Adding Buttons, Actions, and Sounds Tutorial 5 Adding Buttons, Actions, and Sounds

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Objectives Create buttons and add them to a document Learn about actions Use the Actions panel to add actions to buttons and frames Learn about different types of sound effects and how to acquire sounds for your documents New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Objectives (continued) Add sound effects to buttons Add a background sound to a document New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Creating Buttons Buttons: symbols with a four-frame Timeline Four frames correspond to four button states Up: button’s default state Over: responds to a mouse rollover Down: button appearance after being clicked Hit: represents clickable (active) area of button Movies with interactive controls raise user interest Add buttons to quickly provide interactive controls New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Sample Button States for Each Frame New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Adding a Button from the Common Libraries Flash Common Libraries provide ready-made symbols The Buttons library: a member of Common Libraries Accessing button symbols in the Buttons library Go to Window  Common Libraries  Buttons Drag button symbol to the Stage or Library A prefabricated button in Flounders Pet Shop banner Playback - stop button used to mute background sound Enable Simple Buttons: used to test button on Stage New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Buttons Library New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Text Added Above Button New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Creating a Button Buttons can take on various forms Examples: rectangles, ovals, and text Two commands used to create a button Convert to Symbol: converts existing object on Stage New Symbol: creates button in symbol-editing mode Modify four button frames in symbol-editing mode Stop and Play buttons will be added to the Banner Text will be added to help identify button functions New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Play Button Instance Added to Document New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Aligning the Buttons Similar objects in a document should be aligned Align buttons vertically or horizontally Buttons should also be evenly spaced Use the Align panel to align a group of objects Alignment specifications for buttons in the banner Three buttons should be aligned by bottom edges New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Understanding Actions ActionScript: Flash’s programming language Action: instruction used to control an animation Script: a set of one or more actions Event: situation triggering execution of a script Example: clicking a button and then releasing it Event handler: tells Flash how to manage an event Example: on release of button, stop an animation New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Sample Script New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Adding Actions Using the Actions Panel Actions panel provides two modes of operation Normal mode: developer writes scripts Script Assist mode: guides scripting of actions Actions toolbox: actions directory to panel’s left Behaviors: pre-written ActionScripts Add behaviors to objects through Behaviors panel Add actions to banner buttons for animation control Actions are added to instance of buttons on the stage New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Stop Script New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Adding Actions to Frames Actions in a frame execute when a frame is played No event handler is required Control sequencing of frames using frame actions Example: add play action in last frame to create a loop Label frames before referencing in script Create a separate layer to add frame actions Use of a frame action in the banner Displays text animation only once New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Frame Action New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Adding Sounds Sounds may play continuously in the background Sound effects can be added to button instances Buttons with sounds are more interactive Sounds can be synchronized with the animations Sounds can be added in the form of voice narrations New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Types of Sounds Event sounds Default sound type Play after the entire sound has downloaded completely Not synchronized with the Timeline Stream sounds Synchronized with the Timeline Begin playing during file download Example: narration matches text animation New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Finding Sounds for Your Documents Some sources for sounds Sounds created by developer in sound-editing program Prerecorded sounds on CD-ROM or the Web Sounds must be imported into a Flash document Supported sound formats: WAV, AIFF, and MP3 Flash Kit’s Web site: http://www.flashkit.com Go to Sound FX or Sound Loops Check license before using prerecorded sounds New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Flash Kit’s Web Site New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Adding Sounds to Your Documents Sounds are imported into the document library Sounds are represented by a waveform Separate layers should be created for each sound Sound may only be added to keyframes Adding and using sounds Select keyframe in Timeline for sound placement Add sound from Library or Property inspector’s Sound list Sound plays when playhead reaches the keyframe New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Sound Waveform in Frame New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Sound Settings Control sound using settings in Property inspector Sync list box options Set sound to event or stream type Control when event sounds start and stop Loop setting: causes sound to play continuously Repeat setting: specifies number of times to play Effect list box: modifies the way a sound plays New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8 Sound Settings New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Sound Settings (continued) A background sound will be added to the banner WAV sound should first be imported to Library Experiment with various effects, such as Fade In Add action to Mute button to turn off sound New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8

Bubbles Sound Waveform in Layer New Perspectives on Macromedia Flash 8