Flash 'Creative License' Package

Day 1 – Introducing Flash

Introducing Flash

* 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
* Fills
* Solving classic problems

Shape Interaction

* Working in a single layer causes its problems
* Accidental fill on fill (how it can be useful…)
* Stroke – fill interactions

Working in 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

Spelling it out

* 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
* A workflow for transparent content
* Working with ‘vector’ artwork

Being Symbolic

* The concept
* Convert to symbol
* Compare and discuss the symbol types
* Look at color effects
* Look at filters
* Re-use 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
* 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

Day 2 – 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
* How to add a simple link

The Building Blocks of a Simple Microsite

* Building a button o
* Duplicating symbols
* Bringing the buttons together
* Using a movieclip for the background
* Sketching out the design

Building our first page

* The home page

Building the other pages

* Using scenes to separate our ‘pages’
* 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 pre-loader
* 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

Day 3 – Pushing Our Movies Further*

Banner adverts

* Dimensions and file sizes
* Working our graphics before use
* The kuler extension
* Motion tweening with the motion editor and easing
* Duplicating motion to a second symbol
* Motion presets
* Mask layers and movieclips in retrospect

Introducing Interaction

* Movieclips as buttons
* Using this to create popups
* Blend modes and reflections
* Instance names
* Scaling symbols and 9-slice view
* The scroll pane and scrolling content

Frame by Frame Animation

* Illustrator as a tool
* The import process
* Drawn and scanned content
* Import an image series
* Tracing bitmaps and optimizing curves

Working in 3D

* First, the limitations
* Using perspective to produce a different design
* Gradient styles
* Bitmap fills
* Blend modes to darken into the distance
* Movement in 3D and the motion editor
* Rotation in 3D and the classic problem of completion
* Publish settings and GPU acceleration

Working with XFL

* After Effects to Flash workflow
* InDesign to Flash using xfl

Getting it All Online

* Using a SWF in a Dreamweaver page
* Window modes and overlapping divs
* The code produced by Flash and how to use it

Day 4 – Building Better Microsites

The Flash Project

* Creating a project
* Separating content into separate swfs
* The UILoader component
* Backgrounds and 9-slice scaling
* Libraries and runtime sharing

Building Navigation

* Movieclips as buttons
* Frame labels
* Audio on our buttons and runtime sharing
* Grouping buttons as a navigation bar
* Filters revisited
* Instance names
* Accessibility on our buttons
* Applying a document class to intercept interaction

The Home Page

* Static text and anti-aliasing
* Importing an image for use
* Converting to a movieclip to apply a filter
* Introducing dynamic text
* Fixing the size and making it scrollable
* Adding the all important scroll bar
* Making our text and images accessible
* Considering localisation of content

The About Page

* Working in the library
* Producing more interesting content
* Don’t forget accessibility and localisation
* Using the scroll pane to make it scroll

The Products Page

* Building another swf
* Breating each ‘item’ as a movieclip
* Using the UILoader to load images at runtime
* The download preview

The Contact Page

* Using scenes for navigation
* Building a more interesting navigation bar with images
* Applying a class to our buttons
* Duplicating the scenes
* Applying a document class to resolve navigation
* Importing images
* Making the map more exciting with a component
* Building a form to collect information
* The importance of instance names

Publishing and Previewing Our Microsite

* Reviewing the publish settings
* Publishing the movie
* Viewing in the browser

The Design