ier.
Choose Modify → Ungroup.
Choose Edit → Deselect All.
Use the Arrow and the Shift key to select all of the lines. If you accidentally select something else, just click on it again with the Shift key held down to deselect it and leave everything else selected.
Choose Edit → Cut.
Select the Logo layer.
Choose Edit → Paste in Place. You have now moved the lines to the new layer. They are in front of the circles, but we'll be moving them in a moment.
With the lines still selected, choose Modify → Group.
Finally, make the lines into a symbol by selecting Insert → Convert to Symbol. Name this symbol "Lines" set its behavior to Graphic. See Figure 23.
FIGURE 23 Symbol Properties dialog box.
This would be a good time to save your work. Choose File → Save As, and save this file in the directory of your choice as shelley.fla. Download the project at this point from http://www.phptr.com/essential/flash5 or view it directly at http://www.phptr.com/essential/flash5/shelley/shelley2-1.html.
Adding an Additional Background Layer
Both the white and the brown curves making up the background will be animated. We need a separate layer for each.
Click on the Background layer. This layer currently contains both of the background curves.
Choose Insert Layer from the Layer menu. This will place a new layer immediately above the Background layer.
Rename this "Background 1."
Select the white curve. Choose Edit → Cut.
Select the Background 1 layer and choose Edit → Paste in Place.
Rename the original Background layer "Background 2."
Creating Some Layers for the Circles
The last organizational change you need to make involves moving each of the seven circles to separate layers so each can be animated separately.
Select the Background 1 layer and create seven new layers.
Name them as follows: Press Releases, Research, Contact Us, Investors, Vendors, About Us, and Products. Don't worry about the order; we will adjust that in a moment.
We need to move each one of our current circles to one of these new layers. For each of our seven circles, select it, choose Edit → Cut, click on the appropriate new layer (according to the text link overlapping it), and choose Edit → Paste in Place.
When all the circles have been moved, the Circles layer will have nothing left in it. Get rid of it by selecting it and choosing Delete Layer from the Layer menu.
Select and drag the layers up and down to move them. Put your layers in the following order, from top to bottom:
Header Text. This is the Shelley Biotech banner and associated shadow.
Address Sphere. This is the sphere under the Address Text.
Link Circle layers. Each of the seven circles should be in a separate layer.
Logo. This consists of the seven lines that connect the link circles.
Background 1. The white curve.
Background 2. The brown curve.
This would be a good time to save your work. Choose File → Save As, and save this file in the directory of your choice as shelley.fla. Download the project at this point from http://www.phptr.com/essential/flash5 or view it directly at http://www.phptr.com/essential/flash5/shelley/shelley2-2.html.
Frames and Animation
One of the most important aspects of a Flash movie is the animation, which is nothing more than a series of still images, displayed over time. Each of these still images is called a frame. The speed at which the frames are displayed is controlled by the fps (frames per second) setting in Flash. A setting of 12 fps, which is the default setting, means that 12 frames will be displayed every second.
There are two ways to change the fps value:
Double-click the fps box, which is located just below the timeline. See Figure 24.
FIGURE 24 The frames per second box.
Choose the menu option Modify → Movie.
Both of these open the Movie Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 25. The first blank on this dialog box contains the frame rate. A rate between 8 and 15 is recommended. This range allows relatively speedy processing of the animation while retaining smoothness of motion. For our animation, make sure the value is set at 12.
FIGURE 25 The Movie Properties dialo