Creating Motion in Flash with Bones Tool

Tom Green takes a layered Photoshop document and adds motion to it in Flash using the Bones tool. If you want to follow along, the Photoshop document used in this tutorial is available for download. Also, for an introductory tutorial on using the Armature in Flash, watch David Stiller’s tutorial

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Visitor Comments »

 

woohooo thank you very much :-)

 

Comment by sirx | January 18, 2009 @ 4:17 pm

 

[...] Tom Green – The Flash CS4 Bones Tool [...]

 

Pingback by Portraits with Zoom Lenses | The Flash CS4 Bones Tool | Contest Time | Layers Magazine | January 20, 2009 @ 10:23 am

 

The video hangs and doesn’t play for any of the tutorials.

 

Comment by Carroll Altman | January 20, 2009 @ 12:26 pm

 

What in the world is going on? I am in the middle of watching a video tutorial and a stupid ad for the magazine interrupts and now the tutorial is gone. Who’s foolish idea is this? Are you guys providing the tutorials or not??????

 

Comment by Carroll Altman | January 20, 2009 @ 12:47 pm

 

This may be more to do with your connection speed at the time you were watching it. Slow connection and the video reaches the end of the buffer, and it loops back to the beginning.

Hope that helps.

RC

 

Comment by RC | January 23, 2009 @ 1:33 pm

 

[...] Tom Green – The Flash CS4 Bones Tool [...]

 

Pingback by Portraits with Zoom Lenses | The Flash CS4 Bones Tool | Contest Time | Photographer Mentors | January 25, 2009 @ 11:41 pm

 

Amazing! Absolutely amazing! I will be playing with this!!!!!

 

Comment by James George | February 3, 2009 @ 1:59 pm

 

is this only for cs4 or will it work with cs3 also

 

Comment by Josh | February 25, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

 

Thanks for your tutorial.I am learning Flash Animation.it will be very useful.

 

Comment by gopalakrishnan | March 9, 2009 @ 8:16 pm

 

Thank you for the tutorial, it was excellent! I have been considering upgrading to Flash CS4 (from CS3) for an upcoming project, and I think the Bones tool (and how easy this tutorial shows it is to use) has persuaded me to do just that.

BTW, Josh – the Bones tool is a new feature in Flash CS4, so the instructions in this tutorial will not work in CS3.

 

Comment by bide666 | March 24, 2009 @ 11:15 pm

 

I just bought CS4 Design Premium and this is the first thing I tried out and it is really easy, fun, and cool looking. I can see a lot of possibilities with this feature.

 

Comment by Josh | March 27, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

 

Josh #2, unfortunately not. The bones tool is new in CS4 and Flash Player 10… sorry if that messes you up! 8)

 

Comment by Jamster | April 1, 2009 @ 8:38 pm

 

hmm i dont get this, do u have to convert each of the ps layer into a symbol ?

 

Comment by kubbur | May 6, 2009 @ 2:27 am

 

I am so sorry for not replying, kubbr. The answer is yes, each layer to be aniumated must be a Flash movieclip.

 

Comment by Tom Green | June 8, 2009 @ 9:24 pm

 

Great tool!!!

 

Comment by Jay | June 14, 2009 @ 1:13 pm

 

How you convert it to a movie clip???

 

Comment by TyBy | July 1, 2009 @ 10:20 am

 

TyBy: Select the object on the stage. Right Click and select create symbol from the pop down menu. Alternatively simply select the object on the stage and press F8 or select Modify>Create Symbol.

 

Comment by Tom Green | July 1, 2009 @ 12:23 pm

 

thanks.
But several things were unsaid and unclear. The bitmap images needed to each be made into symbols in order to use the bone tool. It would have been better to give more detailed instructions on that for beginners.

 

Comment by jb | July 27, 2009 @ 11:43 am

 

jb

I make that very clear when I open the Flash library and show the pieces imported in from Phoptoshop.

 

Comment by Tom Green | July 31, 2009 @ 2:16 pm

 

I was wondering if there was a video that shows how to break an image into layers in photoshop before moving over to flash in order to animate. I am new to the adobe setup so any help advice as to where to start and the basics I’m missing to complete this would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

Comment by chicadelsol | July 31, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

 

Chicadelsol:

Simply select the object using the Lasso Tool and cut and paste it into a new Pshop layer.There are a few other methods but this one is a good place to start.

 

Comment by Tom Green | August 12, 2009 @ 10:51 am

 

yes great tool and great tutorial thank you

 

Comment by TurnOFF | September 1, 2009 @ 10:10 pm

Leave us a comment

Comments RSS | TrackBack URI

Back to Top

 
 
Advertisement
Creative Suite Tutorials
  1. Photoshop Photoshop
  2. Illustrator Illustrator
  3. Indesign Indesign
  4. Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
  5. Fireworks Fireworks
  6. Premiere Premiere
  7. Flash Flash
  8. After Effects After Effects
  9. Lightroom Lightroom
  10. Acrobat Acrobat

Get the latest tips, tricks and news delivered straight to your inbox.

From our Partners
Subscribe to Layers Magazine
 
 
 
  • Back to the Layers Magazine Homepage
  • Creative Suite Tutorials
  • Layers Magazine
  • Reviews on top products
  • Layers Magazine Reader Forums
  • Subscribe to Layers Magazine