Comments on: Flash CS4 Motion Easing

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:39:52 +0000

Can you zoom out of the motion editor? Either I can’t see the see the ends of the spline handles, or when I scroll over, the window snaps and jumps past the end of the hand so I can’t manipulate it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:07:22 +0000

When I tried it, the motion graph didn’t arc; it stayed straight. Do you know what’s happening?

By: jferreira

jferreira — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:01:48 +0000

Nice. Helpfull.

By: David Stiller

David Stiller — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:12:07 +0000

Valdemar,

Thank you!

By: Valdemar

Valdemar — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:22:43 +0000

The new Motion Editor is not so intuitive as it seems.
You tutorial is very well explained.
Thank you

By: David Stiller

David Stiller — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:30:45 +0000

Mike,

To clarify, the old CS3 style easing — at least, what I think you mean by that — is still available in CS4. It’s just that you need a classic tween in order to use it. (In previous versions of Flash, even prior to CS3, classic tweens were called motion tweens, and the now old-style easing was the only option available, aside from the Custom Ease In / Ease Out dialog box introduced in Flash 8.)

With motion tweens in CS4 — that is, the new-style tweens that involve the Motion Editor panel — easing applies to the whole span of frames in a given tween, regardless of the number of property keyframes in that tween.

To illustrate, imagine that a new-style tween encompasses frames 1 to 100 of the main timeline. You introduce four property keyframes somewhere between frames 1 and 50, then apply easing to the tween as a whole. The effect of your easing will be distributed from frame 1 though 100, even though no property keyframes appear after frame 50. In CS4 (using the new style), it is not possible to apply one ease between the first two property keyframes, nothing between the second and third, and another ease between the third and fourth. In a sense, it’s all or nothing, unless you actually break the motion tween into two separately selectable spans of frames.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:10:57 +0000

Good video however like all video’s it does not show how it works with multiple keyframes. That part keeps a mystery to me. In the old cs3 style a easing is appliedper tween, it does not work like that in cs4.

By: David Stiller

David Stiller — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:47:27 +0000

Kirk,

Thanks for the insight! To me, this sounds a bit like presenting the ingredients for bread as chemical notation. Most people will be more comfortable calling them flour, salt, and water. But sure, for the calculus-minded, the Motion Editor panel provides a new way to modify acceleration curves. Glad you enjoyed the video!

By: Kirk M. Schafer

Kirk M. Schafer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:05:48 +0000

As a 25-year tech with engineering in my background, I can’t shake the distinct impression that easing simply describes a method to modify an acceleration curve. As with the math term “gradient” (direction of steepest slope, where the magnitude is rate of change) this may help others with engineering calculus to instantly identify the concepts–without requiring methodical jaunts through a lot of arbitrary videos.

As a direct comment on this video, good work; I had the concept as soon as I realized what the term meant. Thank you.

By: David Stiller

David Stiller — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:10:51 +0000

To Anthony and dineshkumar …

Thanks! (Anthony, that’s a decent point about the Y axis. Maybe next time!)

To Michael …

You just made my afternoon.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:46:36 +0000

I’ve watched a number of video tutorials on easing. Yours is the best. You explain it very clearly and go through it as a new person might applying an ease.

By: dineshkumar

dineshkumar — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:59:46 +0000

very help full

thank you