Objective:
I can prepare my Illustrator artwork to make a Bone Tween animation in Animate CC.
Topics Discussed:
- IK Armature
- Bone Tool
- For a complete list of Topics Discussed, please see the previous weeks’ lessons.
Assignment:
- By now, you should have your completed Illustrator Web document with a front view of your original character, composed of at least six parts: a Head, a Body, a Left Arm, a Right Arm, a Left Leg and a Right Leg.
- In the Front View document, use the black selection arrow to select the different parts of your character, and use the fn+F8 shortcut to convert each part to a Symbol. Every part of your character that is going to move should be made a separate symbol! Name each of the symbols appropriately as you create them. When you are finished, at a minimum you should have symbols for your character’s Head, Body, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg and Left Leg.
- Save this file as “Your Name – Your Character’s Name.ai”. We will use this file to import into Animate CC.
- Open a new Animate HTML5 canvas. Make the size HD, and set the framerate to 30fps. The stage color can be any color of your choice.
- Use the “File -> Import -> Import to Stage” menu command to locate and import your “Your Name – Your Character’s Name.ai” file. Walk through the prompts to import your body parts into Animate. Make sure to select all the parts, and select “Single Animate Layer” from the “Convert Layers to:” dropdown menu.
- Use what we learned yesterday, and the in-class demonstration today to add bones to your shapes. (Remember: “Start from the heart” and work your way out to the arms and legs.)
- Make your character wave! Add up to 120 frames to your animation, and use the Motion Tween-style Armature layer to animate your character’s poses to make the character wave it’s arm as if it’s saying “Hello!”.
- We will use this technique this week and next week to produce a simple animation. Save your file as “Your Name – First Animation.fla” and submit a copy to today’s Google Classroom assignment post by end of day on Friday.
Assigned: May 6th, 2026
Due Date: May 8th, 2026