Flash Pro 8 Tutorial
Flash allows you to create interactive, multimedia applications to suit a variety of purposes. Many Flash movies are deployed on the Internet, as part of websites for commerce, entertainment and information. The Flash Professional 8 interface makes creating your Flash movies straightforward, as long as you understand how to combine the different elements involved. Even if you don't know how to program, you can easily learn to use small amounts of ActionScript in your work within the Flash environment.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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Open the Flash authoring environment and create a new file. When you start Flash, choose "Create New Flash Document" or select "File," "New" from the menu. Once your file is opened you'll see the Flash interface. Across the top is the Timeline, which represents the scenes in your movie. The Playhead is the little red square with a vertical line hanging down below it, which moves along to show specific scenes in your movie. On the left the Tools panel lets you draw, create and select objects on the central white stage area. Along the bottom are the Actions and Properties panels. On the right you may have a number of panels, which you can set by choosing options from the Window menu.
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Save your movie file by choosing "File," "Save As" and choose a location plus a name for your Flash file. Your file has been saved in source form, which uses the FLA format. When you compile your movie, Flash automatically creates a SWF file, which is the format you will eventually use, for example, by including it on a web page. Choose the "Oval Tool" from the Tools panel by clicking it. Click and drag to create a circle shape on the stage area. Choose the "Selection Tool (the black arrow)," then select the circle shape, either by double-clicking on it, or clicking and dragging an area around its outer edge. Convert the shape to a symbol by pressing F8 or selecting "Modify," "Convert to Symbol." Enter a name such as "MyShape," choose Graphic and click OK.
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Animate your movie. Your Flash file can use the shape symbol you created to add some simple animation. Click on Frame 10 of the Timeline, that is, the square directly under the No. 10. With the frame selected, insert a Keyframe by pressing F6 or choosing "Insert," "Timeline," "Keyframe." This frame will now act as a defining moment in your animation. The red Playhead will have moved to Frame 10 when you clicked on it. Click and drag the oval shape to move it to another position on the stage.
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Test and enhance your movie animation. Export your movie by pressing "Control+Enter" or choosing "Control," "Test Movie." You should see the shape simply jumping back and forward endlessly. Click on Frame 10 again and open the "Actions" panel by clicking on it or pressing F9. In the white area, enter this short excerpt of ActionScript code:
stop();
This makes the movie only play once, stopping when it gets to the command you entered. To smooth the movement of the shape, you can add a Tween. Click on the first frame on the Timeline and open the Properties panel at the bottom if it's not already open. Choose "Motion" from the Tween drop-down list. The frames should have changed color and an arrow should be visible between Frames 1 and 10. Test your movie again and you should see that the motion has been smoothed.
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Click on the white square in the Timeline area to add another layer to your movie. With this layer selected, try creating another shape on the stage, converting it to a symbol and animating it using the same steps you used for the circle. Put your new shape in a different position and move it in another direction so that you can see how the different levels are represented within the final SWF movie. Instead of Graphic symbols, try creating Movie clip symbols and entering animation inside these by double-clicking on them--each has its own interior Timeline which functions the same way as the main one.
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Tips & Warnings
Experiment with effects that Flash provides by selecting a symbol and choosing "Insert," "Timeline Effects" or by right-clicking on the symbol. To keep the different parts of your movie organized, you can put all of your ActionScript code on one layer and the shapes on their own separate layers.
The resources that you create and import into your Flash file--images and audio--are kept in the Library area, which you can view by choosing "Window," "Library." Your file will become oversized if you fail to keep this area tidy, so remove any objects that you are no longer using.
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- Photo Credit oval on black image by robert mobley from Fotolia.com
