Tweening is a traditional animation term that describes the process in which a lead animator draws only the keyframes (frames containing major changes) while assistants draw the frames in between.

In Fireworks, tweening blends two or more instances of the same symbol, creating interim instances with interpolated attributes. Tweening is a manual process useful for more sophisticated movement of an object across the canvas and for objects whose Live Filters change in each frame of the animation.

For example, you can tween an object so that it seems to move along a linear path.

To tween instances:

  1. Select two or more instances of the same graphic symbol on the canvas. Do not select instances of different symbols.
  2. Select Modify > Symbol > Tween Instances.
  3. Enter the number of tween steps to be inserted between the original pair in the Tween Instances dialog box.
  4. To distribute the tweened objects to separate frames, select Distribute to Frames and click OK.

    This is a picture of the feature being described.If you choose not to distribute the objects to separate frames, you can do it later by selecting all instances and clicking the Distribute to Frames button in the Frames panel.

    NOTE

    In most cases, using animation symbols is preferable to tweening. For more information, see Working with animation symbols.