Every animator will need to make characters walk sooner or later. You have a number of approaches available, depending on the degree of complexity or realism you require. At its most basic level, you can animate walking in Flash with nested clips and a motion guide.
Instructions
1. Design your character. You should use a profile or three-quarter profile to keep things simple. Focus on five elements: the head and body, the two arms and two legs. You might want to practice with oval shapes before you move to human figures.
2. Create your five elements and assemble them in one layer on stage. Place the body/head above one arm and leg and the remaining arm and leg in place over the body. Convert each object to a graphic symbol ("F8" with the "Graphic" option selected). Select all five objects together and create a single movie clip ("F8" with the "Movie Clip" object selected).
3. Double click on the movie clip object to open it in an editing window superimposed on the stage. Add four layers to the movie clip and name them from bottom to top: "bottom leg," "bottom arm," "body," "top leg," "top arm." Move each symbol to its own layer and position it as you want it to appear as the step begins.
4. Select all five layers in frame 24. Add a keyframe ("F6"). You must do this first to establish where the step cycle will end). Now select all five layers in frame 12 and add second keyframe. In frame 12, rotate each arm and leg 90 to 120 degrees from the top object's top center to create the ending point of the step (you want to keep the shoulders and hips aligned).
5. Select all the frames and apply a motion tween. Play the animation back. The arms and legs should appear to swing back and forth. Tweak the keyframes until the motion is smooth for you.
6. Return to the main timeline. Select the movie clip layer and click the "Add Motion Guide" in the timeline. Draw a motion guide from where you want the character to start walking and where you want it to stop walking.
7. Add keyframes to both layers 30 or 40 frames further down the timeline. Add motion tween to the character layer. Drag your character to the beginning of the motion guide in the first frame and to the end of the motion guide in the last frame. Test the movie ("Command" and "Return") to see your character walk.
