Animating in Flash is helpful in situations when the same object is half animated like the bottom half needs animation but the top half does not need that in these situations we use the masking functionality to animate the certain part. For example in a ghost animation, we want the bottom part to move but the upper part remains still so we will mask the bottom part and animate it separately.
Animating a ghost
Ghost animation is one of the most widely used animations, it is used in scary scenes and also in funny scenes with ghosts. It is easy to make a ghost so we will make a very simple ghost and animate it. We will use one of the simplest methods to animate the ghost so let’s start. Follow the below steps to animate a ghost.
Step 1: Open a new project in Adobe Flash.
Step 2: Import the background on the stage.
Step 3: Add a new layer and name it character.
Step 4: Make a ghost using pencil tool or you can also download the image from the internet.
Step 5: Convert the character to the symbol.
Step 6: Double click to enter the symbol and add two new layers and name them as eyes and mouth.
Step 7: Make eyes and mouth on the layers.
Step 8: At frame 120, insert frame at all layers.
Step 9: At mouth layer insert a keyframe at frame 50 and then insert a keyframe at frame 25 by pressing F6 and change the mouth shape a little to make it wider.
Step 10: Select middle frames and apply shape tween.
Step 11: Add two more layers and name them as Mask and Body bottom. On Mask layer make a design by modifying the rectangle. and on body bottom place the half body of the ghost by copying from the ghost image.
Step 12: Now on mask layer insert a keyframe at frame 120 and slide the design a little to the left.
Step 13: Select the middle frame and apply classic tween.
Step 14: Now right click on mask layer and choose the Mask Option.
Step 15: Double click to come out to the main screen and insert a keyframe at frame 30 and then at frame 15 by pressing F6 and move the ghost a little bit down on frame 15.
Step 16: Select the middle frames and apply classic tween.
Step 17: Press the run button to see the animation.
Congratulations your animation is ready now you can press Ctrl + Enter to see the output of the ghost animation.