Introduction to Flash

What is Flash?

• Flash is a multimedia graphics program specially for use on the Web

• Flash enables you to create interactive "movies" on the Web
• Flash uses vector graphics, which means that the graphics can be scaled to any
size without losing clarity/quality
• Flash does not require programming skills and is easy to learn

Flash is an authoring tool that designers and developers use to create presentations,
applications, and other content that enables user interaction. Flash projects can include
simple animations, video content, complex presentations, applications, and everything in
between. In general, individual pieces of content made with Flash are called applications,
even though they might only be a basic animation. You can make media-rich Flash
applications by including pictures, sound, video, and special effects.

Flash is extremely well suited to creating content for delivery over the Internet because
its files are very small. Flash achieves this through its extensive use of vector graphics.
Vector graphics require significantly less memory and storage space than bitmap graphics
because they are represented by mathematical formulas instead of large data sets. Bitmap
graphics are larger because each individual pixel in the image requires a separate piece of
data to represent it.

A Flash document has four main parts:

The Stage is where your graphics, videos, buttons, and so on appear during playback.

The Timeline is where you tell Flash when you want the graphics and other elements of
your project to appear. You also use the Timeline to specify the layering order of
graphics on the Stage. Graphics in higher layers appear on top of graphics in lower
layers.

The Library panel is where Flash displays a list of the media elements in your Flash
document.

ActionScript code allows you to add interactivity to the media elements in your
document. For example, you can add code that causes a button to display a new image
when the user clicks it. You can also use ActionScript to add logic to your applications.
Logic enables your application to behave in different ways depending on the user's
actions or other conditions. Flash includes two versions of ActionScript, each suited to an
author's specific needs.
Why do we need flash

With the wide array of features in Flash, you can create many types of applications. The
following are some examples of the kinds of applications Flash can generate:

Animations These include banner ads, online greeting cards, cartoons, and so on. Many
other types of Flash applications include animation elements as well.

Games Many games are built with Flash. Games usually combine the animation
capabilities of Flash with the logic capabilities of ActionScript.

User interfaces Many website designers use Flash to design user interfaces. The
interfaces include simple navigation bars as well as much more complex interfaces.

Flexible messaging areas These are areas in web pages that designers use for displaying
information that may change over time. A flexible messaging area (FMA) on a restaurant
website might display information about each day's menu specials.

Rich Internet applications These include a wide spectrum of applications that provide a
rich user interface for displaying and manipulating remotely stored data over the Internet.
A rich Internet application could be a calendar application, a price-finding application, a
shopping catalog, an education and testing application, or any other application that
presents remote data with a graphically rich interface.

To build a Flash application, you typically perform the following basic steps:

1. Decide which basic tasks the application will perform.

2. Create and import media elements, such as images, video, sound, text, and so on.
3. Arrange the media elements on the Stage and in the Timeline to define when and
how they appear in your application.
4. Apply special effects to media elements as you see fit.
5. Write ActionScript code to control how the media elements behave, including
how the elements respond to user interactions.
6. Test your application to determine if it is working as planned and find any bugs in
its construction. Test your application throughout the creation process.
7. Publish your FLA file as a SWF file that can be displayed in a web page and
played back with Flash Player.

Depending on your project and your working style, you may use these steps in a different
order. As you become familiar with Flash and its workflows, you will discover a style of
working that suits you best.
Flash vs. Animated Images and Java Applets

Animated images and Java applets are often used to create dynamic effects on Web
pages.

The advantages of Flash are:

• Flash loads much faster than animated images

• Flash allows interactivity, animated images do not
• Flash does not require programming skills, java applets do

About Flash Player

The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing animations and movies using computer
programs such as a web browser. Flash Player is a widely
distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and
now developed and distributed by Adobe after its acquisition. Flash Player
runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or
by a number of other Macromedia and third party tools.
Adobe Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the
Adobe Flash Player, written and distributed by Adobe, that uses vector and raster
graphics, a native scripting language called Action Script and bidirectional streaming of
video and audio. Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash
Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these
have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player, or
the application files.
Flash Player has support for an embedded scripting language called Action Script (AS),
which is based on ECMA Script. Since its inception, Action Script has matured from a
script syntax without variables to one that supports object-oriented code, and may now be
compared in capability to JavaScript (another ECMA Script-based scripting language).
The Flash Player was originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animation, but
has since become suitable for creating rich Internet applications and streaming video and
audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth
and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded
into web pages.
Flash Tools

• Selection tool: This is, as the name implies, used for selecting things on the stage.
It is the small black arrow.
• Sub selection tool: It is the small white arrow. It is used for selecting and editing
vector points on an object, which are basically points on a raw object( an object
that has been drawn in Flash or broken apart in Flash, and has not been converted
to a symbol or grouped) where that object is curved or has a corner.
• Free transform tool: used for skewing, distorting and resizing an object. it looks
like a square with smaller little squares around the edge and with another in the
middle.
• Gradient transform tool: left of the free transform tool. It is used for selecting
and editing gradient fills inside raw objects.
• Line tool: This looks like a line. It is used to draw lines.Well, that was short.
• Lasso tool: This is used for selecting, but only selecting what is inside of the
shape that you have drawn. If part of a grouped object or symbol is inside the
selection shape, all of it will be selected.
• Pen tool: Used for drawing lines exactly how you want them or editing vector
points.
• Text tool: Used for typing text. You can change the font and size and colour in
the properties panel.
• Oval and rectangle tool: pretty basic, used for drawing ovals and rectangles.
• Pencil and brush tools: used for drawing lines. The pencil tool uses the stroke
colour, and the brush tool uses the fill colour and smooths your lines depending
on the smoothing, in the properties panel.
• Ink bottle and Fill tool: The ink bottle creates strokes for something, and the Fill
tool creates fills.
• Eye dropper tool: It is used for achieving a desired colour and looks like a turkey
baster.
• Eraser tool: Looks like an eraser or rubber. Erases anything that you click on or
scroll over.