Motion Guide in Flash

Flash is a 2D animation software that can be used on different operating systems like macOS, Windows, Linux, etc. It was first launched in 1996 and the latest version is released in 2021. It is capable of different functionalities like masking, character tracing, lip-sync, motion and shape tweening, frame by frame animations, etc. The animations created in Flash are vector-based rather than pixel animations which can only be zoomed to a certain level but this is not the case with vector-based animations so they provide high-quality animations.

Guide Motion

Guide motion is an extremely helpful feature of flash, it allows us to guide any motion. In simple words it can be understood as a path on which any object will move, it is better than tweens because in tweens objects move on their own path but with the guide, the animator can explicitly give the motion path of any shape. The path will not be visible in the final output hence we don’t need to worry about hiding that path.

Follow the below steps to learn Motion using Guide Feature.

Step 1: Open a new project in Flash.

Step 2: Draw a circle using an oval shape from the toolbar.

Step 3: Create a new layer using Add new layer button on the timeline and name it Guide.

Step 4: Draw a line on the stage using the line tool and using the free transform tool modify it to give the curved shape.

Step 5: Now select frame 15 on the Guide layer and right-click, a list will appear to choose Insert Frame.

Step 6: Now select frame 15 on Layer 1 and right-click, a list will appear to choose Insert Key Frame.

Step 7: Now select the first frame and place the circle on the line in such a way that the pivot point of the circle must touch the line.

Step 8: Now go on the frame 15 and move the position of the ball to the end of the line.

Step 9: Now select a middle frame and create a classic tween by right-clicking on the frame and choosing to Create Classic Tween option from the list.

Step 10: Select the Guide layer and right-click on it, a list will appear to click on the Guide Option.

Step 11: Select Layer 1 and drag it to the guide layer, the symbol on the guide layer will change.

Step 12: Guide Motion is ready to hit the run button.

Congratulations you have made the guided motion animation. Now press Ctrl + Enter to see the effect, you will find that in the final output, the path will not be visible. Here is the output video of Guided motion.