How to Make Credits Scroll in a Flash Movie

After all the effort that can go into creating a movie in Flash, having a nice credit scroll at the end is a good way to put your signature on your work, for both artistic and legal reasons. In addition, it adds an air of professionalism and allows you to properly credit those who helped you.

Creating a credit scroll in Flash should not pose any significant challenge to a seasoned Flash developer, and even a beginner can have one up and running without too much trouble.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Flash CS4

Instructions

Creating the credits

1. Create a new Flash file in Adobe Flash C4 Professional.

2. Open the "Insert" menu at the top of the screen and click "New Symbol..." to open the "Create New Symbol" window.

3. Enter a name for the new object. For the sake of example, we will be creating an object named "credits." Under "Type," select "Movie Clip" from the drop-down menu. Click "OK." This will open an editing window for the "credits" object.

4. Select the Text Tool from the toolbar. Create a text field in the editing window for each item in your list of credits. Because each text field has its own separate properties (font size, paragraph alignment, etc.), you should open a new text field each time the text changes. For example, if "Written by" is going to be in 12-point font and the line below it, "John Smith," will be in 24-point font, each line should be in a separate text field.

5. Enter your credits into the text fields. Make sure that the credits are spaced in a way that will make them easy to read when they are scrolling by.

6. Click the "Properties" button on the right side of the screen. Here, you can change the style and formatting of your credits. Change the font size, type, and color of your text under the "Character" subheading, and change the alignment, spacing, and margins under the "Paragraph" subheading.

7. Open the "Edit" menu at the top of the screen and select "Edit Document" to return to the main document.

Scrolling the credits

1. Click the "Library" button on the right-hand side of the screen. There you should see your object, "credits." Drag the object onto the workspace in the center of the screen.

2. Open the "View" menu at the top of the screen and click "Zoom Out" to get a better view of what you are doing. This should help you work with the "credits" object, but feel free to zoom back in if you find it distracting or difficult.

3. Click on the Selection tool in the toolbar, which looks like a normal mouse cursor. Click on the "credits" object and drag it into position so that the first line is just below the white box. The white box represents the screen, so your credits are currently "off-screen" and are not visible.

4. Locate the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Right-click on the first frame, which should have a red box above it. Click "Create Motion Tween." This will move the red box ahead in the timeline.

5. Drag your credits directly upwards, through the white field, until the final credits are "off-screen." This will make your credits scroll upwards.

6. Return to the timeline. Drag the edge of the blue box to the right, which will add extra frames to the credit scroll, making it move more slowly. By default, your scroll will begin at frame 1 and end at frame 24, which is only about a second long. Adjust the frame length until the credits scroll at a comfortable speed.

7. Open the "Control" menu at the top of the screen and select "Test Movie." This will play your credit scroll. You may have to test the movie several times to get the speed just right.

References

• Adobe Flash CS4 Professional: Create motion tweens

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish