Foundation Flash CS3
2008
Introduction
Welcome to Flash CS3 Professional.You
have seen a lot of the great stuff Flash can
do and it is now time for you to get into the
game. I also suspect you are here because
Flash can be one great big, scary application
to those unfamiliar with it.
What we’ll cover in this session:
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Exploring the Flash interface
Using the Flash stage
Working with panels
Difference between a frame and a keyframe
Using frames to arrange content on the
stage
Using layers to manage content on the stage
Adding objects to the library
Testing your movie
What we are going to do to begin with is
take a walk through the authoring
environment - called the Flash interface pointing out the sights and giving you an
opportunity to experiment with the
features. By the end of the stroll, you
should be fairly comfortable with this tool
called Flash and have a fairly good idea of
what tools you can use and how to use
them as you start creating a Flash movie.
The Start page and Creating a
Flash document
The first thing you see when you launch Flash
is the Start page. This interface, common to all
of the Adobe CS3 applications, is divided into
three areas. The area on the left side shows
you a list of documents you have previously
opened. Click one of them, and that document,
provided it hasn’t been moved to another
location on your computer, will open. The
Open link at the bottom of the list lets you
navigate to a document that isn’t on the list.
The Start Page
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The middle area of the page is where you
can choose to create a variety of new Flash
documents.Your choices include a blank
Flash document, a project aimed at a mobile
phone or PDA (a mobile document), a series
of code-based documents, and a Flash
project.
The major change in this panel is the ability
to select a new document based upon which
version of ActionScript will be used in the
document. Flash Professional CS3 marks the
latest version of the Flash programming
language named ActionScript. The previous
version of this language, used in Flash MX
2004 and Flash 8, was ActionScript 2.0.
The right area of the screen is reserved for a
variety of templates you can use.
The Extend area at the bottom of the Start
Screen contains a link to the Flash
Exchange. This is a hyperlink that takes you
to a page on the Adobe site where you can
download a variety of tools and projects
that are available for free or a nominal cost.
Flash Authoring Environment
Menus
Layers
Timeline
Panels
Tools
Flash Stage
Properties
Tools
Views
Colour
Options
Timeline
Panels
Document Properties
1. Enter the following values into the
Document Properties dialog box:
 Title: Pond
 Description: My first Flash exercise
 Width: 400
 Height: 300
 Background colour: #000066
2. Click OK and the stage will shrink to the
new dimensions and change colour to a dark
blue. These changes will also be shown in the
Property inspector.
The Property Inspector
Background Colour
Document Size
Movie Name
Access the
Publishing Settings
Frame Rate
Zooming the Stage
There will be occasions when you will
discover that the stage is a pretty crowded
place. In these situations, you’ll want to be
sure that each item on the stage is in its
correct position and is properly sized.
Depending on the size of the stage, this could
be difficult because the stage may fill the
screen area. Fortunately, Flash allows you to
reduce or increase the magnification of the
stage through a technique called zooming.
Zooming the stage has no effect upon the
actual stage size.
Select a zoom level using the Magnification dropdown.
Exploring the Panels in the
Flash Interface
Panels can be moved around and opened or
closed depending upon your workflow needs.
We will now take a closer look at the more
important panels that you will use every day.
They include the following:
 Timeline
 Library
 Property Inspector
 Actions panel
 Tools panel
 Help panel
The Timeline
There is a fundamental truth to becoming
proficient with Flash: master the timeline and
you will master Flash.
At its most basic, all animation is movement
over time, and all animation has a start point
and an end point. The length of your timeline
will determine when animations start and end,
and the number of frames between those two
points will determine the length of the
animation. As the author, you control those
factors.
Start
Middle
End
A simple animation ball, a is placed at the left
and right edges of the stage. In between, the
ball is at the top of the stage. From this, you
can gather that the ball will move upward
when the sequence starts and will continue to
its finish position at the right edge of the stage
once it has reached the middle of the
sequence.
Animation is a series of frames on the timeline.
Frames
If you unroll a spool of movie film, you will
see that it is composed of a series of
individual still images. Each image is called a
frame, and this analogy applies just as well
to Flash as it does for the film industry.
The timeline is nothing more
than a series of frames.
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When you open Flash, your timeline will be
empty, but you will see a series of rectangles
- these are the frames.You may also notice
that these frames are divided into groups.
Most frames are white and every fifth frame
is gray.
Flash movies can range in length from 1 to
16,000 frames, although a Flash movie that is
16,000 frames in length is highly unusual. The
thing you need to keep in mind is that a
frame shows you the content that is on the
stage at any point in time.
The content in a frame can range from one
object to hundreds of objects, and a frame
can include audio, video, code, images, text,
and drawings either singly or in
combination with each other. When you
first open a new Flash document, you will
notice that frame 1 contains a hollow circle.
This visual clue tells you that frame 1 is
waiting for you to add something to it.