Flash using ActionScript libraries tutorial

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Draft

This entry is part of the Flash tutorials.

Introduction

Learning goals

• Learn how to use ActionScript libraries

Prerequisites

• Basic interactivity, i.e. some ActionScript 3 coding experience. See for example the Flash button tutorial or the Flash components tutorial, and the Flash drag and drop tutorial.
• Alternatively or in addition you also start from "pure" Actionscript 3 coding.

Environment

• Flash CS3

Moving on

• See the Flash tutorials.

Level and target population

• Beginners (but see the prerequisites)

Quality

• ...

To Do

• Everything

There exist several free high quality ActionScript libraries available and that can be used by Flash designers that only possess very little programming skills.

Typical examples of such libraries are:

• Flash 3D libaraires that allow a CS3 developer to create animated and interactive 3D scenes.
• Special purpose animation libraries like the FLiNT particle system that allows you to create stuff like fireworks and snowflakes.
• Tweening libraries like TweenLite that allow you to define sophisticated animations with a few method calls (instead of spending hours of drawing).

Snowflakes

You might want snowflakes. Creating a nice snowing animation with drawings is almost impossible and programming them yourself is really difficult (unless you are a "real" programmer). You now have two options:

• Finding some special purpose snowflakes code on the web (there is, e.g. Creating Falling Snowflakes in Flash Using ActionScript ).
• Using a more general purpose library, something we will do here.