How do you improve an animation in flash mx

hi
im not sure i understand what you need to do.
you already have the movie and you want to improve it using flash?
or, you have the movie already built in flash, and you need to spice it up?
do you have a sample or something?

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always outnumbered, never outgunned

The fact is that my animations are too dull using mask and frame to frame and I would love to learn some other animations to spice it up....
If I woulf know how to post the html file I would but Im too new to this flash stuff, Im learning cause I have a good teacher but he goes with the class, too slow for me, but you can mail me and I would gladly send you the swf. file
Later.

Caya

Well always have Paris! Humphrey Bogart

Hey Caya, you can always have a look around www.flashkit.com -- they have a huge selection of animations, effects, tutorials etc for Flash. I'm sure you can find something there to spice up your movie, and learn something at the same time.

P.S. It should be "We'll always have Paris!" with an apostrophe in We'll :-)

Thank you If I have a chance I will mail the final movie and I will seek that information....
Happy World Cup to all!!

Caya

We´ll always have Paris! Humphrey Bogart

the quickest way to spice up an animation in flash is by using "easing": ease-in and ease-out.
just like in nature, things should not move around with constant speed.
a rule of thumb says that whatever enters the scene, should slow down.
and vice-versa, whatever leaves the scene, should accelerate.
the best example is a bouncing ball.

you can find easing by selecting any frame that contains a tween.
in the properties panel you have "ease" just next to the frame label.
0 means constant motion, 100 means that the initial speed is greater than the final one. -100 the opposite. of course, easing should apply to the initial tween and it will be active until the next tween, where things could change.

also, please mind that gradients may contain a degree of transparency.
that is, you could make a gradient from 100% black to 0%black.
if you have a solid color bckgr, you could move objects underneath that gradient and they will appear as coming or going out in shade. this is pretty useful if you apply the gradient on the border of the scene.

also, use masks. masks in flash do not function the same way as in photoshop.
in flash, you cant have different degrees of transparency in a mask. it either shows whats underneath or not. but masks can be animated and thus make images appear in different ways.

also, keep in mind that, just like in nature, things are moving simoultaneously. have at least 3-4 things that move in your scene: use different speeds, different lenghts, trajectories and easing.

flashkit is a great resource, but its maybe too much to handle for the start.
try http://www.kirupa.com/developer/index.htm

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always outnumbered, never outgunned

Im going to improve so much with all this cues, thank you!

Later Caya!!!!

We´ll always have Paris! Humphrey Bogart