2-D Animation‎ > ‎

A More Complex Animation

Okay, let's try it again.

  1. Start up Swish Max.
  2. This time when you start it up, pick one of the movie templates. 
    • Click OKAY
    • For the purposes of the example, I'm using Large Rectangle.
  3. You'll end up with a large, white box in the lower middle of your screen. 
    • This is your "stage." It's where the performance happens.
  4. There is a vertical toolbar to the left of the stage area. 
    • Click on the Text Tool and draw a text box on the stage.
  5. If you click in the text box, you should be able to start typing. 
    • Type a simple phrase, such as "I know what we're going to do today. Where's Perry?"
  6. The time line is located at the top of the screen. 
    • Next to the timeline is a button labelled Add Effect.
  7. When you click this, pick the Appear into Position 
    • Then pick Typewriter.
  8. If you click the blue, triangular Play button at the top of the screen, your animation will play, over and over.
    • The square button beside it will stop your animation.
  9. You'll notice that on the timeline at the top, a red cursor scrolls by keeping time as the letters appear on the screen. 
    • The cursor scrolls by the individual boxes or frames, creating an animation similar to what you did with paper and a camera.
  10. What you might also notice, is that there are separate time lines for everything on the screen. 
    • There's one for the scene, one for the shape, and one for the effect.
  11. At the end of the effect. on the timeline, you'll notice a dot. This dot means that this frame is a Key Frame.
  12. Place your cursor in the effect timeline, just after the key frame. 
    • From the Add Effect menu pick Disappear from Position
    •  Then pick Bubble Burst.
  13. Notice that your timeline is extended with the new effect and there is a key frame added at the end of the new effect.
  14. Try playing the effect to see the text appear and disappear.
  15. Trade the effects I've suggested for other ones until you think you've got an animation you like.
  16. Use the text tools on the right to make your animation pretty, and then post it to the web.
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