2) While the text is still selected, Convert it Paths. Then Ungroup and Split them if they have knockouts (such as the O).

While those shapes are still selected, remove the Fill and give them a Basic Line like shown above.

3) Keeping your shapes selected, do the operation Xtras -> Distort -> Add Points (This can also be accessed in the Operations palette).

By adding more points, this creates more segments in the shapes, thus making the final animation smoother. For more complex shapes like above, you should be very careful not to add too many points as the Flash steps will take much more time. In fact in some cases such as the S above, I went in and took out a couple of points to make things easier on me later.

You'll see it all come together as we go on.

4) You must pay close attention in this next step. Deselect all of the shapes. Now, click+drag around all of the shapes. This will make all of the shapes' anchor points active. You must make sure that you select every anchor point of the shapes.

After doing that, do the Split command. This will break up all of the shapes into individual segments between all of the selected anchor points.

5) Now each letter is setup for exporting to Flash. Starting with the first shape (letter O), select the segments and Copy them.

In a new document, create an empty text box. Then Paste in the copied shapes.

While the text box is still selected do Xtras -> Animate -> Release to Layers. For FreeHand 9 and above, use the Sequence option.

Note: You may see the segments disappear when Releasing to layers, don't be alarmed, it should still work.

Next export this document as an Adobe Illustrator™ 7.x document. This will make sure that the segments that were released to each layer will stay intact when imported into Flash. If you are using Flash 5, you can just export the document as FreeHand 7-9 format. Flash 5 will now import those documents, keeping layers intact.

Repeat this step for any other shapes or letters you may have. Now on to the Flash Steps.

1) Create a new Flash movie document. Next create a new blank Symbol that you'll be creating your first drawn object in.

Give it a name and hit OK.

2) In this new Symbol, Import the Adobe Illustrator™ (or FreeHand) file from the FreeHand step. You should see all of the segments selected as well as all of the layers they were released to.

3) Get those fingers ready, you'll be using some keyboard shortcuts that will make this next step fly!

Deselect everything. Now click on the player head on the first frame. Press F5 to create a new frame on all of the layers.

Starting with the first layer, click+drag the Keyframe over to the right one frame. Next move the player head back to the left one frame by hitting the < (period) key. Then hit F5 again to add a frame to every layer.

Carefully watch the animated GIF above to get a better idea of what I mean.

Continue this process for as many layers as you have. You may notice during this process, that some segments are out of order. You can fix this as you're working, moving the layers up or down to make them in order of how the object should animate.

4) Once you're done, play the Symbol to make sure that all the segments are in order and that the animation is as smooth as you want it. Again, repeat Steps 1-3 for any other shapes you may want.

After all of the animation process was finished (which took about 10-20 minutes) I now have the final Flash Drawing Animation shown above. Not bad eh?

Like I said before, once you get going with this, it's very easy and fast to create.

You've seen this effect in my FreeHand Source title, Now you can take these Movie Symbols and add them to your own animation. Above, I used the same graphics and added special touches such as a flare that acts as the drawing device, and the falling pieces after the objects are "cut" out. Very fun!

As an extra bonus, I've provided the original Flash working file (.FLA) of the above movie for you to take a look at and have fun with. Just click on the below link.