In this tutorial, I will be showing you how to use motion guides. These basically create a ‘path’ that a movieclip will follow, without you having to animate all of the frames at turning points etc. Your final result will be something like this:
STEP 1
First off as always we need to set up our stage. Create a new Actionscript 2 file, and set the frame rate to 31. Rename the first layer ’square’. Next, select the square shape tool and draw a square on your stage. Highlight all on this layer and press f8 to convert to symbol. Set it to a moviclip, registration center and rename to MC_square.
STEP 2
Select the layer called ’square’. Rightclick on this layer name, and select ‘add motion guide’. Your layers panel should now look like this:
Lock the ’square’ layer, and select the motion guide layer.
STEP 3
On this layer, select the line tool and draw a line from one side of the stage to the other, leaving a gap either side.
<–NOTE–>
You can alter the shape of this line, give it a few curves etc if you like to make the movement more interesting!
<–END NOTE–>
Your stage should now look something like this:
Lock the Guide layer and unlock the ’square’ layer.
STEP 4
Now, select the square movieclip and drag it ( from the registration point) to the start of the guide line, it should snap into place as you get close to it:
In the time line for ’square’ go to frame 62 and insert a new keyframe (f6). On the guide layer, go to frame 62 and insert new frame (f5).
STEP 5
Select frame 62 on the square layer, and drag the square by the registration point to the end of the guide line, until once again it snaps into place. Create a motion tween between frames 1 and 62 on the square layer and we’re done!
Press CTRL + Enter to see your results. But why stop there? You can change the path of the line as much as you like, and as long as you put the moviclip at the start and end of the line with a motion tween between them, your moviclip will follow the path.
Enjoy!
The Dude
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very nice info. you are pretty good in flash. may i know what kind of software did you use?
Hi Ubey,
Thanks! The software is Adobe Flash CS3
Thanks man…..
you helped me a lot with this