BASIC ANIMATION

USING ADOBE FLASH

DIGITAL MEDIA WORKSHOP
Adobe Flash is a multimedia software platform
used for production of animations, rich web
applications, desktop applications, mobile apps,
mobile games, and embedded web browser video
players. Flash displays text, vector graphics, and
raster graphics to provide animations, video
games, and applications.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
1. Start Flash. Flash opens, displaying the Welcome screen
2. From the Workspace menu near the upper-right corner
of the Flash window, choose Essentials.
3. In the Panels dock, click the Properties tab and drag it
to a new location on the screen. Panels can float, or they
can dock to one of the edges of the window.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Menu Bar. Like most computer programs, Flash gives you menus
to interact with your documents.
• The Stage. As the name implies, the stage is usually the center of
attention. It’s your virtual canvas. Here’s where you draw the
pictures, display text, and make objects move across the screen,
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• The Timeline. The timeline is the tool used to specify what’s
seen or heard at a particular moment. Flash animations (or movies)
are organized into chunks of time called frames.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Toolbars
1. Main. The Main toolbar gives you one-click basic operations, like
opening an existing Flash file, creating a new file, and cutting and
pasting sections of your drawing.
2. Controller. If you’ve ever used a DVD player or an iPod, you’ll
recognize the Stop, Rewind, and Play buttons on the Controller toolbar,
which lets you control how you want Flash to run your finished
animation.
3. Edit Bar. Using the options here, you can change your view of
the stage, zooming in and out, as well as edit scenes (named groups of
frames) and symbols (reusable drawings).
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Tool Panels
1. Selection and Drawing tools. At the top of the Tools panel are
the tools you need to create and modify a Flash drawing.
2. View Tool. At times, you’ll find yourself drawing a picture so
enormous you can’t see it all on the stage at one time.
3. Color Tools. You can use these tools to choose a color from the
Color palette before you click one of the drawing icons to begin
drawing.
4. Option Tool. Which icons appear in the Options section at any
given time depends on which tool you’ve selected.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Properties Panel. In many ways, the Properties panel is
Command Central as you work with your animation, because it
gathers all the pertinent details for the objects you work with and
displays them in one place.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Library Panel. The Library panel (Figure 1-11) is a place to store
objects you want to use more than once.
A TOUR OF THE FLASH WORKSPACE
• Play an Animation. Naturally, after you’ve animated an object
in Flash, you want to see the results. You’ll be checking your work
frequently, so Adobe makes it easy to play an animation.