How to chain MovieFX instances to create a complex animation

In this tutorial, we will use multiple Creative MovieFX instances to create a complex animation. We will start the work in an already created framework, the Flash file entitled “tutorial.fla” which exists in the attached archive.

Firstly I just want to remind you that, in order to be able to solve the tutorial, you will need the Creative MovieFX extension installed on your computer; if you encounter any problems while doing that, please visit the “How to install an extension” tutorial.

Click here to download the source file and the required files for solving this tutorial.

1. Extract the attached archive in the folder of your choice. Open the AS3 Flash file “tutorial.fla” on which we’re going to work. You will see the following layer structure (from bottom to top): “tv”, “game-start”, “audience” and “game-finish”. As you can see, the dimensions for the stage are 900 pixels horizontally and 600 pixels vertically; the frame rate is set to 30 frames per second.

2. On the “game-start” layer, drag a Creative MovieFX instance on the stage, on the “baseball” movie clip; following, open the component’s configuration interface from the top menu: Window>Other Panels>MovieFX Panel.

3. From the Time Manager, enable the In, Wait and Out components, and disable the Delay option; also, enable the Start Hidden option. Set the durations for the In, Wait and Out Effect elements to 30, 150 and 30 frames.

4. In the In Effect tab, disable the “Load Preset Duration” option and select the “StripesCentered” effect with its “Extend-default” preset. In the Out Effect tab, enable the “Use In Effect configuration” to reverse the In appearance for the Out Effect.

5. In the Wait Effect tab, select the effect None in order to force the image to wait for 150 frames, time during which the other animations will take place.

6. The “audience” layer contains a transparent square movie clip (width 512px with height of 95px placed at X=188, Y=165) which will be applied over the “baseball.png” image to make the people in the audience appear like they are taking pictures. Drag a Creative MovieFX instance over this movie clip – “audience-mask”.

7. From the Time Manager, enable the Wait and Delay components, and disable the In and Out Effect options; also, enable the Start Hidden option. The 30 frames delay will help the animation (150 frames Wait Effect) to synchronize with the Creative MovieFX presented above.

8. Configure the Wait Effect tab to use the Firefly effect with its default preset; don’t forget to disable the “Load Preset Duration” prior to the effect selection.

9. The ”game-finish” layer contains a movie clip which represents a score board (movie clip entitled “scoreboard”) which appears before the end of the animation. Over this movie clip, drag a Creative MovieFX instance.

10. Configure the Time Manager so to have only the Loop option disabled. The time durations of the enabled effects should be set as in the image below.

11. In the In Effect tab, disable the “Load Preset Duration” option and select the DoubleShutter effect with its default preset. In the Out Effect tab, enable the “Use In Effect configuration” option.

12. Configure the Wait Effect tab selecting the effect None.

13. Press CTRL+Enter to preview your file.

Thank you for your time and I hope this tutorial was useful to you. I invite you to read the rest of our tutorials and check out our other products on www.extendstudio.com. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me at jon.stanciu@extendstudio.com.