Flash 101 - Part 2: Lights, Camera, Flash!

Post-Production

So that's your basic animation. It ain't too impressive - but don't worry, we'll fix that as we move along and you learn new animation techniques. Now let's quickly run through the process of what happens once your Flash movie is complete and you want to embed it in your Web page.

Once you've finished working on the movie, you need to export it as an SWF file. You can do this through the File->Export Movie dialog.

For the moment, leave everything as it is - the default settings are fine for most cases - and hit OK. Flash will save your movie as a .SWF file, ready to be embedded into your Web page.

Now, insert the following lines of code into your HTML page:

<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"    
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/    
swflash.ca    
b#version=5,0,0,0"    
WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=300>    
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="x2.swf">    
<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>    
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>    
<EMBED src="x2.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=300    
TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"    
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cg    
i?P1_Prod_    
Version=ShockwaveFlash"></EMBED>    
</OBJECT>

Alternatively, you can have Flash perform the above process for you automagically - select the File->Publish menu command, and Flash will create an HTML template containing the code you need.

The Publish menu command lets you do a lot more than just create HTML templates - you should play with it to see the various options you have available to you.

Triangulation

And finally, a quick illustration of how you can create and use symbols. Open up a new Flash movie, and use the line tool to create a triangle. Fill it with a colour.

Now select it and use the Insert->Convert To Symbol command to convert your triangle to a symbol (or tap the F8 key). You'll be asked to enter a name and behaviour for your symbol; since this symbol will be used as a static object, select "Graphic" as the behaviour, and name it "triangle". You should now be able to see your symbol in the Library - you can check this by tapping Ctrl-L.

Now, with the Library window active, drag your symbol from the Library and drop it into your work area. Do this until your work area looks something like this:

Copyright Melonfire, 2000. All rights reserved.