This outstanding guide teaches users of every level how to master this animation and multimedia tool.
You start off with a tour of Flash and its toolset and then import files from (and export to) Macromedia FreeHand, Extreme 3D, Fontographer, Director, and Authorware. Next you learn how to use Flash's vector-based drawing tools to create artwork and modify imported images. Then you enliven your work by creating and transforming overlays and symbols. In creating animations, you work with frames, key frames, onion skinning, and frame-by-frame and tweening techniques.
Plant teaches you how to add complexity and interactivity to your movie by working with layers, scenes, and frame and button actions. He explores the ways in which you can have your Flash movie interact with its Web page and have multiple actions happen with the click of a button. You also learn how to add sounds to buttons and work with streaming audio. In the chapter on delivering movies, you use the Shockwave Flash Export dialog box, learn about compression, create stand-alone projectors, and use Size Reports and the Bandwidth Profiler. Finally, you integrate Flash movies into your site and take a look at sample Flash sites that have been particularly popular.
In the appendices, you learn the basics of configuring a Web server for serving Shockwave Flash movies, handle broken plug-in icons, and work with Aftershock. You also tackle transmission-speed issues, Object and Embed tag references, and JavaScript and VBScript. The guide includes a list of keyboard shortcuts, and the CD-ROM includes practice files and trial versions of Flash and other Macromedia products. --Kathleen Caster
Product Description
Flash is Macromedia's new tool for people who want to put a little multimedia on their Web sites without buying and mastering a professional tool like Macromedia Director. With the affordable Flash program (and this book), even novices can lend impact to their sites with animated logos, banners, buttons, cartoons, and illustrations.
Flash 3! CreativeWeb Animation is a complete introduction to Flash from one of Macromedia's own training experts, Darrel Plant. It shows even the newest beginner how to make streaming animations, rollover buttons, animated logos, and other moving graphics that load and play instantly. The book covers Flash's drawing tools, animation controls, file format support, and its easy-to-use versions of multimedia features like tweening, and "onion-skinning." After readers master these tools, they learn how to make the most of the unique vector drawing tools that allow Flash to generate very compact, screamingly fast-loading files that are scalable to different resolutions. Finally, readers learn the rules for using animation effectively: how to make it useful for the viewer; how to plan Flash integration into a Web site; and how to make animated Web content easy to maintain.
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