Flash Out of the Box

Chapter 13. Get out Of the Box

As you may have noticed, Flash has billions of possible uses, and we’ve only begun to tap into its power. Now that you’ve mastered the basics, you may want to see some more advanced ways to use Flash.

In this chapter, I’ll recap what we’ve done so far and point you toward other resources that can send you further down the path to Flash greatness.

The Recap

Using a simple box as the foundation of almost every exercise in this book, we’ve designed layouts, created custom commands, animated a cartoon character, loaded images, imported assets from other programs, embedded a .swf file into a web page, created some cool effects, loaded text and CSS into a movie, created a reusable template, and even streamed video with ActionScript. Hopefully, you’ve gotten a clear view of what you can do with the tools that come in the box with every copy of Flash MX 2004 and Flash Pro.

Here is a quick recap of some of what you’ve learned to do since the beginning of this book:

• Use the Rectangle tool to draw simple rectangles and boxes

• Manipulate fill and stroke colors, including gradient fills

• Customize a stroke style to achieve a new look

• Convert shapes into graphic symbols

• Create your own preloader component

• Automate tasks by creating commands via the History panel

• Use movie clips to create animations that run independently of one another

• Use ActionScript to control movie clips

• Create buttons that move the playhead from one frame to another, open web pages, and run custom ActionScript ...