Flash Explained

I will show you how to make a beautiful Valentine’s Day ad banner with this tutorial.

This banner is different each time the page it is situated on loads and also each time the user rolls over and out of it with his mouse. Try it! Roll over the banner beneath this text, then move your mouse out of it.

As you can see, the hearts on this banner are arranged in a completely different manner each time. Also, the hearts disappear differently each time!

To see the image and the message below the hearts, the user must wait for them to clear out. This is a nice effect, creating a small expectation and surprise as the user waits to see what lurks below.

All right, start making it!

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You will see in this tutorial how simple, yet effective putting a giant scrolling text in a banner is. It is even more effective and eye-catching when the text is a mask showing an image behind it! See the effect for yourself:

Looks nice, huh? You will be making a slightly different banner - I can't give you the image from the banner above, because it belongs to the company which hired me to make the ad banner. Yes, the banner above is a real one, made on order and was put on a high-traffic portal!

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Add sounds to your interface via ActionScript, thus avoiding the need to put them manually in each button. Click on the button below to hear the sound attached dynamically.

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Make your users’ experience even more engaging by adding sounds to your interface. You’ll see, this is really easy to do. For starters, click on the buttons below to hear what I mean.

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In this easy and detailed Flash lesson, I will show you how to use the scrollbar component that it is ready-made for use in Flash. This can save you a lot of coding — why create a scrollbar from scratch when you have one at your disposal? You will learn the following:

• How to set up a dynamic text field,
• How to display text in a dynamic text field via some really simple ActionScript code,
• How to set up an instance of the UIScrollBar component and link it to your text field and more.

Below is a live Flash example that displays a text field with a scrollbar attached next to it. Try pressing the up and down arrow buttons on the scrollbar or clicking the scroller and dragging it up and down. The text inside the field will scroll flawlessly.

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I have read about and participated in innumerable discussions about the Flash Player. I have always been telling people how Flash Player is the best plug-in out there. Ever. Sounds bold, maybe even pretentious? See for yourself – you might get surprised!

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In this detailed lesson, you will see how easy and quick you can make a great-looking glossy logo in Flash, using its design tools. This logo can in turn be used in a header or as a part of your overall Flash website design. You will learn the following techniques and tricks:

• How to create vector letter shapes from a textfield,
• How to give a neat stroke to the letters,
• How to apply a linear gradient color fill only to a part of your logo (and make it look very cool),
• How to create a small glowing effect,
• How to create a soft background light effect and more.

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In this basic-level tutorial, I will show you how to make a vector geographical map in Flash. The map that you are going to draw in Flash will be based on a bitmap image.

Below you can see the final result that you are going to achieve by following this tutorial. It looks like an image, but it is a Flash SWF file! If you right-click on it, you will see the Flash contextual menu appear, which tells you that this is Flash and not some bitmap.

Note: the above SWF file has a file size of only 7KB, while the GIF of the same dimensions weighs 50 KB!

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In this entry-level Flash tutorial, I will show you how to create and animate a planet that is revolving around the Sun. You will learn how to:

• Import different image formats into Flash and turn them into Movie clip symbols,
• Create a guided motion tween animation,
• Make the guide visible – so that your site visitors can see the paths of the planet,
• Align objects on stage, and more.

The techniques shown here can be achieved in Flash MX or any newer version. Below is the example showing what you are going to learn to create with this easy tutorial.

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Have you seen the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey? Well, if you haven’t, you should consider viewing it. It’s a great piece of art.

Also, there’s an interesting character in this film: the AI computer HAL 9000. And it has a cool-looking eye. You’ll learn to make a similar graphic by using the great blending modes in Flash 8 pro, without having to start Photoshop or Fireworks.

You can see what you will create by looking at the flash example below.

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