Flash MX 2004, Introduction to

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
Our adventure with Flash begins today as we meet Flash's interface and tools. We'll save a new Flash file and modify its background color and dimensions. Before you know it, you'll be itching to start clicking and creating. So, we'll scratch that itch by importing and manipulating an image. We'll stretch and twist it, discovering why with vector graphics you can do no harm?a trait that makes them perfect for the Web.

Lesson 2
Now that you know about vector graphics, it's time to make some. In Flash there are many ways to do this and you don't have to be an artist to produce great illustrations. In fact, no matter what you ultimately plan to do with Flash, you need to master its basic illustration tools. So, we'll start this lesson by learning how to trace bitmaps and turn them into Flash friendly vector images. We'll create our own lines and curves with the Pencil and Pen tools. We'll make friends with the Line tool and turn to the Eraser tool when it lets us down. Finally, we'll explore using rulers to create precise lines and curves.

Lesson 3
Today, we'll move up from lines to shapes. We'll spend this lesson creating, selecting, editing, transforming, copying, and deleting them. You'll work with the Rectangle, Oval, Selection, Subselection, and Lasso tools. You'll also group shapes and change line styles. In the process, you'll be amazed by how your understanding of Flash begins to grow.

Lesson 4
We've drawn lines; we've made shapes; today it's time to color! Don't worry; this will be a lot more fun than it was in Kindergarten. With Flash, you don't even have to think about staying within the lines. We'll use the Paint Bucket and Ink Bottle tools to apply fill and stroke colors. With the Eyedropper tool we'll copy an existing color for reuse. And we'll explore how the Color Mixer lets you create custom colors and Linear and Radial gradients.

Lesson 5
Have you always thought that text was something you wrote? We'll think again. In this lesson, you'll discover that you can design your text. We'll change the font face, font size, and color of text. We'll create bold and italic text. We'll learn to skew, scale, and align text, and create aliased text. Then we'll adjust the space between characters and the space between adjacent lines of text, and apply margins and indentation. By the end, your words will be so good looking; no one will care what they have to say!

Lesson 6
Now you know how to make images in Flash. But how do you get them to do something? Well, the first step is master creating them in layers. Layers are like transparent pieces of paper stacked on top of each other. They allow you to edit specific images and shapes without affecting other areas of a graphic. Today, we'll create, rearrange, merge, modify, and delete layers. You'll find out how to name a layer and lock it so it can't be modified. You'll also learn to make guide layers to hold valuable information for you or other developers that you don't want to display for viewers.

Lesson 7
Timelines, frames, and keyframes?these are the elements of Flash you need to know if you're going to produce animation. In this lesson, we'll explore all of them and create both a basic text and a frame-by-frame animation. You'll also find out how to play and test a movie as you're working on it.

Lesson 8
Today, we're going to learn about tweened animation?a special kind of animation in which you only have to manually create or position shapes at the starting and ending frames. Flash automatically creates all the content in between?in other words, all the animation. This not only makes your work much easier, but it also can help keep your file sizes smaller. You're going to love it!

Lesson 9
This lesson is all about navigation buttons and movie clips. These two subjects have a couple things in common. First, they both require you to create symbols and work with Flash's library. Second, they both require ActionScript in order to do all the amazing things you want them to. What we cover today will be a springboard for tackling more advanced movie clip effects and beginning ActionScripting.

Lesson 10
Today we'll master movie clip masks. You'll discover how to combine them with motion guides to produce specific visual effects that can really spice up your work. We'll also explore Timeline effects, which are predefined animation effects included with Flash MX 2004. You'll get to practice applying, editing, and deleting them. You'll be amazed what you can do!

Lesson 11
In this lesson, you'll learn about ActionScript?the native scripting language of Flash. You can use it to achieve basic effects such as playback controls, to create complex Web applications, and to add a variety of effects and interactivity to your Flash documents. Although ActionScript is a vast subject and this lesson is only a beginning, you'll come away with a lot more power as a Flash author. This lesson also includes supplementary tutorials that walk you through the process of adding audio and video to your Flash movies.

Lesson 12
Today, in our final lesson, we'll find out how to test a movie in order to estimate download times for a variety of Internet connection speeds. Then, we'll apply a preloader animation to provide feedback to users while our main movie loads. We'll also try our hand at publishing a movie by using the Publish Settings dialog box. In the process, you'll learn how to provide an alternative document for users who don't have the required Flash player installed. And finally, we'll cover how to embed a Flash movie in an existing Web page.