correct. but I do not know what this symbol you speak of is could you be more clear? and how am I able to load my flash animations that are saved as flash movies on the internet. every time i tried it did not allow it. so I had to save it as a different program like quick time or other video players, and the graphic was really awful. so is there another way I could load it on the net as the flash movie, with the good graphics it has?

rudi_in

To convert your raw image to a movie clip symbol just

>>hit f8
>>select movie clip from the radio buttons
>>be sure to give your symbol a name

As far as loading it to the internet goes, I would need to know a bit more about what programs you are using and such.

Until then, here is a possibility that might be tripping you up.

Did you publish the movie?

>>Choose Publish from the file dropdown menu or hit SHIFT+f12

This will create an HTML document to go with your .swf file you may need to upload both files and link to the HTML file

vwb101

hey thank you for the help .
I also discovered www.fileden.com is a great place to upload the videos and get url's and such.


one more thing. do i need to make every character or object into a symbol?