New Flash CS4 motion editor tutorial

October 14th 2008 Posted to 3D, Flash CS4, Tutorials, Video

I just finished uploading a new tutorial that shows you how to animated using the Flash CS4 motion editor instead of the timeline. This is a much more effective approach to use, particularly when 3D is involved. I also show how to save an animation as a preset as well as the secret to getting SWF previews to show in the preset panel. Check it out at http://www.gotoandlearn.com.

Lee

45 Comments

Comments

  1. Paul Mayne
    October 14th, 2008 | 11:00 pm

    The download for Flash CS4!!! I can’t find it…

  2. Frederik Heyninck
    October 15th, 2008 | 12:11 am

    Me neither, come on Lee. Where can we download flash cs4 :)

  3. Frederik Heyninck
    October 15th, 2008 | 12:28 am

    You can purchase Flash cs4 only in the online US store. No trail downloads.

  4. lee
    October 15th, 2008 | 12:32 am

    Yeah I’m looking into it right now. I’ll keep you updated.

  5. luke
    October 15th, 2008 | 1:50 am

    One question I did have and was wondering about is can I use the new tween engine in CS4 to create a lovely animation and then publish that to a flash 7 or 8 file? I know 3D isn’t supported so what’s the deal there? will it just warn me in the same fashion as trying to add a filter to a MC in a file set to publish in flash?

  6. oliver_l1
    October 15th, 2008 | 4:05 am

    Great tutorial as always but where is flash CS4 :-) ?

  7. A.
    October 15th, 2008 | 4:55 am

    hi,
    that’s cool, but can you point us to the DEBUG versions of fp10?? can’t find them anywhere..

  8. Abel Hernandez
    October 15th, 2008 | 5:22 am

    Thanks Lee, FLASH CS4 now in US Store !!!

  9. suBi
    October 15th, 2008 | 7:56 am

    awesome, can’t wait to playaround with CS4….

  10. Robert
    October 15th, 2008 | 8:40 am

    Thanks Lee for getting us quickly on Flash CS4!!

  11. richard summerhayes
    October 15th, 2008 | 9:44 am

    Thanks for the tutorial.

    Couple of questions,

    Do the 3D animations work in flash player 9 or must we publish to flash player 10?

    Any best practices in regards to animating with the new 3D tool in regards to performance; for example do vectors animated in 3D put more strain on the cpu than bitmaps?

    Very excited to see more tutorials from you, and would love to see some on the new CS4 integration between AE and flash, specifically the new XFL output format!

    thanks
    Richard

  12. lee
    October 15th, 2008 | 10:16 am

    @luke Yes you can use the new timeline features and publish to Flash 7 and 8.

    @richard The new 3D features are only available when targeting Flash Player 10.

  13. russdogg
    October 15th, 2008 | 10:41 am

    Very cool tutorial! Haven’t been able to find the trial version online yet though. Is it true there won’t be one?

  14. Justin_P
    October 15th, 2008 | 10:45 am

    Nice tutorial! I was wondering how to get the preview for a custom animation present.

  15. lee
    October 15th, 2008 | 11:01 am

    @russdog No that is not true. There definitely will be one.

  16. jeanphilippe
    October 15th, 2008 | 11:34 am

    Really nice tips Lee :)

  17. personman
    October 15th, 2008 | 4:44 pm

    Include nested 3-D movieclips in one of your future ones. See if you have any tips for the depth-sorting problem.

  18. russdogg
    October 15th, 2008 | 6:20 pm

    Awesome Lee, thanks for the heads up!

  19. Jesse
    October 15th, 2008 | 11:04 pm

    Still no update on the trial download. Anyone? Thanks.

  20. chris
    October 15th, 2008 | 11:05 pm

    CS4 is great! You can buy it (not hack it) on the Adobe site legally :) It’s so worth it! Honestly, I’m not quite sure why you guys disrespect Lee – it’s not cool.

    Buy it, embrace it. It rocks!

  21. Alex
    October 16th, 2008 | 9:46 am

    Really nice tutorial Lee =) Thanks for taking time to explain! :D

  22. fincher64
    October 16th, 2008 | 11:14 am

    Hi Lee! Nice tutorial. Is there any way to apply these presets to AS3 generated Tweens? Thanks.

  23. Justin_P
    October 16th, 2008 | 1:44 pm

    Lee,
    I liked the idea of adding the live preview to the custom preset so much that I created an extension to automate the process:
    http://ajarproductions.com/blog/2008/10/16/flash-extension-export-as-motion-preset-preview/

  24. nacho
    October 16th, 2008 | 6:07 pm

    Hi I’m an admirer of yours since my English is bad spain
    but I love the way you do seem easy to explain what I want you to do more tutorials on flash
    a greeting and thanks for teaching.

  25. Andrew
    October 17th, 2008 | 4:32 am

    I’d like to see some depth sorting problems solved too, as well as using IK systems with AS3 (such as applying random motion using Tweener etc).

  26. Mo
    October 17th, 2008 | 4:39 am

    Hey Lee,

    Would you be able to create a preset and apply it on an Object dynamically?

    Thanks,
    - Mo

  27. Scott Petrovic
    October 17th, 2008 | 10:30 am

    Thank you for this great walkthrough of the motion editor. I was a bit skeptical of the additions to the CS4 series, but after watching your videos on gotoandlearn and lynda.com, I am very impressed at what adobe has cranked out this release.

    I love your blog. I look at it every week. thank you so much!!

  28. Audra
    October 17th, 2008 | 4:29 pm

    Just heard of a new GPU accelerator from NVIDIA made especially for CS4 – the Quadro CX – that’s designed to deliver the best performance for the new GPU-optimized features of Adobe Creative Suite 4. Check out the info here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_cx_us.html

  29. Stu
    October 18th, 2008 | 8:44 am

    Hi Lee

    Thanks for another great tutorial. I can’t wait to get my hands on CS4 now!!

    Any idea when it’s going to be available in the UK?

    Many thanks again

  30. Flash Extension: Export as Motion Preset Preview | Ajar Productions
    October 18th, 2008 | 9:47 am

    [...] got the idea for this extension from Lee Brimelow’s excellent tutorial on the Motion Preset panel. Since I imagine that I’ll be creating a lot of my own motion [...]

  31. JMacolm
    October 18th, 2008 | 3:11 pm

    I’d appreciate another tutorial on the motion editor– particularly in regards to how easing is handled, as in more using more than one type of ease. I’m a veteran flash user and this new motion editor has me confused in some aspects.

  32. Christian
    October 19th, 2008 | 4:28 pm

    I imagine that AS3 will be a little different in CS4. There will be a X,Y,Z- Rotation parameter for the Tween Clases. It would be nice to see some tutorials on these new features, Lee.

    Anyway, great work you do constantly.

  33. lee
    October 27th, 2008 | 3:48 pm

    I bought a license from my school’s online store, but didn’t get a download. I should’ve bought a CD, I suppose. Anyone know an approximate release date for the download versions?

  34. text-to-tv-screen
    November 16th, 2008 | 11:28 am

    I love CS4 3d!! Thanks for this tutorial I was looking for something just like this to get me started for my company website.

  35. dr.nour
    November 25th, 2008 | 7:13 am

    just wanna say thanx alot Lee …

    by the way Audra:
    what about the 1999.99 SD ?!!!!!! it’s woooooow

  36. Botman
    January 8th, 2009 | 10:14 am

    I’m loving the Flash CS4 Professional. It is a hot program. And to think I got it free. Right online. Full version. Love to see more tutorial’s on it though as I am a novice with it.

  37. HT
    February 10th, 2009 | 9:13 pm

    Can someone help me on this issue? On my “motion preset” (i mean when i have that thing opened), i don’t see any ‘default preset’ or anything .. it’s just a blank grey area with nothing. What do i need to do to get the ‘default preset’ there?

  38. The Missing Flash Panel: EaseCaddy | Ajar Productions
    February 26th, 2009 | 6:13 am

    [...] should clarify somewhat. The Motion Presets panel that comes with CS4 is a great way to store and quickly apply entire animations that include [...]

  39. Anand
    March 15th, 2009 | 6:33 pm

    Hi

    Do you know of any free FLASH CS4 Professional website for Tutorial on ho wto use Flash.

    WIll appreciate a lot for any guiadance.

    Thank you

    Anand

  40. sandy
    April 1st, 2009 | 12:58 pm

    Using Flash CS4, without a good book. Question: how do I name a movie instance in the property panel? The “teacher” at school is giving CS3 examples only which shows an area for naming movie clips. Thanks

  41. vusi
    June 25th, 2009 | 2:46 am

    using cs4 is the futer people im using it at the moment

  42. pa3k_j0shua
    July 2nd, 2009 | 6:34 am

    Hi, I have the same problem as “HT”.
    When I open the Motion Presets, i dont see anything..it’s a blank space, saying that preview not available.

    i tried to draw anything but nothing appeared.

    BTW, my layout is ANIMATOR.

    Pls help me find those motion presets..tnx!

  43. druse
    October 7th, 2009 | 7:11 am

    Hi

    When I open my Motion Editor in CS4, I do not get the Rotation X & Y, just the rotation Z.

    What’s up with that?

    Cheers
    D.

  44. Sachin Ghare
    December 21st, 2009 | 5:49 am

    Nice video, cool i like that. You can visit my blog i have mentioned it using video file. http://www.sachinghare.com/blog

    THX.

  45. Mark
    February 3rd, 2010 | 4:59 pm

    I have the same issue as Druse, I don’t have a rotation X & Y, only rotation Z.

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