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Step 1
Draw your image elements. Start with a simple plant such as a sunflower. Create the elements in Flash or import them from another image editing program. You will need a stem, one leaf, one petal and a circle shape for the seeds.
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Step 2
Fill the background layer with a sky color and then paint grass or dirt on top of it. Add a new layer for each of your sunflower parts. Select the seeds object and convert it to a symbol (F8) with the properties set to "Movie Clip" with the name "Sunflower".
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Step 3
Double click on "Sunflower" to open the movie clip timeline. Create a new layer and drag the petal element into place so that it appears to be growing from the seeds. Add new instances of the petal to the stage and rotate them around the seeds. Drag the seeds layer to the top of the timeline and return to the main scene.
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Step 4
Position the sunflower elements the way you want with the sunflower movie clip at the top of the stem and the leaf beneath the flower but growing from the stem (you can also create a new layer and add a copy of the leaf growing from the other side).
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Step 5
Select all the layers in frame 30 and type "F5" to extend the animation length. Select Frame 12 in all of the plant layers and type F6 to add keyframes to each layer. Click in any Frame on the stem layer between the two keyframes and add "Motion Tween" (Insert menu Timeline submenu).
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Step 6
Select the stem object in Frame 1 and drag it downward so that only the tip appears above the ground. Select the leaves and petals in Frame 1 and delete them (they won't show up now until Frame 12).
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Step 7
Add keyframes to Frame 30 of the leaf and petal layers then apply a motion tween from Frame 12. Return to Frame 12 and reduce the size of each element to 10 percent. Reposition them on the stem. When you play back your animation the steam will grow from the ground and then the leaf and sunflower will unfold from the stem.
