Course Content

Day 1 – Introducing Flash

Introducing Flash

• launching flash
• resetting the workspace
• exploring the welcome screen
• the flash files explained
• creating our first flash file
• the panels
• modifying the movie properties
• saving the file

Getting to Grips with Drawing

• strokes
• fills
• solving classic problems

Shape Interaction

• working in a single layer causes its problems
• accidental fill on fill
• but this can be useful
• stroke – fill interactions

Working in Layers

• building new layers
• locking previous layers to prevent modification
• hiding and showing layers
• outline view as an alternative to visibility
• adding shadows to our design

Spelling it out

• the text tool
• checking the properties before you type
• adding our text
• back to black
• changing the properties
• discussing the anti-alias options
• working with large blocks of text
• an example of text orientation
• breaking apart text and applying a stroke

Enhancing the Design with Images

• a simple import to stage
• let’s take a look at workflow
• a workflow for transparent content
• working with “vector” artwork

Being Symbolic ?

• the concept
• convert to symbol
• compare and discuss the symbol types
• look at color effects
• look at filters
• reuse is the key
• blend modes

Using the Mask

• importing an image
• creating a new layer
• using the grid fill deco tool
• turning it into a mask
• locking layers and preview

Tweening Time

• steps to happiness
• tweening different properties
• putting it into practise – let’s build a banner
• the magic staircase
• animating images
• “cache as bitmap”
• exploring easing and breaking up a tween

Publishing your Movie

• a quick look at publish settings
• publishing the movie
• reviewing the output

Day 2 – Getting all interactive

Back to Banners

• banner advert sizes
• let’s build a banner to brush up our skills
• alphas, movement, scale, blur
• placing backgrounds and borders on our banner
• “advertisement” text
• “transparent” corners
• creating movieclips in retrospect
• masking revisited
• using a mask in an animation
• how to add a simple link

The Building Blocks of a Simple Microsite

• building a button o
• duplicating symbols
• bringing the buttons together
• using a movieclip for the background
• sketching out the design

Building our first page

• the home page

Building the other pages

• Using scenes to separate our “pages”
• getting the content in the same place
• duplicating the title symbol and then swapping it out
• swapping out the image
• modifying the layout
• naming our scenes
• modifying behaviour with a sprinkling of script
• adding some code to make the buttons work
• sneaking in a simple preloader
• adding labels to our frames as “anchors”
• changing our publish settings to enable the anchors
• reviewing the movie and fixing any problems

Publishing the Microsite

• Publish settings and the flash player version
• Reviewing our result

Day 3 – Pushing Our Movies Further

Banner adverts

• dimensions and file sizes
• working our graphics before use
• the kuler extension
• motion tweening with the motion editor and easing
• duplicating motion to a second symbol
• motion presets
• mask layers and movieclips in retrospect

Introducing Interaction

• movieclips as buttons
• using this to create popups
• blend modes and reflections
• instance names
• scaling symbols and 9-slice view
• the scroll pane and scrolling content

Frame by Frame Animation

• illustrator as a tool
• the import process
• drawn and scanned content
• import an image series
• tracing bitmaps and optimizing curves

Character Animation and the Bones Tool

• importing from illustrator and movie clips
• using the bones tool
• building a basic animation*

Working in 3D

• first, the limitations
• using perspective to produce a different design
• gradient styles
• bitmap fills
• blend modes to darken into the distance
• movement in 3D and the motion editor
• rotation in 3D and the classic problem of completion
• publish settings and GPU acceleration

Working with XFL

• After Effects to Flash workflow
• Indesign to Flash using xfl

Getting it All Online

• using a swf in a dreamweaver page
• window modes and overlapping divs
• the code produced by flash and how to use it

Day 4 – Building Better Microsites

The Flash Project

• creating a project
• separating content into separate swfs
• the UILoader component
• backgrounds and 9-slice scaling
• libraries and runtime sharing

Building Navigation

• movieclips as buttons
• frame labels
• audio on our buttons and runtime sharing
• grouping buttons as a navigation bar
• filters revisited
• instance names
• accessibility on our buttons
• applying a document class to intercept interaction

The Home Page

• static text and anti-aliasing
• importing an image for use
• converting to a movieclip to apply a filter
• introducing dynamic text
• fixing the size and making it scrollable
• adding the all important scroll bar
• making our text and images accessible
• considering localisation of content

The About Page

• working in the library
• producing more interesting content
• don’t forget accessibility and localisation
• using the scroll pane to make it scroll

The Products Page

• building another swf
• creating each “item” as a movieclip
• using the UILoader to load images at runtime
• the download preview

The Contact Page

• using scenes for navigation
• building a more interesting navigation bar with images
• applying a class to our buttons
• duplicating the scenes
• applying a document class to resolve navigation
• importing images
• making the map more exciting with a component
• building a form to collect information
• the importance of instance names

Publishing and Previewing Our Microsite

• reviewing the publish settings
• publishing the movie
• viewing in the browser

Day 5 – The Design <→ Develop Workflow*

The Key is in the Name

• planning and communication
• the initial design prototype and the first development meeting
• symbol names and types
• instance names
• “export for actionscript” and eloquent structure

Banner Advert ClickTags

• the theory of banner advert providers
• an insight into the html
• applying a document class to our banner
• viewing the example online

A Preloader

• movie structure
• “export for actionscript”
• looking at the bandwidth profiler
• adding a preloader scene
• changing the compiler settings
• using the deco tool to produce a preloader animation
• linking to our document class
• testing the movie and simulating the download

A ProgressBar

• the progress bar plan
• working in layers
• instance names and registration points
• masks can make things look great!
• clever looping animation
• using and naming our progress bar
• linking to the class definition
• testing the movie and simulating the download

A Photo Gallery

• the prototype sketch
• preparing our photos using batch processing
• writing an xml file
• building our flash movie
• creating dummy movieclips
• dynamic text and embedding fonts
• adding backgrounds and borders
• linking in our document class
• testing the movie and simulating the download

A Presentation

• working with scenes
• adding some animation
• playing it through
• it would be nice to have some control
• applying our code from the developer
• exploring the functionality

A Simple Tabbed View

• building our tabs
• building our pages
• naming the instances
• linking the pages and tabs to the base class
• enabling the component definitions
• viewing the component inspector
• setting the parameters
• testing the movie

A 3D Carousel

• building each item as a movieclip
• building a popup as a named instance
• creating a dummy movieclip to determine width, height and position
• applying a background gradient
• compile items into a CarouselItems movieclip and “export for actionscript”
• link our carousel to the developer’s code
• testing the movie

An MP3 Player

• building our individual components
• bringing them together and naming the instances
• linking our MP3Player to the developer’s code
• enabling the component definition
• drag and drop the component into the design
• use the component inspector to set the mp3 filename

An e-Book

• building our individual components
• bringing them together and naming the instances
• linking the document to our developer’s code
• testing the movie and exploring the functionality

A 3D Loader for Product Visualisation

• building a dummy placeholder
• linking to the developer’s code
• enabling the component definition
• adding the component to the movie
• setting the 3d filename in the component inspector
• testing the movie and exploring the functionality

Flash Adobe Certified Associate Exam

• Preparation
• Exam
• Pass or fail?