It's prob. that I'm just missing a simple step here... BUT, I've been trying to do a simple fade-in of a symbol in Fireworks MX. I can get the symbol to fade-in without incident HOWEVER, while the animation is fading in, everything else on the page/canvas disappears! it's only in the first frame of the animation that everything else on the page is shown, but as soon as the animation begins, everything disappears . Needless to say this is very annoying <img src=../images/mxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle> What is it that I'm missing? All I want is for the symbol (e.g. The Logo\Header for the page) to fade-in and that's it. During this animation process I want everything to stay where it is (i.e. nothing disappears). Some advice or perhaps a better way of doing things would be greatly appreciated.

-Fushichou

Hi fushichou,

This way it should work:
- put the objects you want to see in all frames on one layer
- open up the layers -panel
- click on layer 1, a little menu opens, where you can give the layer a name. Mark the option: Share across frames.
Now it should be seen in all frames.

Cheers, Hoiday

Hoiday, thanks for the advice. It has worked for the animations I have made thus far. <img src=../images/mxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

However, I have one more "simple" question regarding the animation process:

Let's say that I've done the above and I've shard the animation across all the frames... thereby making my animation "work" per se... THEN, I decided to add some new graphics..say a couple of buttons and some new bitmaps to that same layer... when I try doing the animation, the newly added frames don't come up... and re-clicking on "Share Across all frames just seems to make the problem worse. If I want the old animation to include newly added frames, what should I do? Should I just move everything, new frames included, to a whole new layer..and re-do the "Share across all frames"? Your, or anyone else's, advice is always appreciated.

-Fushichou

Hi again,

I'm not really that good with animations either, but let's give it a try.
Okay, let's say, you create a background with static objects you want to have visible in all frames. In that case, your share it across frames like I told you before.
Now you create your first animation on a new layer. Let's say a circle shall move from left to right. You create it, convert it to a symbol, drag it with pushed-down ALT to the right. Then you mark those 2 circles, go to modify-symbol, tween instances and write down the number of frames.
Now you can watch your animation already.
If you now want another animation (maybe a circle from right to left), you open up the frames-panel (windows/frames), mark frame one (!)and start the other animation right there.
In case you want to start an animation after those two, you mark the last frame of all, click on the right symbol in the top, then: duplicate frame and in the opening panel you name the number of frames you need for your new animation.

Sorry, I've got language problems, but I hope I could help you nevertheless.

Hoiday

Edited by - Hoiday on 23 Jul 2002 22:35:33

Hoiday, thanks for your advice. Now that I've been playing around with it more... I've figured out that the problem isn't necc. adding new images to the layer... because i can add new objects in it, share across all the frams, and it will be fine.

The Problem is when I introduce SLICES to the image.. all hell breaks loose. WHat I have is this:

I am making a "header" graphic for a website. There are two animations within the Logo itself, they don't move around. They stay stationary and rotate... now, when I created buttons the Navigation Bar of the header, the buttons (i.e. the individual slices) would not show up the frames...I've tried copying the graphics manually...but that doesn't seem to work... The graphics is looping forever.. and it is only in the first frame that you can actually see everything. In the Second frame, you still see everything, but the buttons are now changed to their "OVER" state..then from the 3rd frame until the end of the sequence, you don't see the buttons anymore.

If this is beyond your knowledge, I understand. You've already been very patient and helpful as it is already.

Again, if there are any readers out there who know how to remedy this situation (I assume most people have problems like this when they start out) PLEASE take the 2-3 min it will take to answer this question. I would be greatly appreciated since I am kind of running against a deadline here... <img src=../images/mxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle> AGain, thanks for any and all advice.

-Fushichou

I would recommend to keep the logo with the animation and the navigation bar apart.
Then slicing is more or less done by fireworks and the export shouldn' be a problem at all.