Designing a Website in Adobe Flash

Flash movies are images and animations for Web sites. Although they are mainly composed of vector images, may also include bitmap images and sounds imported. Flash movies can incorporate interaction to allow input from viewers, creating nonlinear movies that can interact with other applications. Web designers use Flash to create navigation controls, animated logos, and large-format animations with synchronized sound and even websites with sensory abilities. Flash movies are compact vector graphics that are downloaded and adapted immediately to the size of the user's screen.

Flash workflow :

Working on Flash for the creation of a film includes a drawing or importing a picture, your organization Stage and animation with Timeline. The film can be done interactively using actions that cause the film to respond to certain events in certain ways.

• After the movie, you can export it to open in Flash Player or as a stand-alone Flash projector, which allows a player to see it included with the film itself.
• The Flash movies can be played in several ways:
• In Internet browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, which are equipped with Flash Player.
• With the Flash ActiveX control in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and other ActiveX host environments.
• In Flash Player, a stand-alone management similar to Flash Player plug.
• As a stand-alone projector, a movie file that can be played without having the Flash Player.

Flash Animation

Flash animation has another very important property - Flash allows you to create interactive movies, in the course of play which visitor can use the keyboard or mouse to navigate to different fragments of the movie, move objects, enter information into the form, and perform many other operations.

Flash lets you animate objects to give the impression of moving around the stage and change their shape, size, color, opacity, rotation and other properties. You can also create animation frame by frame, creating a different image for each frame. Another possibility is to create interpolated animation, i.e. create the first and last frames of an animation and let Flash create the frames in between.

Flash lets you animate objects to give the impression of moving around the stage and change their shape, size, color, opacity, rotation and other properties. You can also create animation frame by frame, creating a different image for each frame. Another possibility is to create interpolated animation, i.e. create the first and last frames of an animation and let Flash create the frames in between. Flash offers several ways to use sound in films. You can create a sound that is played continuously, regardless of the film story and your actions.

Vector Graphics and Bitmap

The PC display images in vector or bitmap. It is very important to understand the difference between the two formats for use in the most effective. Flash allows you to create and animate vector graphics compact. It also allows import and manipulates vector graphics and bitmap created in other applications.

Beginning with Flash:

While working in Flash, you create a movie, drawing on their own or by importing graphics, placing the cross on the table l animating the cross, and by applying interactive effects, it is possible to make the film a certain way of responding to the visitor. When the film is created, it must be exported or to view in Flash Player, or to view offline projector Flash.

Flash movie can be played in the following ways:

• A browser that is installed Flash Player, for example, Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer;
• With the help of Flash ActiveX in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows or otherwise under the control of ActiveX;
• In stand-alone application, Flash Player, which works as a plug-in Flash Player
• In stand-alone projector, in which case the movie files can be played without a Flash Player.

Drawing

Flash offers a variety of tools for creating complex drawings, as well as to import graphics from other applications. With the help of drawing tools, you can create objects and modify attributes of existing objects. You can also import vector and bitmap graphics from other applications and edit it in Flash.

Animation

Flash allows you to animate objects, i.e., display the process of their relocation and / or changing the shape, size, color, and transparency, and rotation angle. In Flash there are two types of animation: a turn-based (frame-by-frame) and trimmed. To step through each frame of animation to create a separate, for cropped - the first and last frames, and the content of intermediate Flash calculates automatically.

Interactive Flash movies

Flash allows you to create interactive movies, working with which visitors pass to various parts of them, move objects, fill out questionnaires and forms, etc. Interactive effects are created by actions that use code ActionScript. For information about creating and configuring the most frequently repeated actions can be found in Chapter 12. Complete information on the application of ActionScript to create complex interactive effects suggested in the Guide to ActionScript.

To configure the server to support Flash Player, follow one of the following:

• If your site is published on the Internet, please contact technical support and ask them to add the server type MIME application / x-shock-wave-flash with the extension. SWF;
• If you are publishing on your own server, read the technical documentation for the server software and find the manual describing the configuration of MIME types

Vector and bitmap graphics:

The electronic form of a graph is displayed either in vector or in raster format, and a clear understanding of the differences of these formats allows you to work more efficiently. Flash supports the use of vector graphics animations, complete with movie files have a relatively small volume. In addition. Ported and used in movies files of vector and bitmap images, which were created in other applications.

Vector Graphics:

Vector graphics describes an object directed curves - vectors, which are the color values and coordinates. For example, in the image there are given points through which lines to form its outline. Color is the color of the contour and the prisoners therein areas. Editing vector object, you change the properties that make up the image. You can move the object, change its size, shape and color, and these changes will not affect the image quality. Vector graphics are not dependent on the optical resolution and therefore vector objects can be played on devices with different optical resolution without losing image quality.

Raster Graphics:

Raster Graphics describes the object colored dots - pixels in a certain way to placed in a grid. In this case, the same piece of paper describes the position and color of all the points of which, like a mosaic, formed a single entity.

How to create a Flash Movie

Each time you open Flash, the application creates a new file. During the work session is possible to create other new movies. To define the size, frame rate, background color and other properties of a new movie, use the Properties dialog box of film.
1. To Start: Choose File > New > Change
2. To create a new movie and set its properties: Choose Modify> Movie. Dialog box appears Movie Properties.
3. In the Frame Rate, enter the number of animation frames to appear every second. Most animations that are in PCs, especially those playing from a website they need a higher rate of 8 to 12 fps (frames per second). (12 fps frame rate is the default).
4. In the Dimensions section, choose one of these options:

• To specify the size of the scenario in pixels, enter values in the Width and Height. The default movie size is 550 by 400 pixels. The minimum size is 18 by 18 pixels, while the maximum is 2880 by 2880 pixels.
• To set the Stage size so that the space around the content is equal on all sides, click Match content. To minimize the size of the film, align all elements in the upper left of the stage before using the command Match content.
• To set the Stage size to the largest possible print area, click Match printer. This area is determined by the paper size minus the margin selected in the Margins area of the Page Setup dialog box (Windows) dialog box or the Print Margins (Macintosh).

5. To set the background color of the film, choose a color from the color swatch in the background.
6. Select the unit of measure in the Ruler Units pop-up menu to be used for rules that can be displayed at the top and side of the application window. Click OK.

Using multiple layers

• File> New > Create Object
• F5 to cover a certain number of frames
• F6 to Move the Object Created
• Right click on the first and last key frame
• Select Create Motion
• Clicking the add layer icon
• We return in section 2 of this procedure

Flash Toolbox

Here you can find tools to draw, paint, select, and modify the schedule, and also change the look of the Table.

The toolbar is divided into four sections:

• Tools - contains tools for drawing, painting and the allocation of some part of the figure;
• View - provides tools to reduce / enlarge and move the graphics in the application;
• Colors - contains the modifiers for the outline and fill color;
• Options - displays modifiers for the resource is currently drawing tool or editing.

Creating a Flash Clip

Each symbol has a timeline and a unique setting, complete with layers. By creating a symbol, you must choose how they will behave the symbol, depending on how you will use in the film. To the timeline of the main movie. These symbols are synchronized with the timeline of the main movie. Interactive controls and sounds will not work in the animation sequence of a symbol.

Use button symbols to create interactive buttons in the film respond to clicks and mouse movements or other actions. Define them graphics associated with various button states, and then assign actions to a button instance. Use movie clip symbols to create reusable pieces of animation. The movie clips have their own timelines of several frames to be reproduced independently of the Timeline of the main movie, think of them as mini-movies within a main movie that can contain controls, sounds and even other movie clip instances interactive.

You can assign clip parameters (variables with values) to a movie clip to create a clip "intelligent. You can add stock clip and build scripts for smart clip to create interface elements, such as radio buttons, dropdown menus or tooltips that respond to mouse clicks and other events. For more information, see Help ActionScript.

To create a new empty symbol:
1. Make sure nothing is selected on the Stage and do one of the following steps:

• Choose Insert> New Symbol.
• Click the New Symbol button at the bottom left of the Library window.
• Select New Symbol from the Library options menu in the upper right corner of the Library window.

2. In the Properties dialog box prompt, type the name of the symbol and choose the behavior: Graphic, Button, or Movie Clip. OK
3. Flash adds the symbol to the library and switches to symbol-editing mode. In this mode, the symbol name appears above the upper left corner, above the Timeline, and a cross hair indicates the symbol's registration point.
4. To create the symbol content, use the Timeline, draw with the drawing tools, import media, or create instances of other symbols.
5. When you are finished creating the symbol content, use one of the following to return to movie making: Choose Edit> Edit Symbol. Click the Scene button in the upper left corner of the document window. Click the Edit Scene button located on the upper right corner of the document window and choose a scene from the menu.

The Timeline for Flash Movie

The Timeline organizes and controls the content of a film over time in layers and frames. The main components of the Timeline are layers, frames, and the playhead. The layers of a movie shown in a column to the left of the Timeline. Frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer name. The header of the Timeline, located at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers. The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage.

The status information of the timeline located at the bottom of the Timeline indicates the current frame number, the current frame rate and time to the current frame. When playing an animation shows the current frame rate, which may differ from the frame rate the movie if the system cannot display the animation quickly enough. You can change the manner in which to display frames and display thumbnails of the contents of frames in the Timeline. The Timeline shows where animation is a movie, including the animation frame by frame, interpolated animation and motion paths.

Setting up frames in Timeline

In the timeline you are working with frames and key frames. The key is called a frame, which indicated the change introduced by animation or action, change the movie. Key personnel - an important part of cropped animation. To change the length of the animation must be cropped to hook and drag the pointer to the key frame in the Timeline.

With conventional and key personnel can perform the following operations:

• insert, select, and delete frames and key frames
• drag the same where you want on the screen or over the same or different layer
• convert frames to key frames and vice versa
• drag and drop items from the Library (Library) at the table to add it to the current key frame

The timing diagram shows the cropped frames of animation.
To insert a chart into a temporary additional staff, do one of the following steps: choose Insert Frame (to insert a new frame. Then choose Insert > Keyframe or right-click on the frame you want delete. Then you can use Insert to put back.

Moving the key frame:

• Press and hold Alt and then drag the start or end key frame sequence in a different position, to stretch or shrink the size of frames.
• Press and hold Alt and then drag the key frame to a new location - to copy a frame or frame sequence.
• Now select a frame or sequence and choose Edit Copy Frames. Select a frame or sequence that you want to replace, and then click Edit Paste Frames - to copy and paste a frame or frame sequence
• Select the key frame and choose Clear Keyframe or right-click to delete it. Drag the start or end key frame left or right - to change the length of the sequence created by the framing. On changing the length of sequences you can manage to work on the same. And then drag a window from Library at the table to add the item from the library in the current frame on the table.

ACTIONSCRIPT

Actions to a button, movie clip or a frame is set in the Actions panel. The use of controls in the Actions panel in Normal mode to insert actions without using ActionScript, if a user is an expert in ActionScript can build your own scripts. The instructions may be formed by a single action, like request to stop playing a movie or a series of actions, such as first evaluating a condition and then perform an action. The configuration of many of the actions requires little programming experience. For other actions require some familiarity with programming languages and are designed for advanced development.

If you want a movie to perform a specific action when it reaches a key frame, simply assign a frame action to the key frame. For example, to create a cycle in a movie, you can add a frame action that specifies the Frame 20 Frame 10 and go to play.

To assign an action to a key frame:

1. Select a key frame in the Timeline and choose Window> Actions. If the selected frame is a key frame, the action assigned to the previous key frame. If you have not selected any frame, or if the selection includes multiple frames, the Actions panel is dimmed.
2. To display the basic actions, click the Basic Actions category in the list of the toolbox located in the left panel.
3. To assign an action using one of the following:

• Double-click an action in the Basic Actions category in the list of the Toolbox.
• Drag an action from the list on the Toolbox, on the left to the Actions list, located on the right side panel.
• Click the Add button (+) and choose a sentence from the popup menu.
• Use the keyboard shortcut.

4. To display the parameter fields, click the Settings button, located on the lower right corner of the Actions panel. Select the action and enter new values in the parameter fields, if you want to modify the parameters of existing shares. The parameters vary depending on the action you select.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to assign more stock if necessary.
To test a frame action in one scene: Select Control> Test Movie

Playing Flash on the Website:

In order to get movies on the Internet there are many different approaches, but as so many of them are often cumbersome and finally has one set up by now. Between different formats, such as Real Player, Windows Media Player and still another has become the one and although the Flash version. The two biggest advantages of the Flash version, is that the Flash plug-in is very common and - thanks to open source - you have to pay a cent for this solution.

There are special software. Adobe Flash has to be converted to a video converter on board with the most popular formats into FLV. Who wants to save on licensing costs, which I attach to the heart following software: VLC Media Player. Thus all standard formats can be converted. In addition, still can tune the video and audio quality are made. Although Flash is a streaming format (will be loaded in chunks), but like all the videos, the file size is not negligible. I submit that the resulting traffic should not be underestimated.

Many who have worked with Flash to know that the format which is embedded in the browser but not FLV SWF (Shockwave Flash) is called. It is no different. The SWF file that calls HTML parameters via the FLV file. For a special SWF file is needed, which then contain the elements of the player. One such example is the player FlowPlayer. With different skins and lots of customization options, it is very easy to integrate into a website. A similar solution is also said by the great, like YouTube or used myVideo.

Thank you so much.