We will be undergoing scheduled maintenance on May 20th, 2013 at 02:00 GMT.
Adobe Director 11 Tutorials
Animation / Step-Recording Animation
Visitors to VTC.com will be able to view all introductory videos for each training course.
Free Trial Members will gain access to first three chapters for each training course.
Full Access Members have full access to VTC.com�s entire library of video tutorials.
Learn More
Subtitles of the Movie (Adobe Director 11 / Animation / Step-Recording Animation)
Let me now demonstrate one of my favorite animation techniques in Director, step recording. Step recording is the process of animating one frame at a time to create very precise frame-by-frame animations. The way this works is you record the position of a Sprite in its frame, step forward to the next frame, move the Sprite to its new position, record that position, step forward to the next frame, record again and so until you've completed all the frames in your frame-by-frame animation. This method is very useful for creating Sprites that follow irregular paths or for animations where you need very precise placement. I use this technique a lot when providing instructions or direction to a location using a map and I have a little indicator here. I'm going to move this indicator and record it each step along the way. So the way this works is that you place Sprites on the Stage where you want the animation to begin, right here at the beginning of my map. I'll select all the Sprites that I want to animate. Notice that this is selected here. And then in the Score, click the frame where you want the animation to begin, right there in frame one, that keyframe there. And then from the main menu, choose Control, Step Recording. Notice that the step recording indicator right there appears next to the channel numbers for the Sprites being recorded. In this case I'm only recording one Sprite, but I can record as many as I want. So I'll get additional channels there with the indicator. Notice that that indicator is the same as that icon right here in the Control Panel. So the way this works is you click on the Step Forward button here in the control panel. Notice that I get an extra keyframe that Director adds for me. Now, I move my Sprite a little bit along the road using the cursor keys; the up arrow key in this case and the right arrow key. Click on the Step Forward button again. I create another keyframe, move my Sprite further along the road and I continue to create additional keyframes. Each time I click on the Step Forward button and I continue to move my Sprite along the road, a couple pixels at a time and this gives me a very, very precise animation. Notice that I'm also getting my Sprite path here with my keyframes indicated there on my Stage. So you'll notice that I can also move my Sprite with my mouse cursor, speeding up the animation. So I can start the animation slowly and then where I get more detail I can slow it down and I can always go back and modify the position of my Sprite using the path tool that I demonstrated in a previous movie. This is a very nice way to get very specific, very precise pathing animations such as providing directions, animated directions in how to get somewhere. Now, notice that if I scrub my playback head, there is my animation indicating the directions to take. So let's continue now, clicking again on the last keyframe stepping forward. Notice my indicator light is still on indicating that I'm still recording and continue to step through my animation. Now, recording will stop a soon as you move the animation in any way other than stepping, such as using the rewind, play or back buttons here on the Control Panel. So let's rewind. Notice that now the recording indicator light is off. Let's play this back now. And there's my animation. A little bit fast, but remember I can always open up my effects channels here and change my tempo from 30 frames way down to perhaps eight or nine frames. Rewind and that's a nice, slow, still a little bit fast here where I sped up my demonstration, but you get the general idea that this creates a very nice animation along a precise path. Another good example where you'd use this technique would be perhaps moving an object through a maze. So there you have a demonstration of the step recording animation technique in Director 11. Let me now move on to the next movie and cover another of my favorite animation techniques in Director and that's real-time recording.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Adobe Director 11 |
| Author: | James Gonzalez |
| SKU: | 33901 |
| ISBN: | 1-934743-84-4 |
| Release Date: | 2008-07-31 |
| Duration: | 9.5 hrs / 107 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
VTC Sign up & Benefits
- Unlimited Access
- 81,350 Video Tutorials (14,200 free)
- Video Available as Flash or QuickTime
- Over 715 Courses
- $30 for One Month Access
- Multi-User Discounts Available
