Flash Explode Effect

The explosion effect in Flash is a type of keyframe animation. Keyframes are starting and ending images that you draw and that Flash uses to produce in-between images. To make your explosions more realistic, study examples of real explosions that were filmed in slow motion. This will guide you in choosing the shapes, colors and timing for your own explosions.

Paint Initial Image

The first step in creating an explosion in Flash is painting the thing you want to explode. If you're just interested in a generic explosion effect, you can draw a simple circle to represent something before it explodes. You can draw that circle with the program's Paintbrush tool, whose tool palette icon looks like a paintbrush. After clicking that icon, drag on the canvas to draw the subject you want to explode, such as the circle just mentioned.

Create Shape Tween

After you've drawn the subject you want to explode, tell Flash you want to create a special type of animation called a "Shape Tween." In this animation type, Flash makes one graphic morph smoothly into another. For example, a Shape Tween of an explosion can make an image of something that hasn't yet exploded morph into a full blown fireball. To create a Shape Tween, right click the image you want to explode and click "Shape Tween."

Make Keyframes

After telling Flash you want to create a Shape Tween for animating the explosion effect, create animation frames to depict that effect. To create these frames, right click the last frame of your animation in the Timeline panel and then click "Convert to keyframes."

Create Final Image

Once you've made the explosion's keyframes and initial image, you need only create the last frame to produce the complete effect. Flash will morph the first image into the last image using the intervening frames of your animation sequence. Click the last frame in that sequence in the Timeline panel and then use the Paintbrush tool to paint a large fireball for the last effect's last image.

View Effect

View the completed explosion animation by rewinding and then playing the animation sequence depicting the explosion. Rewind by clicking the Timeline panel icon shaped like a left-pointing arrow with a vertical bar on its left. Play the animation by clicking the Timeline panel icon shaped like a greater-than character (>).

References

• "Flash Professional CS5 Bible"; Todd Perkins; 2010