Flash tutorials: Difference between revisions

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== Introduction ==
== Introduction ==


EduTech Wiki contains a few introductory [[Flash]] and ActionScript tutorials for Flash version 9 (aka Flash CS3) and some Flash CS4 or CS5. I used them in my [[Help:COAP-2110|COAP 2110]] (Fall 1 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2010) and [[STIC:STIC_III|STIC III]] (Fall 2007, fall 2008) [[:fr:STIC:STIC_IV|STIC IV]] (spring 2010, in french) courses. Some are better than others and none is top quality so far, but most can serve as lecture notes and for some self-study.
EduTech Wiki contains introductory [[Flash]] and ActionScript tutorials for Flash using Adobe CS6. I used these tutorials in my [[Help:COAP-2110|Web animation classes]] at Webster University, Geneva until 2012/13 or so. A similar virtual book exists [[:fr:Tutoriels Flash|in french]] for my classes at University of Geneva. Some chapters are better than others and none is top quality so far, but most can serve as lecture notes and for some self-study.


Most CS3 tutorials are also of interest to CS4/CS5 users. The interface did change, but since Adobe's terminology is stable, CS4 and CS5 users should have no problems learning from tutorials made for CS3. The difference between CS3 and CS4 isn't major, but there are some useful additions in CS4 like better motion tweening, [[Flash CS4 inverse kinematics tutorial|inverse kinematics]] and support for 3D animation of 2D objects. CS5 is no different from CS4 as far as the user interface is concerned, but since it now supports [[flash actions-frame tutorial|code snippets]] it is better suited for teaching Flash to beginners.
Some tutorials were made with CS3, CS4 or CS5. The interface did change, but since Adobe's terminology is stable, CS6 users should have no problems learning from tutorials made for older versions. The difference between CS3 and CS4 isn't major, but there are some useful additions in CS4 like [[Flash CS4 motion tweening tutorial|better motion tweening]], [[Flash CS4 inverse kinematics tutorial|inverse kinematics]] and support for 3D animation of 2D objects. CS5 is no different from CS4 as far as the user interface is concerned, but since it [[flash actions-frame tutorial|code snippets]] it is better suited for teaching Flash to beginners. CS6 added better support for mobile computing.


== List of Flash CS3 Tutorials ==
Since Adobe lost the fight it doesn't make much sense to teach Flash anymore, although Flash application were and still are popular in education. I personally always liked Flash as replacement for too difficult Java applets and never for HTML. In 2018, HTML5 is not there yet and I am not sure that the complex HTML5 DOM model with its many ways of doing the same thing is optimal progress.


=== Setting up Flash and understanding the environment ===
Adobe renamed the "Flash Professional" tool to "Animate CC" since it now also can generate HTML5 / Create JS code which works OK without reaching Flash quality. Since I decided to teach a little two week class for beginners about interactive animations I made a single tutorial so far:
# [[Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium installation]]
 
# [[Flash CS3 desktop tutorial]]
* [[Animate CC 2018 - Interactive animated web sites]]
# [[Flash CS4 desktop tutorial]]
 
- [[User:Daniel K. Schneider|Daniel K. Schneider]] April 2013 / April 2018
 
== List of Flash Tutorials ==
 
=== Introduction ===
 
* [[Flash]]
 
=== Understanding the environment ===
 
# [[Flash CS6 desktop tutorial]]


=== Basic drawing ===
=== Basic drawing ===
Line 19: Line 30:
# [[Flash animation overview]]
# [[Flash animation overview]]
# [[Flash frame-by-frame animation tutorial]]
# [[Flash frame-by-frame animation tutorial]]
# [[Flash classic motion tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash classic motion tweening tutorial]] (CS3, including motion guides)
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS6 motion tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash shape tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash shape tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash animation summary]]
# [[Flash animation summary]]
Line 37: Line 48:


=== Basic interactivity and use of components ===
=== Basic interactivity and use of components ===
# [[Flash button tutorial]]
# [[Flash button tutorial]]
# [[Flash button tutorial - AS2]] -- only for people who work with (old) Flash 8.
# [[Flash components overview]] (not complete)
# [[Flash components overview]] (not complete)
# [[Flash component button tutorial]]
# [[Flash component button tutorial]]
# [[Flash component button tutorial - AS2]]
# [[Flash video component tutorial]]
# [[Flash video component tutorial]]
# [[Flash datagrid component tutorial]]
# [[Flash and php interaction tutorial]] ('''not''' started yet)
# [[Flash and php interaction tutorial]] ('''not''' started yet)
# [[Flash animation and interactivity example problems]]
# [[Flash animation and interactivity example problems]]
Line 50: Line 59:
=== Medium animation ===
=== Medium animation ===


# [[Flash special effects tutorial]]
# [[Flash embedded movie clip tutorial]]
# [[Flash embedded movie clip tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS3 special effects tutorial]]
# [[Flash inverse kinematics tutorial]]
# [[Flash mask layers tutorial]]


=== Medium Interactivity ===
=== Medium Interactivity ===
(some more ActionScript)
(some more ActionScript)


# [[Flash using embedded movie clips tutorial]]
# [[Flash augmented video tutorial]]
# [[Flash video captions tutorial]]
# [[Flash drag and drop tutorial]]
# [[Flash drag and drop tutorial]]
# [[ActionScript 3 event handling tutorial]]
# [[ActionScript 3 event handling tutorial]]
# [[ActionScript 3 interactive objects tutorial]] (not finished)
# [[ActionScript 3 interactive objects tutorial]] (not finished)
# [[Flash ActionScript 3 overview]] (Not an overview of the language. So far this is missing, but there is a [[:fr:AS3 - Survol du langage ActionScript|AS3 - Survol du langage ActionScript]]
# [[ActionScript 3 reading XML tutorial]] (stub)
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial]]
# [[Flash datagrid component tutorial]]
# [[Flash games tutorial]] (not really done, maybe sometimes in 2009))
# [[Flash games tutorial]] (not really done, maybe sometimes in 2009))
# [[Flash for presentations tutorial]] (not done, stub)
# [[Flash for presentations tutorial]] (not done, stub)


=== Working with ActionScript libraries ===
=== Working with ActionScript libraries ===
# [[Flash using ActionScript libraries tutorial]] (under construction)
# [[Flash using ActionScript libraries tutorial]] (under construction)
# [[AS3 TweenLite tweening engine]] (tutorial missing)
# [[AS3 TweenLite tweening engine]] (tutorial missing)
# [[Flash Papervision3D tutorial]]
# [[Flash Papervision3D tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial]]


== List of Flash CS4 Tutorials ==
== List of deprecated tutorials ==


('''CS3/4''')
# [[Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium installation]]
# [[Flash CS3 desktop tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 desktop tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS5 desktop tutorial]] (stub)
; Drawing
# [[Flash CS3 drawing tutorial]]
; Animation
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS3 sound tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 inverse kinematics tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 inverse kinematics tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 3D tools tutorial]]
; Interactivity
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS3 button tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS3 component button tutorial]]
# [[Flash CS3 video component tutorial]]
# [[ActionScript 3 interactive objects tutorial (CS3)]]
 
'''CS4 and ActionScript 2'''
# [[Flash button tutorial - AS2]] --  Flash 8.
# [[Flash component button tutorial - AS2]]
 
== List of Flash Wiki books ==
 
Wiki books can be printed as PDF or be ordered as Print Books. Ordering a book from Pediapress may be cheaper than printing on a home printer.
 
# [[EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash very first steps]] (Simple drawing and animation)
# [[EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash first steps]] (as above + simple interactivity)
# [[EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash tutorials]] (most tutorials)


== Other Flash articles of interest ==
== Other Flash articles of interest ==
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== Other resources ==
== Other resources ==


We maintain five pages that include external resources:
See:
 
* [[Flash and AS3 links]]
* [[Flash]] - Includes links for Flash software
* [[Flash and AS3 links - general]]
* [[Flash and AS3 links - tutorials]]
* [[Flash and AS3 links - documentation]] (Flash and AS3 Books, Reference Manuals and Cheatsheets)
* [[Flash and AS3 links - toolkits]] (AS 3 Toolkits, Libraries, Flash reusable components, AS 3 reusable code, etc.)


Media (pages that include links to repositories for media elements)
Media assets (pages that include links to repositories for media elements)
* [[Clipart]]
* [[Clipart]]
* [[Texture]]
* [[Texture]]
 
* [[Sound Assets]]
 
 
 
 


[[Category:Flash tutorials]]
[[Category:Flash tutorials]]

Latest revision as of 14:50, 22 April 2018

Introduction

EduTech Wiki contains introductory Flash and ActionScript tutorials for Flash using Adobe CS6. I used these tutorials in my Web animation classes at Webster University, Geneva until 2012/13 or so. A similar virtual book exists in french for my classes at University of Geneva. Some chapters are better than others and none is top quality so far, but most can serve as lecture notes and for some self-study.

Some tutorials were made with CS3, CS4 or CS5. The interface did change, but since Adobe's terminology is stable, CS6 users should have no problems learning from tutorials made for older versions. The difference between CS3 and CS4 isn't major, but there are some useful additions in CS4 like better motion tweening, inverse kinematics and support for 3D animation of 2D objects. CS5 is no different from CS4 as far as the user interface is concerned, but since it code snippets it is better suited for teaching Flash to beginners. CS6 added better support for mobile computing.

Since Adobe lost the fight it doesn't make much sense to teach Flash anymore, although Flash application were and still are popular in education. I personally always liked Flash as replacement for too difficult Java applets and never for HTML. In 2018, HTML5 is not there yet and I am not sure that the complex HTML5 DOM model with its many ways of doing the same thing is optimal progress.

Adobe renamed the "Flash Professional" tool to "Animate CC" since it now also can generate HTML5 / Create JS code which works OK without reaching Flash quality. Since I decided to teach a little two week class for beginners about interactive animations I made a single tutorial so far:

- Daniel K. Schneider April 2013 / April 2018

List of Flash Tutorials

Introduction

Understanding the environment

  1. Flash CS6 desktop tutorial

Basic drawing

  1. Flash drawing tutorial
  2. Flash layers tutorial

Basic animation

  1. Flash animation overview
  2. Flash frame-by-frame animation tutorial
  3. Flash classic motion tweening tutorial (CS3, including motion guides)
  4. Flash CS6 motion tweening tutorial
  5. Flash shape tweening tutorial
  6. Flash animation summary

Use of external media

  1. Flash video component tutorial
  2. Flash sound tutorial
  3. Clipart and texture (to help you finding/importing media elements)

Advanced drawing

  1. Flash object transform tutorial
  2. Flash arranging objects tutorial
  3. Flash colors tutorial
  4. Flash bitmap tracing tutorial
  5. Flash pen tutorial

Basic interactivity and use of components

  1. Flash button tutorial
  2. Flash components overview (not complete)
  3. Flash component button tutorial
  4. Flash video component tutorial
  5. Flash and php interaction tutorial (not started yet)
  6. Flash animation and interactivity example problems
  7. Flash actions-frame tutorial (CS5)

Medium animation

  1. Flash embedded movie clip tutorial
  2. Flash CS3 special effects tutorial
  3. Flash inverse kinematics tutorial
  4. Flash mask layers tutorial

Medium Interactivity

(some more ActionScript)

  1. Flash using embedded movie clips tutorial
  2. Flash augmented video tutorial
  3. Flash video captions tutorial
  4. Flash drag and drop tutorial
  5. ActionScript 3 event handling tutorial
  6. ActionScript 3 interactive objects tutorial (not finished)
  7. Flash ActionScript 3 overview (Not an overview of the language. So far this is missing, but there is a AS3 - Survol du langage ActionScript
  8. ActionScript 3 reading XML tutorial (stub)
  9. Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial
  10. Flash datagrid component tutorial
  11. Flash games tutorial (not really done, maybe sometimes in 2009))
  12. Flash for presentations tutorial (not done, stub)

Working with ActionScript libraries

  1. Flash using ActionScript libraries tutorial (under construction)
  2. AS3 TweenLite tweening engine (tutorial missing)
  3. Flash Papervision3D tutorial
  4. Flash CS4 motion tweening with AS3 tutorial

List of deprecated tutorials

(CS3/4)

  1. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium installation
  2. Flash CS3 desktop tutorial
  3. Flash CS4 desktop tutorial
  4. Flash CS5 desktop tutorial (stub)
Drawing
  1. Flash CS3 drawing tutorial
Animation
  1. Flash CS4 motion tweening tutorial
  2. Flash CS3 sound tutorial
  3. Flash CS4 inverse kinematics tutorial
Interactivity
  1. Flash CS3 button tutorial
  2. Flash CS3 component button tutorial
  3. Flash CS3 video component tutorial
  4. ActionScript 3 interactive objects tutorial (CS3)

CS4 and ActionScript 2

  1. Flash button tutorial - AS2 -- Flash 8.
  2. Flash component button tutorial - AS2

List of Flash Wiki books

Wiki books can be printed as PDF or be ordered as Print Books. Ordering a book from Pediapress may be cheaper than printing on a home printer.

  1. EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash very first steps (Simple drawing and animation)
  2. EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash first steps (as above + simple interactivity)
  3. EduTech Wiki:Books/Flash tutorials (most tutorials)

Other Flash articles of interest

General
  1. Flash -- the entry page for most everything that is Flash
  2. Flash CS3 keyboard shortcuts
  3. Flash ActionScript 3 overview -- a conceptual little overview of AS3
  4. Flash formats and objects overview (not ActionScript objects !)
  5. Flash - being organized (some advice for beginning Flash CS3 designers)
  6. Flash 3D -- overview page of of Flash 3D tools and AS3 libraries
ActionScript and Flex tutorials
  1. ActionScript 3 tutorials -- a complete programming language. The entry page for "pure" AS3 tutorials
  2. Flex tutorials. Entry page for Flex tutorials.

Other resources

See:

Media assets (pages that include links to repositories for media elements)