Tutorial:Layering

From Anipedia

[edit] Basics of Layering

Layering is one of the most basic things to learn in flash, and once you master it everything will be a lot easier. Basically, layers are used so that you'll be able to animate certain parts of the action separate from all the other parts. For a very basic example, one layer could be used as the background and another above it could be used for the character, keeping the two elements separate. However more complex flashes may use many many layers to divi up the action, and depending on the style of the flash each character might be made of multiple layers.

Layers can be found up on the timeline, and new ones can be created by simply right clicking on an existing one and clicking "insert layer" Obviously the things you draw on the layers above are going to overlap the layers below them, like so:

Notice how each layer has it's own timeline so that each can be animated separately.

[edit] Advanced Layering

It's important to note that within each symbol is it's OWN set of layers. This can be used to your advantage.

[edit] Hiding/Locking Layers

Another thing you may notice on each layer to the left of the timeline itself is an Eye symbol and a padlock

Hiding a layer simply makes the layer so that it isn't visible, (and no changes can be made to a layer while it is hidden.) This is useful when you want to focus on working on certain layers at a time without the others being a distraction. Also if you want to work on a layer that's underneath another you can just hide the one above it. Locking a layer is different from the fact that if you lock a layer it will still be visible, but you won't be able to make any changes to it. Sometimes if you have a lot of layers, you can accidentally draw on layers you don't want to, and that can make things very confusing. For that reason it's usually a good idea to lock all the layers except the one(s) you're working on, and always make sure you have the layer you want selected before drawing. Also, it's worth noting that clicking on the padlock itself will lock all layers, so if you have a bunch it might be more convienient to do that and unlock the one you want. The same can be done with the "hide" function.

The last option with the colored squares is "show layers as outlines." this makes it so that that only the layer's outlines are visible, so that you can still see where they are but also through them at the same time. This can also come in handy occasionally, but remember that when you apply this to a layer you can still draw on it so you might want to lock it too! Here's the same example from before with these actions applied to it.