In the first part of this tutorial, we built a flower blossom. In this part of the tutorial, you'll finish building the flower by adding stems and leaves. Then you'll use multiple Instances of your flower to "grow" a flower garden. You can view the finished animation at the end of this tutorial.
Step 1: Edit the Timeline
In this first step, we're going to complete the flower by "growing" a stem and leaves. The stem and leaves will be added to the Timeline of the "flower build" Symbol. If you don't already have an Instance of "flower build" on the Stage, switch to the Selection tool (V) and drag the "flower build" Symbol from the Library onto the Stage. Double-click on the Instance of the flower build to edit its Timeline. Click the Insert Layer icon to create a new layer, double-click directly on the layer's name, and rename the layer "stem." Drag the layer to the bottom of the stacking order.
Step 2: Add the Stem
You need to be able to see the completed blossom to know where to place the flower's stem. Move the Playback head to the last frame in the Timeline. Place an Instance of the green leaf near the bottom of the Stage. Use the Free Transform tool (Q) to rotate the leaf so it's perpendicular to the blossom.
Step 3: Grow the Stem
Move the Playback head to frame 10 and insert a keyframe (F6) in the stem layer. Move the Playback head back to the last frame of the Timeline. Using the Free Transform tool, press the Option (PC: Alt) key and click-and-drag the top center handle up until the top of the leaf is behind the blossom. Click-and-drag the right side handle toward the center to make the stem narrower.
Now, move the Playback head to frame 1. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the stem layer's name and choose Hide Others from the menu. Select the stem and shrink its height and width. It should look like a puddle on the ground. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on frame 1 of the stem layer and choose Create Motion Tween from the menu. To see the effect, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the stem layer's name and choose Show All from the menu. Click on the Stage and press the Return key (PC: Enter) to view the animation.
Step 4: Add Leaves
Insert a new layer above the stem layer, and rename the layer "green leaf." Place an Instance of the "green leaf" on the Stage. With the leaf still selected, press Command-D (PC: Control-D) twice to duplicate the Instance. You should now have three leaves on the Stage. Select the top and middle leaf then Control-click (PC: Right-click) and choose Distribute to Layers.
Step 5 : Grow Leaves
Switch to the Selection tool (V). Move the Playback head to the last frame. Use the Free Transform tool to arrange and scale the leaves on the flower stem. Shift-click on the last frame in each of the green leaf layers to select them and press F6 to insert a keyframe in each of the three green leaf layers. Move the Playback head to frame 20. Insert a keyframe (F6) in the three green leaf layers. Move the Playback head to frame 19. Delete the three leaves from the Stage.
Step 6 : Grow Leaves Continued
Move the Playback head to frame 20. Switch to the Free Transform tool and scale each leaf down while holding the Option key (PC: Alt key). Control-click (PC: Right-click) on frame 20 of each green leaf layer and select Create Motion Tween from the menu.
Insert a new layer. Rename it "actions." Move the Playback head to frame 25, and insert a keyframe. Open the Actions panel (Option-F9 [PC: F9]). Expand Global Functions then Timeline Control on the left. Double-click stop to add the stop action. Close the Editor. Choose Control>Test Movie to see the effect. Close the Flash Player.
Step 7 : Add the Ground
Now that we have a flower, it's time to build our garden. Click the Scene 1 button to return to the main Timeline. First we'll add the ground. Insert a new layer and drag it below the "flower" layer. Rename the layer "ground." Place an Instance of the green leaf on the Stage in the ground layer. Switch to the Free Transform tool and rotate and resize the leaf until it covers the lower quarter of the Stage. Don't worry if some it is off of the Stage. This area won't show in the Published movie.
Step 8 : Add Hills and Sky
Insert two more Layers and drag them below the ground layer. Name the bottom layer "back hill" and the other layer "middle hill." Place an Instance of the green leaf on each layer. Use the Free Transform tool to resize and position them to create the appearance of hills.
Note: If your Stage color is still white, now is a good time to change it to blue in the Properties panel since we're using the Stage as the sky.
Step 9 : Adjust Brightness
To add interest, let's make the middle hill a little darker. Switch to the Selection tool, and select the middle hill. In the Properties panel select Brightness from the Color pop-up menu. Enter -20% for the value and press Return (PC: Enter).
Step 10 : Expand the Timeline
Expand the main Timeline to frame 30 by selecting frame 30 in all of the layers and pressing F5. Move the Playback head to frame 1. Select the Instance of flower build on the Stage. Use the Free Transform tool to scale the flower either up or downa depending on your preference.
Tip: You may want to change the Instance's behavior in the Properties panel to Graphic so you can see the completed flower without having to test the movie. Select the Instance and choose Graphic for the behavior and Play Once. Drag the Playback head to frame 30. When you're finished scaling the flower build Instance, change its behavior back to Movie Clip in the Properties panel.
Step 11 : Controlling the Timeline
To keep your movie from looping, you'll need to add a stop action in frame 30. Insert a new layer above the flower layer. Rename the layer "actions." Click in frame 30 of the actions layer and add a keyframe by pressing F6. Choose Window>Actions to open the Actions editor. Click the Global Functions category then click Timeline Control. Double-click the word "stop" to add a stop action.
Step 12 : Adding Flowers
With the flower selected, press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to duplicate the flower. Create as many duplicates as you want. Distribute the duplicates to their own layers by selecting all of them, then Control-clicking (PC: Right-clicking) and choosing Distribute to Layers from the menu. Each Instance will be in its own layer. In the Timeline, move the beginning keyframe of each of the flower build layers to a different frame. In other words, stagger the beginning keyframes so that the flowers do not grow all the same time. Adjust the size and position of each flower on the Stage. Test your movie.
You now have a flower garden that requires no watering or weeding! Plus, the total file size is less than 5K.
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