Help: Tutorial 1

This tutorial covers the basics of creating a simple animation with lines.

Right click on the link below and select "Save As" to save the TweenMaker Scene file used to create this animation.
tutorial01.tms


Tutorial 1: The Bouncing Ball

SAVE OFTEN. You never know what might happen and it would be a pity to loose all your hard work.

  1. Select the pen tool and draw a circle on the main drawing area. If you make a mistake, just press CTRL-Z to undo you action. You may also use the edit tool to adjust your line.

  2. Click on frame number 11 at the top of the time line. When you do, the time line marker will jump to where you clicked. You may notice that when you click on the time line marker and then drag, a green or red bar moves with your mouse cursor while the time line marker remains stationary. This green or red marker is used to highlight key frames that are to be shown in the drawing area in an “onion skinned” or transparent fashion. This is very useful in determining where your next drawing should go.

  3. As you move the cursor to frame number 11, you should see a line prompt appear that is animated in the direction of the previous pencil stroke made in frame 1. If a line prompt does not appear, click on the record button in the line recorder, or select “Record” from the ”Line Recorder” menu.

  4. On frame 5, draw a squashed circle below and slightly to the right of where the previous circle was drawn. Pay attention to the direction of the animation of the line in the line prompt. The line you use to draw the squashed circle should be in the same direction. Changing the direction of your line will cause the line to flip on the inbetween frames.

  5. Move the time line marker to frame 21 by clicking on that frame at the top of the time line.

  6. Now follow the line prompt and draw another circle above and to the right of the previous circle.

  7. That's it, your done! Hit ENTER or click the play button in the player controls window to watch your stunning animation. Hit them again to stop it. Not very impressive is it. Not to worry. In later tutorials we'll learn how to add color, timing, and better motion to this bouncing ball.

    8. Click here to proceed to the next tutorial