basic flash animation tutorial

[JorNcar]

for a college class I have to do a set of instructions. I decided to make it on how to make a basic flash animation. It is as follows. If anyone wants to use it go for it. I was hoping someone would read through it and give some suggestions, maybe something that is not clear or that I left out. I used flash 8 but I don't think there are major difference that would make the instructions not work. This is also just a draft

1) Open Adobe Flash and create a new flash document. Decide on the size of your animation. The area where your animation will take place is called the stage. The normal settings should be at 550 x 400 pixels screen and at 12 frames per second. You can check this by clicking the properties panel on the bottom and click the "size" button. Here you can change all the basic properties of the movie. Decide on the specific animation you'd like to make before you begin. In the case of this set of instruction it is a stick figure walking in a city.
2) Draw or import your image. Using a paint or pencil tool in the tool bar, draw out the image you want. In the outside of the stage draw a stick figure in a walking position.
3) On the timeline go to frame 24 and press f7 (insert>timeline>key frame). F7 creates a new frame and deletes any image in that layer on that specific frame. Hot keys such as f7 make animating much quicker and easier than using the drop down menus.
4) On frame 24 at the opposite side of the stage draw a stick figure walking. The two pictures drawn on frame 1 and 24 make up the first and last pieces of the animation. On frame 1 it is the start of a walk cycle. On frame 24 it is the end of the second walk cycle. The technique of drawing every frame by hand is called frame by frame animation. This technique is useful when drawing dynamic movement such as arms swaying back and forth and legs moving.
5) Click on frame 12 and press f7. Draw a stick figure at the end of a walking stride in the middle of the stage. This drawing is the end of the first walk cycle.
6) Click on frame 6 and press f7. Draw a stick figure in the middle of walking stride. Do the same on frame 18.
7) Now on frame 3 and 15, use f7 and draw a stick figure one fourth the way through a stride. On frame 9 and 21, press f7 and draw a stick figure three fourths the way through a stride.
8) Fill in the rest of the frames (2,4,5,7,8,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,20,22,23 ) with f7 and draw a stick figure walking by connecting the frames you have already drawn. This may seem complicated but Adobe Flash has special features to make this easier. Underneath the timeline there is a button of two overlapping boxes. This is called onion skin. Onion skin gives one the ability to seen transparent versions on the preceding and future frames. Onion skins make it clear what position or part of the walk cycle the stick figure belongs in on each respective frame.
9) On the bottom of the timeline click the add layer tool or insert>timeline> add layer . Make sure the new layer (layer 2) is underneath layer one of the time line. For each new color you draw with, create a new layer by going to Insert, Timeline, and New Layer. This gives you the ability to edit each layer individually instead of having to redraw your entire image once you've made a change or erased too much. There is also the option of importing an image, which you can do by going to File>Import>Image into library/stage.
10) Click the rectangle tool or press R, and draw a grey box at the feet of the stick figure. Make the box go all the way across stage. This box is a side walk the stick figure is walking on.
11) Add another layer and make sure it is below both layer 1 and 2. Draw a darker gray box that goes from the side walk up, and covers that entire portion of the white box. This is a background building. The amount of detail on the building is left up to the animator. Some animators use a profound amount of detail and will draw every brick. Beginner animators may want to practice adding some detail so adding a door and windows could be beneficial for practicing.
12) Add another layer which should be behind all the other layers. This layer will contain a black road and can be drawn with the rectangle tool. Now the animation has a side walk, building, road, and a stick figure walking across the screen.
13) The last part of the animation will be a car driving across the road. Draw or import an image of a car the same way as listed above. Turn this car into a symbol. In order to create this aspect of the animation you need to create a symbol. To make the car a symbol select the entire car and right click. Select "Convert to Symbol." Name the symbol car and make sure it is a move clip. A symbol creates a subsection under your main "Scene." In order to access the parts of this, double click on the blue outlined image.
14) On frame 6 put the car outside of the stage on the right side. Position the car as if it is on the road. On frame 11 move the car horizontally to the other side of the stage. Click in between frames and right click. Select "Create Motion Tween".
15) Highlight the frames 6 through 11 and right click. Select "Copy Frames". Right click on frame 17. Select "Paste Frames." This copy and pastes the motion tween created in step 14, but extends the amount of frames passed 24. Highlight the extra frames and right click. Select "Remove Frames."
16) Press control + enter or Control> Test Movie. This exports the movie so only the stage is shown. It plays all 24 frames of the animation and repeats. What the animation should look like is a stick figure walking across a sidewalk in a city over and over again. At the same time a car passes by much faster than the stick figure.

[Atlas]

TLDR

[maficmelody]

I think you should have made an instructable for an easier thing to animate. Your description for creating a walk cycle was.. confusing.

[MickHarrison]

you may want to include pictures to illustrate what you are illustrating.
This would appear to be trying to explain something via a method that
isn't what you are trying to show... like explaining flight using rocks