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Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5

In This Chapter

▶ Introducing Flash

▶ Figuring out what you can create with Flash CS5

▶ Knowing when not to use Flash CS5

▶ Starting Flash

▶ Perusing the screen

▶ Using Help

▶ Creating your first animation

▶ Closing Flash

nce upon a time in a galaxy that seems far, far away by now,

there was the Internet, which contained only plain,

unformatted text. Then came the Web, and we gained text

formatting and graphics. Then the Web grew up a little,

and Web page graphics got fancier with things such

as small animations in banner ads. But people, being

used to movies and TV, wanted an even more ani-

mated and interactive Web experience. Along came

Flash.

Flash is the software that runs some of the coolest

Web sites around. When you surf the Web and see

sites that contain animation across the entire page

or buttons that do spectacular stunts when you click

them, you’re probably seeing some Flash magic. If you

create a Web site, you can use Flash to rev up the basics

and actively respond to users’ choices so that your view-

ers will say, “Wow!” Even a lot of video that you see on the

Internet, such as at YouTube.com, uses a compressed Flash video

format (FLV).

In this chapter, you find out what Flash is all about, what the Flash screen

looks like, and how to use Help. Then you create your first, simple animation

so that all the rest of this book makes sense.

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COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Summary of content (24 pages)

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AL Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 ▶ Introducing Flash TE ▶ Figuring out what you can create with Flash CS5 RI In This Chapter ▶ Knowing when not to use Flash CS5 MA ▶ Starting Flash ▶ Perusing the screen ▶ Using Help D ▶ Creating your first animation TE ▶ Closing Flash O CO PY RI GH nce upon a time in a galaxy that seems far, far away by now, there was the Internet, which contained only plain, unformatted text. Then came the Web, and we gained text formatting and graphics.
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12 Part I: A Blast of Flash Want a great new way to create a Flash Web site without using Flash? Yes, it’s possible! You can design the site in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and then use Adobe Flash Catalyst to create the site. For more information, see Part VI. Discovering Flash Flash offers a powerful system for creating animation for the Web. In a nutshell, here’s an overview of how you use the system: 1. Create a Flash movie by creating graphics and animating them over the duration of the movie.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 To find great Web sites that use Flash, check out the Adobe site at www. adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm and look at some examples. Don’t get discouraged by seeing some truly sophisticated results at these sites. You can start with a simple, animated site and go from there. (Chapter 19 lists ten great Flash designers and where you can find their work.
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14 Part I: A Blast of Flash ✓ Animate graphics and make objects appear and disappear by using the transparency feature. Objects can move, get bigger or smaller, or rotate. Flash also lets you morph — that is, transform — shapes into new shapes. ✓ Fill shapes and text with gradients, which are colors that gradually change into new colors. You can even fill shapes and text with bitmap images that you import into Flash. For example, you could fill the letters of your name with dozens of flowers.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 which are different from bitmap graphics (defined by lots of dots). However, you can import bitmap graphics into Flash. Find out more about bitmap and vector graphics in Chapter 2. If you want simple animation, such as a few blinking dots or a marquee effect, animated GIFs (the animated bitmap graphics that you often see on the Web) might be smaller than Flash movies, so they load faster. You can create animated GIFs by using animated GIF editing software.
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16 Part I: A Blast of Flash Creating a new movie Files that you create by using Flash are commonly called movies. When you start Flash, the startup screen appears (by default), as shown in Figure 1-2. In the Create New section, click one of several options to immediately open a new movie file. These options let you create movies for various types of uses, such as mobile devices and further programming.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 Opening an existing movie If you want to work on a movie that you already created when you first open Flash, choose the movie from the Open a Recent Item section of the Startup screen, or click Open to find the file. If you already opened a movie and have the menus available, press Ctrl+O (Windows) or Ô+O (Mac) or choose File➪Open; then double-click the movie to open it. The first frame appears on your screen, and you can edit the movie any way you want.
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18 Part I: A Blast of Flash If your screen opens with several rectangular panels strewn about or docked on various sides, don’t worry about them now. We explain how to open and use these panels throughout this book, but you don’t need them for this chapter. If they drive you crazy, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) each panel’s title bar and choose Close or Close Group in the menu that appears.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 ✓ Undock a panel. Drag it by its title bar. ✓ Open or close a panel. Choose it from the Window menu. ✓ Close an undocked panel. Click its Close button. ✓ Close a docked panel. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) its title bar and choose Close. ✓ Collapse a group of panels to icons. Click the double right arrow at the top of the group of docked panels. You can also stack panels.
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20 Part I: A Blast of Flash ✓ Tab: Double-click the tab at the top (which reads Properties) to collapse the Property inspector completely (you see just the tab); click the tab to restore it to its full glory. ✓ Collapse to Icons button: Click the small double arrows at the top of the Property inspector to switch between an icon and the open state. ✓ Title bar: Click the gray bar at the top to minimize or maximize the Property inspector. In the default configuration, the top bar also applies to the Library.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 Menu Use It To Edit Undo and redo commands; cut, copy, and paste to and from the Clipboard; delete, duplicate, select, and deselect objects; find and replace; copy and paste entire frames and motions on the Timeline; edit symbols (see Chapter 7); set preferences (Windows only); customize the Tools panel; map fonts; and create keyboard shortcuts for commands (Windows only).
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22 Part I: A Blast of Flash ✓ Ctrl+X (Windows) or Ô+X (Mac): Cut to the Clipboard. Chapter 4 explains more about using the Clipboard. ✓ Ctrl+C (Windows) or Ô+C (Mac): Copy to the Clipboard. ✓ Ctrl+V (Windows) or Ô+V (Mac): Paste from the Clipboard. The copy goes at the center of the display. ✓ Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows) or Ô+Shift+V: Paste in Place (the same location as the original). ✓ Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Ô+Z (Mac): Undo.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 You can access the same workspace features on the right side of the Menu bar. It’s easy to choose a new workspace by just clicking the Workspace drop-down list. Staging your movies The white box in the center of your screen is the Stage. Think of the Stage as a movie screen where you place objects. You can place graphics and text there and then animate them. Flash also plays back movies on the Stage.
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24 Part I: A Blast of Flash keep some text constant throughout the movie but animate a bouncing dot, you would give the dot its own layer and animate it on that layer. The layer list has room for more layers, and you can add as many layers as you want. (Chapter 6 gives you the lowdown on layers.) You can drag the upper edge of the Timeline to make room for more layers. Hover the mouse cursor over the top of the Timeline’s gray title bar until you see the two-headed arrow and then drag upward.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 You don’t need to program Flash to use it, if you are interested only in graphics and animation. ✓ Additional Resources (adobe.com) brings you to the Adobe.com Search Community Help page, where you can search through discussion groups and other support resources. To search for a term, click the Search button. Then type the term and click Search. You can then choose from the list of topics. Finding more help on the Web Adobe offers support on its Web site.
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26 Part I: A Blast of Flash If you’re going through the steps and make a mistake, choose Edit➪Undo (or press Ctrl+Z or Ô+Z) and try again. You can use Undo repeatedly to undo several steps, if necessary. To import the Rainbow Resources logo into Flash, follow these steps. (The steps might vary if you’re importing some other graphic in a different format.) 1. Start Flash. See the instructions in the section “Starting Flash on a PC” or “Starting Flash on a Mac,” earlier in this chapter, if you need help. 2.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 To turn the words and the logo into symbols, follow these steps: 1. To get a better view of your image, click the Zoom Control drop-down list (upper-right corner of the Stage area) and choose 200%. If you don’t see the Zoom Control drop-down list, choose Window➪ Toolbars➪Edit Bar to display it. Use the scroll bar to scroll the words of the logo into view, if necessary. 2. Click the Selection tool on the Tools panel if it’s not already selected. 3.
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28 Part I: A Blast of Flash See Chapter 7 to find out more about what symbols are and how to use them. Symbols are important building blocks in Flash movies. Putting your graphics on layers You need to place different pieces on different layers when you’re animating. You use layers to organize your movie and keep shapes separate so that they don’t interfere with each other. (See Chapter 6 for the complete story on layers.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 Making graphics move We explain earlier in this chapter that your goal is to have the word Rainbow fly in from the right and the word Resources fly in from the left. You also want the graphic to rotate 180 degrees at the same time. What you see now is how the animation should end — the last frame of the movie. Now go back and create the beginning of your movie. Flash can fill in all the blanks in between. This type of animation is called a motion tween.
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30 Part I: A Blast of Flash You might need to use the horizontal scroll bar or choose a lower zoom percentage in the Zoom Control drop-down list to see the gray area. Pressing Shift keeps the object from moving up or down while you drag to the right. By clicking the first frame and moving the word, you set its position at the beginning of the animation. 5. To move the Rainbow symbol to its proper location for Frame 24 (the end of the motion tween animation), click Frame 24 in the Rainbow layer.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 Figure 1-12: Before you run the animation, Rainbow appears to the right and Resources to the left, and the Lines symbol is rotated. 16. Press Enter (Return) and watch the animation. (Start writing your Academy Award acceptance speech.) 17. Save your movie again by choosing File➪Save. Publishing your first animation for posterity You can’t watch the animation in a Web browser until you publish your movie and insert it into an HTML document.
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32 Part I: A Blast of Flash 2. In the Property inspector, click the Edit button next to the Profile: Default label. The Publish Settings dialog box opens. (We cover publish settings in detail in Chapter 13.) 3. Click the HTML tab. 4. Deselect the Loop check box in the Playback section. We want the animation to play only once. 5. Click the Publish button, and then click OK to close the dialog box. With scarcely a blip, Flash publishes your movie and creates two files, named Movie of the Year.
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Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Flash CS5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Figure 1-13: The Movie of the Year animation in detail.
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34 Part I: A Blast of Flash