Animating Letters

Page 1 of 3

Animating Letters

1.  Create a new layer for your text.

2.  Type and format your text as you want it to appear at the end.

3.  Select the text and choose: Modify – Break Apart. Notice the letters are broken into separate boxes.

4.  Choose Modify – Timeline - Distribute to Layers. Notice that each letter is placed in a separate layer. This is necessary if each letter is to have its own distinct path.

5.  THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL ** If you want to change the shape of the text ie. A balloon changes into a letter, you need to perform this step. Otherwise, if the letter is staying the same basic shape, skip this step and keep it as a symbol ** To make the object not a symbol you will select Modify – Break Apart again. This will make the letters dotted. They are no longer symbols but shapes that can be manipulated as you wish. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO CHANGE THE SHAPE OF YOUR LETTERS YOU CAN SKIP THIS STEP AND USE A MOTION TWEEN TO ANIMATE YOUR LETTERS.

6.  Now create the end keyframe. In this example I chose to place the end frame at frame 45. Notice only the dotted “H” appears thus far.

7.  Click on frame 1 in the first letter layer, in this instance, “H”. Notice the entire word shows up, but “H” is dotted. Use the arrow tool to move the “H” to a starting position. In this case I moved it off the screen.

8.  Click in between frame 1 and 45 on the “H” layer and choose Shape tween in the Properties box. IF you are still working with symbols, choose Motion tween.

9.  Notice it turns green to indicate a shape tween. (Blue to indicate a motion tween)

10.  Repeat steps 6-8 for any other letters. (You can select all the layers at once and do it once)

11.  If you wish to change the colour of the letters you just need to click on the keyframe and change the colour.

TTI10 Flash Notes 3