The Tween Animation feature added to the latest versions of both Opus Pro and Opus Creator is a hugely powerful tool with a wide range of possible uses. It is fully supported in Flash, Plexus and standard Opus publications. It allows a range of animations to be created in Flash or EXE publications by simply creating the state of the object a beginning and an end, or for more complex animations at key points along the way. Opus then automatically creates all the frames in-between for a smooth transition without you having to do anything. It makes creating any animation easier and more intuitive than standard animation actions and also adds possibilities of its own. It includes the option to change the morph the shape of an object using node tweening.

• animate objects between two points by positioning them on screen
• morph, squeeze and rotate objects between two or more different shapes
• change the colour of objects in a smooth progression
• transform objects completely from one shape to another

You can use the tween for any type of animation to make your content more interesting, to attract attention to a particular element or to create precise animations for simulation or elaboration.

• pulse a star highlighting a special offer
• animate arrows or other indicators
• morph a word from a tangle of lines

Easy to Use

The tween object is just like any other Opus frame. Simply draw it into position, resize or relocate it as required. It is often useful to make the tween object much larger than required or even to fill the whole page to allow you greatest flexibility when animating. You can then add any content you like to the tween - vector objects work best but you can also add images, backgrounds or text.

Each object appears in the tween timeline with it's separate object timeline. Then simply select the object in the tween timeline which appears below the page. Add keyframes for the points at which you want the changes to occur and then change the size, shape, position or colour of the object at those points as required.

Tweens can have flare and blends applied to the overall object and you can synchronise actions with specific frames in the tween thus allowing objects in the tween to interact with other objects or cause events.

You can also trigger actions to control your tween...

• Play Tween
• Stop Tween
• Go To Tween Frame
• Synchronise with Tween Frame

Nested Tweens

You can even put tweens within tweens allowing you to create one tween of, for example, a flying bird which is then tweened away into the distance. Or combine several to create a flock which flies across the page. You can also animate tweens along paths just like any other object.

Powerful Simulations and Animated Diagrams

One of the uses for this tool is to make complex animations for complex simulations or animated explanations much quicker and easier to achieve.

Further Details

Select from the menu on the right for examples of specific opportunities for the tween animation tool.