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Explanation of how to plan out a Flash animation project. Also refer to project management, steps, documentation, assignments, time allocation, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Copyright © Restrictions

Planning Your Flash Animations

by Ron Kurtus (revised 12 January 2002)

Before you start developing a Flash animation, it is a good practice to write out a plan of action. The reason is that any type of software development can be complex. Good planning helps to avoid mistakes that may be difficult to find and fix.

Questions you may have include:

• What are the basic planning steps?
• What are the details of these steps?
• What are some examples or illustrations of this planning process?

This lesson will answer those questions.

Basic steps

The plan consists of the following basic steps:

1. Describe animation
2. Write out how you plan to do it.
3. Add notes as you go along

Detailed steps

The detailed steps are as follows:

1. Describe animation

When you get an assignment to develop a Flash movie or you come up with an idea of something you want to put together, you should write it out and explain the animation in words. Examples of this are:

• Demonstrate electrons moving through a metal wire
• Draw a cartoon of a character kicking a soccer ball that then explodes
• Develop a splash page for a company, showing animated gears

These descriptions or explanations are short and sweet, but they convey the image of what you want to do.

2. Write out how you plan to do it

Next, you write out the steps or details of how you plan to design this animation or Flash movie.

Examples are:

Demonstrate electrons moving

1. Draw a model of a wire, about 80 pixels wide on the stage.
2. Add a number of colored circles to simulate the atoms in the wire.
3. On a new layer, animate an electron (smaller and different color than atom) as it goes in a zigzag path from one end of the wire to the other.
4. Add several other layers with other electrons zigzagging through the wire. Perhaps copy original and modify path.

See sample of animation below.

Kicking soccer ball

1. Draw background of soccer field.
2. On a new layer, animate a cartoon character kicking.
3. On a new layer, animate a ball being kicked, then exploding.
4. Add sound to explosion.

Moving gears

1. Draw background.
2. On a new layer, animate a gear rotating.
3. On a new layer, animate another gear meshing and rotating

3. Add notes as you go along

Sample

Below is the demonstration of electrons moving through the wire:

Summary

It is a good idea to write out what you plan to do and how you plan to achieve that goal when developing Flash animations.

Answers to Readers' Questions

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Resources

The following are resources on this subject.

Websites

Flash Resources

Books

Top-rated books on Flash

Miscellaneous

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. What is the very first thing to do before developing a complex Flash movie?

2. Why should you write out the details of the animation?

3. Is it necessary to jot notes as you go along?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a Champion in Flash development. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.

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Planning Your Flash Animations