Drawing and Painting in Flash

Assignment: Work on finishing your Image websites
by Wednesday, April 5th.

Assignment for Friday, April 7th : come to class with
URLs to the Flash websites and Flash banner ads
that you want to use as models for designing your
Flash projects.

Assignment: Practice drawing and painting shapes in
Flash and then converting them into symbols and
motion tweening them. Can you see that Flash movies
are just sophisticated collections of simple Flash effects.

1. Learning to create Flash Multimedia

Flash Online Tutorials
Beware of continuous looping of your Flash Movies. Continuous playing of Flash movies
can be annoying.
a). Flash Example: Sewtest.html--looping
b). Flash Example: Sewtest.html--non-looping
c). Flash Example: Sewall Text--looping
d). Basic Example of Moving Stickman--looping
e). Sewhall image in Flash Movie--looping
f). Circles--non-looping
g). Circles--looping
More examples of Flash websites

a) Macromedia Flash Showcase

2. Examples of Flash Banner Advertisements

3. Creating Flash fla files and setting Flash movie
Properties

You can set the basic properties of your Flash
movie in the "Properties" box. You can set the
size of your movie, the background color, the
frame rate, and the settings for running your
Flash movie on the web.
Or you can go to "Modify" and select "Document Properties" to change or revise your Flash document properties.
When I first open a Flash document, I like to make sure all my "Window panels" that I need to work on this document are open. I do this by going to "Windows" and selecting "Panel sets" and choosing the panel set I want to work with.
I create a "Panel set" by first opening a Flash file and then going to the "Windows" menu and opening up all the window panels I want to use to work on this Flash file. After first opening up all
these window panels, I then save the "Panel set" by going to the "Windows" menu and selecting "save panel layout." Panel sets in Flash are like a handy tool box with all the tools open and
ready at your disposal.

3. Drawing and Painting in Flash 5

You can select either the "stroke" or "fill" area
of a shape to edit by clicking on it with the "pointer"
selected.
If you want to select both the "stroke" and the "fill"
areas, double click on the shape with the "pointer"
selected.
You can also select a shape to work on by selecting
the "pointer" and then use the mouse to draw a box around the entire object.
After you have selecting an object, you can then
make it a symbol by pushing "F8".
Notice that once you create a symbol, Flash stores it in the "library" panel. If you want to add this symbol to new layers, simply drag the symbol from the library panel to the movie stage.
Remember, put only one symbol per layer in a Flash movie.
After you have created a symbol in a layer in frame 1, then go to frame 30 and add a keyframe by pushing "F6".
Keyframes allow you to create actions for Flash
symbols.
Remember, you can slow down an action on a layer by adding additional frames by pushing "F5" or you
can go into "movie properties" and decrease the
rate of frames per second the Flash movie runs at.
You can add "motion tweens" to layers by going to
the frame you want to start the action in and
right-clicking on it and then select "Create
Motion Tween."
You can vary a "motion tween" action by changing the "easing", the "rotation" and number of times it rotates, the "brightness", the "tint", the "alpha", and the "advanced" effects.
You can test how your movie looks by moving the
cursor to the first frame and then hitting return.
You can also test run a movie by selecting "control" and then "test movie."

3. Using Text, working with layers, and importing
artwork in Flash

You can use guides to help you precisely layout
objects and shapes in Flash. When you draw a
shape, it will then snap to guide.
You can modify a layer by selecting "Modify" and
then selecting "layer." Notice, here you can change a layer from normal, guide, to masked.
You can use the "pointer" tool and the "subselect"
tool to modify various vector points in your shapes. You can take rectangle edges and make them curvy.
You can "group" and "ungroup" objects in order to
move them as a group after first selecting them with the "pointer" tool.
In order to work with text as shapes, you must first
select "modify" and then "break apart."
Notice how some of the Flash sites use various
text tricks such as making the text appear
and disappear, move and stop, and even bend
an skew.

4. Importing Bitmap images into Flash

To import a bitmap image ( a "jpg image file") into a Flash movie, select "file" and then "import." Make sure you import the image into the right layer you are working on.
Bitmap images ("jpg image files") are very big. After importing bitmap images into a Flash movie, you can convert them into vector images.
You must first select the image and then select
"modify" and select "trace bitmap."
You will find that you can make these vector images clearer and sharper by adjusting the "color threshold" in the "trace bitmap" panels.
Once you have imported bitmap images ( jpg image files ) and transformed them into vector images, you can then work on them just like you would any shape in Flash.
You can even make these vector images symbols that you can then use Flash to act on.

5. Using the Fill panel to create exciting, colorful effects.

You can use the "fill" panel to change the color
and range of colors of your shapes.
You can also select "none" in the "fill panel to make shapes without any fill at all.
In addition to "none", there are "linear gradient",
"radial gradient", and "bitmap" fills.
Using the "gradient fills" you can create a rainbow of fill colors for your Flash shapes.
You can also save and reuse these fill gradients
for additional symbols you create.
You can create more than two gradients for your fills. Simply click in between two gradients and a third gradient fill will be created.

6. Creating motion guides for symbols in Flash

First create a symbol on a layer and add a
keyframe at frame 15
You can make Flash symbols follow invisible
"motion guides"on the Flash stage. These
guides are located just above the layer
with the symbol you want to guide.
You need to create a motion guide by selecting
"insert" and then selecting "motion guide".
You can use the the pencil tool or shape tools to
create motion guides.
Once you have created a motion guide, you
need to set up your symbol to follow this specific guide.
Now go back to the layer with the symbol you want
to guide. In the first keyframe, select motion tween and select "snap". This will snap the symbol to the motion guide.
Now go to the second keyframe, select motion tween and select "snap." This will snap the symbol in the second keyframe to the end of the motion guide.
In Flash movies, these motion guides will be invisible. So no one needs to know that you are precisely alligning the motion with motion guides.

Shockwave.com
QuickTime--Streaming Audio and Video
Macromedia Flash Showcase
FlashAnimation.net
Thinkmango.com