MT221 MULTIMEDIA LAB manuel

KARUNYA SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCES Department Of Electronics and Media Technology

LAB MANUAL MT 221 – MULTIMEDIA LAB CREDITS: 0:0:2

Name Prepared by

Signature

Mrs N. Tilaka Mr. B.Vijay Kumar

Approved by

Dr.G.Josemin Bala (HOD – E&MT)

KARUNYA UNIVERSITY (Established under sec.3 of UGC Act, 1956 vide Notification No. 9-3-2004 of Govt. of India)

Karunya Nagar, Coimbatore – 641114

MULTIMEDIA LAB – MT 221 Credit :0:0:2

Marks (50+50)

List of Exercises: Ex No

Exercise Title

1

The Pre-production Phase

2

Basic animation & principles

3

Character designing

4

Story board

5

Software Interface

6

Frame by Frame animation

7

Key frame, Inbetweens & Secondary actions

8

Tweening

9

Background & Compositing for animation & Camera movement

10

Motion guide

11

Converting objects into symbols

12

Embedding video

Ex. 1

THE PRE- PRODUCTION PHASE AIM To work and know about pre-production phase .

MATERIAL REQUIRED Drawing pencils- HB, 6b, charcoal, Drawing pen, Drawing papers.

PROCEDURE: Lines: The various lines used in art such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, curve lines, irregular lines, crisscross lines and zig-zag lines have to be drawn with different grades of pencils. Line drawing typically uses hatching, which consists of groups of parallel lines. Cross hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone.

Form: Any closed figure is a form. Regular forms such as circle, square, rectangle, triangle etc and irregular forms of any dimension are to be drawn using free hand.

Shape: When a form is rotated, it becomes a shape. The students will practice visualizing the rotated form such that it becomes a shape. The shapes have to be drawn from the forms that were practiced using free hand.

Concept Drawing: The difference drawing implements can be on practice sheets in order to determine value and texture. The stroke of the drawing implements can be used to control the appearance of the image.

Expressions: Expressions are a form of non-verbal communication.

Happy

Ecstatic

Content

Sad

Depressed

Embarrassed

Nervous

Angry

Furious

Devious

Bored

Annoyed

Surprised

Tired

Exhausted

Disgusted

Something Stinks

Are You Kidding Hyper Me?

Grumpy

Proud

Cute

Snob

Brat

Sneeze

Sour

Talking

Shouting

Smile!

Fake Smile

Evil

Laughing

Twitterpated Excited

Wink

Asleep

Shut Tight

Kiss

Scared

Terrified

Studly

Tough

Intimidating

Stoic

Intense

Goofy

Serious

Thinking

Supermodel

Confused

RESULT: Thus the pre- production phase is successfully learned.

Ex No 2

Basic Animation & Principles Aim: To create a ball bouncing animation using the basic principles of animation.

PROCEDURE: SQUASH AND STRETCH

The most important principle is "squash and stretch", the purpose of which is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face. All living creatures go through subtle changes in shape when they move. For example, when you bend your arm, your bicep contracts and bulges. On the same note, when a rubber ball is thrown at a wall, it squashes momentarily upon impact before returning to its original shape. How much an object can be squashed or stretched shows the viewers how rigid or pliable it is. Most important with this principle is that while an object or character is being squashed or stretched, it must always appear to retain its volume. FOLLOW-THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION

These closely related techniques help render movement more realistic, and give the impression that characters follow the laws of physics. "Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. Follow through goes hand in hand with anticipation. First there is the anticipation of an action, then the action itself, and then the follow through. After a golfer has swung and hit a golf ball, his arms continue to swing forward (follow through) before coming back to rest at their original position. An overlapping action is one that begins before another action has been completed. For example, a character can be walking along when he reaches up to comb his hair, continuing to do so after he’s stopped walking. Having separate actions start and stop at different times, thus overlapping one another, eliminates dead time between actions, keeps the viewer interested, and isrealistic.

EXAGGERATION If animated characters simply replicated the motions of real life, they would not be very entertaining or believable. For this reason, certain motions are exaggerated. Examples include characters that talk with their hands a lot, and characters whose faces are far more expressive than is physically possible in a human being. This depends largely on what kind of animation you're doing. If it's realistic you might want to keep exaggeration to a minimum. And it refers not just to the way puppets and props are made, but to the action itself.Exaggeration is a good way to add emphasis to certain movements and thereby draw attention where you want it. Filmmaking (including animation of course) is basically the art of directing the viewers' attention where you want it, and all of these principles are tools that help you do that. TIMING

Timing can be divided into essentially 2 categories... physical timing and theatrical timing. Physical timing refers to the actual motions required to perform an action, while theatrical timing refers to the pauses and the emphases added to make it dramatic.

To create a ball animation Procedure: Step 1.

Open Flash

Step 2.

Create New Document

Step 3.

Draw a ball using the ellipse tool

Step 4.

Use either of the tweens to create an animation

Step 5.

Hit Ctrl+Enter to view the animation.

To create a doll animation Step 1.

Open Flash

Step 2.

Create New Document

Step 3.

Draw a doll, or import a picture of a doll

Step 4.

Add a motion guide and draw a small curve at the point from where you want the doll to rock from side to side

Step 5.

In the first Keyframe of the doll’s layer, using the Free Transform Tool, adjust the pivot point of the doll to match the guide layer

Step 6.

Specify a new keyframe a few frames apart, using the transform tool, rotate the doll about an angle, and adjust the pivot point again to match the guide layer

Step 7.

Perform the above step two more times till the doll is back to it’s initial position.

Step 8.

Hit Ctrl+Enter to view the animation.

Result: The required exercise on creating a moving ball is completed and learned successfully.

Ex No 3 Character Design - Model sheet In animation, a model sheet is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of an animated character. Model sheets are required when large numbers of artists are involved in the production of an animated film to help maintain continuity in characters from scene to scene, as one animator may only do one shot out of the several hundred that are required to complete an animated feature film.

Purposes Model sheets have also been used in the past to maintain graphic continuity over the years for long lasting cartoon productions of short or short features such as the Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies series. Model sheets are drawings of posed cartoon or comic strip characters that are created to provide a reference template for several artists who collaborate in the production of a lengthy or multiple-edition work of art such as a comic book, animated film or television series. Model sheets usually depict the character’s head and body as they appear at various angles (a process known as “model rotation“), includes sketches of the character’s hands and feet, and shows a several basic facial expressions. Model sheets ensure that, despite the efforts of several or many artists, their work exhibits unity, as if one artist created the drawings (that is, they are “on model”). They show the character's structure, proportions, attire, and body language. Often, several sheets are required to depict a character’s subtler emotional and physical attitudes.

Specific annotations Model sheets also provide notes that present specific information about how to develop particular features of the character, such as his or her head shape, hair length and style, size and position of the eyes and the mouth. Model sheets originally are intended for artists who work for the studios that own the characters for which these templates are developed, other artists, such as those who create fan art, profit from them by adapting their characters to their own uses.

Result: The exercise on Character Design has been learned and the character design for the animation done successfully.

Ex No 4 STORY BOARD Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.

Procedure

Storyboards for films are created in a multiple step process. They can be created by hand drawing or digitally on the computer. If drawing by hand, the first step is to create or download a storyboard template. These look much like a blank comic strip, with space for comments and dialogue. Then sketch a "thumbnail" storyboard. Some directors sketch thumbnails directly in the script margins. These storyboards get their name because they are rough sketches not bigger than a thumbnail. For some motion pictures, thumbnail storyboards are sufficient.

Animatics In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together. This allows the animators and directors to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected.

Result: The exercise on how to structure a storyboard has been learnt and applied successfully.

Ex No 5:

Software Interface Aim: To Study the Software Interface of Flash.

Procedure: Start Page

By default, the Start Page should appear when you first launch Flash and any time you close all Document windows while the program is running. After you have opened or created a new file, the Start Page automatically closes to make room on your desktop. If you prefer not to use the Start Page, select the don’t show again check box at the bottom of the panel, or change the settings for on launch in General Flash Preferences (Edit -> Preferences or Flash -> Preferences). This leaves you with the more limited, but familiar, option of using the application File menu (or shortcut keys) to create and open files. The links at the bottom of the Start Page connect you to the built-in Help system in Flash as well as to online content available through the Macromedia Web site. These links are worth investigating if you want to get a quick introduction to Flash. Tools Panel

The Document Window The Document window is the work table of your Flash project. This window tells you what document (.fla) is currently active and shows you where you are working in the project. When you open or create a new Flash file, a new Document window appears on the screen. You can have multiple files open simultaneously — click to move from one Document window to another. You have the option of choosing a document type from the Start Page or from the New Document dialog box invoked by the New File command: File ->New (Ctrl+N or Command+N).

The Timeline Window The Timeline window is really composed of two parts: the Layer section, where content is "stacked" in depth; and the Timeline/Frames section, where content is planned out in frames along the duration of your movie, like on a strip of motion picture film. In the Layer section, you can label or organize your "stacks" of frame rows. You can also lock or hide individual layers or just convert their display to colored outlines on the Stage while you are editing. In the Timeline section you can control where and for how long content is visible and how it changes over time to animate when the movie plays back. You can also add actions to control how the Playhead moves through the Timeline, making it start and stop or jump to a specific frame.

Timeline Window Features

Window Features Title bar: This identifies the Timeline, but to collapse or expand the Timeline you have to click the Timeline button in the Edit bar of the Document window. 2. Timeline header: The Timeline Header is the ruler that shows frame numbers and measures the time of the Timeline — each tick is one frame. 3. Playhead or Current frame indicator: The red rectangle with a line extending down through all layers is the Playhead. The Playhead indicates the current frame. Drag it left or right along the Timeline to move from one area of the Timeline to another. Push it beyond the visible area to force-scroll the Timeline. You can also drag the Playhead at a consistent rate for a preview of your animation; this is called "scrubbing the Timeline." 1.

Layer Controls

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Active layer icon: To make a layer active, either click the layer's name, or select a frame or group of frames. Then the pencil icon appears, indicating that the layer is now active. That's in addition to this more obvious clue: The Layer bar of the active layer is a darker gray than that of inactive Layer bars. Although you can select multiple layers or content on multiple layers, only one layer will be marked as active at a time. Show/Hide layer toggle: Click the dot beneath the eye icon to hide the contents of a layer from view on the Stage. When the layer is hidden, a red X appears over the dot. To return the layer to visibility, click the X. To hide or show all layers at once, simply click on the eye icon directly. Lock/Unlock layer toggle: This toggle locks or unlocks the layer to either prevent or enable further editing. When the layer is locked, a padlock icon appears over the dot. To lock/unlock all layers at once, click directly on the lock icon. Outline Layer toggle: This toggles the colored layer outlines on or off. When on, the filled square icon changes into an outline, and all elements in that layer appear as colored outlines in the Document window. The outline color for the layer can be changed with the Outline Color control of the Layer Properties dialog box, which can be accessed by double-clicking the square Outline color icons in the layer stack or by choosing Modify -> Timeline -> Layer Properties from the application menu. Frame View options: This button, at the far-right end of the Timeline, accesses the Frame View options menu, which affords many options for the manner in which both the Timeline header and the frames are displayed. Add layer: Simply click this button to add a new layer above the currently active layer. By default, layers are given sequential numeric names. Double-click the layer name in the Layer bar to change the name. Click and drag any part of the Layer bar to move it to a new position in the stack, or drag it on top of a folder layer to place it inside the folder. Add Motion Guide layer: Motion guide layers are used to move elements along a path. This button adds a Motion guide layer directly above (and linked to) the currently active layer. Add Layer folder: This button enables you to create folders for storing groups of layers. New folders will automatically be placed above the currently selected layer and labeled in the same number sequence as layers. They can be renamed or moved in the same way as other layers. Delete layer: This button deletes the currently active layer, regardless of whether it is locked. Flash always retains one layer in the Timeline, so if you only have one layer in your document, you can't delete it unless you add another layer to the Timeline.

Frame Controls Center frame: Click this button to shift the Timeline so that the current frame is centered in the visible area of the Timeline. 2. Onion skin: This enables you to see several frames of animation simultaneously. 3. Onion Skin outlines: This enables you to see the outlines of several frames of animation simultaneously. 1.

Edit Multiple frames: In general, Onion skinning permits you to edit the current frame only. Click this button to make each frame between the Onion Skin markers editable. 5. Modify Onion markers: Click this button to evoke the Modify Onion Markers pop-up. In addition to making manual adjustments, you can use the options to control the behavior and range of Onion skinning. 4.

Frame Specifics 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

7.

8.

10.

Copying frames: Select the frame(s) that you want to copy. Choose Edit -> Timeline -> Copy Frames from the main menu and then Paste Frames into a new location, or press the Alt or Option key while clicking and dragging to copy selected frames to another location in the Timeline. Pasting frames: Select the frame where you want the copied or cut frames to be inserted (Flash automatically adds frames or layers below and to the right of the selected frame to accommodate the pasted content), and choose Edit -> Timeline -> Paste Frames from the menu. Inserting frames: Select the point at which you would like to insert a new frame, and select Insert Frame (F5) from the contextual menu or from the application menu (Insert -> Frame). The visual "clue" that frames have been inserted is that the end frame of a span is moved to the right — this will also push any following key frames further along the Timeline. Inserting key frames: Select the point at which you would like to insert a new key frame, and select Insert Key frame (F6) from the contextual menu or from the application menu (Insert -> Timeline -> Key frame). Note that key frames can be inserted within a span without extending the span (or pushing the end frame to the right). Thus, inserting a key frame actually converts an existing frame into a key frame. So unlike frames, key frames can be inserted without pushing other frames further down the Timeline. Inserting blank key frames: Select the point at which you would like to insert a new blank key frame, and select Insert Blank Key frame (F7) from the contextual menu or from the application menu (Insert -> Timeline -> Blank Key frame). Inserting a blank key frame within a span clears all content along the Timeline until another key frame is encountered. Removing frames (to shorten a span): Select the frame(s) that you want to remove, and then choose Remove Frames (Shift+F5) from the contextual menu or from the application menu (Edit -> Timeline -> Remove Frames). This does not work for removing key frames; instead, it will remove a frame from the span to the right of the key frame, causing all the following frames to move back toward frame 1. Clearing a key frame: To remove a key frame and its contents, select the key frame and choose Clear Key frame (Shift+F6) from the contextual menu or from the application menu (Modify -> Timeline -> Clear Key frame). When a key frame is cleared, the span of the previous key frame is extended to fill all frames until the next key frame on the Timeline. The same thing happens if you insert a key frame in a span and then Undo it (Ctrl+Z or z+Z). Apply Undo (Edit -> Undo) twice — the first Undo deselects the key frame, and the second Undo clears it. Editing the contents of a key frame: Select the key frame where you want to edit content. This moves the Play head to the selected frame so that its content is visible in the

Document window, where it can be edited. Note that if you edit content on a key frame or frame within a span, the changes will apply to the current frame and the span it is part of.

The Layers Contextual Menu 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12.

13.

14.

Show All: Shows all layers. If some layers have had their visibility turned off, this makes them all visible. Lock Others: Unlocks the active layer and locks all other layers. Insert Layer: Inserts a new layer above the currently active layer with an auto-numbered name that continues the number sequence of existing layers and folders. Delete Layer: Deletes the active layer and all content stored on that layer. Guide: Transforms the current layer into a Guide layer — a reference layer that will only be visible in the authoring environment (.fla). Add Motion Guide: Inserts a new Motion guide layer directly above the current layer and automatically converts the current layer into a guided layer. Mask: Transforms the current layer into a Mask layer. Show Masking: Use this command on either the Mask or the masked layer to activate the masking effect. Essentially, this command locks both layers simultaneously, which makes the masking effect visible. Insert Folder: Inserts a new folder above the currently active layer or folder with an auto-numbered name that continues the number sequence of existing layers and folders. Delete Folder: Deletes the currently active folder, along with all the layers stored in that folder. Expand Folder: Opens the current folder to make any layers stored inside visible in the layer stack and on the Timeline. Collapse Folder: Closes the current folder to hide any layers stored in the folder. The elements existing on these stored layers will still be visible in the Document window and in the movie (.swf), but the key frame rows will not show up along the Timeline. Collapse All Folders: Closes all folders to hide any layers that have been placed in folders. The elements existing on these stored layers will still be visible in the Document window and in the movie (.swf), but the key frame rows will not show up along the Timeline. Properties: Invokes the Layer Properties dialog box for the currently active layer. The Layer Properties dialog box can also be invoked directly by double-clicking the "page" icon or the colored square icon on any layer, and is always available in the application menu (Modify -> Timeline -> Layer Properties).

Result: The Software interface has been learned successfully. Ex. No:6

FRAME BY FRAME ANIMATION AIM

To create a Frame by Frame animation using Adobe Flash.

SOFTWARE USED Adobe Flash CS3. PROCEDURE: 1. A frame by frame animation is done by drawing on every key frame in a continuous motion. 2. Every concurrent frame should be the next motion of the previous frame. 3. After drawing on the first frame, right click and the next key frame is inserted by right clicking on the time line. 4. After drawing on the amount of frames required the whole thing can be played from the first frame to have look of an animation- a frame by frame animation.

RESULT: The frame by frame animation is done successfully.

Ex No 07

Key frames, In-betweens & Secondary action

A key frame in animation and filmmaking is a drawing which defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. They are called "frames" because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film. A sequence of key frames defines which movement the spectator will see, whereas the position of the key frames on the film, video or animation defines the timing of the movement. Because only two or three key frames over the span of a second do not create the illusion of movement, the remaining frames are filled with in-betweens.

Use of key frames In computer animation this workflow is basically the same. The animator creates the important frames of a sequence, and then the software fills in the gap. For example, in Flash, the animator can specify, in key frames, the starting and ending position of an object, such as a circle. Flash smoothly translates the object from the starting point to the ending point. This is called tweening. The animator can correct the result at any point in time, shifting key frames back and forth to improve the timing and dynamics of a movement, or change an 'in between' into an additional key frame to further refine the movement.

Key framing There is also an animation technique known as key framing. Contrary to tweening, every frame of a key framed computer animation is directly modified or manipulated by the creator, such that no tweening has actually occurred. This method is similar to the drawing of traditional animation, and is chosen by artists who wish to have complete control over the animation.

Secondary Action Secondary action is caused by the main action. It adds interest and believability to a character, but does not detract attention from the main action. Examples include a character’s swishing tail, hair blowing in the wind, and facial expressions. Secondary should never conflict with or be more interesting than the main action.

Result: The Use of key frames and frames has been learned and applied successfully.

Ex No 8

Tweening Aim :

To learn the use of motion and shape tweening.

Frames A Frame, is one of many single photographic images in a motion picture. The individual frames are separated by frame lines. Normally, 24 frames are needed for one second of film.

Key frame A mainframe in which there is a change from the previous frame is known as key frame. There are two types of tweening.

Motion Tween In this type of tween, motion is brought about. Two key frames are set, with a change in the position of an object and motion tweening is applied. The software generates the motion between the frames and an illusion of motion is achieved.

Shape Tween In this type of tween, a shape is changed from one state to another. Two frames are set, one with the initial state and the other with the final state (with a change in size, etc.). Selecting the frames, from the Properties bar, Shape Tween is applied. The software generates an illusion of a gradual change of the shape.

Result : Motion and Shape tweening have been learnt successfully.

Ex. 9

BACKGROUND, COMPOSITING & CAMERA MOVEMENT FOR ANIMATION

AIM To create background , compositing camera movement and for animation using Flash.

SOFTWARE USED Adobe Flash CS3. PROCEDURE: The term composition means 'putting together'. Composition basically is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. We work on character and background designs just like we do with the storyboard. That's usually the fun part for our clients as they get to see their project come to life. We create turnarounds of the designs, so your characters and props look the same, whether we look at them from the back view, their left side or even from a bird's eye view.

RESULT: Thus the background and compositing in animation is understood successfully.

Ex No: 10

Motion Guide Aim: To learn about Motion Guide in Flash

Frames A Frame, is one of the many single photographic images in a motion picture. The individual frames are separated by frame lines. Normally, 24 frames are needed for one second of film.

Keyframe A mainframe in which there is a change from the previous frame is known as keyframe.

Motion Guide 1.

For Motion Tween, we had to specify the start an end position of the object and we achieved an illusion of motion.

2.

Using Motion Guide, we can set a path according to which a motion for an object takes place.

3.

To do this, in a new flash file create an object.

4.

Add a motion Guide to it thro the Insert->Timeline->Motion Guide.

5.

Draw a path for your motion using the pencil, brush or any other tool.

6. Now add a key frame to the object a few frames apart and a frame for the motion guide at the

same point. 7. In the first key frame the object is set in such a way that it’s center is on the start of the path. 8. Next, go to the last key frame and place the object at the end of the path. 9.

Now add Motion Tween.

10. You can hit Ctrl+Enter to view the object move in the path you specified.

Result: The required exercise on Motion Guide is completed and learned successfully.

Ex No: 11 Converting objects into symbols Aim: To learn how to convert objects into symbols in Flash Flash Symbols One way to keep the file size of your Flash movie to a minimum is to convert the major and repeating elements of your website into Flash Symbols. Flash Symbols are reusable elements that are stored in the Flash Library. Each time you use (or reuse) a symbol, Flash creates an Instance of the original element. An Instance is a fancy way of saying that Flash references or "points to" the original element stored in the Library instead of creating a copy of it. By doing this, the original element is stored only once instead of another copy being created and stored each time you use it in your movie which helps greatly to keep your file size small. There are three types of symbols; graphic, button and movie clip. Any object (or group of objects) that can appear on the stage can be made into a symbol.

Procedure: 1. Select one or more objects on the stage. The selected objects may include paths, text objects, bitmaps, or even other symbols. 2. Choose Modify > Convert to Symbol. The Convert to Symbol dialog box appears. There are two issues you may want to take into account when you name a symbol: a. Convenience: Symbols listed in the library can be sorted by name or by type, but

it’s much more convenient to have them sorted by name and by type without needing to switch between the two sorting modes. For this reason, many Flash developers like to give each symbol a prefix such as b_for button symbols, g_ for graphic symbols, and m_ for movie clip symbols. b. Descriptiveness: The more precise your symbol names are, the easier it will be to find the one you want among dozens or hundreds of symbols. Ex: g_dog1, g_dog2, and g_dog3. 3. Enter a name for the symbol into the Name field. 4. Click the radio button for the type of symbol you want to create: a movie clip, button, or graphic. 5. Click one of the small squares in the diagram next to the word Registration. The square you click will determine the symbol’s registration point. 6. When you complete the dialog box click OK

Result: The required exercise on converting objects into symbols is completed and learned successfully.

Ex. No. 12 Embedding and editing a video Aim: To Embed a video into Flash

Equipments: Adobe Flash CS3, a suitable video file for importing Procedure Flash’s Import Video wizard walks you through the complexities of compressing and embedding a video. The wizard allows splitting the video clips before importing them so that after they’re in Flash, it’s easy to rearrange different sections of them. Embedding video in a Flash movie is convenient if the video is short — perhaps 10 seconds or less. If the video is longer, downloading the video while the Flash movie plays is probably a better approach. To do that, you need Flash Professional 8, as we describe in the section “Streaming a video,” later in this chapter. Before embedding video into Flash, first make sure that the frame rate of the video and the Flash movie match. After that, make video clips of the movie by following these steps: 1. Click a keyframe (or create one by clicking a frame and choosing Insert->Timeline ->Keyframe). 2. Choose File->Import->Import Video. The Video Import Wizard appears. 3. If you’re using Flash Basic 8, skip to Step 4. If you’re using Flash Professional 8, select the On The Computer radio button to import a video from the computer. 4. Click the Choose button. The Open File dialog box appears 5. Find and choose a movie file in the Open File dialog box and then click the Open button. Then in the Import Video dialog box, click the Next (Windows) or Continue (Mac) button. The Import Video dialog box now gives choices for deploying the video, including Embed Video in SWF and Play in Timeline. 6. Select the Embed Video in SWF and Play in Timeline radio button, and then click Next (Windows) or Continue (Mac). The Video Import Wizard now gives a choice of symbol type for the embedded video. You can also decide whether to import the audio track integrated with the video or as a separate track. Embedding the video as a movie clip symbol, and with the audio track integrated, are usually good choices. You have a choice of importing the entire video or editing it first. If the movie’s codec doesn’t support editing, the edit option is not available. (The codec is the software that encodes the movie’s images and sound into a computer file and then decodes it for playback. Many codecs exist, and they use different techniques with varying advantages and disadvantages.)

7. You probably want to select Movie Clip from the Symbol Type drop-down list, and probably want to select Integrated from the Audio Track drop-down list. Select the Edit the Video First radio button if you want to do that; otherwise, select the Embed the Entire Video radio button and skip to Step 20. 8. Click Next (Windows). The Split Video pane in the Video Import Wizard appears, as shown in the figure To view the video in the preview pane, click the Play button or drag the playhead (the triangle above the scrubber bar). Click the Stop button to stop playing the video. To zero in on a particular frame of video, you might want to move backward or forward a frame at a time by clicking the Backward or Forward button.

In the Video Import Wizard, you can split the video clip into sections while bringing them into Flash. 9. To change the beginning frame of a video clip, drag the leftmost triangle below the scrubber bar, or move the playhead to the desired frame and click the In button to set the new beginning frame. To change the ending frame of a video clip, drag the rightmost triangle below the scrubber bar, or move the playhead to the desired frame and click the Out button, to set the new ending frame. The beginning and ending frames are In and Out points, respectively. 10. To see the video with the new In and Out points, click the Preview Clip button. The video plays in the preview pane, starting at the new In point and ending at the new Out point. 11. When you’re happy with the In and Out points that you’ve set, click the + (Plus) button to create a video clip with the current In and Out points. The name of the clip appears in the scroll pane on the left side of the Video Import Wizard.

12. To rename the clip, click the name in the scroll pane and type a new name. The new name appears in the scroll pane. 13. Repeat Steps 9 through 12 to extract additional clips with new In and Out points from the same file. 14. To change the In and Out points in one of the new clips in the scroll pane, click the clip’s name in the scroll pane, move the In and Out points as we describe in Step 9, and then click the Update Clip button. 15. To delete a clip from the scroll pane, click the name of the clip in the scroll pane, and then click the – (minus) button at the top of the scroll pane. The selected clip disappears from the list. 16. Click Next (Windows) or Continue (Mac). The Encoding pane in the Video Import Wizard appears, as shown in the figure This pane lets you select an encoding profile and advanced settings.

In the Encoding pane of the Import Video dialog box, you can select how much compression to apply to the video clip. 17. Click the Flash Video encoding profile drop-down list and select a suitable profile. You can select profiles for users with modems or with the different speeds (150–700 Kbps) of local area networks, digital subscriber lines (DSLs), or cable modems.Higher-speed connections make it practical to use higher-quality video that requires less compression. 18. You may grab and drag the In point and Out point markers (the triangles below the scrubber bar, below the video image in the Encoding pane of the Video Import Wizard) to give the video clip displayed there a new starting and ending point, if you want. This is convenient because sometimes you want to import only part of a video clip. To facilitate this, grab and drag the playhead pointer (the triangle above the scrubber bar, below the video image in the Video Import Wizard window) to preview different locations in the video clip.

19. Click Next (Windows) or Continue (Mac). The Finish Video Import pane appears in the Video Import Wizard, summarizing the choices. 20. If you want to change any of the choices, click Go Back. Otherwise, click Finish. The Flash Video Encoding Progress window appears. When Flash finishes encoding the video, the window disappears, and the movie clip or clips (or embedded video symbol or symbols) containing the video appear in the library (which you can view by choosing Window➪ Library, if it isn’t visible). Now the video segments are inside movie clips (if you choose that in Step 7), and as with any other movie clips, you can drag them around on the Timeline, rearrange them, rotate them, motion tween them, paint on top of them in other layers, and tween their brightness and transparency — you can mangle them, destroy them, and bring them to life in all the usual Flash ways. This is pretty amazing. (See Chapter 9 for lots more animation ideas.)

Result: The required exercise in embedding video has been completed successfully.