5 Replies Latest reply: Oct 13, 2012 5:25 AM by Ned Murphy RSS

    Motion Tween grayed out

    Rayven Wolfe Community Member

      I'm doing a project for class and I'm not terribly savvy with Flash, so please bear with me as I try to give you the information I hope you'll need to help me out.  I am using Flash CS5.

       

      I am doing a kinetic typography project. I need letters to move along a path I drew with the pen tool.  I drew the path.  I have the letter.  I converted the letter to a symbol.  I created a guide layer and my pen tool path is on it.  I click on the layer with the letter and the letter is just off the stage.  I have 30 frames created and one initial keyframe in the first frame of the timeline.

       

      When I right-click on the letter, Create Motion Tween is grayed out.  When I right click on the layer containing the letter, the Create Motion Tween is grayed out.  When I add another keyframe to the end (frame 30 in this case) and try to right-click, it's still grayed out.  I've tried clicking on the guide, the letter, recreating the symbol... What am I missing?

        • 1. Re: Motion Tween grayed out
          Ned Murphy CommunityMVP

          Have you tried right clicking the frame where the symbol is, and is the symobl by itself in that frame?

          • 2. Re: Motion Tween grayed out
            Rayven Wolfe Community Member

            I have a layer named "P" and all it contains is my symbol-ized letter P.  Atop that, I have a guide layer named Guide:P.  In the layer with the symbol P, I have right clicked on the layer name area, frame 1 containing the initial keyframe, and in several areas along the timeline from 1 to 30.  When clicking on the timeline frames, I have the option for Classic Tween, but motion and shape are both gray.

            • 3. Re: Motion Tween grayed out
              Ned Murphy CommunityMVP

              You want to click on the frame that would start the tween.  If you have the option for a Classic Tween take it. 

               

              I have no experience with the new Motion Tween (and no driving desire to gain any either) so I cannot say if it doesn't apply to your situation such that its being grayed out is correct. 

               

              I am sure that a shape tween is not a valid offering since it can only be applied to raw graphics/shapes, so it being grayed out is correct.

              • 4. Re: Motion Tween grayed out
                Rayven Wolfe Community Member

                Yes, I did realize shape tweening shouldn't be showing up.  I just don't understand why motion tweening isn't.  And I've seen a lot of other folks who stick to classic tweening.  It just seemed to me that since I just want to move a letter along a path, a motion tween would be a perfect solution for such a thing.  I don't understand why there seems to be such vehement dislike for the "new" tweening because I have no basis by which to compare any of this.

                 

                I went ahead and used the classic tween and got it to mostly do what I wanted.  Now I have to hope the instructor doesn't take points off for not demonstrating motion tweens.

                 

                Thanks for your rapid reply.

                • 5. Re: Motion Tween grayed out
                  Ned Murphy CommunityMVP

                  You're welcome.  One problem with the new tweening (hearsay on my part) is that they are not intuitive to use.  With the classic tween it is a straightforward matter of start frame, end frame, and done, and it serves most purposes folks have for timeline-based tweening. 

                   

                  It is possible the approach you took is not the way to go when creating motion paths for the new tweens.  Here's a link to a video that demos using the new tween with a motion path.  It appears the path is not done the same way you attempted if you have the path on a separate layer...

                   

                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BIlFiy_DY

                   

                  So it is looking more like the grayed out options were correct.

                   

                  I would hope that if you showed your instructor the problem you were having you wouldn't get any disfavor shown for your solution, especially if you were taught to do what you were trying to do... and it might even teach your instructor something.