Flash Animation & ActionScript Course Durban

Course Subjects

Launching flash

• resetting the workspace
• exploring the welcome screen
• the flash files explained
• creating our first flash file
• the panels
• modifying the movie properties
• saving the file

Getting to Grips with Drawing, strokes

• the line tool
• using the black mouse pointer to manipulate the line
• changing the stroke’s properties
• the colour panel and selecting the right options
• the pen tool
• the pencil and its crafty modes

Drawing, fills and shapes

• the basic shapes
• watching out for the stroke/fill conundrum
• manipulating shapes
• the color panel and fills solid
• bitmap and gradients solving classic problems

The Shape Tool

• working in a single layer causes its problems
• accidental fill on fill but this can be useful
• compound shapes and slicing shapes up
• stroke fill interactions

Working with Layers

• building new layers
• locking previous layers to prevent modification
• hiding and showing layers
• outline view as an alternative to visibility
• adding shadows to our design

Using the Text Tool

• the text tool
• checking the properties before you type
• adding our text
• back to black
• changing the properties
• discussing the anti-alias options
• working with large blocks of text
• an example of text orientation
• breaking apart text and applying a stroke

Enhancing the Design with Images

• a simple import to stage
• let’s take a look at workflow
• decide upon the size
• resize in fireworks
• using image preview to manipulate the quality
• exporting the image
• import to library and use the symbol in the movie
• a workflow for transparent content
• open the image in fireworks
• export as PNG32 to maintain transparency
• import to library and explore the bitmap properties
• working with ‘vector’ artwork
• tracing line-art drawings
• is it worth it?
• some nice examples

Being Symbolic?

• the concept
• convert to symbol, shape, text and image
• compare and discuss the symbol types
• look at colour effects
• look at filters
• reuse is the key
• blend modes

Using the Mask

• importing an image
• creating a new layer
• using the grid fill deco tool
• turning it into a mask
• locking layers and preview

Tweening Time

• steps to happiness
• tweening different properties, movement, alpha, scale and rotation
• putting it into practise,let’s build a banner
• the magic staircase
• animating images
• cache as bitmap
• exploring easing and breaking up a tween

Publishing your Movie

• a quick look at publish settings
• publishing the movie
• reviewing the output

Getting all interactive

Back to Banners

• banner advert sizes
• let’s build a banner to brush up our skills
• alphas, movement, scale, blur
• placing backgrounds and borders on our banner
• advertisement text
• transparent corners
• creating movieclips in retrospect
• masking revisited
• using a mask in an animation
• shape tweening and the spray brush
• how to add a simple link and let’s copy and paste the code

The Building Blocks of a Simple Microsite

• building a button,
• separating shape and colour
• creating a button symbol
• bevel filters and tint effects
• adding audio to the click and adding some dummy text
• duplicating symbols
• duplicating our button
• modifying the text
• bringing the buttons together
• grouping the buttons using a movieclip
• giving everything a name
• using a movieclip for the background
• building the symbol off the stage and it’s not the size that’s important
• sketching out the design
• a quick storyboard
• identifying extra elements
• rounded corners and 9-slice scaling

Building our first page

• the home page
• layers and layer names
• adding our library content
• adding text and applying formatting
• getting gradient text using masks
• image import and workflow revisited and lorem ipsum as a cheat

Using scenes

• getting the content in the same place
• duplicating the title symbol and then swapping it out
• swapping out the image
• modifying the layout
• naming our scenes
• modifying behaviour with a sprinkling of script
• adding some code to make the buttons work
• sneaking in a simple preloader
• adding labels to our frames as anchors
• changing our publish settings to enable the anchors
• reviewing the movie and fixing any problems

Publishing the Microsite

• Publish settings and the flash player version
• Reviewing our result

Test

• Quick Test to see if you understood everything
• Certificate