The Sorcerer's Workshop

(1) (2)

Have you ever wondered how to add that 'loading' animation effect while your main animation preloads? Well, I have, and this tutorial will lay out the process step by step.

Create a 'Loading' Animation
My first step was to build a very tiny animation that will play while my main animation preloads in the background. The animation will be saved as a 'movie' symbol. The design was simple. I wanted an animated graphic with the word 'loading' fading in and out. Remember, keep it simple, small and save it as a 'movie' symbol. A movie symbol can play within a single frame of another Flash animation.

Here is mine. The file is less than 2kb in size.

preload animation

Rules
There are some basic rules you must follow to preload an animation.

Frames 1 and 2 must be blank keyframes. These are needed to add the preload actions.
The animation can begin on frame 3 or later.
You should have a loading 'movie clip' symbol to play so your audience knows what is happening.

I decided to open an existing Flash project that comes with the program - Spotlight Mask.fla. I shifted the keyframes for this project to frame 3.

Step 1
As stated in the 'Rules', create 2 blank keyframes (F7) in layer 1 (rename the layer 'Preload Action') at frame 1 and 2. The 'Spotlight Mask' animation will start in frame 3.

Step 2
Double click Frame 1. This brings opens your 'Frame' actions Palette.

Step 3
Click 'Actions.' In the 'Action' category locate 'IfFrameLoaded.' Double click to insert the action. Under 'Type' choose 'Expression' from the drop down menu. Then type in '_totalframes' in the 'Frame' text field.

(1) (2)