OK, now we’re cooking with gas. You don’t need to investigate the other formats.
The settings are pretty easy. I’m going to send you an ID document that contains all the objects that would create the animation you need. But in case someone else is reading this, here is what you’re going to have to do. (BTW, David and Anne-Marie, it would be great if I could embed GIF or JPG images into a message here on the forum.)
CIRCLES:
Each circle is going to be set in the Animation panel using the “Fade In” preset. Set the slower-moving colors to longer durations and the faster-moving ones to shorter durations. The ones I created for you were 6 seconds for the blue, 3 seconds for the yellow. And 1.5 for the red. Use the Animation panel to name the circles. (Red circle, yellow circle, blue circle, etc.)
Click the option to Loop
Open the Properties area of the panel (the little triangle) and set the Opacity to Fade Out. Also check the settings for Hide Until Animated and Hide After Animated.
RECTANGLES:
Position your rectangles so they are off the document on the right. Choose the animation preset Move Left. Most likely the green line (motion path) will be too short. Double click on that path so you get the control squares and extend it off the page all the way on the left. Name the rectangles.
Set each color rectangle with the same timing as the duration for the circles. And set them to loop.
TIMING PANEL:
Now open the Timing panel and select all the names of the animated objects. Click the little link icon at the bottom of the panel. A line should bracket the objects. This makes them all animate together instead of one at a time.
TWO OPTIONS:
1. Use the Pen tool on the motion path to add points to the motion paths. Then use the Direct Selection tool to move those points up and down. This will simulate the look of the movement of water.
2. Also increase the number of rectangles for the faster colors and stagger them on the outside on the right. This help indicates that faster water has more volume than slower water.
If it was me, I’d use smaller rectangles for the faster water. It just makes sense to me.
EXPORT TO SWF:
I think you understand how to export to SWF and then import back into ID. My suggestion is to put the background art on one layer, the animations on their own layer and the SWF on another layer. That will make it easier to make changes later.
Use the SWF panel to test what you’re doing.
Here’s the link to the ID file so you can select each object and see its settings.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mstdqmw9bs4mwge/River%20animation.indd.zip?dl=0
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