Help with "smoothing out" my preloader animation

Hey guys

Im an ultra noob with this stuff, and ive tired out a couple of tutorials. Im trying to build a flashy site with “gates” when loading an external swf (the lines in your preloader tutorial do something similar). Trouble is, when i simulate the download, the animation of the “opening gates” is really choppy. It’s probably very trivial, but i just cant seem to smooth it out… little help?

cheers,

Dr. P.J Tracy.