Fades can be primarily be of three types
- Fade-in Effect: Object gradually comes into view.
- Fade-out: Object is visible at the start and then vanishes.
- Object fades in and out over time.
In Flash, you can apply all the three effects to objects. However, these objects must be first converted to symbols. Fading is accomplished by modifying the visibility of symbols instances using the Alpha color effect. Sounds confusing? It's actually quite simple.
Step 1
Open a new file. Change the layer name to something more descriptive as "Fade effect".
Step 2
With the first frame highlighted, create a rectangle using the Rectangle tool 
. Now convert this object to a symbol by first selecting it with the Arrow tool 
and then clicking on Insert - Convert to Symbol. When asked for a symbol name, type "rect" (without the quotes) and make sure that the Behavior for this symbol is set to Graphic.
Step 3
Align this symbol to the center of the page. An easy way to do this is through Align command in the Modify menu. In the align window, (shown below) click on the third icons from the left in both vertical and horizontal alignments and check the Align to Page checkbox.
Step 4
Add a keyframe at frame 36.
And with frame 36 highlighted on the time line, click on Modify - Instance. The Instance Properties window opens up. Click the Color Effect tab and select Alpha from the drop down menu. Change the Alpha value to 0% (you can do this by either typing the value in the text field or moving the slider to the extreme left).
So what have we done here? By adding a keyframe at frame 36, we create an Instance of our symbol rect. The properties of this instance can then be changed through the Instance properties window. In addition to Alpha, there are other properties like, Brightness, Tint and Special. Alpha changes the tranparency of the symbol. Thus, 100% alpha signifies that the object is fully visible while 0% makes it completely transparent.
STEP 5
You shall notice that the symbol has vanished though the selection outline is still visible.
The last step is to apply a motion tween between the start and end frames.
Right-click on a middle frame, and select Create Motion Tween from the drop down menu.
You have just created a fade-out effect. Click Control - Play to see your result.
In Fade outs, the first frame contains a fully visible object while in the last frame, the object is completely transparent. Fade-ins are the opposite of fade-out effects. In the next session we look at creating a continuous fade-in fade-out effect.
