Adobe Animate Beginners Course

Introduction

• Comprehensive 4.5-hour Adobe Animate tutorial
• Covers tools and basics of Adobe Animate

Lesson 1: Interface and Basic Tools

Interface Rundown

• Presets available (choose based on your objective)
  • Full HD (1920x1080 pixels), HD for lower resolution
• Zoom out with Ctrl + minus
• Workspace options: Basic, Classic, and customizable workspaces
• The properties window
  • Use it to see contextual properties for selected tools
  • Access via Windows > Properties

Basic Tools

• Brush Tool
  • Handy for hand-drawn animations
  • Size adjustable with bracket keys
  • Smoothing settings to manage line squiggles
  • Different shapes (round, square)
• Selection Tool
  • Drag to select, move, and deform objects
  • Document properties access
• Free Transform Tool
  • Shortcut: Q
  • Reshape, skew, and scale objects
  • Hold Shift to keep proportions
• Lasso Tool: Free drawing selection area
• Pen Tool
  • Create lines point by point or curves
  • Similar to Adobe Illustrator
• Fluid Brush: Advanced settings like taper, roundness
• Eraser Tool: Pressure sensitivity, selective erasing (fills or strokes)
• Shape Tools: Rectangle, Polygon, Oval tool
  • Different shapes and customization options
• Line Tool
• Text Tool: Basic text insertion
• Paint Bucket Tool: Fill presets, gap options
• Eyedropper Tool: Pick colors, usually switches to the paint bucket
• Hand Tool: Move around the canvas, Center canvas by double-clicking
• Zoom Tool: Ctrl plus/minus for zooming, Alt + click to zoom out

Lesson 2: Layers and Timeline

Layers

• Layers' importance in digital art
• Layers order (stacked), enabling/disabling them
• Locking layers to prevent changes
• Change opacity and layer visibility
• Folders to organize layers
• Guide layers (won't be exported)

Timeline

• Interface components (frames, layers)
• Creating and managing frames and keyframes
  • Inserting keyframes, blank keyframes, frames
• Timing and frame rate considerations (24 vs 30 fps)
• Onion Skin Tool
  • Shows previous/next frames
  • Customizable settings (outline, color, opacity)

Tweening

• Auto-animation between keyframes
• Classic tween to create smooth transitions
• Contextual settings in the properties panel

Practical Example

• Adding motion to symbols
• Differences between movie clips and graphics
  • Movie clips don’t show animation on the timeline, have more effects options
  • Graphics show on the timeline, less flexible
• Modify and manage symbols (change types and properties)
• Combining frame-by-frame and auto-animation techniques

Lesson 3: Symbols

Introduction to Symbols

• Repeat animations using symbols
• Create new symbols (F8)
  • Movie clip vs graphic vs button type
• Symbol timeline
  • Holds its own layers and frames
  • Modifying timeline of symbols

Symbol Applications

• Layer isolation (guide layers, snapping, visibility)
• Transforming and managing symbols on stage
  • Blending modes, effects in movie clips
• Real-time examples: Custom animations with symbols

Practical Example

• Complex animations using nested symbols and manual adjustments

Lesson 4: Principles of Animation

Timing and Spacing

• Movement depends on timing and spacing between drawings
• Fast movements = fewer frames, slow = more frames
• Easing in and easing out concepts
• Perspective in movement animations
• Motion blur and experimental animation to create realistic effects

Squash and Stretch

• Importance of mass and volume retention
• Applying squash and stretch to different objects (ball vs. face)
• Tools for exaggeration to achieve more appealing animations

Straight Ahead vs Pose to Pose

• Straight ahead for fluid, spontaneous animations
• Pose to pose for planned, complex sequences
• Combining both for optimal results

Arcs

• Importance of arc movements in natural animations
• Examples of arcs in different objects and body parts
• Avoiding robotic straight-line animations

Anticipation

• Action preparation (e.g., kicking a ball)
• Invisible anticipations for subtle actions

Follow-through/Overlapping Action

• Delayed actions for realism (e.g., hair, clothes)
• Practical exercises for follow-through animation

Secondary Action

• Complement primary actions for enhanced realism
• Avoid drawing away attention from primary actions
• Real-time animation demo

Exaggeration, Appeal, Solid Drawing

• Exaggeration for clarity and impact
• Appeal for visual interest
• Solid drawing for depth and believability

Staging

• Placement, angles, and presentation for clarity

Conclusion: Capstone for Principles of Animation

• Emphasis on combining principles for effective animations

Additional Adobe Animate Features

• Advanced tips and tricks
• Building a scene in Adobe Animate
• Creating rigged characters and animating with paper doll style

Course Wrap-up

• Encouragement to continue learning and exploring
• Link to advanced courses for further improvement