The Flash Anthology: Cool Effects & Practical ActionScript - Chapter 1: Flash Essentials

Life without Flash would be uninteresting and mundane. Flash sites are to static HTML sites what a family-size, deep-crust pizza with all the toppings is to a piece of toast. Many of today's big-impact sites are either full-blown Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) or a prudent blend of HTML and Flash. This careful melding of technologies, coupled with seamless integration, means the difference between an online experience that's striking, and one that's utterly forgettable.

Sites that use Flash as the sole medium for conveying their message, and sites that use several mini-Flash applications to punctuate static HTML, have a common underlying theme: they all harness the power of Flash to create lightweight vector- (or coordinate-) based interfaces, applications, and animations. Flash has become a powerful tool for the communication of ideas, its capabilities having inspired a large and passionate following of dedicated users.

This series starts by explaining the essential knowledge any designer or developer will need to know in order to use the package, then moves on to explore in detail the areas of animation and sound. It comprises 3 articles:

Chapter 1: Flash Essentials
If you're new to Flash, this chapter will give you a solid grounding in the program's interface, as well as a fundamental understanding of the ActionScript dot notation. Tips and techniques for working with ActionScript and the timeline are also included. Finally, I'll walk you through a few organizational guidelines. This chapter begins below.

Chapter 3: Animation Effects
The question of whether to use timeline-based or scripted animation is one every Flash developer asks at some point. We'll explore the principles behind these effects and attempt to put the timeline vs. script debate to rest once and for all. The basic building blocks provided in this chapter will have you creating stylish animations in no time!

Chapter 5: Sound Effects
One of the most underemployed, yet effective additions to a project is sound. Appropriate sound effects can enhance the impact of movement, provide feedback to users interaction, and build atmosphere. In this chapter, we analyze when sound should be used, how to choose the right sound clip for the job, and how clips can be imported and exported easily. We explore volume and panning, then build a mini sound player, random track sequencer, and much more.

The Book

These 3 chapters are excerpts from my new book, The Flash Anthology: Cool Effects & Practical ActionScript. The book contains a total of over 60 ActionScipt solutions to common problems in Flash. Every solution you'll ever need for your Flash projects, from text and video effects, to debugging and using external data in your applications, is covered in this 455-page reference. All the code included in the book is available in a free downloadable archive.

If you'd prefer to read the Adobe Acrobat PDF version of this information, you can download these 3 chapters FREE.

Your Feedback

If you have a question about any of the information covered in this series, your best chance of a quick response is to post your query in the SitePoint Forums. Suggestions for improvement as well as notices of any mistakes you may find (one or two may have slipped through the cracks) are especially welcome -- submit these to SitePoint Book Support.

Now that's out of the way, let's get our hands dirty as we learn the essentials of Flash!