Note: For information on how to create your first Flash Professional CS5 document, refer to this article.
Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is an authoring tool that you can use to create games, applications, and other content that responds to user interaction. Flash projects can include simple animations, video content, complex user interfaces, applications, and everything in between. In general, individual projects created with Flash Professional are called applications (or SWF applications), even though they might only contain basic animation. You can make media-rich applications by including pictures, sound, video, and special effects.
The SWF format is extremely well suited for delivery over the web because SWF files are very small and take little time to download. Flash projects often include 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. Using bitmap graphics in Flash projects results in larger file sizes because each individual pixel in the image requires a separate piece of data to represent it. Additionally, Flash allows you to select graphic elements and convert them to symbols—making them easier to reuse and further improving performance when SWF files are viewed online.
To build an application in Flash Professional CS5, you create vector graphics and design elements with the drawing tools and import additional media elements such as audio, video, and images into your document. Next, you use the Timeline and the Stage to position the elements and define how and when they appear. Using Adobe ActionScript (a scripting language) you create functions to specify how the objects in the application behave.
When you author content in Flash Professional (by choosing File > New), you work with the master document, which is called a FLA file. FLA files use the file extension .fla (FLA). While editing a FLA file in the Flash authoring environment, you'll notice that the user interface is divided into five main parts:
- The Stage is like the canvas that defines the visible area during playback; you arrange graphics, videos, buttons, and other elements on the Stage while authoring projects.
- The Timeline controls the timing that specifies when elements in the movie appear on the Stage. The playhead begins at Frame 1 and moves from left to right as the movie proceeds through the frames. Drag the layers in the Timeline to arrange the layering order of graphics on the Stage. Graphics in the higher layers appear to be placed on top of the graphics in the lower layers.
- The Tools panel contains the tools used to select objects on the Stage, create text elements, and draw vector graphics.
- The Property inspector displays contextual information about the attributes of any selected object; you can edit these options to adjust an object's settings.
- The Library panel contains media elements and symbols that are stored for a project. Use this panel to manage and organize the project's elements. When you publish a SWF file, only the Library items you actually use are included in the published file; you don't have to "clean out" unused elements that weren't used because they won't increase the published SWF file's size (although they do increase the size of the master FLA file).
The five areas of the workspace are identified in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Flash Professional CS6 user interface is comprised of five main parts. (Click to enlarge.)
ActionScript code allows you to add interactivity to the elements in your document. For example, you can add code that causes a button to display a new image when it is clicked. 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. There are different versions of ActionScript. Flash Professional uses ActionScript 3 when an ActionScript 3 or Adobe AIR file is created, or ActionScript 1 and 2 when an ActionScript 2 file is created in the New Document dialog box.
Flash includes many features that make it powerful but easy to use, such as prebuilt drag-and-drop user interface components, built-in motion effects that you can use to animate elements on the Timeline, pre-written code snippets, and special effects that you can add to media objects.
When you have finished authoring your FLA file, you publish it by selecting File > Publish (or pressing Shift+F12). The publish operation generates a compressed version of your file with the extension .swf (known as a SWF file). Adobe Flash Player is used to play the SWF file in a web browser or as a stand-alone application. Although you don't upload or distribute the FLA file itself, you'll always want to keep a copy of the master document. If you need to make any changes, you can open the FLA file in Flash, edit it, and then publish an updated SWF file.
Creating a simple FLA file
This tutorial guides you through the process of creating a basic FLA document. You'll use this workflow when authoring projects in Flash Professional. The first step involves creating a new document:
- Choose File > New.
- In the New Document dialog box, the ActionScript 3.0 file type is selected by default (see Figure 2). If ActionScript 3.0 is not selected, select it now. Click OK.
Figure 2. The New Document dialog box displays the file types you can create in Flash Professional.
- Use the workspace drop-down menu located on the upper right of the screen to select the Essentials workspace layout option (see Figure 3). This step ensures that the layout of the panels in Flash Professional match the arrangement of the panels displayed in the screen shots for this tutorial.
Note: Later, you can create a preset of your own custom workspace by positioning the panels in any way that you prefer. Choose the New Workspace option and enter a name to save your personal configuration. Once it's saved, you can reset the workspace by choosing its name from the workspace menu.
Figure 3. Select the Essentials option to see the workspace layout used for this tutorial.
- Click the Properties tab in the upper right side of the user interface to view the Property inspector, which displays the Stage properties for the file when no other objects are selected.
- By default, the Property inspector is vertically aligned along the right side of the workspace. The Size section displays the current Stage size setting as 550 × 400 pixels (see Figure 4). The Stage background color swatch is set to white. You can change the color of the Stage by clicking the swatch and selecting a different color in the color picker that appears.
Figure 4. The Property inspector displays the Stage size and the background color.
Tip: You can set the background color of the Stage in the Flash movie by choosing Modify > Document or by selecting the Stage and then modifying the Stage color swatch in the Property inspector. There's no need to draw a rectangle to define the background color. When you publish your movie, Flash sets the background color of the published HTML page to the same color as the Stage background color (if you choose to generate an HTML file).
- Choose File > Save.
- Select the location to save the FLA file on your hard disk. Name it SimpleFlash.fla and then click Save. Make a note of the location where you save the FLA file because you'll need to find this directory at the end of this tutorial.
Drawing a circle on the Stage
After you've created your Flash document, you are ready to add some artwork to the project. Drawing shapes is a common task in Flash. When you use the drawing tools in the Tools panel, the vector graphics you create can be edited at any time. The following steps describe how to create a circle; later, you'll use this circle to create some basic animation. Follow these steps:
- Select the Oval tool from the Tools panel (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Tools with a triangle in the bottom left corner contain more than one option; click and hold the shape tool icon to select the Oval tool from the list that appears in the Tools panel.
- Use the stroke color swatch in the Property inspector to select the No Color option (red diagonal stripe) from the Stroke Color Picker (see Figure 6).
Figure 6. The universal "no" symbol (red diagonal stripe) indicates that the color swatch is set to the No Color option in the Stroke color picker.
- Select a color of your choice from the Fill color picker, located directly below the Stroke color picker. Choose a fill color that contrasts well with the Stage color. In this example, an oval with a blue fill color is displayed on top of a red Stage color.
- Whenever you draw a vector shape, you have the option of selecting two drawing modes: Merge drawing mode and Object drawing mode. For the purposes of this tutorial, click the drawing mode button to select the Object drawing mode at the very bottom of the Tools panel. When the Object drawing mode is selected, the button will appear darker and selected, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. The Drawing mode button is a toggle that alternates between modes; choose Object drawing mode by clicking the button to make its background appear darker.
To learn more about the two drawing mode options, see the Drawing modes section of the Flash Professional online documentation.
- While the Oval tool still selected, press and hold the Shift key. Draw a circle on the Stage by Shift-dragging on the Stage (see Figure 8). The Shift key is a modifier key; when you press and hold the Shift key while drawing or transforming a shape with the Oval tool, Flash constrains the Oval tool shape to a circle that is perfectly symmetrical.
Note: The Shift key works similarly with other auto shapes; when you press and hold Shift while drawing a shape with the Rectangle tool, you'll create a perfect square.
Figure 8. Press and hold the Shift key while using the Oval tool to draw a circle on the Stage.
Tip: If you're drawing your circle and you see only an outline of the shape instead of a fill color, first check to ensure that the stroke and fill options are set correctly in the Property inspector while the circle is selected. If the fill color swatch is set to a color and the stroke is set to No Color, the settings are correct. Next, make sure that the option to Show Outlines is not selected in the layers area of the Timeline. (There are three icons to the right of the layer names: eyeball icon, lock icon, and outlines icon. Double-check that the outlines icon displays a solid fill and not just a square outline. If you are not sure if the Show Outlines option is enabled, click the icon repeatedly to toggle the visual state between normal view and outline view.)
After drawing some artwork, you can turn it into a reusable asset by converting it to a symbol. A symbol is a media asset that can be reused anywhere in your document without the need to re-create it. Symbols can contain bitmap and vector images and animations, along with other types of content.
It is common to use symbols to create tweened animations. You can also use symbols to store graphic content (as described in the next set of steps). As you become more familiar with Flash Professional, you'll use symbols to structure applications and interactivity using multiple timelines. Symbols are useful for compartmentalizing parts of a project to make it easier for you to edit specific sections later. Follow these steps to create a symbol:
- Click the Selection tool in the Tools panel (see Figure 9).
Figure 9. The Selection tool is the first item displayed in the Tools panel.
- Click the circle on the Stage to select it. A bounding box selection appears around the circle.
- While the circle is still selected, choose Modify > Convert to Symbol (or press F8) to access the Convert to Symbol dialog box (see Figure 10). Enter the name of the symbol in the Name field. Use the Type menu to select the Movie Clip option.
Tip: You can also convert a graphic into a symbol by selecting it and dragging it into the Library panel.
Figure 10. Enter a descriptive name for the symbol in the Convert to Symbol dialog box.
- Click OK. A square bounding box is displayed around the circle symbol. You've just created a reusable asset, called a symbol, in your document. In this case, you created a movie clip symbol named my_circle. (For more information about symbols, read Working with symbols in the Flash Professional online documentation.)
If the Library panel is not open, choose Window > Library to access it. The new symbol is now listed in the Library panel. (When you drag a copy of the symbol from the Library panel to the Stage, the copy on the Stage is called an instance of the symbol.)
Animating the circle
In this section, you'll use the symbol in your document to create a basic animation that moves across the Stage:
- Select the circle on the Stage and drag it off the Stage area to the left (see Figure 11).
Figure 11. Reposition the instance of the my_circle symbol to the left of the Stage area.
- Right-click the circle instance on the Stage and choose the option to Create Motion Tween in the menu that appears. Notice that the Timeline is automatically extended to Frame 24 and the red marker (the current frame indicator, also known as the playhead) moves to Frame 24 (see Figure 12). This indicates that the Timeline is prepared for you to edit the ending location of the symbol and create a one-second animation—assuming that you haven't changed default frame rate for the project from 24 fps in the Property inspector. A span of 24 frames is the equivalent of one second at a rate of 24 fps. (For more information about the Timeline, read Working with timelines in the Flash Professional online documentation.)
Figure 12. The Create Motion Tween operation automatically extends the frames in the Timeline and places the playhead on Frame 24.
- While the playhead is still on Frame 24 of the Timeline, select the circle instance on the Stage and drag it to the right, just past the Stage area. This step of relocating the instance creates a tweened animation. On Frame 24, notice the diamond-shaped dot (known as a property keyframe) that appears. On the Stage, also notice the motion guide that indicates the circle's path of motion between Frame 1 and Frame 24 (see Figure 13).
Figure 13. After creating a 24-frame tween animation, the circle is located at the far right at the end of the animation (when the playhead is located on Frame 24 of the Timeline).
- In the Timeline, drag the red playhead back and forth from Frame 1 to Frame 24 to preview the animation; this is known as scrubbing the Timeline.
- You can change the circle's direction in the middle of the animation. First, drag the playhead to Frame 10 in the Timeline. Then select the circle and move it to another location, further down on the Stage. Notice that the change is reflected in the motion guide and the new dot (property keyframe) appears on Frame 10 of the Timeline (see Figure 14). The property keyframes on the Timeline mark the timing of the animation, indicating the frames whenever objects change on the screen and storing the properties of the object that change. In this example, it is the circle's location on the Stage (known as its X and Y or horizontal and vertical) properties that are changing as the playhead moves across the Timeline.
Figure 14. After placing the playhead on Frame 10 and dragging the circle instance down on the Stage, the motion guide of the tweened animation and the property keyframe in the Timeline reflect the location change of the animated circle.
- Experiment with editing the animation by changing the shape of the motion guide path. Click the Selection tool in the Tools panel and then click a section of the motion guide line. Drag it to bend the line shape (see Figure 15). When you bend the motion path, you cause the animation to follow along a smooth curved line instead of a rigid straight line.
Figure 15. Use the Selection tool to adjust the tweened animation's motion path; rather than a straight line the edited motion guide line is now curved.
- Choose Control > Test Movie to test the FLA file and watch the animation play back in Flash Player.
- The movie loops automatically, so you can watch the circle move across the window repeatedly. When you are finished, close the Test Movie window.
Using a stop action to stop the Timeline from looping
You noticed that the animation loops by default as the movie plays in Flash Player. This occurs automatically because in Flash Professional, the Timeline is set up to loop back to Frame 1 after exiting the last frame—unless you instruct the movie to do otherwise. When you want to add a command that controls the Timeline, you'll add ActionScript code to a keyframe (indicated by a dot symbol) on the Timeline. This is known as adding a frame script.
Tip: Keyframes are used to place ActionScript and assets on specific frames in the Timeline. When you review the Timeline of a FLA file, you can locate scripts and content by looking for the keyframe dots. Keyframes that have frame scripts display a lower case "a" symbol.
Follow the steps below to add ActionScript code to your FLA file. You'll add one of the most common Timeline commands, which is called the stop action:
- It's always a good idea to name your layers if you have more than one. A large project can quickly become unmanageable if its layers are not descriptively named. Double-click the name to rename Layer 1. In the field that appears, enter the new name: animation.
- Click the New Layer button (page icon) in the lower left of the Timeline panel. In an ActionScript 3 file, the ActionScript code must be added to the Timeline. It's considered best practice to create a layer named actions at the top of the layer stack, dedicated to holding the ActionScript code. Rename the new layer you just created to: actions. Make sure it is located above the animation layer. Now that you've created a layer to place your scripts, you can add keyframes to the actions layer to associate the ActionScript code with specific frames.
- Move the playhead to Frame 24. Click the actions layer at Frame 24 (to highlight the last frame on the actions layer). Insert a keyframe on Frame 24 of the actions layer by choosing Insert > Timeline > Keyframe (or pressing F6). Notice that an empty, blank keyframe appears (you can tell that the new keyframe doesn't contain any graphics because the dot icon for the keyframe is hollow, rather than displaying a solid color).
- Select the new keyframe with the Selection tool. Open the Actions panel (Window > Actions). The Actions panel contains the Script window, which is a large text field you'll use to type or paste ActionScript code directly into your FLA file. Place your cursor in the text area next to the number 1 (line 1) and type in the following action:
Note: This step assumes that you're using the default mode of the Actions panel. If the Actions panel is in Script Assist mode, it won't allow you to type directly into to the text area. To return to the default mode, uncheck the magic wand icon in the upper right corner of the Actions panel.
- After typing the line of ActionScript code in the Script window, you'll notice that a little "a" icon appears above the keyframe in the actions layer of the Timeline. This indicates that the keyframe contains a frame script (also known as an action). At this point, your Timeline should look similar to Figure 16. Close the Actions panel. If you need to edit the code, you can always select the keyframe in the Timeline and then open the Actions panel again.
- Choose Control > Test Movie to test the FLA file and watch it play in Flash Player. Notice that this time, the animation doesn't loop. You can return to Flash and test the movie again to watch the movie play again.
Figure 16. Add the stop action frame script to Frame 24 of the actions layer.
- When you are finished previewing the animation, close the Test Movie window.
- Back in Flash, save the FLA file.
When you are finished creating your FLA file, and you've tested it repeatedly, you are ready to publish it. The files that you output when publishing can be uploaded to a host server so that the project can be viewed in a browser. When you publish the file, Flash Professional compresses the data in the FLA file and generates a much smaller, more compact (and non-editable) SWF file. It's important to note that the FLA is your master, authoring file. Always keep the FLA file handy in case you need to make changes to the project. The SWF file that is generated by Flash when you publish a project is the file that you'll embed in a web page. If you are familiar with Adobe Photoshop, you can think of the FLA file as the equivalent of a master PSD file, and the SWF file as the equivalent of the exported JPEG file that will be inserted on a web page.
While you can choose to edit the publish settings and only publish the SWF file (and then use Adobe Dreamweaver or another HTML editor to insert the SWF file in a page) the Publish command makes things even easier. You can set the publish settings to automatically generate an HTML file that contains the code to embed the SWF file for you.
Follow these steps to publish the FLA file and output the SWF file with the HTML file, so that you can view the published project in a browser:
- Choose File > Publish Settings.
- In the Publish Settings dialog box, select the Formats tab. Verify that only the Flash and HTML options are selected (see Figure 17). This selection causes Flash to publish only the SWF file and an HTML file with the embed code. The HTML file is used to display the SWF file in a web browser. (The web browser then calls Flash Player, an installed plug-in, to render the contents of the SWF file onscreen).
Figure 17. Select the Flash and HTML options in the Formats tab of the Publish Settings dialog box.
Tip: You can change the Target field in the top right of the Publish Settings dialog box to target different versions of the Flash Player or the AIR runtimes. Publishing to AIR provides an easy way to create desktop or mobile applications from your web-based application without doing extra work.
- In the Publish Settings dialog box, select the HTML tab and verify that Flash Only is selected in the Template pop-up menu (see Figure 18). This template creates a simple HTML file that contains only your SWF file when previewed in a browser.
Figure 18. Select Flash Only from the Template menu in the HTML tab of the Publish Settings dialog box.
- Click OK.
- Choose File > Publish to export the web-ready SWF and HTML files from Flash.
- Open your web browser. Choose File > Open. Navigate to the folder where you saved your FLA file. The SimpleFlash.swf and SimpleFlash.html files have been saved there. (By default, Flash always saves the published files in the same folder alongside the FLA master file.) Select the file named SimpleFlash.html.
- Click Open. The SWF file embedded in the HTML page now appears in the browser window (see Figure 19).
Figure 19. The file SimpleFlash.swf is an example of a basic Flash animation, which appears in the browser after publishing the file. (Click the button to replay the movie.)
You've successfully completed your first FLA file. To learn more about publishing your document, read the Publishing and Exporting section in the Flash Professional online documentation.
In an earlier section, you stopped the animation from looping by adding a
stop() action to the last frame of the Timeline. When the playhead reaches the last frame, it is instructed to stop, which prevents it from looping back to Frame 1.
In this set of instructions, you'll learn how to add a Replay button. When a user clicks the button, it causes the playhead to begin playing from Frame 1 again. This is the behavior of the example shown in Figure 19.
Flash is extremely flexible. There are many strategies that you could use to create a Replay button, including restarting the playhead when a user presses a key on their keyboard, or when they click on the Stage, or when they click a button. To achieve any of these options, you'll add some ActionScript code that responds to the user interactivity at runtime (while the SWF file is playing). This section is a little more advanced than the previous sections—it covers some new concepts that you'll use to control the behavior of your Flash movies with programming.
Follow these steps to add a Replay button and the corresponding ActionScript to your file:
- In Flash, it is a best practice to create a new layer for each element in the project (with the exception of ActionScript code, which can be placed on any frame on the top-level actions layer). Click the New Layer button (page icon) in the Timeline to create a new layer for the button graphic. Double-click the default layer name and rename it: Button.
- Open the Components panel (Window > Components) and drag a button component from the UI Components folder to the Stage. Position the button in the lower middle of the Stage area, or any desired location.
- While the Button component still selected, open the Property inspector and locate the text field at the top named <Instance Name>. Enter the name for the button instance: replay_btn. This is an important step. By naming the button instance, you'll be able to reference it by name using the ActionScript you'll add to the project. If the button instance's name does not exactly match the button's name specified in the code, the behavior won't function as expected.
Note: One of the most common mistakes is to enter the name of a frame label, rather than entering the instance name of an object on the Stage. Be very careful to always select the object on the Stage first. Then you can access the Property inspector to check that the panel refers to the selected symbol and indicates that an instance is selected. Verify that the field says "<Instance Name>" before you type the name of the instance. If the Property inspector refers to a frame, it means you've accidentally clicked the Timeline. Naming instances can be confusing until you are familiar with the options presented for selected symbol instances and selected keyframes. One thing to check: If you accidentally enter a name in the Property inspector while a keyframe is selected (instead of an object on the Stage), you'll see a red flag icon appear in the Timeline on the keyframe. Frame labels can be very helpful when creating navigation that jumps to different frames in the Timeline; for this example, however, it is critical that you select the button on the Stage and enter the instance name of the button in the button layer as replay_btn. Also make sure there are no typos; otherwise the script will not work.
- To update the text label of the button that is displayed on the Stage, enter the text Replay into the label field in the Component Parameters area in the Properties panel. This label helps users understand what the button will do. It is purely visual and does not affect the performance of the code. If you'd prefer that the button display a different label, you could enter Rewind, Again, or a different label of your choosing.
- Select the keyframe on Frame 1 of the actions layer. Open the Actions panel (Window > Actions). Copy the code snippet below and paste it into the Script window:
- Take a few moments to read through the code. Notice that the second line begins by declaring a function named
onClick. The last line of code uses the
addEventListener method, which registers the function as an "event listener" for the button's "click" event. The translation of this code essentially says: "When a user clicks the button named replay_btn, run the function named
onClick. When the
onClick function runs, it instructs the playhead to jump to Frame 1 of the Timeline and begin playing the frames."
This is the standard format used when writing ActionScript 3; one section checks for user interactivity (such as a mouse click) and that triggers another function to respond to timing cues from objects in Flash Player. In this case, the event handler function instructs Flash Player to return to Frame 1 and start playing the Timeline again. (You'll use a similar syntax of creating an event handler function and assigning it to a button instance any time you create an interactive button in Flash.)
Tip: You can use the Code Snippets panel as a shortcut when adding events to buttons.
- Choose Control > Test Movie to test the FLA file. The animation plays once and then stops. Click the Replay button to restart the animation and watch the circle move across the Stage again.
- Close the Test Movie window and save your FLA file.
There are many online resources you can use to learn more about working with Flash Professional:
- The Getting Started section in the Flash Developer Center outlines where to go next, depending on your interests and goals.
- The Learn Flash Professional show on Adobe TV provides an entire set of video tutorials that illustrate what you can do with Flash.
- The Flash Professional online documentation includes the instructions on how to use the features and includes links to related videos and tutorials to achieve specific tasks.
- The Flash community forum is helpful for researching questions and learning techniques from other Flash developers; always search before submitting new posts, because there is a wealth of posted information that you can use to find solutions to common questions.