Basic Usage

Let's explore some of the core concepts in Flashback Studio!

Workspace

The workspace is a boundless area that you can draw on. The white section is what the user will see in the final published version, but you are free to create obejcts outside the visible region.

Click and drag the middle mouse button to move around.

Objects

Whenever you draw in Flashback Studio, your drawing data will either be merged with an existing object in the currently selected layer (if it overlaps), or a new object will be created if it doesn't.

You can see which obejcts have been created by viewing your library.

The Timeline

In Flashback Studio, the ability to animate any object is a first-class feature. The timeline allows you to allocate keyframes which represent points in time.

You can add new keyframes by right-clicking a pip in the timeline.

At each keyframe, you can manipulate your objects along any primary animation axis: position, scale, rotation, color. Flashback will automatically tween your objects accordingly.

Keyframes

Two or more keyframes will form an animation. All objects will tween their properties between the keyframes.

Press the space key to watch your animation come to life. Press it again to stop the animation.

Tweening

The word tween comes from inbetween and is a core concept of Flashback Studio. All major properties will automatically be interpolated beween two keyframes.

The exact properties you can control include:

• Position (x,y)
• Rotation
• Scale
• Fill Color
• Stroke Color
• Line Thickness

Select Tool

The select tool allows you to pick line segments and change their properties.

The select tool also allows picking filled regions and manipulating them.

You can delete selected items by pressing the delete key or you can change their properties with the properties panel.

Transform Tool

The transform tool allows you to manipulation position, rotaiton, and scale of entire objects.

In this widget, there are a few boxes you can interact with. The upper-left box will manipualte scale while the upper right box will manipulate rotation. Clicking and dragging inside the selection box will move the object.

The Transform Point

Upon selecting an object with the transform tool, somewhere nearby will be a white circle with a black outline. This is the transform point. Scale and rotation operations will be applied relative to the transform point.

Click and drag it to change the position which in turn, changes how the scale and rotation operations are applied.

Publishing a Project

When you are satisfied with your project, you may publish it to the web. This feature generates a zip file containing an index.html and a copy of your project file.

The simplest way to go live is to copy these generated files into a webserver and watch your creation come to life!