ADOBE FLASH CS3: FUNDAMENTALS
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART I A BLAST OF FLASH 7 CHAPTER 1 GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH FLASH CS3 9 CHAPTER 2 YOUR BASIC FLASH 31 PART II 1 000 PICTURES AND 1 000 WORDS 45 CHAPTER 3 GETTING GRAPHIC 47 CHAPTER 4 YOU ARE THE OBJECT EDITOR 83 CHAPTER 5 WHAT S YOUR TYPE 119 CHAPTER 6 LAYERING IT ON 135 PART III GETTING SYMBOLIC 149 CHAPTER 7 HEAVY SYMBOLISM 151 CHAPTER 8 PUSHING BUTTONS 171 PART IV TOTAL FLASH O RAMA 183 CHAPTER 9 GETTING ANIMATED 185 CHAPTER 10 GETTING INTERACTIVE 217 CHAPTER 11 EXTRAVAGANT AUDIO HIGH VELOCITY VIDEO 231 PART V THE MOVIE AND THE WEB 251 CHAPTER 12 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 253 CHAPTER 13 PUBLISHING YOUR FLASH FILES 277 PART VI THE PART OF TENS 313 CHAPTER 14 TEN FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 315 CHAPTER 15 TEN BEST FLASH RESOURCES 331 CHAPTER 16 TEN FLASH DESIGNERS TO WATCH 337 INTRODUCTION W ELCOME TO FLASH CS3 FOR DUMMIES YOUR FRIENDLY WEB ANIMATION COM PANION IN THIS BOOK WE EXPLAIN IN PLAIN ENGLISH HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF FLASH TO CREATE STUNNING ANIMATED WEB SITES WE AIM TO GIVE YOU ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO START USING FLASH RIGHT AWAY WITH NO HASSLE ABOUT THIS BOOK AS THOUGH YOU HADN T GUESSED ADOBE FLASH CS3 FOR DUMMIES COVERS THE POW ERFUL ANIMATION PRODUCT FLASH CS3 FROM ADOBE THE PRECEDING VERSION WAS MACROMEDIA FLASH 8 FLASH CS3 IS THE LATEST VERSION OF THE POPULAR SOFTWARE USED ON SOME OF THE COOLEST WEB SITES ON THE INTERNET WE COMPREHENSIVELY EXPLAIN THE FLASH FEATURES INCLUDING WORKING WITH THE FLASH SCREEN TOOLBARS AND MENUS CREATING GRAPHICS AND TEXT IN FLASH ADDING SOUND AND VIDEO USING LAYERS TO ORGANIZE YOUR ANIMATION CREATING SYMBOLS WHICH ARE OBJECTS THAT YOU SAVE FOR REPEATED USE AND FOR ANIMATION ANIMATING GRAPHICS THE KEY TO FLASH CREATING INTERACTIVE WEB SITES PUBLISHING FLASH MOVIES TO YOUR WEB SITE HOW TO USE THIS BOOK YOU DON T HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK FROM COVER TO COVER WE PROVIDE JUST THE INFORMATION YOU NEED WHEN YOU NEED IT START WITH THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS THEN PLAY AROUND WITH GRAPHICS UNTIL YOU CREATE WHAT YOU NEED FOR YOUR WEB SITE YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT CHAPTER 6 ON LAYERS TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE IT ALL AND CHAPTER 7 WHICH COVERS SYMBOLS THEN FEEL FREE TO JUMP RIGHT TO CHAPTER 9 ON ANIMATION TO CREATE YOUR FIRST REAL FLASH MOVIE CHAPTER 13 TELLS YOU HOW TO GET YOUR MOVIE ON YOUR WEB SITE THEN FIRE UP YOUR BROWSER SIT BACK AND MARVEL YOU LL WANT TO CHECK OUT OTHER CHAPTERS WHEN YOU NEED THEM SO THAT YOU CAN CREATE TEXT AND BUTTONS ADD SOUND AND VIDEO AND BUILD AN INTERACTIVE WEB SITE CHAPTER 12 PROVIDES SOME IDEAS FOR PUTTING ALL THE FLASH FEATURES TOGETHER FOR YOUR BEST WEB SITE EVER KEEP ADOBE FLASH CS3 FOR DUMMIES BY YOUR COMPUTER WHILE YOU WORK YOU LL FIND THAT IT S A LOYAL HELPER FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS WE ASSUME THAT YOU RE NOT A MASTER FLASH DEVELOPER IF YOU WANT TO USE FLASH TO CREATE HIGH QUALITY WEB SITES AND YOU RE NOT AN EXPERT ANIMATOR YOU LL FIND THIS BOOK TO BE A GREAT REFERENCE ADOBE FLASH CS3 FOR DUMMIES IS IDEAL FOR BEGINNERS WHO ARE JUST STARTING TO USE FLASH OR FOR CURRENT FLASH USERS WHO WANT TO FURTHER HONE THEIR SKILLS BECAUSE PEOPLE USUALLY ADD FLASH MOVIES TO WEB SITES WE ALSO ASSUME THAT YOU KNOW SOME OF THE BASICS OF WEB SITE CREATION YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE HTML IS AND UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS OF CREAT ING AND STRUCTURING HTML PAGES AS WELL AS UPLOADING THEM TO A WEB SITE IF YOU WANT SOME HELP ON THE TOPIC OF WEB SITES YOU MIGHT WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT WEB DESIGN FOR DUMMIES 2ND EDITION BY LISA LOPUCK PUBLISHED BY WILEY PUBLISHING INC CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO KNOW WHY SOME TEXT IS BOLD AND OTHER TEXT IS ITALIC SO THAT YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT WE RE TALKING ABOUT A TYPOGRAPHIC CONVENTION IS NOT A CONVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHERS MEETING TO DISCUSS THE LATEST TYPOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES NEW TERMS ARE IN ITALICS TO LET YOU KNOW THAT THEY RE NEW WHEN WE SUGGEST THAT YOU TYPE SOMETHING WE SHOW YOU WHAT WE WANT YOU TO TYPE IN BOLD MESSAGES AND OTHER TEXT THAT COME FROM FLASH INCLUDING PROGRAMMING CODE ARE IN A SPECIAL TYPEFACE LIKE THIS WHEN WE SAY SOMETHING LIKE CHOOSE FILE SAVE AS IT MEANS TO CLICK THE FILE MENU AT THE TOP OF YOUR SCREEN AND THEN CHOOSE SAVE AS FROM THE MENU THAT OPENS WHEN WE WANT YOU TO USE A TOOLBAR OR TOOLBOX BUTTON OR TOOL WE TELL YOU TO CLICK IT 2 INTRODUCTION HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED WE START BY PRESENTING AN OVERVIEW OF THE FLASH UNIVERSE AND THEN CONTINUE IN THE GENERAL ORDER THAT YOU WOULD USE TO CREATE A FLASH MOVIE MORE BASIC MATERIAL IS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK AND MORE ADVANCED MATERIAL BUT NOT TOO ADVANCED COMES LATER TO BE MORE SPECIFIC THIS BOOK IS DIVIDED INTO SEVEN PARTS TO REPRESENT THE SEVEN STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS OKAY WE DON T HAVE TO GET TOO COSMIC HERE EACH PART CONTAINS TWO OR MORE CHAPTERS THAT RELATE TO THAT PART EACH CHAP TER THOROUGHLY COVERS ONE TOPIC SO THAT YOU DON T HAVE TO GO SEARCHING ALL OVER CREATION TO GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED PART I A BLAST OF FLASH PART I CONTAINS IMPORTANT INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION ABOUT FLASH IN CHAPTER 1 WE TELL YOU WHAT FLASH IS ALL ABOUT SHOW YOU WHAT THE FLASH SCREEN LOOKS LIKE AND EXPLAIN HOW TO GET HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST YOU ALSO FIND INSTRUCTIONS FOR STARTING A NEW MOVIE AND OPENING AN EXISTING MOVIE AND WE GIVE YOU A LIST OF STEPS FOR CREATING YOUR FIRST ANIMATION CHAPTER 2 EXPLAINS IN MORE DETAIL THE STEPS FOR CREATING A FLASH MOVIE WE ALSO EXPLAIN SOME BASIC CON CEPTS THAT ALL FLASH USERS NEED TO KNOW PART II 1 000 PICTURES AND 1 000 WORDS PART II EXPLAINS ALL THE TOOLS AVAILABLE FOR CREATING GRAPHICS IN FLASH CHAPTER 3 EXPLAINS THE UNIQUE DRAWING TOOLS INCLUDED IN FLASH WE ALSO EXPLAIN HOW TO IMPORT GRAPHICS IF YOU DON T FEEL LIKE CREATING YOUR OWN CHAPTER 4 SHOWS YOU HOW TO EDIT AND MANIPULATE GRAPHIC OBJECTS AND CHAPTER 5 IS ALL ABOUT CREAT ING TEXT CHAPTER 6 EXPLAINS LAYERS WHICH HELP YOU ORGANIZE YOUR GRAPHICS SO THAT THEY DON T INTERFERE WITH EACH OTHER PART III GETTING SYMBOLIC SYMBOLS ARE GRAPHICAL OBJECTS THAT YOU SAVE TO USE AGAIN AND AGAIN WHENEVER YOU WANT TO PLACE AN OBJECT ON A WEB PAGE MORE THAN ONCE YOU CAN SAVE THE OBJECT AS A SYMBOL YOU CAN ALSO GROUP TOGETHER MANY INDIVIDUAL OBJECTS MAKING THEM USEFUL WHEN YOU WANT TO MANIPULATE EDIT OR ANIMATE THEM ALL AT ONE TIME CHAPTER 7 EXPLAINS CREATING AND EDITING SYMBOLS CHAPTER 8 3 INTRODUCTION