How to Use Onion Skinning in Flash

Use Onion Skinning in Flash

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Digital onion-skinning mimics the performance of light tables in physical animation, in which the light under the surface shines through several sheets of paper to let animators see the drawings underneath for reference in current drawings. You can also use onion-skinning in Flash, to see your previous and forthcoming frames.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

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

Step1

On your Flash stage, draw a shape on your first frame.

Step2

Right-click on your second frame, and select "Insert blank keyframe".

Step3

Right-click on your third frame, and select "Insert blank keyframe".

Step4

With your third (blank) keyframe selected, click on the little icon to the bottom of the timeline that, when you hover over it, shows the tool tip "Onion Skin". It should be the second icon from the left, and looks like a shaded rectangle overlapping a lighter one. You should now be able to see a faded image of your first frame.

Step5

You can use this image as a reference to draw the next frame--or, as I've set it up, draw the third frame, before using the two as a reference to draw the frame in between. This is the way it's done in traditional animation; rather than drawing frames consecutively, animators instead draw starting and ending frames before using them as references to estimate the motion in between.

Step6

Draw your third frame, then click on the second (blank) keyframe. With onion-skinning still active, you should now be able to see faded images of both your first frame and third frame.

Step7

Use the two frames as a reference to draw the second frame in between.

Step8

To change how many frames your onion-skinning will show before and after a frame, use the "handles" that show at the top of the timeline, shaded over the frame numbers. You can drag to either side to extend or reduce the number of frames shown.