Flash Explained

In this lesson, I will show you how to create a background for your Flash document using no design tools at all! Besides being far more easy to change then a drawn graphic, this background created with ActionScript will adapt itself automatically to any size your movie may have. But more on that later. The […]

In this lesson, you will learn how to manipulate a movie clip via button symbols. You will create an interface and write ActionScript that will enable the rotation and movement of a movie clip across the screen. Press and hold the buttons on the example below to see the little rocket spaceship move and rotate!

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a slick sliding effect that reveals an image while covering another one. As is shown in the example below, this slideover is done with easing. Move your mouse over the movie and see how the imaginary line between the two images is slowing down as […]

In this tutorial, you will learn a cool thing that Flash can do: to load an external JPG (or JPEG, as you wish) image while the main SWF is running. Loading external JPG images in Flash has many benefits: You don’t have to put the images in your SWF, so that its size will be […]

Learn to use the modulo operator (%) in Flash! There aren’t a lot of explanations for it around, but it can be really useful in some cases. You will also learn the way a conditional statement in ActionScript works.

I am most pleased to be able to show you how to create an analog clock in Flash using ActionScript only. You won’t be touching any tools whatsoever. This is just about programming in Flash. Also, there is no timeline animation involved and no layers. And, this works in Flash MX, Flash MX 2004 and […]

Gradient fills are a little bit more complex than simple, plain color fills. But, they offer much more possibilites than the ordinary fills do. 1 Open a new document, call the first layer actions, click in its first keyframe, open the Actions panel and enter the following code: _root.lineStyle(1, 0x000000, 100); _root.moveTo(200, 100); _root.lineTo(350, 100); […]

After you learned how to draw lines and curves with ActionScript, let’s see how to make shapes that will be filled with colors. 1 Open a new Flash document.Call the first layer actions. Click in the first keyframe of this layer and press F9 (PC) or ALT+F9 (Mac) to open up the Actions panel. Enter […]

Flash gives you the great possibility to create graphics dynamically, that is, while your movie is running, via ActionScript. So, not everything has to be drawn manually. What are the benefits of this method of creating graphics? First of all, it reduces the filesize of your Flash movie. Second, it opens up an infinite number […]

This tutorial shows how to control the timeline in a Flash movie. You will learn the essential commands: how to play a movie, how to stop it, how to jump to a particular frame on the timeline.