Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Flash CS4 Professional in 24 Hours

by Kerman, Phillip; Beighley, Lynn

• ISBN13: 9780672330414
• ISBN10: 0672330415
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Sams Publishing

Summary

One of the world's best-selling Flash tutorials -- now fully updated and revised for the brand-new Adobe Flash CS4- An easy-to-read, well-organized introduction to Flash & development for Flash beginners and upgraders alike:- no programming experience needed Full-color, wide-trim design makes this book exceptionally accessible and visually appealing- A complete tutorial package: step-by-step instructions, Q and As, quizzes,exercises, tips, shortcuts, and much more In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Flash CS4 in 24 Hours will show Flash beginners and upgraders how to build high-impact vector-based graphics and animations with Adobe Flash CS4. In this book's straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds on the previous ones -- helping readers master all the essentials of Adobe's newest version of Flash from the ground up. Friendly, accessible, and conversational, this book gives Flash beginners a practical grounding in the entire package, without ever becoming overwhelming or intimidating. Coverage includes: assembling graphics for use in Flash; utilizing each leading approach to creating Flash animations; adding interactivity and advanced animation; optimizing and publishing Flash content; preparing for deployment on mobile devices; and much more. Throughout, step-by-step instructions carefully walk readers through the most common Flash questions, issues, and tasks... Q and As, Quizzes, and Exercises help them build and test their knowledge... 'Did You Know?' tips offer them insider advice and shortcuts... and 'Watch Out!' alerts help them avoid problems. By the time they're finished with these lessons, readers won't just understand Flash CS4: they'll be comfortable using it in real-world projects.

Author Biography

Phillip Kerman is an internationally recognized expert on the use of the Web and multimedia for training and entertainment. He has frequently presented at Macromedia and Adobe user conferences, and has taught Flash and other Adobe Web development technologies to working web professionals worldwide. Lynn Beighley, a freelance web programmer and designer, has written several Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop books and training CDs.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
What's New in This Edition	p. 2
Who Should Read This Book	p. 3
How This Book Is Organized	p. 3
What's on the Book's Website	p. 4
Assembling the Graphics You'll Animate in Flash
Basics	p. 7
Jump Right In and Make an Animation	p. 7
Getting Your Bearings	p. 9
Getting Around in Flash	p. 23
Document Properties	p. 28
File Types	p. 29
Drawing and Painting Original Art in Flash	p. 35
Drawing on the Stage	p. 36
Tools	p. 36
Selecting and Transforming Objects	p. 54
Importing Graphics into Flash	p. 69
Vector Graphics Versus Raster Graphics	p. 69
Reasons to Avoid Importing Graphics	p. 70
Importing Vector Graphics	p. 71
Using Bitmaps (Also Known as Raster Graphics)	p. 75
Staying Organized with the Library and Layers	p. 89
The Concept of the Library	p. 89
Using the Library	p. 96
Using Symbols from the Library	p. 100
Controlling Color	p. 113
Using Blends and Filters	p. 113
Creating and Saving Color Swatches	p. 118
Applied Layout Techniques	p. 129
Setting Text	p. 129
Applied Examples Using Color Styles, Blends, and Filters	p. 134
Animating in Flash
Understanding Animation	p. 143
How Animation Works	p. 143
Elements of Animation	p. 144
Using Motion Tweens to Animate	p. 157
Creating a Motion Tween	p. 157
Fine-Tuning a Motion Tween	p. 165
Using Shape Tweens to Morph	p. 177
Making a Shape Tween	p. 177
Refining and Fine-Tuning a Shape Tween	p. 182
Advanced Animation with Inverse Kinematics	p. 191
Linking Symbols with the Bone Tool	p. 191
Animating the Armature	p. 195
Simulating 3D Animation	p. 203
Creating a 3D Movie Clip	p. 203
Moving Objects with the 3D Translation Tool	p. 209
Rotating Objects with the 3D Rotation Tool	p. 210
Reusing Your Animations with Motion Presets	p. 215
The Motion Presets Panel	p. 215
Applying an Existing Motion Preset	p. 217
Editing an Existing Preset with the Motion Editor Panel	p. 222
Including Sound in Animations	p. 229
Importing Sounds	p. 229
Using Sounds	p. 232
Controlling Quality and File Size	p. 241
Nesting Animations in Movie Clip and Graphic Symbols	p. 253
Movie Clip Symbol Behavior	p. 253
Subtleties of Movie Clips	p. 260
Creating Special Effects	p. 267
Effects with Shapes	p. 267
Splatter Movie Clips with the Spray Brush Tool	p. 272
Using Filters for Special Effects	p. 274
Masking Effects	p. 277
Adding Interactivity and Video
Basic Interactivity	p. 287
Basic ActionScript	p. 287
Making Simple Buttons	p. 295
Listening for Events	p. 299
Introducing Components	p. 313
What Is a Component?	p. 313
Using the Button Component	p. 317
Using the RadioButton Component	p. 319
Changing Component Appearances	p. 322
Using Components	p. 329
Using Data Providers	p. 329
Working with Other Components	p. 337
Using Video	p. 345
Embedding Video Versus Playing External Video	p. 345
Using Video	p. 352
3D Animation with Video	p. 363
Putting It All Together for the Web
Linking a Movie to the Web	p. 369
Basic Publishing	p. 369
Simple Hyperlinks	p. 373
Using Style Sheets	p. 378
What Other Web Tasks Can Flash Do?	p. 380
Using Flash Inside a Larger Website	p. 382
Uploading Files to a Web Server	p. 386
Designing a Website to Be Modular	p. 391
Loading Movies or Images	p. 391
Determining When a Movie Is Fully Loaded	p. 395
Playing External Sounds	p. 398
Loading External Text	p. 399
Minimizing File Size	p. 405
File Size Considerations	p. 405
Optimizing Performance	p. 427
Measuring Performance	p. 427
Impacts on Performance	p. 428
Publishing a Creation	p. 435
How to Publish	p. 435
Adding Metadata to Your Flash Creation	p. 443
Choosing Which Version to Publish	p. 445
Deciding Which Media Types to Publish	p. 446
Exporting Other Media Types	p. 455
Index	p. 459
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction IntroductionAdobe is not exaggerating when it says that Flash CS4 Professional is the "industry-leading authoring environment for creating engaging interactive experiences." You only need to visit a few sites that use Flash to understand how compelling it is. Using graphics, animation, sound, and interactivity, Flash can excite, teach, entertain, and provide practical information.With this version of Flash, Adobe has introduced some valuable new features, as well as further integrated Flash CS4 into its suite of products. That's a powerful thingwhen products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks can be used to help you create graphics for use in your Flash movies. This interoperability only increases as time goes on.More than half a billion users already have the free Flash player that enables them to view Flash movies. As of the writing of this book, more than 95% of computers connected to the Internet not only had Flash Player version 9, but more than 55% have the latest version, Flash Player 10. The fact that Adobe continues to distribute this software so effectively means the potential audience for Flash content is huge and continues to grow.The tools needed to create Flash movies are within your reach. After you purchase Flash, the only investment you need to make is time to learn. You can even download a trial version of Flash from http://www.adobe.com , and use it for 30 days for free. People can grow from fiddling with Flash to making entertaining movies. Imagine a great musician picking up and learning an instrument in a matter of days. It really is that amazing. If you're motivated, with just a moderate time investment, you feel as though a powerful communication tool has been given to you.Flash is so unique that sometimes it's better to have less experience. If you have preconceived ideas about Flash or how you're supposed to use drawing tools, it might be best to try to forget everything and start fresh. This book is organized in such a way that you should start seeing successes quickly. With each task, you prove to yourself that you're acquiring knowledge and skills.We don't need to give you a pep talk because you'll see for yourself. In just a few one-hour lessons, you are creating drawings that you might have thought you weren't capable of. In a few more hours, you are making animations. Finally, after 24 one-hour lessons, you are unstoppable. Where you take your skills is up to you, but you get a great foundation here.You might not feel like a pro overnight, but you will feel you have a powerful communication tool in your control. When you can't wait to show others your creations, you know you're on your way. Get ready to have some fun! What's New in This EditionThis is the sixth edition of this book. To prevent the material from getting stale, we change quite a bit in each revision, as well as cover the new CS4 features with some depth. Unlike many other dramatic software upgrades, Adobe Flash CS4 Professional is not that different from the CS3 version. However, the way people use Flash and Flash in general has definitely broadened significantly. It's not just Flash anymore; it's the Flash Platform. Technologies, such as Apollo and the Flex Fra