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.
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
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
- 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
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)
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
- Right-click on a frame between the last two Keyframes of the camera layer and select Create Classic Tween
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
