Flash CS3 drawing tutorial

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Definition

This is part of some Flash tutorials.

Goals:

• Introduce some features of the Flash CS3 drawing environment

Prerequisite:

• Flash CS3 desktop tutorial

Setting up the stage

Besides choosing the right settings for publication (Flash version) with which we shall not deal here, you should select the right size for your your stage, i.e. the size your flash document will take upon your screen. You can do this either when you create a new file or later.

Defining document size

Creating a new document

Flash let's you create a new document from templates: File->New. Then choose from General or Templates.

These templates may predefine several things:

• Size of the stage
• Version of Flash (based on Actionscript 1,2 or 3)
• Other things sometimes (e.g. the Photoslideshow contains photos an tools to make slidesshow).

In any case, to learn Flash's drawing feature, you don't have to worry much about which template you choose. Just make sure that you have enough space to draw. If you don't, simple modify the document (see next)

Modification of a document

With Modify->Document you can:

• Redefine the size of the stage.
• Change the background color
• Give it a title and a short description

What size ?

Size of your Flash document depends on its purpose. Since Flash documents (unlike well made HTML pages) have a fixed size, you must find a good compromise between readibility (user should be able to read and distinguish all elements) and horizional/vertical space you take up).

Larger flash documents

The default documents take up 550x400px. This makes the documen viewable without scrolling on a computer with a bad screen resultion of 800x600px. Do not forget that a screan also contains a tools bar (in most Operating systems) and that Flash is usually viewed within a web browser that also contains menu bars, a bottom bar and some pixels to the left and right.

Anyhow, most people today have bigger screen resolutions so you certainly can go bigger than that.

Banners and other embedded itmes

Just don't make banners too large ....

Configuration of the drawing environment

The Flash CS3 drawing environment