Laser Writing in Flash

EDUC5464: ICT CURRICULUM

Cameron Harries 20929893

This tutorial will see you creating an animated GIF of a laser writing out your name. The purpose of the tutorial
is to largely solidify the basic operations of Adobe Flash/Animate as well attempting more challenging and longwinded animations.
Below is an image of what the final product might look like, although bear in mind it will be animated, not just a
still image.

1.

Begin by opening Adobe Flash (or Animate if you have updated software) and create a new HTML5
Canvas with dimensions of 550x400px, a frame rate of approximately 29fps and a black background.

2.

Next, select the Text tool (T) and change it

to the font you would like your name to
appear and the colour. Make sure the colour
is bright, so it stands out from the black.
Also make sure its an appropriate size for
the canvas.

3.

Using the Text tool, write out your name. To start off, make sure you choose either a name or initials
with a maximum of 3-4 letters, so as to take less time.

4.

Now using the Selection tool, highlight your name so that it has a single blue box around it.

5.

Next click ctrl+B twice. With the first one creating boxes around each letter and the second one
removing them entirely and filling your name with small red dots.

6.

Now Zoom-In to your image so that the word fills your entire canvas.

7. At the bottom of your page, go to the Timeline bar and press f6. This should create a new
Keyframe in the second frame of your timeline, as pictured above.

8. Now with the Eraser tool selected, erase a small section of your name AT THE END OF THE
NAME. For this to work, you need to erase in the opposite direction to how you would
normally write it out.
9. Once you have erased a section, click f6 again for a third Keyframe to appear. The continue
the process of erasing and pressing f6 repeatedly until the name has been completely
erased.

10. As pictured above, it took me 64 frames to completely erase my letter m. The more
frames it takes, the longer and smoother your animation will be.

11. Once completed, you should have a blank screen with over 100 frames (148 in the example
pictured.) If you play this animation back, you will see your name being slowly erased.
12. In order to view it being written, highlight every single frame in the Timeline, right click
and select Reverse frames. When you play this back from the start you should see you name
being written out properly.

13. Next, create a new layer above your first one, naming it Laser, and then select the Pen
tool. Change the colour and line width to suit the laser that you want, the settings I used
are pictured above. With these settings, select your first frame with part of your name in it
and draw a line from a far left side of your canvas ending at the point where your first
section of your name has appeared.

14. With a similar method to before, press f6 and a new section of the name will appear. Make sure you
have the Subselection tool (A) selected and move the right end of the laser to the new section of name.
Repeat this process for every frame of your animation.

15. It should eventually look something like this pictured above.

16. Finally were going to add a source for the laser, so create a new layer above the laser layer and draw a
circle with a new bright colour and no line over the left end of the laser line.

17. It should appear something like this.

18. To finish off, make sure your project is saved and then convert it to a GIF file by going File, Export,
Export as Movie and then select the type Animated GIF.
Thankyou for reading, I hope your projects all turned out well and enjoyed using Adobe Flash!