Using FlashFlash is a multimedia tool that lets you create interactive elements ideal for inclusion in web pages and other multimedia "products" as well as flash movies. Flash movies are produced with the .swf file extension and will require the use of the Adobe Flash Player. Launching FlashDepending on your version of Flash when you launch it you will see something like the following. A flash document is stored with the .fla file extension (from this you can create a flash movie with extension .swf). To start working with a Flash file, you now can use either the File Menu or you can click on an item in the welcome screen. E.g.
Flash Window DescribedThe following image shows the basic features of the flash application window (will varry with version of software you are using). The main components include
NOTE: there is the concept of layers like you may have seen in Photoshop or other imaging tools like GIMP.
General Idea - go to frame (start at first frame) create content and then move out in time to another frame where the content is changes. The in between frames will be automatically generated based on specifications. For example, if you move an element in first frame (first "key frame") to a new location in frame 20 (second "key frame") the in between frames will produce the motion of going from the starting to frame 20 location. The book's tutorial (see course web page and book) will help teach you this concept.
Flash Drawing/ Creating Content for a FrameYou can do a number of "drawing/conent creation" functions in Flash including
Here are a few images show some of the related controls:
Flash Action ScriptThere are some basic interactions that can be setup along with animations using the Flash tool. However, advanced interactions are created using a programming (scripting language) developed for Flash called ActionScript. We will not be learning this in this class. However, it looks and feels like JavaScript and once you know JavaScript will be easy for you to pickup with a good book or online tutorials on the subject. |
© Lynne Grewe |