Animate’s Camera tool allows you to pan, zoom and rotate around a Scene.
You can watch the finished example below and download the .fla file here:
Creating a scene
The principles covered in this tutorial can be applied to any Scene. Create one or download this example file of 3 instances of a character waving its hand and blinking.
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Adding a camera to the Scene
We’ll add a Camera to the Scene. You’ll notice that it creates a new layer on the Timeline.
- Make sure you are on the main Timeline
- Click on the Camera icon in the tools bar
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Creating the zoom/pan
We’ll start by defining how we want the Scene to be framed at the start of the animation:
- Select frame 1 on the camera layer
- Look at the Camera slider and make sure the Zoom tool is selected (the one to its left is the rotate tool)
- Use the slider to set the zoom level (right to zoom in / left to zoom out)
- If you want to keep zooming further than the slider let’s you, just release the mouse and repeat
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- You will also probably have to adjust the left/right position of the image. You can do so by simply clicking and dragging the scene while the Camera tool is activated
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You may want the camera to stay still for a few seconds at the beginning of the animation:
- Copy and paste frame 1 of the camera layer to frame 48 (alt + click & drag)
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Now let’s define how we want the Scene to be framed at the end of the animation.
- Select the camera layer’s last frame
- Add a Keyframe (F6)
- Use the slider to set the zoom level (right to zoom in / left to zoom out)
- Adjust the left right position of the camera by clicking and dragging on the Scene
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- Right-click on a frame between the last two Keyframes of the camera layer and select Create Classic Tween
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Previewing the Scene
If your animation is not previewing at the correct speed when pressing the play button, you may have to render it to preview it properly:
- Go to File > Export > Export Video
- Open and play the Quicktime file that was generated