<classwork>

Layers

The one thing to remember about layers, is to use as many as you want for organization. The maximum layers that you can use is something like 14,000. So, feel free to use the layers. It is wise with animation to separate all parts: eyes, arms, head, legs, etc. in their own layer. This makes animation and tweening (Flash's ability to interpolate the animation steps between frames) animation easier.

The layer types are normal, guide, and mask.

Normal is just that, it behaves as you would expect any layer to, to place objects in front of or behind one another.

Guide layers are useful for making motion guides for your animation to follow or to store animation, notes, etc. that will not publish with your file.

Mask layers are used to mask off parts of your composition on the stage. They can animate.

The layer type can be changed by double-clicking on the page curl icon next to the layer name. Name your layers when possible. It makes finding what you need to work on so much easier. Most Flash users use actions as their top layer (easy to find for fellow programmers and sound either above or below this---easy to find for the sound artist) the background is at the very bottom layer by default because it is behind everything, and the rest of layers hold the parts to your animation. Now this may seem specific, but it will come in handy. Whatever you do, be consistent, NAME ALL YOUR LAYERS, and organize and divide parts of your file into them appropriately.

You can also create folders to put layers into. Selectable from the bottom of the timeline area.

You can delete layers from the bottom of the timeline area as well.

You can also distribute artwork into layers. This works with separate shapes, symbols, groups. Select the items and choose Modify>Timeline>Distribute to Layers. This is useful for creating tweens.