Create a Background and Animate Something

Start a new Animate project (be sure it is 30 fps and 1920x1080).

Use the Zoom setting so there is room on the outside of the screen as shown below.

Use the Pencil tool to draw the outlines of a background. Use smoothing if you are a terrible drawer like me.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO TURN ON OBJECT DRAWING!!! IT'S RIGHT NEAR SMOOTHING.

IF YOU DO, MODIFY > BREAK APART TO MAKE THINGS NORMAL

Fill the shapes with the Paint Bucket.

Use the Fill Gaps button down where smoothing used to be to fill in shapes that are not all the way closed.

Pick a fill color and fill in the shapes.

Delete lines by clicking them with the selection tool and hitting the delete key. Double-click lines to select the whole line.

Name your layer "Background" and Lock it. Locking a layer allows you to draw on the other layers without fear of messing up the locked layer.

Create a new layer by clicking the new layer button. and draw the thing you want to animate.

Zoom in and practice editing and deleting lines. Name the layer.

Animate the object:

1. Insert Frame at frame 120 in both layers (F5 or right-click)

2. Rt.-Click anywhere in the layer and Create Motion Tween.

3. Right click on frame 120 and Create Keyframe.

4. Move the object in frame 120 or animate it to do whatever you want.

Use File > Save As to save your project as: farleyt83_background_001.fla

Put it in a folder called Animate inside your Documents folder.

Exporting a movie.

1. Go to File > Export > Export Video

Be sure to click Browse and tell it where to save your movie.

And unclick Ignore stage color or convert video in Adobe Media Encoder if it's clicked.

Then press Export.

Your movie is now where you put it.

Put it in the background animation folder on the server.

If you have time: Import your animation into Final Cut, add some sound effects or music, add a title, some credits, and put it in the Background Animation here folder on the server.