How to Select Shapes Within a Shape Tween of a MOVIECLIP symbol

[murkalurk2099]

In between the starting frame and the end frame of a MOVIECLIP shape tween, I want to select the intermediate shapes in the timeline so I can copy them. The frame picker only works for graphic symbols. No selection tool works...

[n. tilcheff · Accepted solution]

Hi mate,

What do the Movie Clip or the Frame Picker have to do with the whole thing?

If I understand correctly you have two keyframes and a shape tween between those two.

You want to copy one of the intermediate states of the shape to some other place.

Convert that one frame to a keyframe and cut the frame; paste it somewhere else.

If this is not what you want, please, explain further.

[murkalurk2099]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/n.+tilcheff  wrote

What do the Movie Clip or the Frame Picker have to do with the whole thing?

I don't know, LOL, I would have thought a function called Frame Picker would help me out in this situation, but it is for graphic symbols only I guess?

https://forums.adobe.com/people/n.+tilcheff  wrote

Convert that one frame to a keyframe and cut the frame; paste it somewhere else.

Bingo, that's exactly what I was after. Cheers!

[n. tilcheff]

Yeah, the terminology can be a bit confusing.

I'll try to explain what's the purpose of Frame Picker.

In character animation, and in any projects that do not require interactivity, i.e. you don't need to control nested timelines with code, we use Graphic Symbols.

(The general rule should be: You should only use Graphic Symbols unless you have a reason that you can name to use Movie Clips.)

If used as a container for static images - for example different mouth positions or eyes or eyebrows - you can have a graphic symbol stopped displaying one frame: the open eyes; then when you would like to have a blink you create a keyframe and refer to the frame that contains the closed eyes inside the graphic container.

Frame Picker facilitates this visually by choosing the frame that you want displayed in the current key.

You can also just type a number in the Looping Properties section of Properties panel.

Hope this makes sense!

[murkalurk2099]

Ahhh, I see. I haven't gotten around to creating complex animations that use containers yet, though I have watched some Drawing with Jazza videos on YouTube where he shows how some of his containers work. It looks like fun!

[n. tilcheff]

It is fun!

I've put together a bunch of character rigs that show how nesting is done for character animation, which you can download to play with and have also documented the process in this article if that is of interest.

Good luck!

[murkalurk2099]

Looking at your site makes me consider why should have stuck with 2D Animation as a field of study. It was one of my favorite courses back in high school and I was a bit of a wizard with Autodesk Animator (for Windows 95), though that program was already outdated by 5 years at that point. However, you could still do quite a lot with it; by adding layer upon layer upon layer you could create some deceptive illusions of complexity and I became extremely good at it. Then in my senior year, the computers were all updated and the software was switched up to 3ds Max which I never had enough time to grasp. But now I see your site and think of all the awesome stuff a person can do with less hassle!

Never had a chance to consider digital animation for a post-secondary field of study; I was pressured into trying to get a BFA, which was a big waste of time and money. I should really have gone and done a 2 year program for content-creation at a digital arts college instead. I could have gotten into adobe, Flash, web-design, and 3D modeling/animation 15 years ago, and I always had way more interest in this stuff.

I bookmarked all your pages for when I am finished with my current project, I"m already stoking the creative fires!

[n. tilcheff]

Oh, those memories, mate!

I remember when Autodesk Animator Studio came out! Was working at a multimedia company at the time and we primarily used Macromedia Director to create CD-ROM titles at the dawn of this whole era.

I've even played with Animator Pro for DOS! Was the fastest thing ever on the 486 machines

Been working mostly with Flash for over 20 years and in the last 10 have been involved in improving the UX and extending its capabilities as a character animation environment. It has a lot of potential and is usually more fun to use than many of the other competing packages.

Lately the team that develops Animate have also been very keen to bring it back on track and make it more relevant to animators. There should be some positive developments in the next couple of years.

I'm not a very prolific author and only write stuff that does not repeat other sources. Our goal with the EDAP Tools project is to improve animation by providing better tools and a theoretical framework that can help individual animators and studios achieve organic-looking results with digital cutouts.

Animation can be much fun to make. It's never too late to enjoy it in small doses!

NT

[murkalurk2099]

Awesome, I really hope things are looking up for Animate. The upheaval that happened when Flash was discontinued was a shame, but I guess it was the inevitable march of progress...

I didn't even know what Animate was until a couple of months ago when I sprang for the full Adobe Suite subscription. I was mostly using InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Audition just for hobby-type stuff, but now that I see what Animate is all about I am thinking it may become the most used app of them all! I really wish I had gotten into it back in high school (~1999-2000). I think my school only had courses for Photoshop and Autodesk Animator at that time, but you are right, it's never too late!

Cheers!