Using Flash

MovieClip Timeline Control

2009-08-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

Controlling the main timeline from a movie clip should be as easy as this:

function goHome(e:MouseEvent):void {
this.gotoAndStop("one");
}

But it doesn't work. Turns out that you can't do this in AS3 because root, this, and parent refers to display objects that don't have multiple frames. You need to encase the script with the MovieClip object as follows:

function goHome(e:MouseEvent):void {
MovieClip(root).gotoAndStop("one");
}

Strange, but true.

FlashDevelop 3.0

2009-06-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

I've heard a lot of complaints from people about Flash's built-in ActionScript editor. There has been third party development going on for a while. One application that I've tried in the past was SEPY, but the Mac version was buggy and I never tried the PC version. Lee Brimelow swears by it though.

Another editor that's been in the works for a few years now and has finally yielded a full-fledged version is FlashDevelop. FlashDevelop is PC only now and I'm not sure if they're planning to develop a Mac version, but this is a pretty awesome editor. Very quick with a lot of code hinting.

Give it a spin!

AS3 Keyboard Events

2009-06-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Learn how to respond to Keyboard Events in AS3.

Flash Catalyst

2009-06-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yet another tool has been added to the Flash Platform. This time, it's for designers and it's called Flash Catalyst. Download the Beta at labs.adobe.com.

What this tool does is allow designers to work in familiar tools, Photoshop and Illustrator, and then make their designs interactive - without writing any code. Sounds like Dreamweaver for Flash. I know it's weird.

I'm just looking into it now.

Make Those SWFs Smaller

2009-04-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

I always thought that Flash compression was amazing and it is, but you can compress those SWF files further with Eltimer's Flash Optimizer. The Mac OSX utility program claims to compress SWF files to 80% of their original size. At $99, it might be worth looking into for anyone publishing dense content.

ActionScript 3.0 Migration Cookbook

2009-04-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Adobe is still trying to get Flashers to migrate to ActionScript 3.0. It's so late in the game with this, but their efforts have stepped up now with the ActionScript 3.0 Migration Cookbook. 21 PDF pages of code examples and a list of 5 misconceptions about AS3 and a list of 5 benefits of AS3.

So if you're still AS2, then you'll want to check this out.

Lynda.com has a new Flash SEO course

2009-04-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Lynda.com has a new Flash with Todd Perkins entitled: Flash CS4 Professional: Building Search Engine Friendly Sites. [Login required to view full course.] Perkins starts off with some straight HTML fundamentals and how search engines work. So for the advanced user, you might want to skip ahead.

Al Lemieux
Lemieux Design

Beginner's Guide to ActionScript 3.0

2009-04-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

At FlashDen.net, there's a new video series by Doug Winnie titled Beginner's Guide to ActionScript 3.0, which are hosted at tv.adobe.com. It's pretty amazing to me that anyone is producing video's of this, since ActionScript 3 has been around for so long now. I guess there's still a lot of ActionScript 2 development going on out there.

Enjoy.

Flash CS4 Interface

2009-04-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

I've been using Flash CS4 for a while now and I'd have to say that the biggest complaint I have is the interface. I understand Adobe's move here, but I feel very restricted by the environment, as if there isn't enough room to get my work done. There still isn't a logical place to keep the Actions Panel, Timeline, and Stage in view. Those, I feel, are the most important panels to me.

Another troubling aspect of this version is the shift in paradigm on the Tool panel. I'm so used to looking for the vertical Tool panel, that sometimes I forget where the tools are. Then actually finding the tools I need to use becomes an issue.

Granted, there are other Workspaces in the Window menu, but they don't seem to suit my needs. What are your thoughts on the new interface?

Dynamic Text Fields

2009-04-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

I had a recent issue with Dynamic Text Fields. In an interface I designed, I had a set of button symbols - just simple buttons. I didn't want to put any text labels in the buttons themselves, I wanted the text to come from an external XML file. So I set up the XML file and got the text into a Dynamic Text Field that I had in a layer above the buttons.

The problem happened when testing the movie. The buttons normal behavior was blocked by the Dynamic Text Field?!? For example, when hovering over the button, the cursor stopped being a hand cursor over the text field. Any rollover effects stopped when the cursor was over the text field. So I thought it was an issue with the text field itself, like some appearance property or something. I tried all of the settings and it didn't change anything.

After posting questions to a couple of forums, I finally got the answer. With ActionScript, you need to set the text fields mouseEnabled property to false:

textfield1.mouseEnabled = false;

That means that the text field doesn't respond to mouse events at all. Problem solved.

It seems odd to me that Dynamic Text Fields do this at all. I don't think this was a normal behavior in versions prior to CS4.

Simple XML Gallery

2009-03-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

I posted a Simple XML Gallery to FlashDen: http://www.flashden.net/item/strongsimplestrong-strongxmlstrong-gallery/34538. Cool app that is very easy to customize. There is adequate documentation for the gallery.

It features preloaders for the images being loaded and hidden next/previous buttons that appear when you hover over the right/left side of the stage.

TweenMax/TweenLite

2009-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

I took an advanced ActionScript class a few weeks ago and was introduced to TweeLite (http://www.tweenlite.com), an AS Tween Library. I was skeptical at first, but after playing with it for a while, it's got some really great features. On the site, you can preview all of the possible animations and filters. You can also do this with the SWFs that come with the download.

You'll have to import the appropriate classes to begin with. They are all located in the gs folder.

import gs.*;

Then you have access to the Tweens. Here's an example [nested in a function] of a MovieClip called mover, being transformed:

function makeGrow(e:MouseEvent):void {
TweenLite.to(mover, 2, {scaleX:6.5, scaleY:6.5, x:300, y:90, rotation: 15, alpha: 0.3, delay:1});
}

As you can see, this is pretty powerful stuff as you can couple more than one property into the function, unlike Flash's built-in Tween object. The delay property is nice to, because you can set a string of events.

If you have multiple clips you want to move, you can use something called a Tween Group. Here's an example:

function moveBoxes(e:MouseEvent):void {
TweenGroup.allTo([box1, box2, box3, box4], 1, {y:78});
}

Another thing you can do is apply filters to clips, like Drop-Shadow, Blur, etc. Here's an example:

function blurThis(e:MouseEvent):void {
TweenMax.to(cross, 1, {blurFilter:{blurX:40}});
TweenLite.to(cross, 2, {x:30, delay: 0.2});
TweenMax.to(cross, 3, {blurFilter{blurX:0}});
}

I'm still working out some things, like getting multiple objects separate tween instances and getting more filter effects to work. But the results are great and easy to implement. There have been other Tween packages in the past, but this one is pretty powerful.

Flash AS3 MP3 Player with XML

2009-01-30T12:34:00.001-08:00

I'm working on an XML-based MP3 player in AS3 and there are so many things to think about here. For example, AS3 allows you to read ID3 tags from MP3 files. But I found out with a lot of testing, that it doesn't read all ID3 tags. In my case, I gave it a bunch of different MP3 files and it didn't read anything.

Here's the code:

var url:String = "Falling Down.mp3";
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
var mp3:Sound = new Sound(request);
mp3.addEventListener(Event.ID3, id3Handler)
mp3.play();

function id3Handler(event:Event):void {
var song:Sound = Sound(event.target);
var songInfo:ID3Info = ID3Info(song.id3);
trace("ID3 loaded");
trace("\t artist: " + songInfo.artist);
trace("\t track: " + songInfo.track);
trace("\t comment: " + songInfo.comment);
trace("\t songName: " + songInfo.songName);
trace("\t album: " + songInfo.album);
trace("\t genre: " + songInfo.genre);
trace("\t year: " + songInfo.year);
textArea.text += "album" + ":\t" + song.id3.album + "\n";
textArea.text += "artist" + ":\t" + song.id3.artist + "\n";
textArea.text += "comment" + ":\t" + song.id3.comment + "\n";
textArea.text += "genre" + ":\t" + song.id3.genre + "\n";
textArea.text += "songName" + ":\t" + song.id3.songName + "\n";
textArea.text += "track" + ":\t" + song.id3.track + "\n";
textArea.text += "year" + ":\t" + song.id3.year + "\n";
textArea.text += "---------------------------------";
}

No luck with this. Anyone else have a problem with ID3? I think a more common practice is to get the info from an XML file. The problem with that is now you have to continuously update or change the XML file.

Anyhow, let me know what you think.

Flash CS4 Trial Now Available

2008-11-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

Adobe has released the trial version of Flash CS4 and other CS4 products. Get them at www.adobe.com

Nice AS3 Tweening Tutorial

2008-10-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kirupa has posted a nice tutorial on ActionScript tweening.

Motion Tweening in CS4

2008-09-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Flash CS4 has a new Motion Tween feature that's object based, instead of timeline-based. This is very much like the tweening in After Effects. Depending on where you are in the timeline and what object you have selected, you can right-click (control-click) on the timeline and choose Motion Tween. Then you can change the properties of that object in the properties panel. Move to another spot on the timeline and continue to change the properties. All of the tweening is done for you.

Against AS3

2008-07-28T05:43:00.000-07:00

Colin Moock, author of Essential ActionScript 3.0, makes excellent arguments surrounding the difficulty for typical Flashers to get used to the new adaptations in the mindset of AS3 as compared to AS2. I heartily agree with all of his arguments, especially from the standpoint of teaching Flash. It is more difficult to teach ActionScript now because of the inherent hurdle of teaching programming terms and skills. It was so easy to tell a button to gotoAndPlay something before, and now I have to explain what event listeners are and why we need to construct them, etc.

It's also impossible (well, at least I think it is) to teach ActionScript the old way - by having students chunk together portions of code from the AS library in the ActionScript panel. It's too laborious to put together any code, even with Script Assist. I now have to approach AS3 like I do with HTML - which leaves the students dependent on code examples and pre-written samples that work without error.

The comment that Adobe has abandoned it's former user base is not that far off the mark. I was completely confident in my AS2 abilities and by the time Flash CS3 came around, I was able to put together just about anything. I have to admit, that when it came to AS3, I struggled with it. Some of it looked familiar and the more I did it, the better I understood, but having to deal with a class-based system and not a timeline-based language seemed a pretty far jump to me.

Having gone through Moock's book, I thought I had a good handle on it - but it still feels very foreign to me - probably because I am not a traditional programmer. I don't know C, or C++, or even JAVA. The only language that I was truly comfortable with was AS. It's hard to say that I didn't feel alienated by Adobe when AS3 came out or that I feel behind the ball this time.

What makes things more complicated is Flex. When we had a single authoring tool, it made it easy to see what needed to be done to get something working. Now it seems like I have to make a decision about what tool to use for what situation. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. Add on top of that MXML - yet another language that you need to know for Flex.

All of this makes pure animation and video very attractive to me right now. I enjoy designing and creating things. I shouldn't have to read 500+ page manuals to have to put together an interactive environment.

Flash CS4 Sneak Peek

2008-07-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Flash Magazine has posted some pics and details on the new Flash CS4 interface and features, revealed at a conference in Sydney. The new interface features a larger properties inspector that sits on the right dock and not at the bottom anymore. The rationale? More space for more access to parameters.

Also new is the timeline, which now allows you to control object in the Z-depth. The new IK (inverse Kinematics) option looks fantastic and I can't wait to try it. In general, new 3D features will be awesome to play with in this release.

2008-07-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Adobe has joined forces with Google and Yahoo to make Flash content more searchable. Nothing will need to be done by the developer community in order to 'optimize' Flash files for search, according to Google. Text, links, and other interactive elements will now be indexed by the popular search engines.

Macromedia had made great efforts in this area with the aid of Jakob Nielsen's group, but met with skepticism by the developer community. Since acquiring Macromedia, Adobe has made a continual effort to enhance Flash and this step - probably more so than any other feature request - will bring Flash and Flex to the forefront in the development community again. Without the problem of indexing and searchability, Flash will become more useful, especially to those with a focus on SEO.

Flex Camp Boston

2007-11-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. This is a Flash blog. So you're thinking, "Why is he talking about Flex?" Well, Flex is like Flash - only there's no timeline. Want to learn more? For $10, you can get all you can at Flex Camp Boston, which is right here in Waltham, at Bentley college.

Hope to see you there.

Flash CS3 Preloader

2007-10-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

There's a new article about creating a Flash Preloader in CS3 on the Adobe Developer Center by Jamie Kosoy of Big Spaceship.

MailForm Component for Flash CS3

2007-10-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Flep Studio has developed an MXP component for flash called MailForm. The component works with a PHP file, which must be present on the server for it to work. The setup seems reasonably simple.

Flash Player Penetration

2007-09-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Flash Player 9 has reached 91.2% penetration, according to Adobe. This data comes out a year later after its release. What I'm curious about is what developers are actually doing. Are they developing AS2 files for Flash Player 9 or AS3 files?

Preloading in Flash CS3: Addendum

2007-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

OK, I don't speak Italian, but Flep does. Not only does he speak Italian, but he speaks AS3. Thanks to his post: Preloader for Beginners, I finally found a really good solution for preloading. The only thing I wish it had was a progress bar. Great stuff Flep.

Preloading in Flash CS3

2007-08-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

You'd think that something as important and standard as a preloader would be simple in the latest version of Flash. Not only is preloading pretty much undocumented - probably because there are so many ways to do it - the information both in books and on the internet is fairly sparse. So far, I've found at least four different techniques and none of them to my liking.

What's even more daunting is to find out how it's implemented - with classes. Now I've been using Flash since version 2 and I'm pretty fluent in AS 2.0, but this whole business about classes in CS3, although it's slowly sinking in, is a bit much. Instead of a few lines of code, now I need a whole separate .as file as a document class for my Flash file?!? Try teaching that to first time Flash users!

Anyhow, I thought I'd share what I found, so you could pass it along. First there's this post over at BIT-101 entitled: Preloaders in AS3. For something a little more straightforward, you can try Koen De Weggheleire's solution, which doesn't require a class, but isn't all that flexible either: Preloader in Flash CS3 - Actionscript 3.0 way. Weggheleire follows up with another tutorial on a different technique, this time with a class: More About Preloading in Flash CS3. This approach is promising and easy to tweak. Finally, there's ProgressBar Component of Flash CS3, by Flep. This technique utilizes the Progress Bar Component included in Flash CS3.

Actually, preloading has never been an exact science and everybody has different approaches to the whole thing. I just think Adobe could've implemented it better in this release.