book

Flash 8: The Missing Manual

Name: Flash 8: The Missing Manual
Author: E. A. Vander Veer
ISBN: 9780596101374

by E. A. Vander Veer

March 2006

Beginner

460 pages

14h 31m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
The Missing Credits
About the AuthorAbout the Creative TeamAcknowledgementsThe Missing Manual Series
Introduction
The Two Flavors of Flash 8What’s New in Flash 8Anatomy of an AnimationFlash in a NutshellThe Very BasicsMacintosh and WindowsAbout This BookAbout the OutlineAbout → These → ArrowsFlash ExamplesAbout MissingManuals.comSafari® Enabled
I. Creating a Flash Animation
1. Getting Around Flash
1.1. Starting Flash1.2. A Tour of the Flash Desktop1.2.1. Menu Bar1.2.2. The Stage1.3. Toolbars1.4. Panels1.4.1. Tools Panel1.4.1.1. Tools section1.4.1.2. View section1.4.1.3. Colors section1.4.1.4. Options section1.4.2. Accessibility Panel1.4.3. Actions Panel/ActionScript Debugger Panel1.4.4. Align Panel1.4.5. Behaviors Panel1.4.6. Color Mixer Panel/Color Swatches Panel1.4.7. Common Libraries1.4.8. Components Panel/Component Inspector Panel1.4.9. History Panel1.4.10. Info Panel1.4.11. Library Panel1.4.12. Movie Explorer Panel1.4.13. Output Panel1.4.14. Properties Panel/Filters Panel/Parameters Panel1.4.15. Scene Panel1.4.16. Transform Panel1.5. The Timeline1.6. The Flash 8 Test Drive1.7. Opening a Flash File1.7.1. Exploring the Property Inspector1.7.2. Resizing the Stage1.7.3. Zooming In and Out1.7.4. Playing an Animation1.7.5. Saving a File
2. Creating Simple Drawings
2.1. Planning Pays Off2.1.1. Creating a Storyboard2.1.2. Five Questions for a Better Result2.2. Preparing to Draw2.2.1. Customizing Your Stage2.2.1.1. Change the size of the Stage2.2.1.2. Setting the background color2.2.1.3. Add helpful measurement guides2.2.2. Choosing a Drawing Mode2.2.2.1. When to use merge drawing mode2.2.2.2. When to use object drawing mode2.2.3. Selecting Objects on the Stage2.2.4. Essential Drawing Terms2.3. Creating Original Artwork2.3.1. Drawing and Painting with Tools2.3.1.1. Line tool2.3.1.2. Pencil tool2.3.1.3. Pen tool2.3.1.4. Brush tool2.3.1.5. Shape tools: Oval, Rectangle, and PolyStar2.3.2. Aligning Objects with the Align Tools2.3.3. Erasing Mistakes with the Erase Tool2.3.3.1. Configuring the Eraser2.4. Copying and Pasting Drawn Objects2.5. Adding Color2.5.1. Changing the Color of a Stroke (Line)2.5.1.1. Coloring strokes with the Property Inspector2.5.1.2. Coloring strokes with the Ink Bottle tool2.5.2. Changing the Color of a Fill2.5.2.1. Coloring fills with the Property Inspector2.5.2.2. Coloring fills with the Paint Bucket tool
3. Animating Your Drawings
3.1. Frame-by-Frame Animation3.1.1. Frames and Keyframes3.1.2. Creating a Frame-by-Frame Animation3.1.3. Testing Your Frame-by-Frame Animation3.1.4. Editing Your Frame-by-Frame Animation3.1.4.1. Selecting frames and keyframes3.1.4.2. Inserting and deleting keyframes and frames3.2. Adding Layers to Your Animation3.2.1. Creating Layers3.3. Animating Automatically (Tweening)3.3.1. Shape Tweening (Morphing)3.3.2. Shape Hints3.3.3. Motion Tweening3.3.3.1. Motion guide layers (moving along a nonstraight path)3.3.3.2. Orient to path
II. Advanced Drawing and Animation
4. Organizing Frames and Layers
4.1. Working with Frames4.1.1. Copying and Pasting Frames4.1.2. Moving Frames (Keyframes)4.1.3. Editing Multiple Frames4.2. Adding Content to Multiple Layers4.3. Viewing Layers4.3.1. Showing and Hiding Layers4.3.1.1. To hide a layer4.3.1.2. To show a layer4.3.1.3. To hide (or show) all layers except the one you’re currently editing4.4. Working with Layers4.4.1. Renaming Layers4.4.2. Copy and Paste a Layer4.4.3. Reordering (Moving) Layers4.4.4. Delete a Layer4.4.5. Locking and Unlocking Layers4.5. Organizing Layers4.5.1. Outline View4.5.2. Organizing Your Layers with Layer Folders4.5.2.1. Creating layer folders4.5.2.2. Deleting a layer folder
5. Advanced Drawing and Coloring
5.1. Selecting Graphic Elements5.1.1. The Selection Tool5.1.1.1. Selecting a graphic element5.1.1.2. Selecting part of a graphic element5.1.1.3. Moving and reshaping (transforming) with the Selection tool5.1.2. The Subselection Tool5.1.3. The Lasso Tool5.1.3.1. Freehand selecting with the Lasso5.1.3.2. Pointing and clicking with the Lasso5.1.3.3. Selecting ranges of color in bitmaps with the Magic Wand5.2. Manipulating Graphic Elements5.2.1. Modifying Object Properties5.2.2. Moving, Cutting, Pasting, and Copying5.2.2.1. Moving5.2.2.2. Cutting5.2.2.3. Copying5.2.2.4. Pasting5.2.3. Transforming Objects (Scaling, Rotating, Skewing, Distorting)5.2.3.1. Scaling objects5.2.3.2. Rotating objects5.2.3.3. Skewing objects5.2.3.4. Distorting objects5.2.3.5. Applying an envelope transform5.2.4. Stacking Objects5.2.5. Converting Strokes to Fills5.2.6. Aligning Objects5.2.6.1. Snapping5.2.6.2. Guide layers5.3. Adding Text to Your Drawing5.4. Advanced Color and Fills5.4.1. Color Basics5.4.2. RGB and HSB5.5. Creating Custom Colors5.6. Saving Color Swatches5.6.1. Using an Image as a Fill “Color”5.6.2. Applying a Gradient5.7. Importing a Custom Color Palette5.8. Copying Color with the Eyedropper

6. Adding Special Effects
6.1. Built-in Timeline Effects6.1.1. Distributed Duplicate (Tumbling)6.1.2. Blur6.1.3. Expand6.1.4. Explode6.1.5. Transform (Shape Tween)6.1.6. Transition (Fade/Wipe)6.1.7. Modifying a Timeline Effect6.1.8. Deleting a Timeline Effect6.2. Spotlight Effect Using Mask Layers6.2.1. Adding a Motion Path to a Mask
7. Reusable Flash: Symbols and Templates
7.1. Symbols and Instances7.1.1. Graphic Symbols7.1.1.1. Converting an existing image to a graphic symbol7.1.1.2. Creating a graphic symbol in symbol editing mode7.1.1.3. Using a graphic symbol (creating an instance of a graphic symbol)7.1.1.4. Editing an instance of a graphic symbol7.1.1.5. Editing a graphic symbol7.1.1.6. Deleting a graphic symbol7.1.2. Multiframe Graphic Symbols7.1.2.1. Creating a multiframe graphic symbol7.1.2.2. Creating an instance of a multiframe graphic symbol7.1.2.3. Editing an instance of a multiframe graphic symbol7.1.2.4. Editing a multiframe graphic symbol7.1.2.5. Deleting a multiframe graphic symbol7.1.3. Movie Clip Symbols7.1.3.1. Creating a movie clip symbol7.1.3.2. Creating an instance of a movie clip symbol7.1.3.3. Editing a movie clip symbol7.1.3.4. Editing an instance of a movie clip symbol7.1.4. Button Symbols7.1.4.1. Creating a button symbol7.1.4.2. Using a button symbol (creating an instance of a button symbol)7.1.4.3. Editing an instance of a button symbol7.1.4.4. Editing a button symbol7.2. Templates7.2.1. Using a Prebuilt Template7.2.2. Creating and Using Your Own Custom Template
8. Incorporating Non-Flash Media Files
8.1. Incorporating Graphics8.1.1. Importing Graphics Files8.1.2. Editing Bitmaps8.1.2.1. Turning bitmaps into fills8.1.2.2. Turning bitmaps into vectors8.1.2.3. Turning bitmaps into symbols8.1.3. Importing a Series of Graphics Files8.2. Incorporating Sound8.2.1. Importing Sound Files8.2.2. Adding an Imported Sound to a Frame (or Series of Frames)8.2.3. Editing Sound Clips in Flash8.3. Incorporating Video8.3.1. Preparing to Import Video Files8.3.2. Importing Video Files8.3.2.1. Importing a Flash video file stored on a Web server (progressive download)8.3.2.2. Importing a QuickTime file stored on your computer (embedding)8.3.3. Editing Embedded Video8.3.3.1. Split a video clip8.3.3.2. Customize video and audio encoding8.3.3.3. Crop video display
III. Adding Interactivity
9. Automating Flash with ActionScript
9.1. How ActionScript Works9.2. Adding an Action9.3. Adding a Prebuilt Behavior
10. Controlling Animation
10.1. Slowing Down (or Speeding Up) Animation10.1.1. Setting a Frame Rate10.2. Organizing an Animation10.2.1. Working with Scenes10.2.1.1. Creating a scene10.2.1.2. Renaming a scene10.2.1.3. Reorganizing scenes10.2.1.4. Scripting (targeting) a scene10.2.2. Working with Labeled Frames10.2.2.1. Labeling a frame10.2.2.2. Targeting a labeled frame10.3. Looping a Series of Frames10.4. Reversing a Series of Frames10.4.1. Using Modify → Timeline → Reverse Frames10.4.2. Using ActionScript
11. Interacting with Your Audience
11.1. Dynamic Text11.2. Input Text11.3. Tying Actions to Events11.3.1. Triggering an Event When Your Audience Clicks a Button11.3.2. Creating Hotspots and Rollovers11.3.3. Tying an Event to a Component
12. Components for Interactivity
12.1. The Built-in Components12.1.1. Data Components12.1.2. Playback Components12.1.3. User Interface Components12.1.3.1. Accordion12.1.3.2. Alert12.1.3.3. Button12.1.3.4. Checkbox12.1.3.5. ComboBox12.1.3.6. DataGrid12.1.3.7. DateChooser12.1.3.8. DateField12.1.3.9. Label12.1.3.10. List12.1.3.11. Loader12.1.3.12. Menu12.1.3.13. MenuBar12.1.3.14. NumericStepper12.1.3.15. ProgressBar12.1.3.16. RadioButton12.1.3.17. ScrollPane12.1.3.18. TextArea12.1.3.19. TextInput12.1.3.20. Tree12.1.3.21. UIScrollBar12.1.3.22. Window12.2. Adding Components12.3. Customizing Components12.3.1. Customizing Components Using the Properties and Parameters Panels12.3.2. Customizing Components Using the Component Inspector12.3.2.1. Parameters tab12.3.2.2. Bindings tab12.3.2.3. Schema tab12.3.3. Customizing Components Using the Actions Panel12.4. Finding Additional Components
IV. Delivering Your Animation to Its Audience
13. Testing and Debugging
13.1. Testing Strategies13.1.1. Planning Ahead13.1.1.1. Separate potentially troublesome elements13.1.1.2. Reuse as much as possible13.1.1.3. Be generous with comments13.1.1.4. Stick with consistent names13.1.2. Techniques for Better Testing13.2. Testing on the Stage13.3. Testing in Flash Player13.4. Testing Inside a Web Page13.5. Testing Download Time13.5.1. Simulating Downloads13.5.1.1. Pinpointing bottlenecks with a bandwidth profiler report13.6. The Art of Debugging13.6.1. Using the trace( ) Statement13.6.2. Displaying Property Names and Values13.6.3. Setting and Using Breakpoints
14. Publishing and Exporting
14.1. Optimizing Flash Documents14.1.1. Ten Optimization Strategies14.1.1.1. Choose tweens over frame-by-frame animations14.1.1.2. Choose the Pencil tool over the Brush tool14.1.1.3. Choose solid over dashed or dotted lines14.1.1.4. Simplify curves14.1.1.5. Use symbols14.1.1.6. Avoid bitmaps (or optimize them)14.1.1.7. Keep sound clips to a minimum; when you do use them, optimize them.14.1.1.8. Group elements14.1.1.9. Avoid the extraneous14.1.1.10. Tell Flash to keep your file size down14.2. Publishing Your Animations14.2.1. Publishing as a Compiled Flash (.swf) File14.2.2. Publishing as a Web Page14.2.3. Publishing a Frame as a Static Image File14.2.3.1. Publishing a Static GIF14.2.3.2. Publishing a JPEG14.2.3.3. Publishing a PNG14.2.4. Publishing as an Animated GIF14.2.5. Publishing as a Standalone Projector14.3. Exporting Flash to Other Formats14.3.1. Exporting the Contents of a Single Frame14.3.2. Exporting an Entire Animation
V. Appendix
A. Installation and Help
A.1. Installing and Activating Flash 8A.2. Getting Help from FlashA.2.1. Flash Documentation: The Help WindowA.2.2. Flash Overview and TutorialsA.3. Getting Help from AdobeA.3.1. Online Articles, FAQs, and Sample CodeA.3.2. ForumsA.3.3. Direct Person-to-Person HelpA.4. Finding Flash Gurus
About the Author
Colophon
Copyright

Content preview from Flash 8: The Missing Manual

The Missing Credits

About the Author

E. A. Vander Veer started out in the software trenches, lexing and yaccing and writing shell scripts with the best of them. She remained busy and happy for years writing C++ programs and wresting data from recalcitrant databases until reaching the proverbial fork in the road, when she chose the dark path—marketing. After a stint as an Object Technology Evangelist (yes, that’s an actual job title), she found a way to unite all of her passions: writing about cool computer stuff in prose any human being can understand. Books followed—over a dozen so far—including JavaScript For Dummies, XML Blueprints, and the fine tome you’re holding right now. Her articles appear in online and print publications including Byte, CNET, Salon.com, WEBTechniques, CNN.com (and a bunch you’ve never heard of). She lives in Minnesota with her husband and daughter. Email: eav_mm@comcast.net.

About the Creative Team

Nan Barber (editor) has worked with the Missing Manual series since its inception—long enough to remember booting up her computer from a floppy disk. Email: nanbarber@oreilly.com.

Michele Filshie (editor) is assistant editor for the Missing Manual series and editor of four of O’Reilly’s Personal Trainer books. Email: mfilshie@oreilly.com.

Sohaila Abdulali (copy editor) is a freelance writer and editor. She has published a novel, several children’s books, and numerous ...

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