Macromedia Flash Design Professional Macromedia Flash GETTING STARTED WITH

Unit A2Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Understand the Macromedia Flash environment Open a document and play a movie Create and save a movie Work with layers and the timeline How it gets distributed Unit Lessons

Unit A3Getting Started with Macromedia Flash What is Flash? –A animation and interactive authoring program –Has tools for complex animation, as well as excellent drawing tools Using Flash

Unit A4Getting Started with Macromedia Flash What can Flash be used for? –Web sites –Web-based applications –CD-Rom and interactive applications –Video Using Flash

Unit A5Getting Started with Macromedia Flash The Development Environment You can customize your workspace Flash works on a movie metaphor –Create Scenes on a Stage –Scenes run in frames on a timeline –You create a movie by arranging objects on the stage –You can play the movie on the stage using VCR-like controls

Unit A6Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Playback of Flash content Movies are viewable through a browser Macromedia Flash Player is required –Free download from Macromedia’s Web site Movie’s can be played through the browser, the player, or as a stand- alone “projector”

Unit A7Getting Started with Macromedia Flash How Flash Starts up Three parts to the Development Environment –Stage –Timeline –Workspace You can display other parts of the program –The toolbox –The properties panel

Unit A8Getting Started with Macromedia Flash toolbox stage timeline panels

Unit A9Getting Started with Macromedia Flash The Stage Contains all objects that are seen by the viewer in the final movie You can draw objects on, or import objects to the stage

Unit A10Getting Started with Macromedia Flash The Timeline Used to organize and control the movie’s content by specifying when each object appears on the stage Images are contained within frames, which are units of the timeline. The timeline has separate layers The timeline has a playback head

Unit A11Getting Started with Macromedia Flash The Toolbox Contains a set of tools used to draw and edit graphics and text Divided into four sections: Tools, View,Colors, Option Panels, such as the Properties Panel are used to organize and modify objects and features in a movie

Unit A12Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Opening a movie in Flash The.fla extension is native, and can only be opened in Flash Flash exports web-ready files as.swf.swf files should be tested before being published Always keep the original.fla file

Unit A13Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Previewing a movie F12! Control menu commands: –Play, rewind, step forward, step backward. The Controller acts similar to a VCR Controller

Unit A14Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Creating a Macromedia Flash Movie Movies are created by placing objects on the stage, editing these objects, animating them and adding interactivity Library… You can create graphics in Flash,or import them from another program such as Photoshop

Unit A15Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Creating a Macromedia Flash Movie Objects placed on the stage are automatically placed in a layer, and in the currently selected frame of the timeline A keyframe represents a frame which contains an object. –Always the first frame of every animation

Unit A16Getting Started with Macromedia Flash An object in a keyframe Object on the stage Keyframe representing object

Unit A17Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Creating an animation A basic animation requires two keyframes –The first keyframe sets the starting position –The second keyframe sets the ending position The number of frames between two keyframes determines the length of the animation

Unit A18Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Understanding the Timeline Playhead Frames Frame View Icon Status Bar Layers Understanding how to read the timeline can help you determine what’s happening in your movie frame by frame

Unit A19Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Modifying the frame rate Change movie dimensions Adjust the frame rate Adjust the Background color

Unit A20Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Distributing Flash Movies File > Publish to export movies out of Flash Export to.swf format Generate the HTML code that references the Macromedia Shockwave file Other formats…

Unit A21Getting Started with Macromedia Flash Unit A Tasks Understand the Macromedia Flash environment Open a document and play a movie Create and save a movie Work with layers and the timeline How it all gets distributed