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Lazy Man Method of Using Actionscript to Create Motion in Flash CS4
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ActionScript makes my teeth hurt. Imagine my joy at discovering that I can script motion in Flash CS4 with only one line of ActionScript.

Approximate download size: 10.8MB

ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 3: TextFields
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Were you ever confused, frustrated or dismayed by a project you had to convert from ActionScript 1 or 2 and migrate it up to ActionScript 3.0? Maybe you've checked out the AS2 Migration reference, and have found it lacking specific examples, or searched on the net and been flabbergasted by the multitude of conversations. Finding the right information, the right tips and the right approach can be challenging when you're under the gun and need a solution, fast.

This series will guide you through some simple formulas and techniques to convert and migrate legacy Flash ActionScript 1 and 2 code and techniques to ActionScript 3.0.

When you start on nearly any ActionScript 1-to-3 conversion project, you may need to convert all of those text fields in the FLA. It is such a necessary step in the conversion process that it could be considered as basic as removing all the underscores in MovieClip property references. In this article, you'll learn to convert AS 1 text fields to AS 3. You'll also learn about some of the challenges and choices you'll be faced with in this process, and how to overcome them.

The ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles Series:
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 1: An Introduction to AS3 Migration
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 2: Button Events
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 3: TextFields
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 4: Automation Strategies
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 5: Source Navigation Coming soon
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 6: Button Scripts Coming soon

Introducing Adobe Media Encoder CS4
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Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer, graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Adobe Products to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artwork and writes articles and reviews about graphics, animation, and Flash topics at his site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert, contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center and uCertify.com co-author.

Like Adobe Bridge CS4, Adobe Creative Suite 4 comes with another helpful application that allows you to bridge the gap between applications by encoding media to different formats.

In older versions of Adobe Media Encoder (Adobe Flash Video Encoder), it was only possible to encode media to the FLV format. But the new version has been enhanced with more encoding formats to provide various compressions to audio and video such as:

• Adobe FLV and F4V, to be used with Adobe Flash Player
• H.264, to be used with devices such as iPod, mobile phones ...etc.
• MPEG-1 for CDs
• MPEG-2 for DVD and high quality video
• Apple Quick Time
• Windows Media

The new version of Adobe Media Encoder is an extension for the previous version in Adobe Creative Suite 3. The new version has extended capabilities, starting with accepting more formats, different exported formats and accepting other types of content, such as Adobe After Effects Compositions and Adobe Premier Pro sequences.

Embedding Flash Content, Demystified - Part 1: Introduction
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There are numerous ways to embed Flash content in a web site, from Dreamweaver's Insert > Media menu (for SWF files, Flash Paper, FLV files, and more) to the publishing templates provided by the Flash authoring tool itself. In spite of these varied options — or perhaps because they're so varied — many people lack confidence when it comes to marrying Flash content with an HTML document.

If this strikes a chord with you, then lay your fears to rest. In this series, you'll cut through the complexity, find out what your application's auto-generated embedding code actually means, and learn to avoid a handful of common Flash-related pitfalls.

The Embedding Flash Content Demystified Series:
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 1: Introduction
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 2: The Traditional Approach
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 3: Optional Parameters
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 4: Optional Parameters Continued
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 5: Optional Parameters Concluded
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 6: Common Pitfalls
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 7: Using JavaScript
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 8: Using JavaScript (cont)
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 9: Using JavaScript (concluded)

Flash CS4: Encoding Video Content
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As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). We've taken an introductory look at a number of these new features in this series, along with a some features that have been around for quite some time (though relatively underused). Now it's time to round out this excerpt series with a look at the new Adobe Media Encoder, the application Flash CS4 now uses exclusively to encode video content.

Adobe Media Encoder used to be known as the Adobe Flash Video Encoder. The name change is deliberate. Adobe came to the conclusion that the Flash brand name was being attached to a lot of stuff, and there was understandable concern that the brand was becoming diluted. The release of Creative Suite 4 starts the process of Adobe's refocusing of the Flash brand. If you have used Flash to encode video in previous iterations of the application, you will find that things have really changed. Let's take a look.

Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 2
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As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). We've taken an introductory look at some of these new features already in this series — and there's more to come — but no matter what version of Flash you're using, if your content is distributed via the Internet, the time it takes to download and display is totally dependent on two things: a) the assets included in that content, which are under your control, and b) the flow of network traffic, which is not necessarily under your control. This is your chance to fall in love with the user and not the technology.

When we last touched base, we made the acquaintance of a longtime feature of Flash, the Bandwidth Profiler. In that previous article, you learned that the Bandwidth Profiler allows you to simulate various modem speeds in order to test your content as many of your users will experience it. As we continue in this installation — the second last of our Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers excerpt series — you'll learn how to actually use the information provided by the profiler to structure your content for optimized delivery.

Approximate download size: 2.5MB

The Using The Bandwidth Profiler Series:
Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 1
Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 2

3D Animation in Flash CS4
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I have no doubt that many Flash designers have used the classic work-around approaches for adding 3D to Flash, for working with 3D in Flash, or even for displaying 3D on the web with Flash as the medium, simply because Flash is the most efficient way to go. In previous years, we've seen a lot of 3rd party applications, engines and open-source projects to help work with 3D inside of Flash, such as Swift 3D, Papervision 3D, and Away 3D, etc.

Flash CS4 is the first version in Flash history to include a native 3D tool set to help designers transform and rotate objects in the 3D space. While this is exciting news, be aware that Flash CS4 does not create a full-fledged 3D object with the full meaning of 3D, such as having objects with volume, like 3D Studio Max or Swift 3D. While far more basic than that, Flash's new 3D tools do give the stage a 3rd dimension by adding the Z dimension to the stage in Flash Player 10 and higher.

Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer since 2001 and a graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Flash to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artworks and writes articles and reviews about graphic, animation, and Flash topics at his articles site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert and Contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center.

Approximate download size: 6.8MB

Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 1
Reader Level:

As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). We've taken an introductory look at some of these new features already in this series — and there's more to come — but no matter what version of Flash you're using, if your content is distributed via the Internet, the time it takes to download and display is totally dependent on two things: a) the assets included in that content, which are under your control, and b) the flow of network traffic, which is not necessarily under your control.

This means you need to not only concentrate on what is in your movie, but also on who wants to access it. This is your chance to fall in love with the user and not the technology. Sure, the "bells and whistles" are usually exciting, but you need to regard the data transmission of your Flash content in much the same manner you regard your local highway. It may have six lanes for traffic and a posted speed limit of 60 mph or 100 kph, but all of that becomes irrelevant during rush hour. Traffic moves at the pace of the slowest car. It is no different with the Internet. Servers can become overloaded. In this excerpt, you'll learn how to take a few precautions.

Approximate download size: 1MB

The Using The Bandwidth Profiler Series:
Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 1
Using the Bandwidth Profiler - Part 2

ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 2: Button Events
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Were you ever confused, frustrated or dismayed by a project you had to convert from ActionScript 1 or 2 and migrate it up to ActionScript 3.0? Maybe you've checked out the AS2 Migration reference, and have found it lacking specific examples, or searched on the net and been flabbergasted by the multitude of conversations. Finding the right information, the right tips and the right approach can be challenging when you're under the gun and need a solution, fast.

This series will guide you through some simple formulas and techniques to convert and migrate legacy Flash ActionScript 1 and 2 code and techniques to ActionScript 3.0.

In this article, we'll cover one of the most common ActionScript conversions: button events. You'll learn to convert a simple application with a button, from AS1 and AS2, into AS3. Along the way we'll explain some of the theory and practice of building buttons and events in ActionScript 3.0.

The ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles Series:
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 1: An Introduction to AS3 Migration
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 2: Button Events
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 3: TextFields
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 4: Automation Strategies
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 5: Source Navigation Coming soon
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 6: Button Scripts Coming soon

Decorative Drawing in Flash CS4 Using the Deco Tool and Spray Brush
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Flash designers around the world have been using Flash for years to create decorative drawings and symmetrical shapes manually. Flash CS4 comes with two new decorative tools that are built on the algorithmic calculation, called procedural drawing, engine that uses the Flash JavaScript API.

Both the Deco tool and the Spray Brush tools are based on the same concept. It lets you, with a simple mouse click or mouse drag, create a pattern that is based on a default shape or symbol in the library.

In this article we will dig deeper to understand more about the decorative tools in Flash CS4.

Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer since 2001 and a graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Flash to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artworks and writes articles and reviews about graphic, animation, and Flash topics at his articles site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert and Contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center.

ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 1: An Introduction to AS3 Migration
Reader Level:

Were you ever confused, frustrated or dismayed by a project where you had to convert from ActionScript 1 or 2 and migrate it up to ActionScript 3.0? Finding the right information, the right tips and the right approach can be challenging when you're under the gun and need a solution, fast. This series will guide you through some simple formulas and techniques to convert and migrate legacy Flash ActionScript 1 and 2 code and techniques to ActionScript 3.0.

In this introductory article, before getting into specific strategies and techniques, we'll take a look at some of the issues you may be facing when tasked with converting a project from AS1 or AS2 to AS3.

The ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles Series:
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 1: An Introduction to AS3 Migration
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 2: Button Events
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 3: TextFields
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 4: Automation Strategies
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 5: Source Navigation Coming soon
ActionScript 3.0 Conversion Chronicles - Part 6: Button Scripts Coming soon

Extracting Images from Flash Files
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As web developers, we sometimes receive FLA, or Flash files, to include in our web sites. Unfortunately, those Flash developers sometimes forget to include the original files used in creating the Flash Movie: files that would be really helpful in creating images used throughout the rest of the web site.

If you have the original FLA file, it is possible to export library items to create .png, .jpg and other useful files. While most tutorials here teach how to include images in your Flash file, in this tutorial we do the inverse.

In this tutorial I'll show you a simple method of exporting buttons, movie clips and graphics.

Character Animation with Bones in Flash CS4
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Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer since 2001 and a graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Flash to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artworks and writes articles and reviews about graphic, animation, and Flash topics at his articles site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert and Contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center.

Nowadays, Flash is known as a tool that enables us to create different type of content and applications for many types of devices and platforms. But, behind these amazing capabilities that Flash gives to us is a simple definition that we used to hear about Flash: Flash as an animation program to create small size animation files.

The magic behind Flash tools is that it is simple and can be used to create different types of animation tricks, either directly or with a work-around. However, the needs are always there for new tools and new capabilities.

Animators and cartoonists were depending on Flash to create animation, especially for web, taking advantage of the small file size and working with the rest of the team, such as designers and developers, using the same tool. They can get their work out for different types of media such as web, Video and even mobile devices. There was still a lack in cartooning animation tools in Flash. However, animators were always trying to find a work-around and looking for tricks and tips to create the work output they dreamed of.

In this article, we will dig into a tool that will make animators happier than ever, the Bones tool. The Bones tool allows you to create a skeleton for your character, object and even water bubbles to gives it more realistic animation more easily and with less effort.

Using Audio in Flash CS4
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As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). We've taken an introductory look at some of these new features already in this series — and there's more to come — but it may encourage you in the meanwhile to hear that certain workflows haven't really changed much in Flash CS4, even though the user interface was overhauled completely.

One of these workflows pertains to timeline-based audio. In this excerpt, we'll take a look at the two basic types of sound in Flash: event and streaming. In a sense, it doesn't matter what version of Flash you're working with, these principles apply across the board — and amazingly, they haven't been covered before in a Community MX article, so let's jump in!

The Excerpts from Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers Series
Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2
Using Audio in Flash CS4

Motion Editor in Adobe Flash CS4 - Let's Move It!!
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Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer since 2001 and a graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Flash to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is an Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artworks and writes articles and reviews about graphic, animation, and Flash topics at his articles site, Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert and Contributor writer at Adobe Design and Developer center.

We have been using the classic motion tweening in Flash on a daily basis for years and years. We asked many times if the timeline could be enhanced to give us more capabilities, such as other animation programs like After Effects have.

Your comments were heard, the new Adobe Flash CS4 comes with two essential changes in the timeline. The first change is the new motion tweening, which we discussed in a previous article, Motion Tweening in Flash CS4 - Think Again!.

The second change, and the one that we will cover in this article, is the Motion Editor panel. This panel extends your capabilities by giving individual graphs for each changed property in the animation. Further more, it gives very deep control to your animation easing, which helps in creating realistic animation using both custom and built-in easing presets.

Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2
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As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). In this series, we'll be sharing a number of excerpts from this book, in hopes of inspiring you to experiment with the new stuff.

Part 2 of an investigation of the Motion Editor panel, this installment delves into easing and how this feature has changed for new-style motion tweens. The difference comes by way of a series of graphs, rather than the single hot text slider in the Property inspector's version of easing. Let's "ease" on in, shall we?

The Excerpts from Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers Series
Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2

Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Reader Level:

As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED). In this series, we'll be sharing a number of excerpts from this book, in hopes of inspiring you to experiment with the new stuff.

Flash animators will notice a significant change with the sort of tweening that used to be called a motion tween. In Flash CS4, motion tweens are now called classic tweens, and the new motion tween is largely managed by something called the Motion Editor panel. The authors suspect there will be a surge of interest in the new-style motion tweens — and there's good reason for that, as you'll see. People will begin to ask, "Which approach is better?" We'll be compelled to reply with the only legitimate answer there is: the best approach depends entirely on whatever works best for the project at hand.

The Excerpts from Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers Series
Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2

Motion Tweening in Flash CS4 - Think Again!
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The changes in Flash's motion tweening are the effect of two changes in Adobe Flash CS4. The first change is in the new interface. There is a new location for the panels and a different arrangement for the properties related to motion tweening.

The second change is the new concept of animation in Flash CS4. This concept is imported from other Adobe video products, such as Adobe After Effects. The new animation concept is built on two facts:

• The symbol follows an animation path. This path starts with the first keyframe in the animation (the start of the animation) and ends with the last keyframe in the animation (the end of the animation). This path can be manipulated as if it were a stroke or a symbol.
• The keyframe concept has changed slightly from the previous version of Flash. The old keyframe concept requires you to add keyframes manually when indicating a change in the symbol. Old-style motion tweening is now called classic tweening. The keyframe used in the new motion tweening concept is created automatically when you create a change in the symbol. This happens after you apply motion tweening to the symbol.

In this article, we will show examples of how to create and work with the new tweening concept in Flash CS4.

Rafiq Elmansy has been a multimedia graphic designer since 2001 and a graphic and web designer since 1999. His background is in fine art and sculpture. He uses Flash to create graphics and animations for desktop applications, cartoons, games, web sites, e-learning courses, and mobile and Pocket PC applications. He is the founder of Bee Design Studio. He is Adobe Flash CS3 Certified, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Certified, and the founder of the first Adobe User Group in Egypt. Rafiq also creates computer artwork and writes articles and reviews about graphic, animation, and Flash topics at his articles site Graphic Mania. Rafiq is an Adobe Community Expert and Contributing writer at Adobe Design and Developer center.

Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
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As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED).

In this series, we'll be sharing a number of excerpts from this book, in hopes of inspiring you to experiment with the new stuff.

Picking up from where we left off, let's continue with the 3D tools. In this article, we'll briefly cover the 3D Translation tool and demonstrate its usefulness. But first, let's take a quick detour to understand something called a "vanishing point."

The Excerpts from Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers Series
Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2

Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Reader Level:

As Tom Green mentioned in his end-of-2008 video "A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface," the latest version of Flash introduces a handful of eye-popping new tools. These are covered in detail in our latest collaborative effort, Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers (ISBN: 1430210931, by Tom Green and David Stiller, published by friends of ED).

In this series, we'll be sharing a number of excerpts from this book, in hopes of inspiring you to experiment with the new stuff.

Let's start with the 3D tools. In terms of visual cool factor, the 3D Rotation tool is sure to please. This tool allows you to quickly and intuitively rotate a movieclip in 3D space. In previous versions of Flash, this was possible only with shapes, and even that technique required a bit of careful nudging with the Free Transform tool. You simply couldn't do this with a symbol. Now you can, and that means you can perform perspective transforms on complex artwork, imported photos, and yes, even video. Kind of makes the corners of the mouth go up, doesn't it?

The Excerpts from Foundation Flash CS4 for Designers Series
Flash CS4: The 3D Rotation Tool
Flash CS4: The 3D Translation Tool
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 1
Flash CS4: The Motion Editor Panel - Part 2

Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 4
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When it comes to Flash, one of my programming mentors has helped me significantly with troubleshooting — with making things work when, against all expectation, they simply don't work. In this series, I'd like to explore a single theme — troubleshooting — from a variety of angles, sharing with you what my mentor has shared with me. Along the way, we'll turn up a few quirks involved in working with Flash, but more importantly, we'll review how to approach arriving at useful workarounds, regardless what the issue is.

Here in Part 4, we'll take second look the divide-and-conquer approach we used last time, but performed in a very different way. In this excursion, the cause of the problem arguably isn't code at all, and the pertinent troubleshooting doesn't involve ActionScript. Yes, sometimes the solution to a programming hiccup is like stepping off a cliff: away from the familiar (if treacherous) coding landscape and into ... whatever awaits.

The Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles Series:
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 1
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 2
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 3
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 4

Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 3
Reader Level:

When it comes to Flash, one of my programming mentors has helped me significantly with troubleshooting — with making things work when, against all expectation, they simply don't work. In this series, I'd like to explore a single theme — troubleshooting — from a variety of angles, sharing with you what my mentor has shared with me. Along the way, we'll turn up a few quirks involved in working with Flash, but more importantly, we'll review how to approach arriving at useful workarounds, regardless what the issue is.

Here in Part 3, we'll learn about an important troubleshooting concept called divide and conquer, which often becomes useful when clues are are harder to discover than in the previous two installments.

The Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles Series:
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 1
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 2
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 3
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 4

Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 2
Reader Level:

When it comes to Flash, one of my programming mentors has helped me significantly with troubleshooting — with making things work when, against all expectation, they simply don't work. In this series, I'd like to explore a single theme — troubleshooting — from a variety of angles, sharing with you what my mentor has shared with me. Along the way, we'll turn up a few quirks involved in working with Flash, but more importantly, we'll review how to approach arriving at useful workarounds, regardless what the issue is.

Here in Part 2, we'll scratch our heads collectively over a common issue involving ActionScript 2.0 and audio.

The Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles Series:
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 1
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 2
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 3
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 4

Developing a Flex-free AS3 Project for Flash Player 10 in Flex Builder 3
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So you're developing an ActionScript 3.0 project, without using Flash components or the Flex framework, aimed at Flash Player 10. You could do it in Flash authoring, or you could do it in a third party code editor. But did you know you can also do this in Flex Builder?

This tutorial aims to show you that Flex Builder is not just for Flex projects: it can be used for pure ActionScript 3.0 projects, without accidentally using any classes or features of the Flex framework, compiled and deployed for Flash Player 10.

Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 1
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Most of us have at least one mentor, even if it's someone we haven't met in person. In fact, if you're anything like me, you have a different mentor for each field that interests you: someone who inspires you to keep practicing the piano, to get creatively crazy in the kitchen, to learn yet another unicycle trick, and to keep strengthening your grasp on Flash (or Photoshop, or Dreamweaver ... you get the idea).

When it comes to Flash, one of my mentors has helped me significantly with troubleshooting — with making things work when, against all expectation, they simply don't work. In this series, I'd like to explore a single theme — troubleshooting — from a variety of angles, sharing with you what my mentor has shared with me. Along the way, we'll turn up a few quirks involved in working with Flash, but more importantly, we'll review how to approach arriving at useful workarounds, regardless what the issue is.

Here in Part 1, we'll start with a lowly movie clip symbol.

The Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles Series:
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 1
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 2
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 3
Flash Troubleshooter Chronicles - Part 4

Developing for Flash Player 10 in Flex Builder 3
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As a Flex developer, keeping up with new advances in Flash Player 10 is essential. Thus, it's nice to be able to build to the latest Flash Player, without waiting for the next major release of Flex Builder. This article will show you how to get Flex Builder 3's code assist to recognize Flash Player 10 classes, and to compile for and check for the presence of the Flash 10 Player, without a lot of mucking about with configuration files.

Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 2
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Generally speaking, Flash designers have become more considerate. In the late 1990s, it was common to encounter dozens of Flash websites a day with bloated, pointless intro animations. Ultimately, sure, content was king, users would eventually get to the meat of a website, but all too often, were subjected to unnecessary bells and whistles, simply because Flash was the shiny new kid on the block. Fortunately, bloated intros are largely a thing of the past. Even better, designers have begun offering "Skip Intro" buttons that remember a user's preferences. And now you can, too.

In the last installment, you learned how to use the SharedObject class to create a banner ad that plays through once, but skips its animation on subsequent viewings. You also learned how to temporarily reverse this behavior for testing purposes. Finally, you associated the feature with an "Always Skip Intro" button. In this tutorial, you'll make the shared object a bit smarter, by having the animation play three times before skipping, and then resetting itself after a period of time.

The Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash Series:
Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 1
Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 2

What's New In Flash Player 10?
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On October 15th, 2008, Adobe Systems unveiled the much anticipated Flash Player 10 to the world, to the great delight of Flash designers and developers everywhere. This new version of the Flash Player is so jam-packed with cool new stuff that you'd have to check out a dozen websites and blogs just to get the full story on all the amazingness bundled into this release.

Or you can read this summary right here, where we'll cover the nitty gritty of all the new features enabled in Flash Player 10 and what it means for both Flash designers and developers.

Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 1
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Generally speaking, Flash designers have become more considerate. In the late 1990s, it was common to encounter dozens of Flash web sites a day with bloated, pointless intro animations. Ultimately, sure, content was king: users would eventually get to the meat of a web site, but all too often, were subjected to unnecessary bells and whistles, simply because Flash was the shiny new kid on the block. Nowadays, bloated intros are largely a thing of the past, but back then, designers were proud of these intros and assumed users were thrilled to see them. Frankly, it just wasn't so.

Fortunately, designers began to change their ways. Best practices took hold, and the "Skip Intro" button became a fashionable device (in fact, it appeared so often it became an industry joke). If users were really lucky, they'd even see a "Skip Intro Always" button, which remembered their preference for the next visit.

In this two-part series, you'll learn how to create such a button, and we'll examine other uses for the same mechanism. It's easier than you might think!

The Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash Series:
Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 1
Creating a Smart Skip Intro Button in Flash - Part 2

Adobe Media Encoder CS4
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Adobe deep-sixes the Flash Video Encoder and replaces it with a snazzy Media Encoder.

Evaluating Script Assist's Usefulness
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The concept of Script Assist has existed in many versions of the Flash authoring tool and has evolved over the years. Prior to Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia, Flash MX developers encountered a similar feature in an Actions panel preference setting for "Normal Mode" versus "Expert Mode." Nowadays, that feature is called Script Assist, which you can think of as a built-in form of on-the-job training that can potentially expand your overall understanding of the ActionScript 3.0 API. Just be advised, Script Assist can also be a very tedious tool, so its usefulness will largely depend on your personal learning preferences. This feature temporarily sets the Actions panel's script pane as read-only and provides an alternative approach to adding, removing, and editing code.

This article takes you on a brief trip that shows Script Assist in action. The journey should help you evaluate if this feature can actually help you in your daily work, or if you'd rather skip it and try your hand at writing ActionScript without assistance. While aimed at a Flash beginner, this article does move at a fairly brisk pace. Remember, this isn't an ActionScript tutorial, but rather a demonstration of how Script Assist works.

A Quick Tour of the Flash CS4 Interface
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Flash CS4 sports a rather sleek new look, a few new tools and a somewhat familiar-looking Motion Editor.

Flash CS3: What Happened to the WebServiceConnector Component?
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Based on the title of this article, you might get the impression that the WebServiceConnection component has disappeared in Flash CS3 — that you can't consume Web services at all after Flash 8 — and that isn't actually true. If you're programming in ActionScript 2.0, you can go right on using any of the data components listed in the Components panel, including the one for web services. The issue described in this article hinges on the way Flash CS3 responds to the version of ActionScript you're using. As soon as you configure a FLA file's publish settings for ActionScript 3.0, the Components panel actually changes the items it displays, causing the data components to vanish. So it's ultimately ActionScript 3.0 that makes a challenge out of using Web services in conjunction with Flash.

The overall number of components in Flash has been reduced for ActionScript 3.0 FLA files. The data components, as mentioned, have been removed completely and now belong to the Flex framework. A handful of user interface (UI) components, such as Accordion, Tree, and Window, are also absent. Again, these components are still available for ActionScript 2.0 documents, but if you want to program in ActionScript 3.0 — which is only possible as of Flash CS3 — you'll need a workaround.

This article, adapted from an excerpt of The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide, gives you exactly that, thanks to a free third-party component. This reference book is slated for October, 2008, published by O'Reilly, and written by Community MX partner David Stiller, as well as Rich Shupe, Jen deHaan, and Darren Richardson.

How AS3 Helps You Program with Purpose
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ActionScript has historically been a very forgiving language. In some ways, you can draw a comparison between older versions of ActionScript and older versions of HTML. In the early days of web development, HTML was deceptively unfussy. Styling was handled with straightforward <font> tags, which all too often became a redundant jumble. Closing </p> tags were optional, nested tags could be closed out of sequence from how they were opened, and dozens of other lenient practices led — or had the tendency to lead — to overtime headaches.

Popular websites like The Web Standards Project and CSS Zen Garden have since sparked a surge of interest in a practice called semantic markup, in which great care is taken to cleanly separate styling and formatting from content. This separation usually relies on XHTML specifications, which are considerably stricter than HTML, and coupled with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Ironic as it may seem, adherence to a stricter standard has gradually made things easier for Web developers. It's a bit like the idea that picking up after yourself throughout the day saves you from facing an overwhelming mess at the end of the week. ActionScript 3.0 is more disciplined than its predecessors in a similarly helpful way.

This article, adapted from an excerpt of The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide (ISBN: 0596517351), discusses how the complexities of ActionScript 3.0 can actually be a good thing, because they encourage developers to think about code organzation as they program. This quick answer guide is slated for October, 2008, published by O'Reilly, and is written by Community MX partner David Stiller, as well as Rich Shupe, Jen deHaan, and Darren Richardson.

Playing with Lightning
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If you have ever wondered how one experiences one really upset cartoonist? One who is so upset he has lightning shooting out of his body. If you have After Effects Cs3 and Flash professional CS3, it isn't difficult.

Approximate download size: 15MB

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex
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Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

Flex comes with its own video player component, the VideoDisplay class, which serves as a simple video player, but it does not possess the capability of the Flash CS3 FLVPlayback component. In this tutorial we will build upon techniques in previous articles, such as editing Flash class files in Flex and using the Flex Component Kit. Using this as a starting point, you will learn how to use the Flash CS3 FLVPlayback component in a Flex application, including some best practices and crucial gotchas to avoid in this conversion and a detailed authoring & compilation diagram to make it all clear.


The Final Flex Application with FLVPlayback Component, Authoring & Compilation Diagram

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Working with Library and Linkage Changes in ActionScript 3.0
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Like its forerunner, ActionScript 3.0 supports the attachment of Library assets at runtime, but the mechanics have changed. While ActionScript 2.0 had the familiar MovieClip.attachMovie() and Sound.attachSound() methods, the only class methods that now contain the word "attach" relate to connecting the SWF file to an external device, such as NetStream.attachCamera(), which lets the user transmit webcam input. Not the same thing at all! So, how can you access the Library at runtime in an AS3 document? The answer is gratifyingly elegant, and even in its simple approach, ActionScript 3.0 gives you more elaborate options than before.

This article, adapted from an excerpt of The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide (ISBN: 0596517351), discusses how Library linkage has changed in ActionScript 3.0. This quick answer guide is slated for October, 2008, published by O'Reilly, and is written by Community MX partner David Stiller, as well as Rich Shupe, Jen deHaan, and Darren Richardson.

Ditching the Chipmunks: Choosing the Right Sample Rate for Flash Audio
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Flash is a terrific Web audio medium for a number of reasons. Most importantly, Flash Player is one of the most popular browser plug-ins in the world. It works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and even other operating systems, and it works fairly consistently across the board. In addition to that, Flash is capable of loading audio files dynamically. This makes it a popular choice for podcasters, who like to speak their mind, upload an MP3 file, and go. In fact, there are a number of Flash-based MP3 players specifically made for podcasters, such as the PodPress plugin for WordPress.

But an interesting bug happens for certain listeners, and it isn't always easy to pin down. Some listeners hear — are you ready for this? — chipmunks. Not the chirping of actual animals, but a too-speedy distortion of the actual recording. Think Alvin and the Chipmunks. Thanks to a change in the way Flash Player 9 handles external audio files, this issue doesn't come up as often as it used to on the forums, but if it happens to you ... now you'll know how to fix it.

Flash CS3: A Poor Man's Animation Tool
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Did you know that Flash can actually be used as a "poor man's animation tool" ? You didn't? Let's add to your knowledege,then, shall we?

Approximate download size: 32MB

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
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Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

In this tutorial we will examine creating a custom Flex component in Flash CS3 using the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3. You will learn how to design a Flex button having custom states and timeline animation. A flash-flex component takes advantage of the best of both worlds: Flex state-based events and component-based API, combined with Flash timeline animation.

We will also be taking a look at a few best practices for using both Flash CS3- and Flex-compiled files in the same project workflow. And as a bonus, we'll end up with an advanced look at incorporating Flex states with the StateChangeEvent class and the undocumented MovieClip.addFrameScript method.


Introducing The Flex MonkeyButton

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project in Flash
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Ok, so we have an image that oozes. Let's start the ooze with a button click in Flash.

Approximate download size: 20MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash

Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
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In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan. This simulated 3-D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise. But it doesn't stop there: the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as click-and-scrub input fields.

In Part 3, of this series, we loaded the rotation image sequence from external JPG files. Here in Part 4, we're going to step out of the box and give a stretch to the clicking-and-rotating (or clicking-and-scrubbing) concept. In doing so, we'll re-shuffle the code a bit, and refine it in preparation for building this concept into a custom class that can be used for a wide variety of applications.

The Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash Series:
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 5
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 6
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7

Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
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Click a Flash button and an image appears. Yawn. Booorring. Click a button and the image oozes out from behind the button. Now you have my attention. In this first part of the tutorial we prepare the assets in Fireworks CS3 so they can be converted to ooze in After Effects CS3.

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Reader Level:

In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan. This simulated 3-D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise. But it doesn't stop there: the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as click-and-scrub input fields.

In Part 2, of this series, we continued our exploration of the Flash version of a QTVR Object Movie that rotates an F-15A aircraft, adding a "grabber" icon and reversing the rotation direction. Here in Part 3, we'll load the image sequence from external files. In future articles, we'll consider alternate uses for the same programmatic concept and eventually build a custom class to wrap the functionality into a neatly portable bundle.

The Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash Series:
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 5
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 6
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
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Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

In the last article, we looked at how to use Flex Builder as the ActionScript 3 editor for a Flash-compiled project. But as some of you may have discovered, there is something missing from that workflow: if you are using any Flash CS3 components, Flex Builder is unable to recognize those component classes, which negates one of the principle advantages of using Flex Builder, which is its code assist. In this article, we will take a look at how to get Flex Builder to recognize the Flash CS3 Component classes for editing ActionScript 3 files in Flash CS3 projects.


How do we get Flex Builder's code assist to recognize Flash CS3 Component classes?

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

ActionScript Basics - Part 4: Building a Custom Button Class For the Dynamic Menu
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Part 3, ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays, of this series left off with a dynamically generated menu using data coming from an associative array. The menu was built using a MovieClip from the library that was coded to work like a button.

This tutorial will continue with the basics of creating a custom class. We will create a custom Button class using the MovieClip symbol and an external ,as class file. This will be a light overview of creating your own custom class just so you can get your hands a little bit dirty with custom class development.

The ActionScript Basics Series:
ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 4: Building a Custom Button Class For the Dynamic Menu

Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Reader Level:

In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan. This simulated 3-D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise. But it doesn't stop there: the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as click-and-scrub input fields.

In Part 1, of this series, we explored the Flash version of a QTVR Object Movie that rotates an F-15A aircraft. Here in Part 2, we'll look at how to compensate for the rotational direction of the image sequence and add a custom "grabber" cursor. In future articles, we'll work through loading the image sequence from external files and will consider alternate uses for the same programmatic concept.

The Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash Series:
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 5
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 6
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7

Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Reader Level:

You only need one click to optimize images in the Flash Library? What's with that? Let's start with a hidden gem and move on from there.

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Reader Level:

Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

In this article, we will delve into Flash-Flex integration on a more intimate level, using both Flash and Flex in a completely integrated development workflow. Using David Stiller's Click-and-Paint tutorial as a basis for our enhanced application, we will convert a timeline-based Flash project into a class-based project, but using Flex Builder as the code editor. Essentially using the Flash IDE as the assets editor and SWF compiler, and Flex Builder as the ActionScript 3 editor (without using the Flex compiler).

In this article, you will learn how to set up a Flex project workspace to enable the editing of Flash IDE-compiled ActionScript 3 class files. In doing so, you will no doubt discover why Flex Builder is a much more powerful tool for ActionScript class editing than the Flash Actions panel. As one of my Flash colleagues is fond of saying, "Once you go Flex, you never go back." :) But this isn't about making converts to either Flash or Flex development. Whatever your specialty, this series is here to show you that with a little ingenuity, you can have your cake and eat it too.


Flash Actions panel or Flex Builder: for code editing, there is no contest.

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Reader Level:

In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan. This simulated 3D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise. But it doesn't stop there: the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as the click-and-scrub input fields of numerous Adobe dialog boxes


Adobe often uses click-and-drag input to update text fields

If you're a Flash developer and interested in click-and-drag functionality, you've come to the right tutorial series! Here in Part 1, we'll start by exploring the Flash version of a QTVR Object Movie that rotates an F-15A aircraft. In future articles, we'll work through a common "gotcha" in regard to direction reversal. We'll also load images from external files and explore alternate uses for the same programmatic concept.

The Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash Series:
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 5
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 6
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7

ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays
Reader Level:

Dynamic menu and content creation that is generated by external or internal data is the next step in harnessing the power Associative Arrays. Part 2 of this series, ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays, looked at creating associative arrays to store multiple properties of information within elements of an array. This tutorial will covering using the data from an associative array to build a dynamic menu.

The ActionScript Basics Series:
ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 4: Building a Custom Button Class For the Dynamic Menu

Code Free Flash Video ... Sort Of
Reader Level:

Can you really stream an HD video through the Flash Media Server and have no code? You read that correctly: Code Free. Intrigued? Read on ...

Approximate download size: 114MB

Wiggle that Text! - Part 4: AS3 Custom Class
Reader Level:

As the well-known adage dictates, "a picture's worth a thousand words." Often enough, that sentiment is true — but even so, words are powerful in their own right. Especially when they wiggle! In this series, you'll learn how to accomplish an animated text effect with ActionScript ... but there's more to it than that. We're going to take a journey on this exercise, one that begins with timeline code and marches toward the destination of a custom class. Along the way, we'll discover some of the benefits that classes have to offer, focusing specifically on the convenience of re-usability.

Here in Part 4, you'll convert the custom WiggleText class from the last article into an ActionScript 3.0 class.

The Wiggle that Text! Series:
Wiggle that Text! - Part 1: AS2 Timeline Code Prep
Wiggle that Text! - Part 2: AS2 Timeline Code Animation
Wiggle that Text! - Part 3: AS2 Custom Class
Wiggle that Text! - Part 4: AS3 Custom Class

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Reader Level:

Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

Flex presents developers with a suite of tools which makes coding applications for the Flash Player a real treat. However, there are times you want to create a skin in Flash, and port it into a Flex application. Not merely embedding image assets via CSS, but utilizing flexible, complex skin assets.

In the previous article, we skinned our Flex component, tested its button states and the scale-9 properties of the background skin. In this final article in the scale-9 skinning trilogy (parts 3-5), we will finish coding the full functionality of our drag-and-resize component. You will learn how to:

• Output realtime event results to a textfield in the component;
• Code a drag control which allows a Flex component to be moved on stage constrained to a defined boundary;
• Calculate the minimum dimensions of a component using a scale-9 skin;
• Apply complex boundary calculations for a component resize handler;
• Update the dimensions of a resizable component at runtime;
• Build a custom DragPanel component with a skinned scale-9 background and functional drag and resize handles.

The final skinned and functional DragPanel component with calculation diagram.

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Wiggle that Text! - Part 3: AS2 Custom Class
Reader Level:

As the well-known adage dictates, "a picture's worth a thousand words." Often enough, that sentiment is true — but even so, words are powerful in their own right. Especially when they wiggle! In this series, you'll learn how to accomplish an animated text effect with ActionScript ... but there's more to it than that. We're going to take a journey on this exercise, one that begins with timeline code and marches toward the destination of a custom class. Along the way, we'll discover some of the benefits that classes have to offer, focusing specifically on the convenience of re-usability.

Here in Part 3, we'll build a custom WiggleText class out of the animateText() and tweenIn() functions from last time. In addition, we'll continue to flesh out the benefits of classes in general by defining properties for most of the parameters previously passed to the animateText() function. This allows these parameters to be changed even after the WiggleText object is instantiated, which means our wiggle text functionality becomes even easier to use.

The Wiggle that Text! Series:
Wiggle that Text! - Part 1: AS2 Timeline Code Prep
Wiggle that Text! - Part 2: AS2 Timeline Code Animation
Wiggle that Text! - Part 3: AS2 Custom Class
Wiggle that Text! - Part 4: AS3 Custom Class

Wiggle that Text! - Part 2: AS2 Timeline Code Animation
Reader Level:

As the well-known adage dictates, "a picture's worth a thousand words." Often enough, that sentiment is true — but even so, words are powerful in their own right. Especially when they wiggle! In this series, you'll learn how to accomplish an animated text effect with ActionScript ... but there's more to it than that. We're going to take a journey on this exercise, one that begins with timeline code and marches toward the destination of a custom class. Along the way, we'll discover some of the benefits that classes have to offer, focusing specifically on the convenience of re-usability.

Here in Part 2, we pick up with 39 text fields generated by an ActionScript 2.0 keyframe. This is where the animation happens.

The Wiggle that Text! Series:
Wiggle that Text! - Part 1: AS2 Timeline Code Prep
Wiggle that Text! - Part 2: AS2 Timeline Code Animation
Wiggle that Text! - Part 3: AS2 Custom Class
Wiggle that Text! - Part 4: AS3 Custom Class

ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays
Reader Level:

If you are creating any kind of logic or data storage/retrieval with ActionScript, you most likely will achieve that in part using arrays. Arrays are the most common and basic data structure besides variables in any programming language. Arrays allow storage of a series of one or more values in a single data structure. Ordinary arrays however pose logical limitations. Arrays in their most basic form ideally work with lists of like values such as a list of names and numbers. Arrays really aren't powerful tools when storing multiple details of items in a list.

This article will cover using associative arrays. Associative arrays can be used to store a list of like values with each value storing its own details about itself as properties.

Many of the basics and methods of working with arrays in this article are the same as Part 1 of this series. This article will not go into detail of the repetitive techniques and methods so refer to Part 1, ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays, if you need more information.

The ActionScript Basics Series:
ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 4: Building a Custom Button Class For the Dynamic Menu

Playing Videos Sequentially
Reader Level:

In this, the last of six excerpts from Foundation Flash CS3 Video published by friendsofED, CMX partner Tom Green and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, answer that age-old question: How do I play a sequence of videos?

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age
Playing videos sequentially

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Reader Level:

Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

Flex presents developers with a suite of tools which makes coding applications for the Flash Player a real treat. However, there are times you want to create a skin in Flash, and port it into a Flex application. Not merely embedding static images into your Flex application, but utilizing flexible, responsive skin assets.

In this first article, we will design a skin in Flash CS3 for a Flex component, which is able stretch intelligently using a concept known as scale-9. We will look at several techniques for designing assets in Flash using scale-9 effectively, avoiding certain important gotchas along the way. We will also demonstrate how one Flash skin file may be applicable to multiple Flex components. In the following article we will implement this skin for a Flex custom panel component with drag and resize handles.


The completed Flash-Flex component skin.

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Letting Video Show Its Age
Reader Level:

In this, the fifth of six excerpts from Foundation Flash CS3 Video published by friendsofED, CMX partner Tom Green and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, explore how to age a video playing through the Flash Player.

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age
Playing videos sequentially Coming Soon

Wiggle that Text! - Part 1: AS2 Timeline Code Prep
Reader Level:

As the well-known adage dictates, "a picture's worth a thousand words." Often enough, that sentiment is true — but even so, words are powerful in their own right.

The Wiggle that Text! Series:
Wiggle that Text! - Part 1: AS2 Timeline Code Prep
Wiggle that Text! - Part 2: AS2 Timeline Code Animation
Wiggle that Text! - Part 3: AS2 Custom Class
Wiggle that Text! - Part 4: AS3 Custom Class

Issues with Dynamically Creating and Calling Display Objects
Reader Level:

Something completely new to ActionScript 3.0 is ActionScript's trust in object references. In AS2.0 you were able to dynamically add an object and call it after-the-fact by its instance name. In AS3.0, when an object is created dynamically you need to specifically tell the compiler how to treat an object when calling it in some cases. You cannot just simply call its instance name anymore as display objects that are dynamically added in many cases need to be referenced by a name property and do not have an instance name. ActionScript no longer "trusts" your judgment when calling dynamically created objects. This results in frustrating errors.

This new concept really made me feel like a newbie at first. Researching documentation on this topic to make sure I'm explaining this properly was also frustrating to find. So here it is! This article will show you when you need to tell Flash how an object should be treated.

Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Reader Level:

In this, the fourth of six excerpts from Foundation Flash CS3 Video published by friendsofED, CMX partner Tom Green and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, show you how to load an Illustrator CS3 file that can be used as a video mask ... at runtime.

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age Coming Soon
Playing videos sequentially Coming Soon

Flex-Flash Integration, Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Reader Level:

Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

This article offers a clearly understandable tutorial on skinning Flex 2.01 components with Flash CS3. Later in this series we will move on to more advanced component skinning available in Flex 3.


The completed application with custom-skinned buttons.

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Going Big — Enter H.264
Reader Level:

In this second excerpt from Foundation Flash CS3 Video, CommunityMX partner and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, show you how to add HD video to your web sites.

Approximate download size: 223MB

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age Coming Soon
Playing videos sequentially Coming Soon

Reflections on an Alpha Video Theme
Reader Level:

In this third excerpt from Foundation Flash CS3 Video by friendsofED, Cmax partner Tom Green and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, show you how to reflect alpha channel video using ActionScript 3.0.

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age Coming Soon
Playing videos sequentially Coming Soon

Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 2: AS3
Reader Level:

Ah, coloring books! In my neighborhood, a family restaurant keeps a stack handy for kids to use while they wait for their food to arrive. Coloring books were certainly a fun pastime for me growing up, both on rainy and sunny afternoons. There's nothing like the smell of a fresh box of Crayolas, and nothing beats the satisfaction of tearing off paper as the colored wax slowly wears down. Even so, online coloring books are plenty fun in their own way, and Flash provides the easiest tool for creating a click-and-paint version of this childhood favorite.

This two-part series began last time with a tutorial for an implementation in ActionScript 2.0. In this article, we'll update the programming for ActionScript 3.0, and use the opportunity to grapple with a few migration issues.

The Click-and-Paint Flash Content Series:
Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 1: AS2
Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 2: AS3

Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Reader Level:

In this, the first of six excerpts from Foundation Flash CS3 Video published by friendsofED, CMX partner Tom Green and his coauthor, Adam Thomas, explore how to play an FLV file through a cell phone.

Approximate download size: 11MB

The Foundation Flash CS3 Video Excerpts:
Going Small - Playing Video On a Cell Phone
Going Big - Enter H.264
Reflections On an Alpha Video Theme
Using ActionScript to Dynamically Add a Masking Object
Letting Video Show Its Age Coming Soon
Playing videos sequentially Coming Soon

Interactive Flash Maps - Part 2: Creating, Storing and Displaying Map Data
Reader Level:

In Part 2 of creating interactive Flash mapping applications, you will be introduced to KML (the mark-up language for storing mapping data) and UMapper, an online service which we will use to build your maps and export the KML map data to use in your own custom mapping applications using the UMap component.

This article assumes you are familiar with adding the UMap component to a Flash application and have read Part 1 of this series, Interactive Flash Maps Part 1.

Approximate download size: 4.4MB

The Interactive Flash Maps Series:
Interactive Flash Maps - Part 1
Interactive Flash Maps - Part 2: Creating, Storing and Displaying Map Data

Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 1: AS2
Reader Level:

Ah, coloring books! In my neighborhood, a family restaurant keeps a stack handy for kids to use while they wait for their food to arrive. Coloring books were certainly a fun pastime for me growing up, both on rainy and sunny afternoons. There's nothing like the smell of a fresh box of Crayolas, and nothing beats the satisfaction of tearing off paper as the colored wax slowly wears down. Even so, online coloring books are plenty fun in their own way, and Flash provides the easiest tool for creating a click-and-paint version of this childhood favorite.

In this two-part series, we'll begin by stepping through an approach in ActionScript 2.0. In the follow-up article, we'll update the programming for ActionScript 3.0, taking the opportunity to note and work through a number of challenges presented by the code migration.

The Click-and-Paint Flash Content Series:
Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 1: AS2
Creating Click-and-Paint Flash Content - Part 2: AS3

Using Sound in ActionScript 3: Part I
Reader Level:

One of the most common reasons for incorporating Flash into a web site is to provide sound. It might be something as simple as a "sound effect" on a button or as complicated as a full blown MP3 jukebox. You might decide to build your entire web site with Flash, or you may only need to use some Flash elements on your (X)HTML page. Either way, to use sound effectively in Flash you'll need to have at least a basic understanding of ActionScript, Flash's programming language and the Sound Classes provided by Flash.

Much of the ActionScript related to Sound has changed in ActionScript 3. Whether you are completely new to ActionScript or migrating from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3, this series of articles will show you how to use ActionScript 3 to work dynamically with external sounds. You'll need to make sure you have Flash CS3 to work through these tutorials.

Steve Wilkison has been working in the graphic design field for over fifteen years. He has been involved with over forty CD releases as art director and/or graphic designer, including packages for such artists as Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Wayne Hancock and Kate Campbell. He made the move from print design to web design in 2001 and never looked back. Since then he has designed and created numerous e-cards and web sites utilizing many of today's cutting edge technologies. Today he concentrates almost exclusively on web site design and development utilizing XHTML, CSS, Flash, PHP, JavaScript and Ajax through his company Digital Vision Media. He currently teaches web design at Watkins College of Art & Design in Nashville, TN.

Understanding Bitmap Fills in ActionScript
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As Tom Green demonstrates in his video tutorial "Bitmap Fills in Flash," Bitmap fills are easy to achieve with the drawing tools — but what about ActionScript? Is it even possible to script bitmap fills? If so, is it insanely burdensome? The answers are: yes, it's possible (yay!); and no, it's not burdensome at all (double yay!). So what's the scoop? How does it work? You've come to the right tutorial.

Interactive Flash Maps - Part 1
Reader Level:

When a client approached me to develop an application that maps out the waterways of Ontario for boating, services, towns, attractions, accomodations, etc, I was "on board" for the task. As we got deeper into the project and ran into limitations of the custom mapping application I was drawing and programming vs. the costs to overcome them with the custom mapping utility we were creating, it was time to look for other possible solutions. That's when I found UMap, a universal mapping component developed by the folks at Advanced Flash Components (AFC).

The Interactive Flash Maps Series:
Interactive Flash Maps - Part 1
Interactive Flash Maps - Part 2: Creating, Storing and Displaying Map Data

Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash: Part 2 - AS2
Reader Level:

It's easy enough, in Flash, to open a hyperlink into a new browser window. As a matter of fact, Flash uses the same syntax as HTML: specify "_blank" as the optional target parameter of the navigateToURL() function in AS3 or the getURL() function prior to AS3, just like specifying "_blank" for the target attribute of HTML's <a href="sample.html" target="_blank">. This results in a new window in most browsers — but if you want to control the characteristics of that new window, such as its dimensions, or whether or not to include certain attributes (navigation toolbar, menu bar, status bar, etc.), you'll have to use JavaScript.

If your hyperlink originates from Flash content, it means you'll have to instruct Flash to convey your intentions to JavaScript on your behalf. This two-part series gives you the how-to on doing just that. Here in Part 2, we'll pick up from last time, reviewing what code needs to change in order to produce the same results in ActionScript 2.0.

The Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash Series:
Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash - Part 1: AS3
Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash - Part 2: AS2

Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Reader Level:

Sometimes, when you're coding a Flex application, don't you just wish you could use a Flash animation, right there? And in Flash, don't you sometimes wish you could use that one class in Flex, or that one component, which would make your life so much easier? It is at such times that a developer encounters the limitations of their tools, be it in Flex or in Flash. This series aims to explore the possibilities inherent in an integrated Flash-Flex workflow, bridging the gap between the two technologies, enabling a greater range of development options.

In this first article, we will introduce the topic by looking at where certain Flash and Flex development scenarios might need to converge into an integrated Flash-Flex workflow. We'll also look some typical strategies to meet the needs of certain Flash Platform development methodologies.

A bird's eye view of the Flash-Flex Workflow.

The Flash-Flex Integration Series:
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 1: Workflows
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 2: Flex 2 Component Skinning
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 3: Flex Component Skinning with Scale-9
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 4: Skinning the Scale-9 Flex Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 5: Building the DragPanel Component
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 6: Editing Flash Code in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 7: Coding With Flash Components in Flex Builder
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 8: Creating Custom Flex Components with Flash CS3
Flash-Flex Integration - Part 9: Using The FLVPlayback Component in Flex

Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash: Part 1 - AS3
Reader Level:

It's easy enough, in Flash, to open a hyperlink into a new browser window. As a matter of fact, Flash uses the same syntax as HTML: specify "_blank" as the optional target parameter of the navigateToURL() function in AS3 or the getURL() function prior to AS3, just like specifying "_blank" for the target attribute of HTML's <a href="sample.html" target="_blank">. This results in a new window in most browsers, true enough — but if you want to control the characteristics of that new window, such as its dimensions, or whether or not to include certain attributes (navigation toolbar, menu bar, status bar, etc.), you'll have to use JavaScript.

If your hyperlink originates from Flash content, it means you'll have to instruct Flash to convey your intentions to JavaScript on your behalf. This two-part series gives you the how-to on doing just that. Here in Part 1, we'll cover an ActionScript 3.0 approach; next time, we'll break it down for ActionScript 2.0.

The Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash Series:
Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash - Part 1: AS3
Controlling a New Browser Window's Characteristics with Flash - Part 2: AS2

A Streaming Video
Reader Level:

"Flash Media Server" and "No Brainer" are two terms you would never see in the same sentence. Not any more. Really!!!

Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Reader Level:

Using Photoshop CS3 to add a pattern or texture to an image destined for Flash is about as useful as lighting your BBQ with an atom bomb. Discover how Flash CS3 and Fireworks CS3 is an unbeatable combination.

Approximate download size: 13.6MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

Playing with Bitmaps in Flash CS3: Part 4- Scaling on the Fly
Reader Level:

Have you ever wondered how they do those really cool image scaling effects on the photography sites? It isn't as hard as it looks.

Approximate download size: 17.2MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays
Reader Level:

If you are are creating any kind of logic or data storage/retrieval with ActionScript, you most likely will achieve that in part using arrays. Arrays are the most common and basic data structure, besides variables, in any programming language. Arrays allow storage of a series of one or more values in a single data structure.

In Part 1, we will cover the basics of creating arrays, adding, removing and returning values, and using methods of the array class. In Part 2, we will get more advanced with arrays and put arrays to use in a real world scenario.

The ActionScript Basics Series:
ActionScript Basics - Part 1: Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 2: Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 3: Building Dynamic Menus and Associative Arrays
ActionScript Basics - Part 4: Building a Custom Button Class For the Dynamic Menu

Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 3: AS3
Reader Level:

For many developers, progressive enhancement is a good idea that often gets set aside. After all, doesn't it require duplicated effort? Not necessarily. In this series, you're going to build a simple Flash slideshow that takes its cues entirely from the HTML document that contains it. Update the HTML and the Flash updates too — automatically. If Flash Player is not installed, the user sees the images anyway, only without the Flash pizzazz.

Here in Part 3, you'll learn how to migrate the ActionScript you wrote last time from 2.0 to 3.0 — code that retrieved images and captions from the XHTML file you loaded in Part 1.

The Progressive Enhancement with Flash Series:
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 1
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 2: AS2
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 3: AS3

Interactive Blurs
Reader Level:

We've all seen those Flash sites where, if you roll over an image, it either blurs or comes into focus. You may be wondering, "How do they do that?". It uses magic. ActionScript magic. In fact the ActionScript is dead simple. Intrigued? Read on.

Approximate download size: 12MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 2: AS2
Reader Level:

For many developers, progressive enhancement is a good idea that often gets set aside. After all, doesn't it require duplicated effort? Not necessarily. In this series, you're going to build a simple Flash slideshow that takes its cues entirely from the HTML document that contains it. Update the HTML and the Flash updates too — automatically. If Flash Player is not installed, the user sees the images anyway, only without the Flash pizzazz.

The Progressive Enhancement with Flash Series:
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 1
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 2: AS2
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 3: AS3

A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Reader Level:

One of the fundamental maxims of this crazy business is:Let the software do the work. Let's go one even better. Let's let the software create a grid of objects on the stage and use them as a sort of transition effect. Did I mention it was code-free? Intrigued? Read on...

Approximate download size: 11.7MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

From Photo to Art and Back Again
Reader Level:

How would you like to have an image transform into line art and back to an image? It's a snap in Flash CS3.

Approximate download size: 14.8MB

The Playing With Bitmaps In Flash CS3 Series:
From Photo to Art and Back Again
A Page Transition Effect in Flash CS3
Interactive Blurs
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 4: Scaling on the Fly
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 5: Adding Textures
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 6: Batch Processing
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7a: Creating an Oozing Image
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7b: Creating an Oozing Image Coming Soon
Playing with Bitmaps in Flash - Part 7c: Completing the Project In Flash Coming Soon

Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 1
Reader Level:

One of the main tenets of good Web design involves the principle of progressive enhancement. In general, the idea goes like this: make sure the user can access a web site's essential content regardless of browser. It shouldn't matter whether the user visits your site with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Netscape, or pick your favorite flavor. In fact, the site's content should be accessible even without JavaScript or peripheral plugins like Flash Player. Once the basics are covered, use CSS to enhance the visual design. Then, and only then, introduce the whizz-bang stuff — nifty rollovers, AJAX interactivity, Flash — and do it in a way that doesn't penalize users who don't have (or choose to disable) the needed machinery.

For many developers, progressive enhancement is a good idea that often gets set aside. After all, doesn't it require duplicated effort? Not necessarily. In this series, you're going to build a simple Flash slideshow that takes its cues entirely from the HTML document that contains it. Update the HTML and the Flash updates too — automatically. If Flash Player is not installed, the user sees the images anyway, only without the Flash pizzazz.

Here in Part 1, you'll learn how to get the HTML data into Flash. In future articles, you'll learn how to pull out the relevant image references and captions and display them with ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0.

The Progressive Enhancement with Flash Series:
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 1
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 2: AS2
Progressive Enhancement with Flash - Part 3: AS3

Google Analytics - Tracking Flash/Flex Online
Reader Level:

Tracking user statistics in a SWF file is a problem as old as Flash itself. Being that a SWF is a self-enclosed file, traffic tracking utilities and services cannot 'peek' inside of an embedded SWF and see what's going on. Even if they could, the events and happening's of the SWF would make no sense to a tracker and it could not really effectively track what's going on. Sure you can track server stats of requested files such as loaded SWF's, images and videos but its hard to match them up with specific user sessions.

Not being able to track statistics effectively from a Flash website is a deal breaker when it comes to selling your Flash services. You need worry no longer though. This is where the Google Analytics comes in!

Adding Flash Cue Points in Soundbooth CS3
Reader Level:

An audio editing app that adds cue points to an FLV file? What's with that? Actually, it makes a lot of sense.

Approximate download size: 24MB

HD Video and the FLVPlayback Component
Reader Level:

Let me guess, you have seen some of the HD stuff in Flash and thought: "Whoa! Too complex for me." What if I were to tell you that it can be done ... code-free ... using nothing more than a few mouse clicks. Let's go one better... let me show you...

Loading and Controlling External SWFs in AS3
Reader Level:

Loading external files into Flash with ActionScript 3.0 has changed quite a bit from ActionScript 1 and 2.The Flash API contains a new Loader class with which to load JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs, a URLRequest class for making URL requests and a new event model. SWFs are loaded using the same technique, but finding the right way to call methods and properties of a loaded SWF can be challenging. I have been hand-coding ActionScript for years and this task made me feel like a newbie trying to figure it out.

If you are struggling with the same problem, then please read on and stop the pain.

Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 2: ActionScript 3.0
Reader Level:

It's easy enough to cross fade audio in a Flash timeline. Just create a layer for each sound and use the Edit button in the Property inspector to create two custom fades. You'll have to select the keyframe that introduces each sound. Make the one sound fade out and the other in — and position the fades so they overlap. The result is a smooth transition between two audio clips, but it ends up being inflexible in the published SWF. The cross fade happens when it happens, and that's that.

If you want to accomplish the same effect in response to user input, you'll have to use ActionScript. But how? The approach is markedly different between ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0. Last time in Part 1, we took a look at the older AS2 approach. Here in Part 2, we'll update the same principles to work in AS3.

Approximate download size: 4.6MB

The Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript Series:
Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 1: ActionScript 2.0
Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 2: ActionScript 3.0

Using XML and the ComboBox to Choose Multiple Videos in Flash CS3
Reader Level:

You are about to discover that Flash and XML are an unbeatable combination when it comes to playing a list of videos.

So You Want To Hire a SWF Developer?
Reader Level:

In the ever-evolving world of Flash development, designers, developers, hr people and managers need up to date information on skills categories in the current marketplace. With all the aspects which comprise the Adobe ecosystem of design and development technologies, all of which may be located on a developer's resumé — such as Flash, Flex, ActionScript, FLV Video, Flash Media Server, Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), LiveCycle Data Services, and Cairngorm, to name a few — what do we call "the person who builds SWF files" for a living?

This is the question which can confuse an HR person enough to inadvertently misrepresent a candidate, may cause a manager to incorrectly assess a potential hire, and precipitate an identity crisis in the web developer wondering how the heck to correctly market themselves. This article is here to help.

GIF Animations in Flash
Reader Level:

Of course Flash is an animation tool. The thing is, web animations prior to Flash were animated GIF files. The odd thing is, Flash still works with animated GIF files.

Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 1: ActionScript 2.0
Reader Level:

It's easy enough to cross fade audio in a Flash timeline. Just create a layer for each sound and use the Edit button in the Property inspector to create two custom fades. You'll have to select the keyframe that introduces each sound. Make the one sound fade out and the other in — and position the fades so they overlap. The result is a smooth transition between two audio clips, but it ends up being inflexible in the published SWF. The cross fade happens when it happens, and that's that.

If you want to accomplish the same effect in response to user input, you'll have to use ActionScript. But how? The approach is markedly different between ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0. Here in Part 1, we'll start with AS2. Next time, we'll update the same principles to work in AS3.

Approximate download size: 2MB

The Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript Series:
Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 1: ActionScript 2.0
Cross Fading Audio in ActionScript - Part 2: ActionScript 3.0

Bitmap Fills in Flash
Reader Level:

Why use solid colors and gradients to fill objects on the Flash stage. How about a bitmap instead?

Approximate download size: 2.2MB

Making Your Own Utility Classes - Part 2: Custom Loader Utility
Reader Level:

If you've read some of my past articles about ActionScript, you may have heard me say that I am a designer who knows how to program. In other words, I'm in denial about being a programmer. I cannot be in denial any longer though because I have a confession to make... I love making my own utility classes. I can program these things all day long.

Utility classes are classes that perform re-usable, common tasks in Flash. Say you have an application that has status and message panels that pop-up in multiple locations within the application. Rather than re-program the panels for every situation, construct an object from a utility class that takes care of the panel functionality. For me personally, I also love creating separate utility classes as I like to separate tasks and functionality in my code as much as I can. ActionScript is easier to de-bug, read and program when functionality is in a focused and easy-to-digest manner.

Part 2 of this series looks at building a custom loader class to re-use for loading image and swf assets throughout an application. After creating the basics of this custom class, you should feel comfortable in taking the class to the next step and tweaking it out and adding to it for your own dev purposes. As with other utiltiy classes I create in my dev environment, a custom utility class like the one we will build in this article keeps redundant and verbose coding to a minimum and can add some unique functionality to my loading sequences.

The Making Your Own Utility Classes Series: Making Your Own Utility Classes - Part 1
Making Your Own Utility Classes - Part 2: Custom Loader Utility