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The Flash F.A.Q.Home > Build >
Software > Flash
How do you embed Flash into
a web page? Why is my Flash animation slow? What
are actions? How can I remove the background
of an imported image? How can I make text
move? What do I need to learn before learning
Flash? How do I stop my movie? How
do I split my movie into smaller movies? What
is the syntax for a random number? How do
I make a word explode in Flash? How do I
link to an email? How do you make words go
across the screen? How do I make something
appear elsewhere when a button is clicked? How
do I make 800 x 600 movies? How do I make
fading text? How do I make a loading screen? How
do I import JPEGs without losing quality? Where
can I download Flash 4? How to make text
scroll with buttons? How do you make an image
spin? How do you make a movie full screen? How
do I change background colors? How can I
morph a solid object into a font? How can
I make a Skip Intro button? How can I store
variables in a file? How can you change the
viewpoint of a movie? (panning) How can I
change the visibility of an object? How do
you make cut out text? What are masks? How
can I target a frame with Get URL? How do
you create zooming effects? Back to Top |
| How do
you embed Flash into a web page? |
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/
cabs/flash/swflash.cab#3,0,0,0" width="100%" height="100%">
<param name="SRC" value="your movie.swf">
<param name="quality"
value="best">
<embed src="your movie.swf" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" height="100%">
</embed>
</object>
These are the codes for embedding
your flash movie on the web. Remember to change the values that are in bold
to correspond with your movie.
You can also have flash publish your move
for you by clicking File > Publish preview > HTML
Back
to Top | |
Why is my flash animation slow?
|
Flash rarely deals well
with more than a few layers at once. A commonly used technique to deal with this
is to put any items that are not tweened on the same layer. Often, I will have
items tween in one layer, and when the motion is completed, I will move the object
to the static layer with dozens of other objects.
Other tips for speedier
playback:
Use symbols as often as possible, a symbol is only read by flash
once, no matter how many times it appears on the stage.
Avoid animating bitmaps
if at all possible. If you can't get by without the bitmap, use the trace bitmap
option from the modify menu to convert the graphic to vector. Combine objects
into a symbol when 2 or more objects can move together or rotate around each other.
General rule: if you have 4 or more objects moving at one time, you need to double
check your playback with TestMovie. The bandwidth profiler option can help you
pinpoint trouble spots in your movie.
You could also check to see what
FPS your movie is set to. Click on Modify > Movie, for smooth animation, consider
around 20 - 25 frames per second. The average human eye can only catch around
36 frames per second, so anything above that would be a waste.
Back
to Top | |
What are Actions? |
ActionScript is unique to Flash,
but has a lot of similarities to many other scripting languages.
The pop-up
menu in the actions window is the Action to be taken, and can be attached to buttons
or frames.
The first box of the scripting window is the 'Target', that is
to say, the item that will receive the action. The Target can be a MovieClip symbol
(often referred to as MC), a frame, or a level.
The bottom window is for the
formula if applicable.
Actions are often applied to variables. Variables can
be set on the stage with the FormField tool available as an option of the text
tool. They can also be referred to WITHOUT having to put a FormField on the stage.
Variable fields must be named, and you call the value or write to the variable
by entering its name as the 'Target'. Variables can also be used to define a Target,
but that can be pretty complicated stuff.
The important thing is to remember
the hierarchy of your movie. The main timeline is referred to by typing a backslash
"/" into the target field [i.e. "Tell Target / goto and play frame 1]. A movie
clip in the main timeline should have a name, such as "MC1". You select this movie
clip from anywhere in the movie with "/MC1". This is SO important because you
can put "MC3" inside of "MC2" which is inside of "MC1". A frame action in MC3
can tell MC1 to play with [ Tell Target /MC1 play ]. Conversely, a frame action
or button in the main timeline can tell MC3 to play with [ Tell Target /MC1/MC2/MC3
play].
Flash also supports relative addresses with 2 periods and a backslash
"../". Example: make MC1 play with a frame action inside MC3 with [ Tell Target
../../ play ]
Naming your important frames and MC's logically is half the
battle.
Check out the Flash Help files (Help Menu) and search or look for
ActionScript, that may get you started.
Also, try making two MovieClips and
a button. Place these all on the stage, and name the two movie clips in their
properties window. Try an action that tells one of the MC to play, and have the
last frame of that MC tell the other clip to play. This simple exercise can be
daunting at first but if you get that, you have the whole thing pretty well licked.
Back
to Top | |
How can I remove the background
of an imported image? |
I will assume that your image is a bitmap and not vector. The simplest way to
accomplish your goal is to select the image, then select the Modify menu and then
Break Apart. Now your bitmap can be edited in flash. You can use the eraser to
remove the unwanted information. If the parts to be removed match the color of
the stage, change the stage color from the Modify menu > Movie. The magic wand
can also be used to select a color range, and the whole background can be deleted.
You can also import GIF's or PICT's with transparency where the transparent region
will remain transparent (Pict usually gives better results).
If the image
is vector: From Illustrator or Freehand, Save the image as an Illustrator 5.5
file, and then import to Flash. Layers will stay in tact and no background will
accompany the image.
Back
to Top | |
How can I make text move?
|
To make text move, zoom,
fade or do anything other than change shape, you HAVE to make it into a symbol.
Select your text, then click on the ModifyMenu > Create Symbol. Do this BEFORE
you create keyframes down the timeline. You will automatically have a keyframe
in frame 1, where you add your text, and turn it into a symbol. Then click on
the last frame of your animation and select the Insert Menu > Add Keyframe. Double
click on the first keyframe and select the Tweening Tab, and finally select Motion
Tween. Play with the size and position of your text in frame one to see how this
works.
To change the stage color, select the Modify Menu > Movie. You can
set your frame rate, grid size and stage color.
Back
to Top | |
What do I need to know before
learning flash? |
If you are just getting into graphics Flash may be great for you, but it may ruin
your ability to use any other graphic application.
The reason I say that is
that Flash has a very unique drawing method and is the equivalent of digital finger-painting.
Once you get used to it, you can create some great things with Flash, but you
might actually train yourself into doing things in ways that don't produce good
results in other vector based programs.
For any precision work, I always defer
to Illustrator. Photoshop and any bitmaps should be avoided if possible since
they will bloat your flash movie. Vector graphics keep things small and fast.
CGI is used with flash to pass results either from one movie to another, or even
from a flash movie to a database or vice-versa. Flash support CGI via the "Send
using Post" or "Send using Get" actions as any HTML form can.
Flash also
allows its own form of scripting called Action Script. Action Script is absolutely
where it is at!!! to make a great site, you will absolutely have to use it to
some degree, and the better you know it, the better your results tend to be.
I am working hard to get the Flash Tutorial
back on track at w3nation and it will hopefully answer a great many questions
for the new Flash user. I was detained from working on the tutorial because of
an unexpectedly long development cycle for my latest site, clcunningham.com. I'm
still working out a few bugs, but it is nearly done, and the tutorial will soon
follow.
Back
to Top | | How
do I stop my movie? |
It's very easy to stop your movie. Double click the last keyframe in your movie,
a window will pop up called Frame Properties. Click on the Actions tab at the
top, then hit the + and click on Stop. That's it.
Back
to Top | |
How do I split my movie into smaller
movies? |
You can
certainly split your movie into smaller movies, and use the get URL action at
the end of one movie to load another. The trouble will come with keeping your
music synched up. If I understand your intentions correctly, the first step is
to split the music out to its own movie.
I'm working on supposition here
but I assume you want the movies (visual) to key the playing and stopping of the
audio. If that is the case, you must first load the first (visual movie) into
level 0 (the default) then load the audio into another level - this audio movie
should have a movie clip, with a targetable name that contains the full audio
clip, load this audio movie on level 10. When the first movie completes, use the
"Get URL" action to call in the next movie (visual)target level 0 as well as "Tell
Target" 'name of audio MC' to stop. When the next movie loads, use the first or
second frame to Tell Target 'audio MC' to play, thus stopping and starting the
sound as each clip finishes and the next loads.
Back
to Top | |
What is the syntax for a random
number? |
The correct
syntax is:
variablename = (random (10)) + 1
Because the operator
"random (10) is a number, including the text 'random', you must enclose it within
parentheses, and apply additional operations, i.e. " +1 " to the whole package
contained within the parentheses.
A common method I use in these circumstances
is to actually put a variable text field on the stage, and name it appropriately
for the equation that is giving me trouble.
To be certain I was giving you
the right answer, I created a text field on the stage with the name "display",
then added a button to the stage. The button was first given the action " on click>
set variable "display"=random (10) > EndOn. When that produced the correct result,
I could then play with the multiple possible contexts for the formula, i.e. random
(10+1), (random (10)+1) etc. Flash documentation on this level of syntax is practically
nonexistent, so you must create your own simple tests to see what works.
Another
option is to do this:
OnClick > SetVariable "display" = random (10)
> SetVariable "result" = display + 1 > EndOn.
This will also produce
the results you need.
Back
to Top | |
How do I make a word explode
in Flash? |
1. Type
out the text you wish to explode.
2. Select the text, the | Modify > BreakApart.
3. Select each individual letter, one at the time. Select a letter then | Insert
> Create Symbol > GraphicSymbol
4. When each letter is a separate symbol,
you must then separate the letters onto individual layers, only one letter to
a layer!!!
You're just about set to go at this point. You needed to
do the above steps to insure that the tweening works properly. You can only apply
a motion tween to a SINGLE symbol for each layer. Tweening will not work properly
if there are two symbols in the same layer when a tween is applied to only one
of these objects. (Confusing? yes, but play with a simplified, 1 layer/2symbol
on the layer tween to see what happens)
5. You should now have the letters
of your exploding word separated on many layers, and these letters should only
occur in the first frame of this animation.
6. add a keyframe to every layer
at the point you want the explosion to end, perhaps frame 10.
7. Select frame
10 in the timeline and drag each letter to its ending position.
8. Apply a
Motion Tween to each layer at frame 1.
Play your sploshun and enjoy.
Back
to Top | |
How do I link to an email?
|
It's just an action of
GetURL with this code: "mailto:your_email@isp.com"
|
| How
do you make words go across the screen? |
1) Add your word(s) to one side of the screen
2) Add a keyframe anywhere after
the first keyframe by pushing F6 with a frame selected
3) After the keyframe
is made, you can move the word to anywhere else in the movie
4) Go back to
your first keyframe and double click it in the timeline and then select the "Tweening"
tab and click on the little white box and select "Motion" from it.
Back
to Top | |
How do I make something appear
elsewhere when a button is clicked? |
First, you need to make a button or your entire menu system, it doesn't matter
what your stuff looks like at all. Then place it on your movie stage. For ease
of explaining, I will just refer to one button... After
you have the button made, you should put on the stage what you want to happen
when the mouse moves over the button. This should be made into a Movie Clip. After
you make it a movie instance, double click on it, and in the definition tab, give
it a name, it doesn't really matter. After
you have everything positioned correctly, you need to edit the movie clip and
do whatever kind of animation you want. But, keep in mind, however, that you need
to have the first keyframe blank and add the action of Stop to it. And in the
last frame, add the action of Stop, also. After
you have done the above - which isn't that hard to do - you're ready to do the
'programming' part of it. Again, this isn't too hard. Double
click on the button, in the actions tab, add the action of OnMouseEvent and in
the right part of the screen, you see a bunch of choices, select Release.
Right away, add another action of Tell Target.
Now, to your right, you should see in the upper box the name of the movie clip
you named awhile ago, double click it and it will go down to the bottom box.
Add another action of Go To. On your right,
you will see frame etc.. select frame, and type 2. So it will go to frame 2, but
that's not all you have to do, go to the bottom and check mark Go To And Play.
After that all, you probably want the
movie clip to disappear so another one can be shown right, eh?
Well, just
add the same actions as up above, but you need to make the On Mouse Event a Roll
Out and go to frame 1 and stop. In the end, your code should look similar to this:
On (Roll Over)
Begin Tell Target
("/lines")
Go to and Play (2)
End Tell Target
End On
On (Roll
Out)
Begin Tell Target ("/lines")
Go to and Stop (1)
End Tell Target
End On After all that, you probably will
want to make a few more buttons and a few more movie clips and all.
Back
to Top | |
How do I make 800 x 600 movies?
|
This only works with
the stand alone player. But to get your movie fullscreen, add the action of:
FS Command ("fullscreen", "true")
to any keyframe in your movie
Back
to Top | |
How do I make fading text?
|
You need to make your
text a graphic symbol. After you make it a graphic symbol, set the alpha to 0.
You do that by double clicking on it, and then clicking on the Color Effect tab.
Then add a keyframe about 20 frames down the line and setting the alpha of the
text in that keyframe to 100, or you can put the color effect to none
Back
to Top | |
How do I make a loading screen?
|
First off, check to see
what the last frame number in your movie is, you'll need it for later reference.
Insert a new scene in your movie (insert
> scene).
Then click on Windows > Inspectors > Scene
You will
see all the scenes in your movie here, now click and drag the new scene above
scene 1. It would be wise and a lot
easier if you rename scene 1 to "Main" and scene 2 to "preloader". Now,
go back to the preloader scene in the main stage, create 2 keyframes.
Double click the first keyframe, and add the
actions of: If Frame Is Loaded (Main,
LastKeyFrame)
Go to and Play (Main, 1)
End Frame Loaded
LastKeyFrame <-- Refers to the last
keyframe of "Main"
Then in the
second keyframe of the "preloader" scene, add the action of
Go
to and Play (1)
There, that's all there is to a preloader, but that's
pretty bland.
So, the most logical thing to do is make a little movie clip
saying something like "Loading movie, please wait..."
Or something along the
lines of that.
I would suggest putting the movie clip into its own layer above
the keyframes with the actions in it.
Back
to Top | | How
do I import JPEGs without losing quality? |
There isn't a way to have a high quality jpg and have a small file size. You should
probably set the compression rate at 50 - 75 for a good quality image.
Back
to Top | |
Where can I download Flash 4?
|
You can download it here:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/trial/
Back
to Top | | How
to make Text Scroll with buttons? |
There are a great many ways to do this, first , ask yourself some questions: Are
you making your text field a variable because you want to change it via a "Load
Variable from Location" command? If not, don't bother making a variable at all,
just use a standard text block, you can format that block all you want.
If
you do wish to make the contents of the text field variable, don't enter the contents
into the value section of the 'Actions' panel, simply add the text directly to
the field and apply any properties you want. You can load text into the variable
later from a text file, but I am unsure how or if format (bold, italic) can be
related to Flash via the text file. Also,
remember to use either the _sans, _serif, or _typewriter font to be certain everyone
will see your text properly, without having to download a font subset.
Back
to Top | | How
do you make an image spin? |
First keyframe have the object set at 0 degrees in the transform inspector. Set
a keyframe at (lets say 30). Then put one at 15. On frame 15 put the rotation
at 180 degrees. Then on 30 put the rotation at 359 degrees. It will make it rotate
359 degrees. If you want it to loop, just loop it around to the first frame and
there it is at a 360 degree loop.
Back
to Top | |
How do you make a movie full
screen? |
You can
get rid of the borders on your page by adding topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 to your
tag.
For fullscreen, you put height="100%" width="100%"
Back
to Top | |
How do I change background colors?
|
The easiest way I can
think of to change background colors is to make a layer named "Background" and
drag it to the bottom of all the layers. Then, with the rectangle tool, fill the
whole stage with what color you want, then select the rectangle, and hit F8 and
make it a graphic symbol. Then where you want it to change color, add a keyframe,
then double click the rectangle and change to the Color Effect tab and select
Tint and change it to the color you want.
Then go back to the first keyframe,
and add a Motion tween.
Back
to Top | |
How can I morph a solid object
into a font? |
1)
Select the square, and hit Modify > Break Apart.
2) In the keyframe with
the word, you need to break it apart, also.
3) Go back to the keyframe with
the rectangle in it, and click Modify > Frame > Tweening > Shape Tween
If you want to do a word morphing into another word, just break them both apart
and set the tweening to Shape
Back
to Top | |
How can I make a skip intro button?
|
What I would do for the
"skip intro" button is this: Create
a blank layer, and in the first keyframe, make your button and give it these properties:
On (Press)
Go to and Stop (Scene
2, 1)
End On If you have more
than just one frame in your navigation scene, you should put
Go to and
Play (Scene 2, 1)
Back
to Top | | How
can I store variables in a file? |
Sounds difficult, but it is amazingly simple (at least the flash part).
This
involves your flash .SWF file, with the login / password and most importantly,
the submit button. It also involve a CGI, ASP, PGP, or other script, kept on your
server. I have used the script named "Form Return" in the past, available at:
http://dreamcatchersweb.com/scripts/
All you have to do, is to add an action
to the submit button in your flash movie. The action is "Get URL", the URL you
will tell flash to get is the full address of your script. Select "Send using
Get", or "Send Using Post" (either will work with the Form Return script).
What that action does is submit all text fields
to the CGI that you have set up. It is up to the CGI to decide which of these
variables to pay attention to, and what to do with them.
If you know Perl,
or another scripting language, you might have your script add all data from your
movie to a text file kept on your server. For help with the CGI, hop on over to
the CGI / Perl forum here. This forum is not too active yet, but it is attended,
and you should get the help you need.
Back
to Top | | How
can you change the viewpoint of a movie? (panning) |
You'd have to rotate the objects you're working
with to change the view. Flash has only one view.
Back
to Top | |
How can I change the visibility
of an object? |
I will assume you have basic knowledge of Action Scripting, like how to apply
an action to a frame or button (double click on the frame or button, then select
the 'Action' tab of the properties palette). Place
'Image1' inside a movie clip. Place that movie clip on the stage. Double click
the Movie Clip (MC for short) and click on the 'Definition' tab - in the lower
right of the palette, type in the 'Instance' name of the MC... call it 'Image1'.
Now that your image has a name, you
can apply all kinds of actions to it. Double
click on your symbol that will turn the visibility of 'Image1' on or off. Go to
Actions, and add this action: On Click
Set Property : Visibility "Image1" = 1
End On Flash
reads the number 1 (as in "visibility of 'Image1' = 1") as 'true' or 'on'.
Likewise, flash reads 0 (zero) as 'false' or 'off'. So
to turn visibility off, you set: property:visibility
"Image1" = 0 OK, that lets you turn
it on, or off, but not both with the same button, that is a lot tougher. There
are a few ways to do it, but the easiest is to switch the button, or simply have
two, one for on, one for off.
Back
to Top | | How
do you make cut out text? |
This effect is created with a 'Mask Layer'. The way it works is: right click (control-click
Mac) on a layer in your main timeline and select "Mask" from the contextual menu.
Now create a second layer, if it is not already above (closer to the title bar
than...) the mask layer you just created then drag it to the top position, release
it. Now drag the same layer to immediately below your mask layer. Notice how the
icons for those layers look, indicating that the mask layer is applied only to
the layer you just dragged below it. In
the example you cited, the letters are on the mask layer, any 'ink' on the mask
layer will act as a transparency through that layer. Anywhere that there is no
ink on the mask layer will be opaque, hiding the layers that are 'masked' below
it. The layer below the mask contains
a large bitmap of a cloud texture, and it slowly scrolls back and forth as the
SwF plays. Mask layers can be added,
one on top of another to produce the sliding 'reveal' seen on your sample page.
The only other thing on this page that
is not shown is that you can apply a single mask layer to dozens of masked layers,
to allow image compositing.
Back
to Top | | What
are masks? |
A mask
is like having a solid sheet of construction paper. You can't see through it,
right? When you apply paint to the mask
layer, it is like cutting the construction papers with scissors, allowing you
to see through a particular part of that paper. A
layer that is 'masked' really does nothing special, the action is all in the mask.
What is special is that you can have a mask layer, and a masked layer, and then
an unmasked layer beneath them both. To
paint a verbal picture, imagine you have a nice background image, like a flowering
field, as you background image (layer one) this layer is unmasked.
On layer
two, you have a bright rainbow gradient covering the entire stage, and obscuring
the image on layer one. This layer is 'Masked'.
On layer three, you draw a
smallish circle, which you motion-tween so it appears to bounce. This layer is
the 'Mask' The result will be a flowering
field with a bouncing ball that changes color.
Back
to Top | | How
can I target a frame with Get URL? |
You need only add the name of the "Main" frame to the Get URL command. If your
frameset uses a frame called "Nav", and a content area named "Main".
Back
to Top | |
How do you create zooming effects?
|
There's quite a few ways
to do this from a complex, entirely script driven method, to a super simple tween.
For the tween, just make the image small
in frame 1, large in frame 10 (Modify>Transform>Scale) then apply a tween
(motion or shape as necessary). For
the script driven version (if you really need it) you'll need to post a second
request, it is fairly complicated.
Back
to Top |
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