The
following technique can be applied to any text or other shape
drawn in flash as well as an imported graphic.
1.
Open new movie. In layer 1, select the text tool and type the
word of your choice in the first keyframe (To change font, open
your Character Panel and adjust your Character settings there).
Take a moment to name this first layer as well.
2.
Select the text that you just typed. Press F8 to create a symbol.
As default, Flash 5 will have Movie Clip Symbol selected. This
is fine or you can choose to select Graphic Symbol. Next name
your symbol and click OK. You have just created a graphic symbol
of the text you typed. Once you create a symbol in flash (whether
it be a graphic, movie clip or button symbol) you are able to
apply instance properties to the symbol. This is what we will
be doing next.
3.
Now click on keyframe 20 and press F6. You have now made another
instance of your symbol. At this point we will return to keyframe
1 and apply a color effect of alpha to create an alpha fade
effect.
4.
At keyframe 1 select your text (symbol), then go to your Instance
Panel (if it is not already open right click on your text symbol
and select Panels > Instance). Now select the Effect tab
from the Instance Panel. At the pull down menu, select Alpha
then slide the percentage scale to be at 0%. Your symbol will
disappear, as it is now transparent in keyframe 1.
5.
Next move your mouse to your timeline and anyplace between keyframe
1 and keyframe 20, right click on the timeline. Select Create
Motion Tween. Your tween will automatically be created for you,
fading the symbol from completely transparent to solid (frame
20).
6.
Now test your movie. That's the basis for an alpha fade effect.
You can achieve many other effects by changing the color effect
used at any particular instance of a symbol, as well as its
position and scale. This tutorial has explained how to create
an Alpha Fade through 'traditional' tweened animation in Flash.
You can also create this same basic effect using Action Script.
This
tutorial was originally created in Jan 2000 for Flash 4 and
revised in Aug 2001 for Flash 5
