Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Essentials E-Book

William Heldman

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 449

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

The perfect primer for learning Adobe Flash, whether you're new to Flash or updating your skills You'll get quickly up to speed on the essentials of Adobe Flash with this clear, task-based book. From the fundamentals of rich media design to specific techniques, it's a thorough introduction. Using step-by-step instruction, this book clearly shows you how to draw shapes, use the Timeline, add video or audio, create complex animations, and much more. Moreover, if you're preparing for the Flash Professional Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) exam, this thorough guide is the perfect preparation. * Covers Flash essentials for beginners and assists candidates preparing for the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) for Rich Media Communication Using Flash Professional certification * Introduces you to the principles and practices of rich media design as well as Flash basics and essential tools * Delves into topics and techniques, including creating designs using Flash shape tools, the essentials of layers and the Timeline, using text and symbols, and creating simple animations

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Before Jumping into Flash: Rich Media Design Principles and Practice

Working with Clients to Create Rich Media Projects

Addressing Accessibility Issues in Rich Media

Understanding Project Management 101

Understanding Copyright Issues When Using Others’ Work

Chapter 2: Getting Acquainted with Flash

Opening Flash for the First Time

Using Flash Panels

Understanding Flash Workspaces

Understanding Flash File Types

Chapter 3: Drawing Shapes in Flash

Drawing Standard Shapes

Understanding Merge vs. Object Drawing

Drawing Primitive Shapes

Drawing Polygonal or Star Shapes with the PolyStar Tool

Making Artsy Shapes with the Deco Tool

Drawing Other Shapes

Working with Color in Flash

Chapter 4: Getting Started with the Timeline

Becoming Acquainted with the Timeline

Adding Different Frame Types to Your Animation

Copying and Deleting Frames

Organizing Your Work with Layers

Aligning Objects with Snapping

Chapter 5: Adding Flash Text and Fonts to Your Creations

Understanding When You Can Use TLF Text Fields

Picking the Best Font

Using Classic Text

Using Text Layout Framework

Chapter 6: Working with Flash Symbols

Creating Graphic Symbols

Using the Library

Creating Button Symbols

Creating Movie Clip Symbols

Creating and Editing Symbol Instances

Chapter 7: Developing Simple Flash Animations

Developing Storyboards to Describe Your Animation

Creating a Frame-by-Frame Animation

Differentiating between a Stage Animation and a Movie Clip

Chapter 8: Using Tweens

Creating Shape Tweens

Creating Motion Tweens

Understanding Classic Tweens

Chapter 9: Techniques for Creating More Technical Animations

Creating a Bicycle with Rotating Wheels

Setting Different Speeds Using Parallax Scrolling

Creating a Bouncing Ball with Color Gradients, Motion Presets, and Eases

Adding Perspective to the Basketball Scene with 3D Tools

Chapter 10: Creating Characters with Inverse Kinematics

Boning a Character

Constricting Animations

Animating IK’d Objects

Chapter 11: Working with Audio

Creating a Rich Media Project with Audio

Creating the Drum Set

Making the Cymbals and Cymbal Stands

Adding Sounds to the Drums

Compressing Audio

Using the Sounds Supplied with Flash

Putting a Sound on the Stage

Controlling a Sound with a Code Snippet

Chapter 12: Working with Video

Understanding Supported Flash Video File Types

Setting Up ActionScript Cue Points

Chapter 13: Working with ActionScript

Getting Started with ActionScript

Programming ActionScript to Calculate Your BMI

Publishing Your Work

Appendix A: Adobe Rich Media Communication Using Flash Professional CS6 Objectives

Appendix B: Next Steps

Index

Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo

Development Editor: Kim Wimpsett

Technical Editor: Richard Hauck

Production Editor: Eric Charbonneau

Copy Editor: Judy Flynn

Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan

Production Manager: Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley

Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde

Book Designer: Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Nancy Bell

Indexer: Ted Laux

Project Coordinator, Cover: Katherine Crocker

Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

Cover Image: © William Heldman

Additional images in the book used courtesy of Art Explosion® Nova Development, Copyright 2004.

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-12965-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-22566-0 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-23844-8 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-26306-8 (ebk)

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TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Adobe and Flash are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Flash Professional CS6 Essentials. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil Edde

Vice President and Publisher

Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley

To those who have always wanted to learn more about Flash and have decided to take time out of their busy days to do just that. I was one of you, and I’m glad I made the journey. You will be too.

Acknowledgments

Thank you especially to all of the people at Sybex who have been so supportive, friendly, and professional with me in the years I have been writing for this superb publisher. Neil Edde—thank you for taking a chance on me years ago and for being patient with me over the years. You are and always will be the man. I hoist a virtual glass of ’00 Bordeaux in toast to you my friend.

Thank you as well to everyone on the staff who worked with me in some way on this book: Pete Gaughan, Mariann Barsolo, Kim Wimpsett, Eric Charbonneau, and Richard Hauck. Gentle spirits, amazing people all. Books are not written by one person but by teams who help authors make sense out of what they’re doing and saying. Without you, it would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank my family: my wife, Kim, and my son, daughters, and granddaughters. When you are writing a book, there are lots of times you have to “put your family on ignore.” Fortunately for me, my wife is the author of the Project Management Professional (PMP) Study Guide—a long-running Sybex best seller—so she gets it when the headphones go on and I’m checked out into the virtual world of letters and sentences. But when your kids come to the door for Thanksgiving dinner and your wife has to answer because you’re getting that last sentence knocked out, well, that takes extra patience from your loved ones. And that’s what they demonstrate day in and day out.

Thanks also to my students, who have unwittingly been the fodder for many of the ideas in this book. “Just in time curriculum development” means that you have an idea while you’re driving to school for the day that will hopefully entice your kids into wanting to delve more into the world of technology. All of the examples in this book were used in the classroom before they made it into this book. They’re tried and tested, mmm good. A big hats off to one of my students—nicknamed Ginger—for his odd and strangely beautiful gift for design. He was the inspiration for the cow abduction section of this book.

About the Author

William (Bill) Heldman is the author of several Sybex books, predominantly in the technology certification exam space, the most recent of which is the CompTIA Project+ Study Guide. During the day Bill is a computer science and game development instructor at a Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school in Lakewood, Colorado, called Warren Tech (www.warrentech.org).

Teaching is Bill’s third career. Having come out of an information technology path of increasingly responsible roles, Bill has found his passion in helping 11th and 12th graders explore the world of information technologies and make decisions about potential college and career paths.

Bill lives in Lakewood, Colorado, with his wife, Kim, and toy poodle, Nutmeg. In his spare, spare time, Bill is the director of a big-band jazz and swing group called William and the Romantics (www.williamandtheromantics.com). Bill also enjoys writing blogs (educationgenesis.blogspot.com and blog.billheldman.com) and pursuing various hobbies, including reading, movies, music, and wine. Oh, and now that they’ve built a store in Denver, there’s his need for a nearly weekly IKEA fix, but that would take up too much space.

You can read more about Bill at www.billheldman.com. You can contact him at [email protected].

Introduction

Welcome readers. This book is for those who are new to Adobe Flash Professional and who may be considering taking the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Rich Media Communication with Adobe Flash Professional exam.

First of all, you will learn a lot about Adobe Flash, and I believe you will be glad you did. It is a tremendously important web development tool, one that will greatly enhance your skills and provide you with bountiful new ways to express your ideas. But also, by using this ACA Approved Courseware, you will be more than adequately prepared for the ACA exam. I have taken it, passed it, and enjoyed it a great deal. And you can too.

Who Should Read This Book

Anyone who is new to Adobe Flash or who has dabbled in it a bit and wants to know more will benefit from reading this book. If you’re a Dreamweaver developer interested in expanding your skills in Flash, this book is for you. If you’ve always wanted to have more tools in your kit for expanding and enhancing your ideas and expressing yourself, this book is for you. If you’re looking for ways to make yourself more employable, this book is for you as well. And of course, for those who are reading this as a study guide for passing the ACA exam, I believe you will find this book to be of invaluable assistance.

If you’re interested in more information about the ACA exam, this book can be a great resource to help you prepare. See http://www.adobe.com/education/resources/certificate-programs.html for more certification information and resources.

What You Will Learn

You will learn how to use Adobe Flash at a granular and productive level. You’ll learn about the Flash interface, how to create graphic objects on the Flash stage, how to create animations and use the timeline, how to build tweens (amazing little tools that blend one shape into another or move an object over time), and how to write ActionScript code to enhance your creations.

All of the Flash subject matter you need to pass the ACA exam you will find in this book. But I’ve tried to go beyond the exam a bit and give you more insight and information so that you feel comfortable leveraging the tool in your workday environment.

What You Need

You will need to have Flash Professional installed on your computer. All of the examples in this book will work with Creative Suite 5.5 or higher. No other software is required. Flash can be a resource-intensive application when you’re in the throes of a development cycle, so a fast processor and plenty of RAM are both going to help you have a better experience when working with Flash.

What Is Covered in This Book

Flash Professional CS6 Essentials is organized to provide you with the knowledge needed to master the basics.

Chapter 1, “Before Jumping into Flash: Rich Media Design Principles and Practice,” This chapter deals with some of the exam elements that you will use in Flash but that also have broader context. The chapter starts out defining what is meant by the term rich media. The chapter also has a section in it on accessibility issues—a big issue for exam takers—as well as a section on project management, also a topic about which exam takers will need to know.

Chapter 2, “Getting Acquainted with Flash,” Beginners who open up Flash for the first time may be taken aback by its daunting user interface (UI). This chapter will provide you a thorough overview of the Flash UI so that it will be scary no longer. You will be able to navigate Flash quickly and easily.

Chapter 3, “Drawing Shapes in Flash,” In this chapter, you will learn how to use the Flash shape tools to begin creating your designs in the Flash environment. Just as you can sketch with different shapes and textures to create more complex designs, so you can use Flash’s shape tools to do the same thing with your rich media designs.

Chapter 4, “Getting Started with the Timeline,” You will learn the basics of how to use Flash layers and the timeline to create complex rich media documents. For people familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator, the layers concept will be easily accessible. But for those who’ve not worked with animation, the timeline may be an unusual new twist. Fear not! This is the chapter that will work you through to the happy combination of layers and the timeline.

Chapter 5, “Adding Flash Text and Fonts to Your Creations,” Text is an important part of your rich media storytelling, and Flash brings a variety of ways for you to create text environments that are inviting and compelling. You still have to craft the story, but Flash brings you the tools to show your text in a better way.

Chapter 6, “Working with Flash Symbols,” Flash symbols—graphics, buttons, and movie clips—are the geniuses behind compelling rich media environments. You will learn how to use these clever little elements to heighten your work to stunning levels.

Chapter 7, “Developing Simple Flash Animations,” Flash allows you to create nearly any kind of animation you have in mind. In this chapter, you will begin to learn how to create these animations using a little story I like to call “Cow Abduction.”

Chapter 8, “Using Tweens,” Tweens are nifty little algorithms that calculate the difference between one shape and another or the motion of something from one place to another. You need tweens in your animation efforts, and this chapter shows you how to build them. You’ll learn how to tweak your tweens (say that three times fast) to make them work for you. Got clouds that you need to move slowly across the screen compared to other faster moving objects? Parallax scrolling is your answer, and that’s one of the things you’ll learn in this chapter.

Chapter 9, “Techniques for Creating More Technical Animations,” Now that you’ve got the basics down, you will learn how to create more technical animations. You’ll take your tweens and put them on steroids—combining them to form a delightful whole. In this chapter, you’ll find out how to do this by creating a bicycle scene, replete with moving pedals and wheels.

Chapter 10, “Creating Characters with Inverse Kinematics,” Inverse kinematics (IK) is the process of putting bones into your Flash objects so that they can move. In this chapter you’ll take your bicycle scene to the next level, learning how to cartoon yourself, put bones into your virtual body, and then make your cartooned self ride that bike through town. You’ll also use parallax scrolling to make the buildings and clouds roll along.

Chapter 11, “Working with Audio,” Bang a drum! No really, bang a drum! In this chapter you’ll learn how to use sounds in Flash, and what better way than taking what you’ve already learned about creating complex objects using the Flash shape tools and creating a cool set of drums that, when hit, actually play sound?

Chapter 12, “Working with Video,” Now that smartphones have made video so accessible, videos must be included as part of your rich media repertoire. This chapter will show you how to quickly and easily snap in any video you want using Flash’s built-in video management tools.

Chapter 13, “Working with ActionScript,” Are you afraid of those folks people call under their breath coders? Does the very use of the word code send shivers down your spine? This chapter will take you gently into the world of ActionScript, the coding environment that, behind the scenes, takes your rich media work from great to amazing.

Appendices Appendix A provides a table of the objectives and in which chapters you can find those objectives covered for the Rich Media Communication With Adobe Flash Professional exam. Appendix B deals with the things you should think about next, now that you have a solid dose of Flash in your system.

Chapter Exercises and Companion Website

Solutions are provided for most of the exercises in the chapters; you can download them from the book’s companion web page at www.sybex.com/go/flashessentials.

The Essentials Series

The Essentials series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers who are just beginning to develop their professional skills. Every Essentials book includes these features:

Skill-based instruction with chapters organized around projects rather than abstract concepts or subjects.

Suggestions for additional exercises at the end of each chapter so you can practice and extend your skills.

Digital files (via download) so you can work through the project tutorials yourself. Please check the book’s web page at

www.sybex.com/go/flashessentials

for these companion downloads.

The certification margin icon will alert you to passages that are especially relevant to Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Rich Media Communications With Adobe Flash Professional certification. See Appendix A and www.adobe.com for more information and resources.

How to Contact the Author

Bill Heldman can be contacted via email at [email protected].

CHAPTER 1

Before Jumping into Flash: Rich Media Design Principles and Practice

Well-crafted rich media experiences rapidly draw viewers into your scene. Rich media tools such as Flash allow designers to bring action to a scene and provide ways to tell the viewer more than what they can simply read on a page.

When creating rich media, you need to consider your client—their intended audience and the purpose for the media they want you to create. You’ll also need to pick the media type relevant to the content’s purpose and master basic project management techniques so you can keep your efforts on track. Other up-front considerations are the accessibility issues some users face and copyright and publishing rules.

Working with clients to create rich media projects

Addressing accessibility issues in rich media

Understanding project management 101

Understanding copyright issues when using others’ work

Working with Clients to Create Rich Media Projects

Your rich media design experiences will likely start with your clients. While your customers have probably had the pleasure of experiencing rich media environments for themselves, they most likely want you to make rich media content for them because they don’t have the expertise in tools such as Flash. In fact, when asked how to create rich media, most people don’t have the slightest idea where to start or even know what the term entails.

What Is Rich Media?

Depending on whom you query, you will find that the basic definition for rich media sounds something like this: Rich media tools serve as a way to provide the viewer with more interesting methods of garnering information than just a static web page with infrequently changing text.

Rich media can include streaming video, rich Internet applications (RIAs) created with Adobe AIR that do some job for the viewer, buttons, music, mouse cursor changes, color variations, animations, games, cartoons, banner ads, floating ads, tickers, special effects, and much more. Flash isn’t the only rich-media publishing method. You can use Flash to publish Adobe AIR apps as well. AIR apps can be published to iOS or Android devices, or do the desktop.

Rich media also has the ability to use well-crafted designs to get at a variety of subtler elements. For example, you may be interested in the age of your viewers, their affluence (or lack thereof), the kind of work they do, their educational level, various demographics such as ethnicity or urban clustering, and so forth. You can even adapt your rich media to non-computer-literate types: neophytes to the web. For example, Flash has found a fantastic foothold in creating games for young children—teaching them to garner the tools needed to be computer literate long before they ever take a computer class in school.