Adobe Flash Help: Motion Path Trouble

[Wildcard42]

I'm having trouble with both the motion path and the selection tool in Adobe Flash pro CS5.5. I'm currently working on a tutorial and this is stopping me from getting further. Basically a new green motion path line appears whenever I attempt to move an object on the stage. Than I try to select another object and the interface changes for some reason. I don't believe there are any viruses or anything wrong with the program so what am I doing wrong?

I have tried the Adobe Flash forum but they don't really have an answer that will work. If you can solve this issue than please help. Thank you.

[FightingSeraph]

Maybe you should try the Newgrounds Flash Forum or the FluidAnims BBS if Adobe isn't of much help.

[Psychotime]

Post screenshots.

[Wildcard42]

Maybe you should try the Newgrounds Flash Forum or the FluidAnims BBS if Adobe isn't of much help.

I had trouble finding any tutorial on Newgrounds for CS5 but that is a good idea. I'll look into that forum and check Fluid.

^I have trouble with screen-cap programs.

[Psychotime]

You don't need programs for that. Every operating system has their own way to make screenshots of what's on the monitor. With Windows it's just the PrtSc button. Activate that and it makes a copy of your screen onto your clipboard, that you can then paste in an image program like photoshop, mspaint, flash, whatever.

You know how you can copy paste information, like images and text? Well the PrtSc turns your monitor into a flat image and copies it, for you to then paste into whatever you need (that can use it).

I forgot the function with Mac (you can Google it, which is what I do whenever I need it) their's is a little nicer, in that one of the ways you can screencap will automatically put the image as a file on your desktop.

...Just make sure you shrink those images before posting them here.

See?

[Shane_Huggins]

Perhaps seperate the objects so that the 'Motion pathed' object is on its own layer, then lock it?

My only experience with motion paths is creating a new fluid motion path with the pen tool on a standard layer, then copying and pasting that path onto a frame thats been converted into a Motion tween.

[Talis]

it looks like you are confused with your layers. It looks like you have given your object itself a motion path/tween and on top of that your symbol as well. That results into your core figure moving in its own container, and the movieclip or whatever you are using is also bound to its own motion path, thus you would have 2 tweens acting on their own instead of one solid one.

Make sure to remove all your keyframes in every layer of your object, and try again. Good luck

[Wildcard42]

Oops...I forgot to update this. I have solved this issue. It took me 2-3 more tries but I figured out what was wrong with the interface and how to work with the motion path. It turned out I applied it to the wrong path instead of the default path the tutorial asked for, I figured out how to set it back.

Now I do have one more problem though. My flash files always seem be only saved as Flash Documents and not as video files. I've forgotten how I saved it before cause I know I have done it right. Anyone got any suggestions for this?

[Talis]

Oops...I forgot to update this. I have solved this issue. It took me 2-3 more tries but I figured out what was wrong with the interface and how to work with the motion path. It turned out I applied it to the wrong path instead of the default path the tutorial asked for, I figured out how to set it back.

Now I do have one more problem though. My flash files always seem be only saved as Flash Documents and not as video files. I've forgotten how I saved it before cause I know I have done it right. Anyone got any suggestions for this?

That is where flash basically becomes a bad program and dies out. I struggled long with this issue, but it is the best thing probably to do, to load your flash or swf file in a movie editor and apply the right codec to it (x264 is nowadays one of the better ones). Cheers and good luck.

Let me know how it works out for you as im still struggling with this issue.

[Wildcard42]

Thanks. I think I have done that before and for my next flash file I will see if that works. I'll respond again when that happens.

[aaron2]

Create a new Flash document, and create some interesting graphics on the stage.

Using the Selection tool, select the graphics you created and press the F8 shortcut key to convert the graphic to a symbol.

When the Convert to Symbol dialog box appears, choose Graphic from the Type drop-down list and enter a name for the symbol in the Name text box.

Create another new layer on the Timeline, select the Pencil tool in the Tools panel, and select a stroke color from the Property inspector on the right.

Make sure that Object Drawing mode is turned off. This button appears at the bottom of the Tools panel when the Pencil tool is selected.

Draw a path on the stage with the Pencil tool.
witch to the Selection tool and double-click the path you just created.

Choose Edit→Cut to remove the path from the stage temporarily.

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) Frame 1 of the layer that contains your symbol and choose Create Motion Tween from the contextual menu that appears.

A new tween span is created for your triangle symbol.

Choose Edit→Paste in Place to paste the path you created earlier.
Press Enter or Return to play your movie.

The symbol follows the path you created. Next, you can tweak the tween so that the symbol follows the exact orientation of the path.

Select Frame 1 of your tween span; in the Property inspector, locate and select the Orient to Path check box (it’s located under the Rotation options).

Press Enter or Return again to play your movie and you’ll see that the symbol now changes rotation to match the direction of the path.

Starting off your symbol on the right foot often helps produce better results when using Orient to Path.