Adobe Flash Techniques

04/10/11 - Adobe Flash Demo

Today we were given a demo on using Adobe Flash. We started off by creating a new file and selecting "Actionscript 3.0".

imported an image of a robot from google that our tutor gave us.

Started experimenting using the "Line Tool" to draw around the robot - selected the colour window then added a fill.

Selected a gradient and experimented using different shades and colours.

we then continued to draw around the robot, experimenting with snapping and gradient colours.

We then selected the outline of the robot and converted it to a symbol by right clicking it and selecting convert to symbol, naming it robot.

We then created a coloured light on the robot in a new layer using the "line Tool" to help experiment with using frames.



We then inserted a new frame after five seconds. To make the light flash on and off we inserted two frames inbewtween the five seconds with the light was not showing. 

Motion experiment

We created a new layer, made a shape (circle) using the "Shape Tool" then selected the circle, right clicked it and converted it to a symbol, naming it "ball".

The next step was to create motion of the ball, to do this; we moved the key frame head to 25 frames then moved the shape which brings up the motion path of the object (shown in the screenshot below).

We then did the same again but this time we morphed a square shape into an oval. The steps are very much the same apart from there must be another shape for the original to morph into, in this case we created an oval.

Text Experiment

We then experimented with text, to do this we created some text, highlighted and selected the window "Modify" then "Break Apart" we then repeated that again.

Once the text is broken apart it is free to transform by pulling the edges of the text.

We then created a another shape so that the text would morph into it, to do this we created the shape and the send of the frames then created a motion tween between the two.

Back to Robot

Here we created a new leg on a new layer using the "Line Tool" so that it could move separately.

We then selected the leg and converted it into a symbol naming it "Leg 2".

We then cloned the leg by copy and paste and made both legs move in opposing directions.

We then scaled the finished robot down to size and placed it to the right of the stage, we then created a key frame at around frame 50 with the robot on the other side of the stage then created a "Classic Tween" in-between the frames.

This is the animation being played as a movie (Cntrl + Enter)

For the next part of the demo, we imported this image of a wall from the web,

Using the "Distort" tool we shaped the wall so that it was right for the demo and what we wanted to achieve,

We then created a button using the "Rectangle" shape tool, we made the button stay on the stage for the whole movie by selecting the button layer then pressing F5 to create a key-frame at the point of where the animation stops.

We added a speech-bubble using the "Oval" shape tool, then filled it in white, using the "Line Tool" we then transformed the bubble by dragging the edge of it out so that it looked like it was coming from the robot.

The final step to add was sound - to do this, we went to a website called http://sounddogs.com/ then downloaded the sound of a bird tweeting,

We then edited the sound in Adobe Audition by making it shorter so that it focused on the bird tweeting part and not the background noises before and after.

Importing the sound file was the last step of creating our own animation, it was very easy and similar to importing an image,

Overall, this was a very intresting demo, although it was fustrating at points, problems and errors were made easy to fix as it shows your error in Flash and you can then click it to find out where and what has gone wrong. But at the same this demo was very enjoyable as we were learning something different and it gave me a good idea of what creating animations will be like for the future.