HOME PAGETIPS & TRICKSSo-Called Ripple Effect

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1.
Open the flash, pres Ctrl+M to get Movie properties window. Set FPS to 24. You can later insert lover value if you expext movie to be played on slower machines. 24 Frames per second is good while developing so you can see smooth movement. Set Width and Height values to 400 and 300, that'll do for now.

Step 1
2.
Pres Ctrl+R to import your bitmap. Basically you don't have to limit yourself to bitmaps, this effect can be applied to curves as well, but most common use for it is on bitmaps...

Step 2
3.
Convert your image to Graphic Symbol and place it to first layer. Make new layer and draw a borderless circle there. Select it, hit ctrl+c, make new layer and then ctrl+shift+v. Nothing changed? Don't worry, try to transform the circle on layer three by 80% using modify>transform>scale and rotate command. okay, last thing is to change color of this "inside" circle and then copy it, paste into layer two (yes, inside the first circle:). You can use Ctrl+Shift+V for this. Select inner cirle with arrow tool and hit Del on your keyboard.

Step 3
4.
Make new symbol from this mask you've just created. Place it directly over your bitmap. Click with right mouse button on layer 2 and choose Mask from pop-up menu. Mark first keyframes on both layers and create motion tween. Make new keyframes at 20, unlock layer 2 and mark it's first frame. Scale mask down to 20% of it's original size (ctrl+alt+s). You can now again lock this layer to see actual mask effect.
5.
Finally, place the same bitmap you have in layer 1 under it. You can do it by unlocking the layer 1 and duplicating first keyframe to new layer. Select this background image and offset it by few pixels in x and y axis. This will make the final effect of ripple. Don't forget to make new keyframe at 20 otherwise the bottom image would disappear during animation. Test your Movie. If you want to enhance the ripple effect you can add new mask layer with new duplicate of the same bitmap again little bit offseted, this time with different size of circle and different timing.

Step 5