Basic Flash MX

Flash has its own programming language called Action Script. It has a tool palette that provides access to drawing tools that help you create visual content. You also have your Main Document Window which is split into two parts: Timeline & Layers and then your Scene (which shows you what everything will look like). The scene in comprised of Symbols (there are three kinds of symbols: movie, graphic button) which are the actual units that you use to animate with. There also is a Property Inspector that will give you information on objects that you have selected as well as general information on the entire movie. To the right, there are a variety of palattes that provide you with options such as color mixing, color swatches, components, etc.

Flash opens a default project when you launch the program. By selecting from the Modify menu, Document Properties, you can set the dimensions, background color, and frame rate (recommend 24 fps) of your flash movie. You can name your layers by double-clicking on the layer title and type in a new name for your layer. This is a good way to organize all of the elements of your animation. Layers are organized in a stacking order where the topmost listed layer's elements will visually appear on top of the other layers' elements.

Figure1

Click above image to enlarge.

You can use Flash to create your own images as well as importing them. The tools palette offers you basic shapes that you can manipulate. The property inspector allows you to further customize your shapes with stroke options, color options, and shape manipulation.

When you want to select the object yuou have to make sure that you have selected both the stroke and the fill as Flash distinguishes between them as separate objects. Once you have converted an object to a symbol, this no longer is a problem as a symbol is whole entity of its own. To make a graphic into a symbol you first select your graphic and then navigate to the Insert menu and then click on Convert to Symbol. There are three options when creating a symbol. You are also given a Registration option which dictates where the registration point in the graphic lies. For example, it will dictate where the rotation will take place. The default is the center, but you are given options to pick an alternate pivot point.

The Library, is a database of all the symbols that you have to work with in your animation. You can drag and drop as many instances of the same symbol as you like in your Scene. Should you want to change the color of the symbol, you can double-click on the symbol in the Library and edit the symbol. Then to return to your movie, you just have to navigate to the "breadcrumbs", click on Scene and then you are back to the main scene where you are creating the animation. The edits you made to the symbol in the Library will have changed all instances of that symbol in the Scene. You can however, edit the instances of the same symbol by selecting one via the Modify menu.

When you save a file, it defaults to a Flash Document with the extension .fla which is editable. However when you export the file to be web deliverable with extension .swf that particular file is not editable. So, it is a good idea to keep your original working .fla files if you plan on doing any additional work.

Creating graphics.

Flash has a variety of tools to use to create basic shapes. When you create a shape you can pick its Fill Color as well as its Stroke Color. Flash sees both the fill and the stroke as separate elements so make sure that you have selected the entire object when you want to move it. Once you have made the object a Symbol, the distinction of elements is moot and the entire object is one symbol. You create a symbol by selecting the graphic and then select Insert -> Convert to Symbol. You can chose from three options: Movie, Graphic, or Button. You are also prompted to give your symbol a name. It is wise to label your symbols as you can easily pick and chose from your library of symbols when you have created their labels, as you build your animation. One advantage of your library is that you can drag and drop multiple instances of your symbol into the Scene. This is especially useful should you want to change the coloring of all the multiple instances of your symbol in a Scene. Instead of having to alter each one you simply double-click on the symbol in your Library and your Scene window will become a screen for your edits to your symbol. Breadcrumbs, which are located in the upper left hand corner of the main window specify textually the navigation of your animation. To return to the Scene, you click on the appropriate breadcrumb. Also, you can edit the various instances of your symbol by selecting the instance and using the Modify menu to resize, reshape, and rotate your instance to your liking.

Animating.

To animate your symbol, you must navigate to its timeline and within that timeline select a point in time futher on that you want to animate to, for example, Frame 60. Highlight that frame and insert your keyframe (Insert->Keyframe). Then navigate to your original frame, for example, Frame 1. Here you want to go to the Property Inspector and toggle Tween to Motion. You can preview your movie by going to the Control menu and selecting Play. By default, Flash will tween in a straight line from the starting point to its end. Should you want to create a path on which the symbol will animate along, you can! This is accomplished by going to the Insert menu and selecting Motion Guide. A new layer appears in your Timeline. By using the pen or pencil tool, you can draw a path on which your symbol will follow as it tweens (See Figure2). make sure that you have highlighted the first frame in the Motion Guide so that you are drawing the path in the Motion Guide layer. It is important that your symbol be on the path in order to follow it. Highlight Frame 1 and in the Property Inspector check the boxes Orient to path and Snap. You then want to make sure that symbol has indeed snapped to the beginning in the first frame, and the end of the draw path line in the final frame. If you don't want the path to show, simply toggle the Show/Hide Layers in the path's Layer in the Timeline.


Publishing.

From one source file (.fla) you can create a wide variety of output formats to publish your flash movie. Under File->Publish Settings you can toggle on the various formats that you would like your flash animation movie to export to. Then click on Publish and you will have your final product(s).