We have studied the effect of the mass of the central star (CS) on the gas evolution during the planetary nebula (PN) phase. We have performed numerical simulations of PN formation using CS tracks for six stellar core masses corresponding to initial masses from 1 to 5 Msolar. The gas structure resulting from the previous asymptotic giant branch (AGB) evolution is used as the starting configuration. The formation of multiple shells is discussed in the light of our models, and the density, velocity, and Hα emission brightness profiles are shown for each stellar mass considered. We have computed the evolution of the different shells in terms of radius, expansion velocity, and Hα peak emissivity. We find that the evolution of the main shell is controlled by the ionization front rather than by the thermal pressure provided by the hot bubble during the early PN stages. This effect explains why the kinematical ages overestimate the age in young CSs. At later stages in the evolution and for low-mass progenitors the kinematical ages severely underestimate the CS age. Large (up to 2.3 pc), low surface brightness shells (less than 2000 times the brightness of the main shell) are formed in all of our models (with the exception of the 5 Msolar model). These PN halos contain most of the ionized mass in PNe, which we find is greatly underestimated by the observations because of the low surface brightness of the halos.