Flash® Professional CS5 Bible

Chapter 3. Planning Flash Projects

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Knowing your workflow

• Managing Flash content production

• Creating a functional specification document

• Using the Project panel in Flash CS5

One of the most important steps — if not the most important step — to producing great Flash content is knowing what steps you'll have to take to move from the concept or idea of the Flash movie to the finished product. This chapter explores the basics of Flash production and how to use the Project panel in Flash CS5 to organize your files. Whether you're a freelance Web consultant (or designer) or a member of a large creative or programming department, knowing how to manage the Flash content production will save you plenty of headaches, time, and money.

Workflow Basics

No matter what the size or scope, every project in which you choose to participate should follow some type of planned workflow. Whether it's for print, film, video, or Web delivery (or all four!), you should establish a process to guide the production of your presentation.

Before you can explore the way in which Flash fits into a Web production workflow, I need to define a holistic approach to Web production in general. Figure 3.1 shows a typical example of the Web production process within an Internet production company.

Note

Web production processes have been generally derived from traditional software development processes. The methodologies for production discussed in this chapter all fit into a category known as the "waterfall model." ...