Introduction to

Macromedia Flash 8

By: Emir M. Natividad

 Flash Workspace

Tools panel Timeline

Panels

Current
scene

Layers

Workspace

Stage

Property
inspector

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 2

 Stage

 You compose movie content on the Stage.

 Set Stage size to match a specific browser size

Display Area in Microsoft

Screen Resolution
Internet Explorer

640 x 480 620 x 318

800 x 600 780 x 438
1024 x 768 1004 x 606

1280 x 1024 1260 x 862

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 3

 Tools Panel

Tools create the content of a movie.

 Tools: Draw, paint, create text, select
objects, modify objects, and erase objects
 View tools: Zoom and pan
 Color tools: Set stroke and fill colors
 Options: Modify the currently selected tool

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 4

 Panels

Options
Panels provide additional menu
tools for creating and
editing movies.
 Click the options menu to
view additional options for the
current panel.
 You can hide or show panels
by using the options on the
Window menu.

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 Timeline

You can organize and control the content of a

movie over time.
Playhead Frames

Layers

Frame rate

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 Frames and Keyframes

 Frames: Like films, Flash movies divide lengths

of time into frames, which are organized on the
Timeline.
 Keyframes: Frames that define a change in
what is displayed in a movie or include frame
actions to modify a movie. When you open a
new blank movie document, it contains one
layer with one blank keyframe.

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 Frames and Keyframes

Keyframe with content Empty frames

Blank keyframe Empty slots for new frames

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 Layers

 Layers are like multiple film

strips stacked on top of each
other, each with a different
element that appears on the
Stage.
 Graphics
 Animations
 Text
 Sounds
 Buttons
 Frame actions

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 Symbols and Libraries

 Symbols are elements you reuse within a

movie to reduce file size.
 Types of symbols include graphics, buttons,
movie clips, sound files, and text.
 A library is where you store and organize
symbols.
 When you drag a symbol from a library to the
Stage, you create an instance of the symbol.

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 Advantages of Using Symbols

 Easy editing: If you change the symbol in the

library, all instances of the symbol are updated
automatically.
 Smaller file sizes: Symbols are downloaded
only once, regardless of the number of
instances you’ve included in the movie. This
reduces the size of your published movies and
decreases download times.

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 11

 Animation with Tweening

 Tweening: A series of frames that change

incrementally to create smooth movement or
change over time.
 You can set the beginning and ending frames and have
Flash automatically create the frames in between.
 Flash has two types of tweening: shape tweening and
motion tweening.

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 Shape and Motion Tweening

 In Flash, a shape is a vector-based object. You create a

shape by using the drawing tools or by importing a
vector drawing from another program.
 Use shape tweening to animate one shape into another.
You cannot shape-tween grouped objects, bitmaps, text
that has not been broken apart, or symbols.
 Use motion tweening to animate symbols, groups, and
text blocks.

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 Shape and Motion Tweening

Text Broken-
Shape Group Symbol Block apart Text

Shape
yes no no no yes
Tween

Motion
no yes yes yes no
Tween

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 Sound

 First, import a sound file

into the library.
 Add sound to a movie by
dragging an instance of the
sound into a frame.
 To minimize file size, loop
shorter sounds (to make
them repeat).

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 15

 Actions

 ActionScript statements instruct a

movie to do something while it is
playing.
 Frame action: An action attached to a frame is
triggered when the movie plays that frame.
 Object action: An action attached to an object is
triggered when the viewer interacts with the
object, such as moving the pointer over a
hotspot or clicking a button.

© 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 16