How to Create a Shape Tween in Flash

Unlike a motion tween, which moves or rotates an object across a space, a shape tween allows you to actually morph one object into another. Once you define both shapes, Flash will do the rest--changing form and color according to your instructions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A working installation of Adobe/Macromedia Flash MX or higher.

1. On your Flash stage, draw a new shape on your first frame. This can be as detailed or as simple as you'd like. Just make sure that you don't convert that shape to a symbol; shape tweens only work on fills and strokes.
2. On your timeline, click on the frame where you want your animation to end (frame 12 if you want it to be one second long at 12 frames per second, frame 24 if you want it to be two seconds long at 12fps, etc...).
3. If you're morphing your beginning shape into an entirely new shape, right-click and insert a new blank keyframe. If you'll just be modifying the beginning shape, right-click and insert a new keyframe, which will copy the contents of the first keyframe to the second.
4. If you're working with a new shape, draw that new shape on the stage on the second keyframe. If you're modifying the shape from the first keyframe, make the appropriate adjustments. When doing a shape tween, you can also merge two or more shapes into one, or split one into two or more.
5. Once you're finished, click on any of the frames between your first and last keyframe.
6. Look at the Properties panel at the bottom of your Flash window. You should see a dropdown menu labeled "Tween:". Click on this to expand it.
7. Select "Shape". On your timeline, the frames between your first and last keyframe should turn light green, with an arrow stretching from the first keyframe to the last. Pressing the Enter key on your timeline should let you watch the animation of your shape morphing.
8. If your timeline turns green but the line between frames is instead dashed with no arrow, that means that you have symbols on one or more of your keyframes, or extra objects that Flash can't understand as part of the shape tween. The tween will not morph properly. To be on the safe side, make sure your shape tween objects are on a separate layer from any other objects on your stage, then redo it.

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