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Select the file, and click Open. Page Disconnecting from a project also removes local project files; however, the Disconnect command also removes shortcuts to the project from Bridge and the Adobe dialog box. Page When you copy or move a file, Version Cue copies or moves only the most current version. Page Metadata is added to Version Cue project files as you work with them. In addition, you can add other metadata to files in Adobe Creative Suite components through the File Info dialog box.
Adobe Creative Suite components can contain specific metadata fields; for example, fonts and colors in InDesign files and colors in Illustrator files. You can even create versions of linked non-Adobe files. Page Version Cue Server Administration. You can restore files or folders that have Deleted status to reinstate Version Cue management. Click Project Trash in the Favorites panel, right-click the file you want to delete permanently, and choose Delete Permanent.
You can check in versions of non-Adobe files only if the files are in a Version Cue project and the files have been opened through Bridge. Select the file whose versions you want to view.
The file status is Never Saved, because the previous version is only a snapshot of a previous stage of the file. When you first create users and groups, Version Cue will prompt you to install Flash Player. Optional Type a phone number, an e-mail address, and comments in the remaining boxes. Click Save. You can import users from an LDAP server and map their user attributes such as user name and password to Version Cue user attributes.
The location of the user list appears under the Export Users heading. Stores any remarks you type about the project. Version Cue duplicates the folder hierarchy within the project structure. Select the check box next to the project you want to duplicate, and click Duplicate. Important: If you restore a backup copy of the Version Cue Server, all current data on the server, including Version Cue projects, files, and versions, is replaced by the backup.
When a review is complete, you can view all comments either in the context of the original document or as a list in Version Cue Server Admin- istration. Select Private if you want reviewers to see only their own comments. For a video tutorial about the Flash and Fireworks workflow, see www.
Page called effects in FireWorks and guides in the PNG file when you import it as editable objects. Using Fireworks effects and blend modes in Flash Flash 8 and later provides support for Fireworks filters, blend modes, and text. Page Note: To edit bitmap images in Flash convert the bitmap images to vector artwork or break apart the bitmap images. FreeHand is a good choice for creating vector graphics for import into Flash, because you can preserve FreeHand layers, text blocks, library symbols, and pages, and choose a page range to import.
The AI Importer also provides you with a great degree of control in determining how your Illustrator artwork is imported into Flash, letting you specify how to import specific objects into an AI file.
Layers panel B. Flash Layers Converts each layer in the imported document to a keyframe in the Flash document. Keyframes Converts all layers in the imported document to a single flattened layer in the Flash document. Flash Library after importing an AI file. The preferences you specifiy for importing AI files affects the options the AI Import dialog box is initially populated with for the Illustrator object types. Supported blend modes, effects, and object transparency are Editable Paths preserved, but attributes not supported in Flash are discarded.
By default, all items are organized in a single, parent layer. Import all items in a given parent layer as a single, flattened bitmap, or, individually select each object and specify import options specific to the type of object it is text, path, group, and so on. Importing text as a movie clip preserves the editability of compatible visual effects. Photoshop lets you create still images and artwork, providing a high degree of creative control.
For a video tutorial about designing website with Photoshop and Flash, see www. Compatibility between Flash and Photoshop Certain visual attributes can either not be accurately imported, or, after they are imported, lose their ability to be further edited in the Flash authoring environment. Optional In the PSD Import dialog box, select layers, groups, and individual objects and choose how to import each item. Specifies that the image layers be converted to a movie clip when imported into Flash.
This Create Movie Clips option can be changed in the PSD Import dialog box on an object by object basis if you do not want all of the image layers to be movie clips. Specifies that all groups be converted to a movie clip when imported into Flash. This can be Create Movie Clips changed on an object by object basis if you do not want some layer groups to be movie clips.
By default, all layers visible in Photoshop are checked, and invisible layers are not checked. Creates a movie clip with a bitmap inside. A higher setting preserves greater image integrity but yields a larger file size. Page BitmapData To do so, specify a linkage identifier for the bitmap. For more information, see Assigning linkage to assets in the library in Learning ActionScript 2.
Select the bitmap in the Library panel. For example, the image of a leaf is described by the specific location and color value of each pixel in the grid, creating an image in much the same manner as a mosaic. Use the Pointer tool to move the object by clicking the bounding box and dragging the shape to position it on the Stage. The Pointer and Subselection tools select objects by dragging a rectangular selection marquee around the object.
The Lasso tool selects objects by dragging a free-form selection marquee around the object. When an object is selected, a rectangular box appears around the object.
This setting also controls horizontal and vertical line recog- nition—that is, how nearly horizontal or vertical a line must be drawn before Flash makes it exactly horizontal or vertical. Fills and strokes are treated as separate objects. Select fills and strokes separately to move or modify them. To automatically align elements with each other and with the drawing grid or guides, use snapping. To change the display of tools, customize the Tools panel.
Click the Object Drawing button in the Options section of the Tools panel, to select either the Merge or Object drawing model.
When the Object Drawing button is depressed, the Line tool is in Object drawing mode. Position the pointer where the line is to begin, and drag to where the line is to end. You can enter a numerical value for the inner radius in the box, or click the slider and interactively adjust the size of the radius. Entering a negative value creates an inverse radius.
If you are using the Rectangle tool, press the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys while dragging to adjust the radius of rounded corners. For the Oval and Rectangle tools, Shift-drag to constrain the shapes to circles and squares. The Tilt modifier varies the angle of brush strokes when you vary the angle of the stylus on the tablet. The Tilt modifier measures the angle between the top eraser end of the stylus and the top north edge of the tablet.
Selected solid endpoint B. Selected anchor point C. Unselected anchor point D. Curved path segment E. Direction line F. Direction point Paths can have two kinds of anchor points: corner points and smooth points. At a corner point, a path abruptly changes direction. A smooth point always has two direction lines, which move together as a single, straight unit. When you move a direction line on a smooth point, the curved segments on both sides of the point are adjusted simultaneously, maintaining a continuous curve at that anchor point.
For a video tutorial about the Pen tool, see www. Selected line segments and anchor points use the outline color of the layer on which the lines and points appear.
Starting to drag second smooth point B. Dragging away from previous direction line, creating a C curve C. Click and hold the mouse button on the Pen tool , then select the Pen tool , Add Anchor Point tool , or the Delete Anchor Point tool To add an anchor point, position the pointer over a path segment, and click. A minus - sign appears next to the Pen tool if an anchor point can be deleted from the selected line segment.
If the line segment is not yet selected, click it with the Pen tool to select it, and then delete the corner point. The pointer changes to indicate what type of reshaping it can perform on the line or fill. Flash adjusts the curve of the line segment to accommodate the new position of the moved point. It also reduces the number of segments in a curve.
Smoothing is relative, however, and has no effect on straight segments. It is partic- ularly useful when you are having trouble reshaping a number of very short curved line segments. Erase Normal Erases only fills; strokes are not affected. Erase Fills Erases only strokes; fills are not affected.
Erase Lines Erases only the currently selected fills and does not affect strokes, selected or not. For example, if you set Horizontal snap tolerance to 18 pixels the default setting , a dotted line appears along the edge of the object you are dragging when the object is exactly 18 pixels from another object. Using the default palette or a palette you create, you can choose colors to apply to the stroke or fill of an object you are about to create, or an object already on the Stage.
Color panel options Changes the color of the stroke, or the border, of a graphic object. Stroke Color Changes the color of the fill. The fill is the area of color that fills up the shape. Fill Color Changes the fill style: Type Menu You can also import color palettes, but not gradients, from GIF files.
To select a stroke style, click the triangle next to the Style menu and select an option from the menu. To create a custom style, select Custom from the Property inspector, select options in the Stroke Style dialog box, and click OK. These controls, called overflow modes, let you specify how colors are applied beyond the gradient.
Select the Ink Bottle tool from the Tools panel. Select a stroke color. Select a stroke style and stroke width from the Property inspector. The rollover icon for the width handle the square handle is a double- Width ended arrow.
Radial Gradient controls A. Center point B. Width C. Rotation D. Size E. You can also drag the lowest handle on the bounding circle of a circular gradient or fill. Select Linear or Radial from the Type menu in the Color panel. Click the Lock Fill modifier First paint the areas where you want to place the center of the fill, and then move to other areas.
Each kind has its own advantages and disadvantages. By understanding the capabilities of the different object types, you can make good decisions about which types of objects to use in your work. To enter object drawing mode Select the Object Drawing option in the Tools panel. Select a drawing tool from the Tools panel and draw on the Stage. Note: To select the Selection tool, you can also press the V key. To temporarily switch to the Selection tool when another tool is active, hold down the Control key Windows or Command key Macintosh.
Hide selection highlighting Hiding highlighting while you are selecting and editing objects lets you see how artwork appears in its final state.
Move objects by using the Property inspector Select an object or multiple objects. Click the Create Copy button in the Transform panel.
Delete objects Deleting an object removes it from the file. Deleting an instance of an object on the Stage does not delete the symbol from the library. Select the objects to align. Page Transforming Objects FLASH CS3 User Guide Break apart groups and objects To separate groups, instances, and bitmaps into ungrouped, editable elements, you break them apart, which signifi- cantly reduces the file size of imported graphics. For instances, the transformation point is the point of origin by default.
You can move the default point of origin for a transformation. Do not drag the transformation point. Drag the points and tangent handles to modify the envelope. Scale objects Scaling an object enlarges or reduces the object horizontally, vertically, or both.
Select a graphic object or objects on the Stage. To end the transformation, click outside the selected object or objects. These assets are managed in Flash as symbols, instances, and library assets. Understanding how the types of assets work together lets you make good choices about how and when to use them, and anticipate the best design options for your work. Page You define the graphics associated with various button states, and then assign actions to a button instance.
For more information, see Handling events in Learning ActionScript 2. On the main Timeline, select every frame in every layer of the animation on the Stage that you want to use. Editing a symbol in a separate window lets you see the symbol and the main Timeline at the same time.
The name of the symbol you are editing appears in the Edit bar at the top of the Stage. Use the instance name to refer to an instance in Action- Script. To control instances with ActionScript, give each instance within a single timeline a unique name.
Page In addition, you can name a movie clip or button instance so that you can use ActionScript to change its properties. For more information, see Classes in Learning ActionScript 2.
In contrast, a movie clip symbol has its own independent Timeline. Animated graphic symbols, because they use the same Timeline as the main document, display their animation in document-editing mode. Page Using Shared Library Assets Note: Flash also uses the linkage identifier to identify a movie clip or button that is used as an object in ActionScript. See Working with movie clips in Learning ActionScript 2.
Page SWF file were playing. You can still select enabled buttons. Disable buttons as you work, and enable buttons to quickly test their behavior. Page Note: Instances made from a 9-slice-enabled movie clip symbol can be transformed, but should not be edited.
Editing these instances can have unpredictable results. The movie clip or button instance must have a unique instance name to be used with ActionScript. To control movie clip or button symbols, use ActionScript. Instance name of movie clip or screen receiving the graphic. Page Extending Flash.
You can also download behaviors that other Flash users have created from the Adobe Flash Exchange website. You can visit the Adobe Exchange at: www. Frame-by-frame animation increases file size more rapidly than tweened animation. Onion All Move an entire animation Move the graphics in all frames and layers at once to avoid realigning everything. Unlock all layers. These properties must be jointly applied to an object. Skew Rotation And Skew is a measurement of rotation in degrees, and when you rotate and skew, each property affects the other.
All color values such as Tint, Brightness, and Alpha are applied to the object. Select the frames in the Timeline that contain the motion tween to copy. The frames you select must be on the same layer, however, they do not have to span a single motion tween.
The selection can span a tween, empty frames, or two or more tweens. Page To create a mask layer from a movie clip, use ActionScript. A mask layer created with ActionScript can be applied only to another movie clip. See Using movie clips as masks in Learning ActionScript 2. For a video tutorial about animating masks, see www. Animate a filled shape, type object, or graphic symbol instance on a mask layer Select the mask layer in the Timeline.
To unlock the mask layer, click in the Lock column. Page For a text tutorial about timeline animation, see Create a Timeline Animation on the Flash Tutorials page at www.
For samples of animation, see the Flash Samples page at www. To synchronize the animation of graphic symbol instances with the main Timeline, select the Sync option in the Property inspector.
The layer is indented under the motion guide layer. All objects on this layer automatically snap to the motion path. When Property pop-up menu enabled, a separate curve is maintained for each of the five properties appearing in the menu. Selecting a property in the menu displays the curve for that property. For a video tutorial about shape tweens, see www. Use shape hints Select the first keyframe in a shape-tweened sequence.
The ending shape hint appears somewhere on the shape as a green circle with the letter a. Move the shape hint to the point in the ending shape that should correspond to the first point you marked.
To view how the shape hints change the shape tweening, play the animation again. Page The type, number, and quality of filters you apply to objects can affect the performance of SWF files as you play them. Page The Drop Shadow filter simulates the look of an object casting a shadow onto a surface.
Text with the Drop Shadow filter applied. For a sample of a drop shadow, see the Flash Samples page at www. Applying a blur to an object can make it appear as if it is behind other objects, or make an object appear to be in motion.
Text with the Blur filter applied. Select an object to apply a bevel to, and select Filters. Page FLASH CS3 User Guide To change a color in the gradient, select one of the color pointers below the gradient definition bar and click the color space that appears directly below the gradient bar to display the Color Picker.
Sliding these pointers adjusts the level and position of that color in the gradient. Erase Note: Erase and Alpha blend modes require that a Layer blend mode be applied to the parent movie clip. You cannot change the background clip to Erase and apply it because the object would appear invisible. Blend mode examples The following examples illustrate how different blend modes affect the appearance of an image. Page Flash ignores all other blending modes imported from Fireworks.
You can create text fields containing static text, which you create when you author the document. You can also create dynamic text fields, which display updating text, such as stock quotes or news headlines, and input text fields, which allow users to enter text for forms or surveys.
Using four or five fonts, for example, can increase memory usage by approximately 4 MB. Page For more information on using a movie clip as a mask, see Using movie clips as masks in Learning ActionScript 2. For a sample about device font masking, see the Flash Samples web page at www. You can select which fonts are substituted for the missing fonts, or you can let Flash substitute missing fonts with the Flash System Default Font. Page For a video tutorial about working with text, see www.
For a sample file about working with text, see the Flash Samples page at www. Page Although you can use the variable name method with dynamic text fields for backwards compatibility to Macromedia Flash 5 and earlier versions, Adobe doesn't recommend this, because you can't control other text field properties, or apply style sheet settings. Page FLASH CS3 User Guide The box in the upper-left corner identifies words not found in the selected dictionaries, and also identifies the type of element that contains the text such as a text field or frame label.
For example, you can rotate, skew, flip, and scale text fields. When you scale a text field as an object, the Property inspector does not reflect increases or decreases in point size. The text in a transformed text field can still be edited, although severe transformations may make it difficult to read. Font attributes include font family, point size, style, color, letter spacing, autokerning, and character position. Paragraph attributes include alignment, margins, indents, and line spacing.
Use letter spacing to adjust the spacing of selected characters or entire blocks of text. Kerning controls the spacing between pairs of characters.
Many fonts have built-in kerning information. For example, A and V are often closer together than A and D. To apply settings to existing text, select text fields on the Stage. Use Sharpness to specify the smoothness of the transition Custom Anti-Alias between the text edges and the background. Use Thickness to specify how thick the font anti-aliasing transition appears. Larger values cause the characters to look thicker.
By default, Flash stores the names of fonts used in dynamic or input text files. During SWF file playback, Flash Player 7 and earlier versions looks for those fonts on the operating system running the player. To tell Flash Player to use the traditional code page of the operating system that is running the player, add the following code as the first line of code in the first frame of the Flash application that is loading the data: system. Users with Flash Player 6 or later can view multi- language text, regardless of the language that the operating system running the player uses, if they have the correct fonts installed.
You can specify content for text fields that span multiple languages, and have Flash automatically determine the content that should appear in a certain language based on the language of the computer running Flash Player. The language code is from ISO Click Add. Repeat step 3 until you have added all the necessary languages.
In the Default Language menu, select the default language. Translators can either work directly in the language columns in the Strings panel or work in the XML files for each language to translate the FLA file to selected languages. You can import sounds and edit them after they are imported. You can attach sounds to different kinds of objects and trigger them in different ways, depending on your desired effect. You need only one copy of a sound file to use that sound multiple ways in your document.
Select this option to remove previously applied effects. None Plays sound in the left or right channel only. In the Property inspector, select the same sound from the Sound pop-up menu. Select Stop from the Sync pop-up menu. When you play the SWF file, the sound stops playing when it reaches the ending keyframe.
Flash Lite 1. Default setting. Deselect to select other mp3 compression settings. Select to export an Use Imported mp3 Quality imported mp3 file with the same settings the file had when it was imported. For more information, see Creating sound controls in Learning ActionScript 2. Select the sound in the Library panel. With this version, when you load an mp3 sound using the ActionScript 2.
Adobe has partnered with several content delivery network CDN providers to offer hosted services for delivering on-demand Flash Video across high- performance, reliable networks.
To apply actions to a Video object, first convert the Video object to a movie clip. To learn more about Flash Media Server, see: www. To learn more about FVSS, see: www. Change video instance properties in the Property inspector Select an instance of an embedded or linked video clip on the Stage. Select Properties from the Library Panel menu, or click the Properties button located at the bottom of the the Library panel.
To create a more dynamic presentation, work with multiple video clips, or add dynamic transitions or other elements using ActionScript, import the video into the library. Page FLASH CS3 User Guide If you imported the video clip directly to the Stage in step 1, a warning appears if the imported clip contains more frames than the span in which you are placing it in the current Flash document. You can import linked video clips in MOV format.
You can then encode the other format as an FLV file, and preserve the audio content. However, if you need to reduce the frame rate, the best results come from dividing the frame rate by whole numbers. Although frame rates and sizes of Internet video are usually smaller than those of television, computer monitors have much better color fidelity, saturation, sharpness, and resolution than conventional televisions.
Page Select a frame rate. By default, Flash Video Encoder uses the same frame rate as the source video. In general, the default keyframe value provides a reasonable level of control when seeking within a video clip. To further modify the video clip, select another of the Advanced Settings tabs.
Embed cue points Cue points cause the video playback to trigger other actions within the presentation. For example, you can create a Flash presentation video playing in one area of the screen while text and graphics appear in another area. Page Working With Premier Pro And After Effects Adobe Flash offers technological and creative benefits that let you fuse video with data, graphics, sound, and interactive control. The Adobe Flash Video format lets you put video on a web page in a format that almost anyone can view.
Page Moving content between Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Flash After you start and edit a video in Adobe Premiere Pro, you can add sequence markers to the timeline that serve as cue points in a Flash application. You can then use After Effects to edit and refine the video. You can import SWF files into After Effects to composite them with other video or render them as video with additional creative effects.
Number of frames Hide Video Hides the video. Instance name of target video Show Video Shows the video. Instance name of target video Control video playback using behaviors Select the movie clip to trigger the behavior. The Video Import wizard sufficiently configures the parameters for most deployments. Boolean value that determines how to play the FLV.
When browsing for an FLV file, if it is at or below the location of the target SWF file, Flash automatically makes the path relative to that location so that it is ready for serving from a web server. E-learning content will not work with ActionScript 3. Drag And Drop The user responds by clicking a region or regions on the screen. Hot Spot The user responds by clicking an object or objects on the screen. Hot Object Each learning interaction has unique parameters that determine how the interaction appears to the user.
Set quiz parameters Quiz parameters control how the entire quiz is presented to users—for example, whether the questions are presented in a random or sequential order, the number of questions to display, and whether the Results page appears. Note: If the text in the Component inspector is too small to be legible, undock the panel and drag a corner of the panel to enlarge it. Select Randomize to present the quiz questions in a random order.
When you use a quiz template, you place interactions sequen- tially between the first and last frame of the Interactions layer on the root Timeline. Add or remove frames and keyframes as needed, as long as the interactions remain sequential and the first and last frames are reserved for the Welcome and Results pages.
In the Property inspector, click Launch Component Inspector. If the Flash application sends tracking information to a server-side LMS, specify a name for the interaction in the Interaction ID box. Add learning interactions to a document no quiz template To add learning interactions to a Flash document that does not use a quiz template, place stand-alone learning inter- actions in the Timeline in a single frame, sequential frames for example, 10 questions in 10 sequential frames , or Page FLASH CS3 User Guide Managing library assets for learning interactions When you drag a learning interaction from the Learning Interactions common library to the Stage, the symbols that comprise the learning interaction are copied from the common library to the library of the Flash document you are creating.
Answer the questions as they appear. When you complete the quiz, close it in the Flash Player window to return to the workspace. Adding, naming, and registering assets Adding, naming, and registering assets and Learning Interaction component instances Register these new unique instance names in the Component inspector for the learning inter- action.
Each Drag object can snap to any target named in the Drag and Drop component for evaluation. Drag objects can also share targets; for example, both Drag 1 and Drag 2 can match Target 8. Configure a Fill In The Blank interaction The Fill In The Blank interaction uses a question text field, a user entry text field, a control button, and a feedback text field.
The default sample uses six hot objects. If you are not using a quiz template, place the learning interaction on the Stage. If you are using a quiz template, select the frame on the Interactions layer that contains the Hot Object interaction Frame 5, if you did not add or remove keyframes. In the Property inspector, name the instance. Add the instance name to the Component inspector for the hot object.
The component does the rest of the work automatically at runtime. Add the instance name to the Component inspector for the hot spot. Remove a hot spot distractor Select the hot spot instance to remove and delete it from the Stage.
In the Property inspector, type the name of the movie clip instance, such as DragA, in the Instance Name box. In the Component inspector for the interaction, enter the same instance name such as DragA of the movie clip in the appropriate Name box. The data pattern and functionality shared by all interactions is defined in this script. Access the LToolbox- script from the library.
As you design accessible Flash applications, consider how users might interact with the content and follow recommended design and development practices. Page You can only create Flash content designed for use with screen readers with Windows platforms. Screen readers can only provide accurate accessibility to information-carrying graphics such as icons and gestural animation, if you provide names and descriptions for these objects in your document or for the entire Flash appli- cation.
For each of these accessible objects, you can set descriptive properties for screen readers to read aloud. You can also control how Flash Player decides which objects to expose to screen readers—for example, you can specify that certain accessible objects are not exposed to screen readers at all.
For a sample of accessible Flash content, see the Flash Samples page at www. Page This information generally applies to all objects. For information on how ActionScript handles instance names and variable names in text fields, see About text field instance and variable names in Learning ActionScript 2. Page The order in which objects receive input focus when users press the Tab key. The tab index that you assign in the Accessibility panel does not necessarily control the reading order.
Tab focus occurs in numerical order, starting from the lowest index number. After tab focus reaches the highest tab index, focus returns to the lowest index number. Page See Key in the ActionScript 2. See Capturing keypresses in Learning Action- Script 2.
Select the object and add the name of the keyboard shortcut to the Accessibility panel so the screen reader can read it. Important: Flash does not check that the ActionScript to code the keyboard shortcut was created. Unsolicited animation happens without the screen reader doing anything, which can be confusing for screen readers.
Page Accessible Flash components must contain ActionScript that defines their accessible behavior. For information on which accessible components work with screen readers, see the Flash Accessibility web page at www.
To use screens, you must start with an ActionScript 2. Screen-based documents and the screen authoring environment About the screen authoring environment Screens provide an authoring user interface with structural building blocks that make it easy for you to create complex, hierarchical Flash documents, such as slide presentations or form-based applications. A form screen is designed for a nonlinear, form-based application. Although each document has a default screen type, you can include and mix slide screens and form screens in any screen-based document.
If the document contains a nested screen or screens below the currently selected screen, the new screen is added after all nested screens already in place, one level below the selected screen.
You cannot view or modify the root Timeline of a screen-based Flash document. You can search for elements in the entire document or in the current screen. The values in the W and H fields are read-only. Width and height are determined by the screen contents. To make sure the registration point stays in the same relative position when the screen width and height change, use the Auto Snap option.
Page In the Property inspector, click the Properties tab. Enter a class name in the Class Name box. Change the registration point of a screen Select a screen in the Screen Outline pane. The default value is. These behaviors do not show the Select Screen dialog box. Web-based training courses, which often include a combination of text, drawings, animations, video clips, and voice-overs, are a natural fit for Flash. By hooking Flash up to a server on the back end, you can even present your audience with graded tests and up-to-the-minute product information.
Full-length ads and product presentations. Marketing types can use Flash to create slick, storyboarded, buy-our-stuff-now animations and program mock-ups. Customer service kiosks. Many of the kiosks you see in stores and building lobbies use Flash to help customers find what they need.
For example, photo kiosks walk customers through the process of transferring images from their digital cameras and ordering their own prints; kiosks in banks let customers withdraw funds, check interest rates, and make deposits. Television and film effects. The Hollywood set has been known to use Flash to create spectacular visual effects for TV shows and even small feature films.
But where the TV and film industry is seriously adopting Flash is on promotional Web sites, where they wed Flash graphics to scenes taken from their movies and shows to present powerful trailers, interactive tours of movie and show sets, and teasers.
Games and other programs. With support for runtime scripting, back end data transfers, and interactive controls such as buttons and text boxes, Flash has everything a programmer needs to create a cool-looking game check out www.
In fact, depending on whose figures you believe, somewhere between 70 and 98 percent of all the PCs and Macs connected to the Web can play Flash animations right out of the box. This ubiquity is a huge boon for anyone interested in creating animations with Flash, because once you create your masterpiece, virtually everyone connected to the Internet will be able to see and enjoy it—with one caveat: If you use brand-new features introduced in Flash CS3, folks running an earlier version of Flash Player like 6 or 7 may not be able to see your animation the way you meant for it to look, until they download and install a copy of the Flash 9 Player.
The examples, explanations, and step-by-step instructions in the next 14 chapters show you how to turn that idea into a working animation. Previous versions of Flash came in two flavors: Professional and Standard. Flash Professional offers everything for both professional developers and weekend Web mavens. Some of the pro-quality features include:. Additional graphic effects. With Flash CS3 Professional, you get convenient extras like filters predefined blurs, glows, and drop shadows , blend modes transparency effects that make compositing , or combining images, easy , and custom easing the ability to slow down or speed up animated tweens with the click of a button.
Support for mobile authoring. Flash CS3 Professional comes with mobile templates to help you size your animations for handhelds , an emulator to let you see how your animations will appear on every handheld that Flash supports , and built-in publishing options.
Support for high-end video manipulation. Flash CS3 Professional gives you extra tools, including the Flash Video Exporter a QuickTime plug-in that lets you create Flash video files using any Apple QuickTime—compatible video authoring tool and the Flash Video Encoder a standalone application that lets you convert regular video files to Flash video files.
Using Flash CS3 Professional, you can link to external video files and even layer video clips on top of each other to create sophisticated composite effects. When Adobe acquired Macromedia at the end of , graphic artists and Web designers held their breath waiting to learn what this meant for Flash, as well as Dreamweaver a favorite Web design tool.
For the most part, there were sighs of relief when Adobe folded both beloved programs into its high-powered Creative Suite. Some Flash fans were concerned that Adobe might change Flash from a simple animation design program into a full-fledged program authoring environment.
Actually, the difference between the two is mostly in the minds of marketing geeks. After all, an interactive Web site or tutorial created using Flash is, by definition, a program. Now that the dust has settled, most of the improvements you see in Flash CS3 compared to the previous version Flash 8 have to do with bringing Flash into the Adobe Creative Suite family. For the programming crowd, the big news is Action-Script 3.
But in addition, Adobe also added a few usability tweaks, plus a couple of new image-editing features. A traditional Adobe workspace. The toolbars and other onscreen doodads have a more professional look, too. Better file organization. Adobe brings a couple additional presents to the Flash party: Bridge and Version Cue.
Bridge is an absolutely terrific tool for organizing, viewing, and sharing photos and artwork. Now you can use Bridge to import photos from your digital camera, organize them in albums, modify them in Photoshop and then slurp them right into a Flash animation or Dreamweaver Web page.
Say goodbye to files with names like: mydog Improved import features for Photoshop and Illustrator. Flash now plays better with files imported from Photoshop and Illustrator. For example, you can choose which layers you import from a Photoshop PSD file. In the past, when you imported Illustrator files, Flash had a tendency to mess with your carefully positioned curve controls, also known as Bezier points.
Pen Tool enhancements. Flash always had pretty idiosyncratic drawing tools for shapes and objects. Fancy new copy and paste tricks. You can now copy and paste things you never could before. For example, you can copy and paste filter effects from one shape or drawing to another. Or, if you like the way an object moves in your animation, you can copy the motion that describes the action and apply it to another object.
Improved Bitmap Symbol Library. Instead of searching all over your computer for images, you can check them out of your handy Library. The new, improved Flash gives you a bigger, better view of your photos and other bitmap-style graphic masterpieces.
Better video through QuickTime. QuickTime is an industry standard for distributing video files over the Internet and on discs. Improvements in ActionScript.
The new Flash has offerings for both artists and programmers. ActionScript 3. Animation is a complex subject, and Flash is a complex program. This section and the following one give you some background. Animators used to develop animations in a frame-by-frame sequence, where every frame contained a different image. As the frames sped by on a projector, the hundreds or hundreds of thousands of static images created the illusion of moving characters.
Painstaking work? You bet. Before the age of computerized generation—which has really just come into its own in the last 15 years or so, with big names like Pixar—major animation houses employed whole armies of graphic artists, each charged with producing hundreds of drawings that represented a mere fraction of the finished work.
What we yukked at for a scant few minutes took weeks and dozens of tired, cramped hands to produce. One mistake, one spilled drop of coffee, and these patient-as-Job types would have to grab fresh paper and start all over again. When everything was done, the animation would have to be put together—much like one of those flip books where you flip pages real fast to see a story play out—while it was being filmed by special cameras.
Flash brings you the power of a design studio, expert tools, and the equivalent of a staff of highly trained detail people. You still have to come up with an idea for the animation, and you have to draw or find and import at least a couple of images. But beyond that, Flash can take over and generate most of the frames you need to flesh out your animation.
In addition, Flash lets you create and work with movie clips , which are something else entirely. Say you work for a company that does custom auto refinishing.
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