1. Adobe Flash

2. Adobe Flash • 2 Approaches to Flash: • Designer/Animator - use traditional ‘cel’ animation techniques • Developer/Programmer - write robust applications using ActionScript

3. Stuff to Cover • Timeline • Keyframes • Tweening - Motion Tween vs. Shape Tween • Tools • Library • Symbols - Graphic, Movie Clip and Button • Importing assets • ActionScript Panel • Script Assist vs. Expert Mode • Publishing Your Movie • .swf + .html

4. The Stage • All the action happens here. For the most part, anything that’s on the Stage will appear in your final animation.

5. The Timeline • A visual representation of your movie over time. Each dot (Keyframe) represents what your movie looks like at that moment in time.

6. The Timeline • Shape Tweens: • Organic movement. Allows blends between two vector shapes. Cannot use symbols. Tweens: Shape vs. Motion Motion Tweens: Not organic. Must use Symbols. Only one Symbol per layer, or the Tween will fail.

7. The Library • Your repository of assets. • Some good things to know about Flash: • any Library item can be used an unlimited amount of times in your movie without impacting file-size. • each “instance” of a symbol can have its properties (size, color, alpha, rotation, etc.) modified on the Stage without affecting the original Library item.

8. The Library • Graphic: • have a timeline that is synchronized with the main movie timeline • you can set looping or set them to only play a certain range of frames • you can interactively see the animation

9. The Library • Button: • does exactly what you would think it would • have their own special timeline • can attach ActionScript directly to an instance of a Button Symbol

10. The Library • MovieClip: • the Most Awesome Symbol - like Peter from Heroes • can target it and tell it to do stuff from ActionScript • it’s timeline is independent of the main timeline • can dynamically position MovieClips on the Stage

11. ActionScript • Like Java or other ECMA-Script compliant languages. * • Provides a rich set of commands for controlling your movie and providing interactivity. • Case-sensitive. *(I don’t know what ECMA-Script means.)

12. Publishing • You can publish in various formats. • To get your movie on the web, you need at least the .swf format and an html page to embed it into. • You can write your own html, but you need to embed the swf correctly in it. • Proper Flash detection is also a consideration. • (In the end, it’s probably just easier to let Flash handle it.)