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Converting animation on the Stage into a movie clip

If you've created an animated sequence on the Stage and want to reuse it elsewhere in your document, or if you want to manipulate it as an instance, you can select it and save it as a movie clip symbol.

To convert animation on the Stage into a movie clip:

  1. On the main Timeline, select every frame in every layer of the animation on the Stage that you want to use. For information on selecting frames, see Using the Timeline.
  2. Do one of the following to copy the frames:
    • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) any selected frame and select Copy Frames from the context menu. Select Cut if you want to delete the sequence after converting it to a movie clip.
    • Select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select Cut Frames if you want to delete the sequence after converting it to a movie clip.
  3. Deselect your selection and make sure nothing on the Stage is selected. Select Modify >New Symbol.
  4. In the Create New Symbol dialog box, name the symbol. For Behavior, select Movie Clip, then click OK.

    Flash opens a new symbol for editing in symbol-editing mode.

  5. On the Timeline, click Frame 1 on Layer 1, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames.

    This pastes the frames (and any layers and layer names) you copied from the main Timeline to the Timeline of this movie clip symbol. Any animation, buttons, or interactivity from the frames you copied now becomes an independent animation (a movie clip symbol) that you can reuse throughout your document.

  6. When you have finished creating the symbol content, do one of the following to return to document-editing mode:
    • Click the Back button at the left of the Edit bar above the Stage.
    • Select Edit > Edit Document.
    • Click the scene name in the Edit bar above the Stage.
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