Tag Archives: Animate

Computer Graphic Design

Introduction to Adobe Animate CC – Spring 2026

Welcome to Adobe Animate CC! Where Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard vector graphics drawing program, a program called Adobe Flash was the industry standard in rich media production for much of the past decade. Flash allowed its users to produce everything from basic animations to interactive multimedia experiences, to applications such as games.

Adobe Animate works a lot like Flash, but adds a lot of features that are only possible in HTML5, the current web code standard. We are going to spend the next couple of weeks learning about Adobe Animate, exploring its relationship to Illustrator, and learning how both programs can help you to develop rich interactive multimedia experiences for the web.  

Objectives:

  • Identify the elements of the Animate interface, including the Stage, Timeline, Panels and Tool Panel.
  • Produce Rectangle, Rectangle Primitive, Oval, Oval Primitive and Polystar shapes, and discuss their properties.
  • Explain the difference between Object-Drawn shapes drawn with and Merge-drawn Shapes.
  • Explain the difference between Shape Primitives and standard Shapes.

Student Friendly Objectives:

  • I can  identify the elements of the Animate interface.
  • I can produce shapes using the Animate tools.
  • I can explain the difference between a shape drawn with Object Drawing enabled and disabled.
  • I can explain the difference between a Shape Primitive and a standard Shape.

Video Links:

Adobe Animate CC
How to Create and Publish an HTML5 Canvas Document 

Topics Discussed:

  • Start a new document in Animate CC using the Welcome screen.
  • HTML5
  • Canvas
  • Stage
  • Timeline
  • Panels
  • Tool Panel
  • Rectangle Tool
  • Rectangle Primitive Tool
  • Oval
  • Oval Primitive Tool
  • Polystar Tool
  • Object Drawing

Assignment:

  1. Produce a single HTML5 Canvas. Name it “Your Name – Animate Day 1″
  2. Edit the properties of the Stage to make a 30fps, 1280 x 720 pixel (HD) stage for animation. Change the color of the stage to any color you like (other than the default white).
  3. Use the Shape tools to draw examples of the following shapes:
    • Rectangle
    • Rectangle Primitive
    • Oval
    • Oval Primitive
    • Polystar Polygon
    • Polystar Star
    • Two overlapping Object drawn shapes (representing the properties of Objects)
    • Two overlapping Merge drawn shapes, where one shape takes a “bite” out of the other
  4. Upload the completed “Your Name – Animate Day 1.fla” file to the “Introduction to Adobe Animate CC” assignment post on the Google Classroom page by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Assigned: March 23rd, 2026
Due Date: March 25th, 2026

Computer Graphic Design

“YouToon” Animation Project – Final Animation – Spring 2025

Objective:

  • Produce a complete HTML5 animation that features the student’s original character.

Topics Discussed:

  • IK Armature
  • Bone Tool
  • Motion Tween
  • For a complete list of Topics Discussed, please see the previous weeks’ lessons.

Assignment:

  • First, Open a new Animate CC HTML5 canvas. Make the size HD, and set the framerate to 30fps.
  • Use File -> Import -> Import to Stage to import your character’s front and side views to separate layers. Your characters should be imported to a single layer, and should appear as a group of symbols (the symbols you created in Illustrator in the previous lesson).
  • Using the Adobe Animate CC techniques studied in class, design an HTML5 animation using bone tweens and embedded animation to have your character “walk” onto the stage, wave to the viewer, then leave the stage.
  • Your animation must be a minimum of 8 seconds long, without titles. (That’s at least 240 frames at 30fps!)
  • Your animation should have an original photograph as a background. You may not use any photographs downloaded from the internet. Alternately, you may draw your own background in Illustrator, Animate, or Photoshop.
  • Your animation should have an audio soundtrack. I will provide music clips to use, but you may import music that you have available as long as you use less than 8 seconds of music. You may create sounds using Garageband if you have experience with this software.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to a glitch in the way Adobe Animate exports audio, you must start your music at Frame 2 of your animation! This is a recently discovered glitch, and not part of Adobe Animate’s normal function, but an important step if you want your music to play in the final exported .mp4 movie!
  • You may only use audio, images and text that you have created yourself or that I have provided. This includes music, artwork, photographs and animations. Anything you did not create yourself may not be used (with the sole exception of the music clips I provide).
  • When your animation is complete, export it as a movie. Go to the File Menu –> Export –> Export Video/Media, leave all the Default settings and click the blue “Export” button to convert your animation to a finished .mp4 video. The exported video will have the same filename as your .fla file, with an .mp4 extension.
  • Turn the finished .fla Animation file and the exported .mp4 movie  to the Google Classroom “Final Animation” assignment post by end of day on Friday, May 16th.
  • All completed movies will be viewed at an in-class film presentation next week. Note: All seniors must take their final exam on the 16th.
  • You must have an 8-second movie to present on Friday, May 16th. Failure to do so will result in an “zero” on your final project grade.

Project Rubric:

The assignment will be graded based on the criteria listed on the rubric provided below. Use the rubric to achieve as many of the project requirements as possible to achieve the highest score!

Final Animation Project Rubric Spring 2025

Do your best, and good luck!

Assigned: May 12th, 2025
Due Date: May 16th, 2025