How to Animate a Ship in a Bottle in Flash

If you ever wanted your own ship in a bottle, but weren't sure you could assemble all those pieces in a real one, create a ship in a bottle in Flash. You can even make your ship move, something you could never do with the wood and glass models.

Instructions

1. Make your animation elements. You want a ship, a bottle and the bottle stand. Create the ship objects you want to move (sails, paddle wheel, smoke from the smoke stacks) as separate elements. Use "Import to Library" from the File menu's import submenu to load them into the Flash library.

2. Create and name the layers on the Flash timeline for the different elements. From bottom to top you will need layers for the bottle, the bottle stand, the basic ship, the moving objects (sails and the like) and a duplicate of the bottle.

3. Convert the bottle and moving objects to movie clips. Select the objects in the library one at a time and open the library palette's options menu. Choose "Movie Clip" from the properties submenu. The objects can become independent animations and take on properties other graphics can't display.

4. Animate each moving object by double clicking on its icon in the library. Add keyframes to the timeline by selecting each frame where you want a change to occur and choosing "Keyframe" from the Insert menu's Timeline submenu (F6.) You can break apart the objects (Command + B) and choose a shape tween from the Properties palette to morph them (rippling sails or shifting steam,) or use motion tween to rotate or move them (a paddle wheel.)

5. Drag the objects from the library to their respective layers on the timeline. You don't need to add frames to the timeline because the movie clip animations will play back independently. Arrange them into their final positions. Don't forget to movie a copy of the bottle symbol to the top layer.

6. Select the duplicate bottle in the top timeline. Change the alpha to 10 to 15 percent, using the color pulldown menu in the Properties palette. If you have Flash CS3 you can also experiment with the "Hard Light" blend in the Property menu Blend pulldown.

7. Play back your animation to make sure it works. Export it to an SWF file to play it on the web.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use shape hints to control shape changes (rippling sails). Make your shape changes in the individual keyframes, and apply a shape tween to the layer timeline. With the object selected in the first frame, choose "Add Shape Hint" from the Modify menu Shape submenu for each hint you want to add. The number will be duplicated in each frame. Drag the hint number to its position on the shape in each key frame.