One of the great things about Flash is that it
allows you to create a graphic once and use it over and over again.
This allows your Flash animation to download quicker. And as we
all know, faster download is the object of what web designers. To
speed up download times you will need to convert graphics to Symbols
and to describe their actions with Instances.
These tutorials will get you started
in understanding the importance of Symbols and Instances.
Let's define some terms:
Symbol
An
object that can be copied and reused. Once it is created it becomes
part of your project file's Library.
Instance
A copy of the
original symbol. The size, color, shape and position can be altered
without affecting the original symbol
Graphic Symbol
Consists of artwork
that can be either static or animated.
Main Timeline
This is the Timeline
you've been working with so far, it is the default Timeline.
Graphic Symbol
Timeline
Each Graphic
Symbol has it's own Timeline.
Scene's Timeline
Projects can
have multiple Scenes and each Scene has it's own Timeline.
Step
1 - Create
a Shape on the Stage.
You know I don't
really care if it's a frog or not... I have the frog so... I show
you frogs!
Step
2 - Open the Libary
panel (Window > Libary).
Select your frog and drag it into the lower half of the Libary panel.
This opens the Symbols Properties
dialog box.
Name your Symbol, click
that it's a Graphic, and pick a registration point.
What's a registration
point? That's the point that you would use as the 'center' if you
want to rotate the Symbol.
Click OK
Congratulations, you've
just created your first Symbol.