How Differant Is Flash Cs6 And Animate

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Chapter 1. Getting Effectually Flash

Every bit mentioned in this volume's introduction, Flash performs several feats of audio-visual magic. You use it to create animations, to display video on a website, to create handheld apps, or to build a complete spider web-based application. Then it's not surprising that the Flash workspace is crammed full of tools, panels, and windows (Effigy 1-1). Merely don't exist intimidated—you don't take to conquer these tools all at once. This chapter introduces you to Flash's main piece of work areas and often-used toolbars and panels, then you tin start creating Flash projects right abroad. Y'all'll experiment with Flash's stage and timeline, and see how Wink lets you breathing graphics and so that they movement forth a path and modify shape.

Tip

To get further acquainted with Flash, you tin bank check out the built-in help screens by selecting Help→Flash Help. In one case the aid panel opens, click Using Flash Professional. It's on the left side of the somewhat decorated window. You can read more than about Flash'due south help organization in Appendix A.

Starting Flash

You beginning Wink just as you would any other program—which ways you tin practise it in a few different ways, depending on whether you have a PC or a Mac. Installing the program puts Flash CS6 and its related files in the folder with your other programs, and you tin get-go information technology by double-clicking its icon. Here's where it's usually installed:

• Windows . Go to C:\Plan Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS6\Flash.exe . You lot tin create a shortcut or drag the file to the taskbar for quicker starting.

• Mac . Go to Macintosh HD\Applications\Adobe Flash CS6\Adobe Flash CS6 . Yous can make an allonym or drag the file to the Dock for quicker starting.

Figure one-1. The Flash Professional person workspace is divided into three master areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. This entire window, together with the timeline, toolbars, and panels, is sometimes called the Wink desktop, the Flash interface, or the Flash authoring environment.

Here are some other Windows ways to starting time the program:

• From the Vista or Windows seven Starting time carte du jour, choose All Programs→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• For Windows XP, become to Start→All Programs→Adobe→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• If you're a keyboard enthusiast, press the Windows primal and brainstorm to type flash . As you type, Windows searches for a lucifer and displays a list with programs at the top. Well-nigh likely, the Flash program is at the meridian of the list and already selected, so just press Enter. Otherwise, use your mouse or arrow keys to select and start the programme.

Here are some Mac launching options:

• Even if you haven't added the Flash icon to the Dock, you can still find it in the Dock's Applications folder. Click and hold the Applications folder icon and choose Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• Want to hunt down Flash in the Finder? Near of the time, it's installed in Macintosh HD→Applications→Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• If you'd rather type than hunt, employ Spotlight. Printing ⌘-space and and so begin to type flash . As you blazon, Spotlight displays a list of programs and files that match. About likely, the Flash program is at the top of the list and already selected, so just press Return. Otherwise, use the mouse or arrow keys to select and start the program.

When you first outset Flash, up pops the Welcome screen, shown in Effigy i-ii. This screen puts all your options—like starting a new document or returning to a piece of work in progress—in one handy place. For adept mensurate, Adobe includes some links to help references and resources on its website.

Figure 1-ii. This Welcome screen appears the outset time you launch Flash—and every subsequent time, too, unless yous turn on the "Don't prove again" checkbox (pull downwards the bottom of the window if you don't see it). If you lot e'er miss the convenience of seeing all your recent Wink documents, congenital-in templates, and other options in one place, and so you can plow information technology back on by choosing Edit→Preferences (Windows) or Flash→Preferences (Mac). On the Full general panel, choose Welcome Screen from the On Launch pop-up carte.

Annotation

If Flash seems to take forever to open—or if the Wink desktop ignores your mouse clicks or responds sluggishly—you lot may not have enough memory installed on your computer. See Wink CS6 Minimum Arrangement Requirements for more advice.

When you choose ane of the options, the Welcome screen disappears and your document takes its place. Here are your choices:

• Create from Template . Clicking i of the trivial icons under this option lets you create a Wink document using a predesigned course called a template . A template helps you create an animation more rapidly, since a Flash developer has already done part of the work for you. You can find out more than nearly templates in Chapter 7.

• Open up a Recent Item . As you create new documents, Flash adds them to this list. Clicking i of the filenames listed here tells Flash to open that file. Clicking the binder icon lets you lot scan for and open up whatsoever other Flash file on your estimator.

  Tip

  The options for creating new Flash documents and opening contempo documents also announced on the File menu, as shown in Effigy 1-3.

  

  Figure ane-3. Several of the options on each carte du jour include keystroke shortcuts that let you perform an activeness without having to mouse all the way upwardly to the menu. For example, instead of selecting File→Save Equally, you can press Ctrl+Shift+South to tell Flash to save your Flash document. On the Mac, the keystroke is Shift-⌘-S.

• Create New . Clicking one of the options listed hither lets y'all create a make-new Flash file. About of the fourth dimension, you want to choose the first option, ActionScript iii.0, which is a garden-variety animation file. ActionScript is the underlying programming language for Flash animations. The current version of ActionScript is 3.0, and it's the version used for the projects in this book. Yous can utilise the ActionScript 2.0 pick if you need to work with a Wink project that was created several years ago. For details on the file formats for different Flash projects, run into the box beneath.

  Notation

  Old programming pros—you know who you lot are—may accept reasons to prefer ActionScript 2.0. For example, y'all might cull this selection if you're continuing work on a project created using ActionScript 2.0, or if you're working with a team using ActionScript 2.0.

• Extend . Clicking the Flash Exchange link nether this choice tells Flash to open your web browser and load the Flash Exchange website. There, yous tin download Flash components, sound files, and other goodies that you tin add together to your Flash animations. Some are free, some are fee-based, and all of them are created by Flashionados simply similar you.

• Learn . As you might estimate, these links lead to materials Adobe designed to assistance y'all get up and running. Click an pick, and your web browser opens to a page on the Adobe website. The kickoff few topics introduce basic Flash concepts like symbols, instances, and timelines. Further down the list, you find specific topics for edifice applications for mobile devices or websites (AIR). At the lesser of the Welcome screen, "Getting Started" covers the very, very basics. "New Features" explains (and celebrates) some of Flash CS6'due south new bells and whistles. "Developers" leads to an online magazine with articles and videos with an ActionScript programming slant. "Designers" leads to a like resources for the Flash graphics and design customs.

A Tour of the Wink Workspace

The best mode to master the Flash CS6 Professional workspace is to divide and conquer. First, focus on the three main work areas: the phase, the timeline, and the Panels dock. Then you can gradually learn how to utilise all the tools in those areas.

One big source of defoliation for Wink newbies is that the workspace is so like shooting fish in a barrel to customize. You tin open bunches of panels, windows, and toolbars. You can motility the timeline above the stage, or yous can have it floating in a window all its own. One time you're a seasoned Flash veteran, y'all'll have strong opinions nearly how you want to fix your workspace so the tools yous use most are at hand. If you lot're just learning Flash with the assist of this book, though, it's probably best if you set up your workspace so that it matches the pictures in these pages.

Fortunately, there's an easy fashion to do that. Adobe, in its wisdom, created the Workspace Switcher—a tool that lets yous rearrange the entire workspace with the click of a bill of fare. The thinking is that an ideal workspace for a cartoon animator is different from the ideal workspace for, say, a rich internet application (RIA) developer. The Workspace Switcher is a bill of fare in the upper-correct corner of the Flash window, next to the search box. The menu displays the proper name of the currently selected workspace; when you get-go starting time Flash, information technology probably says Essentials . That's a neat workspace that displays some of the almost frequently used tools. In fact, it'due south the workspace used throughout most of this book.

Here's a quick little practice that shows you how to switch among the different workspaces and how to reset a workspace afterwards you've mangled information technology by dragging panels out of place and opening new windows.

1. Kickoff Flash .

   Flash opens, displaying the Welcome screen. Unless y'all've made changes, the Essentials workspace is used. Run across Effigy one-iv, superlative.

2. From the Workspace bill of fare virtually the upper-right corner of the Flash window, choose Classic .

   The Classic system harkens back to earlier versions of Flash, when the timeline resided higher up the stage (Effigy 1-4, bottom). If you wish, go ahead and bank check out some of the other layouts.

3. Choose the Essentials workspace again .

   Back where you lot began, the Essentials workspace shows the timeline at the bottom. The stage takes up most of the principal window. On the right, the Panels dock holds toolbars and panels. At present's the fourth dimension to cause a little havoc.

   

   Figure 1-4. Top: The Essentials workspace is the one used throughout this book. Lesser: The Archetype workspace shows the timeline to a higher place the phase, a look familiar to Wink Pro veterans.

4. In the Panels dock, click the Properties tab and drag it to a new location on the screen .

   Panels tin can float, or they can dock to one of the edges of the window. For this experiment, it doesn't affair what y'all cull to practise.

5. Drag the Color and Swatches toolbars to new locations .

   The Color toolbar has an icon that looks like an creative person'southward palette at the top. Similar the larger panels, toolbars tin can either dock or bladder. You can drag them anywhere on your monitor, and yous can aggrandize and collapse them by clicking the double-triangle button in their pinnacle-correct corners.

6. Get to Window→Other Panels→History .

   Flash has dozens of windows. Only a few are available now, considering you haven't even created a certificate even so.

   Tip

   As you work on a project, the History panel keeps track of all your commands, operations, and changes. It's a great tool for undoing mistakes. For more details, come across Other Flash Panels.

7. From the Workspace menu, choose Reset Essentials .

   The workspace changes back to the original Essentials layout, even though y'all did your best to mess it up.

Anytime yous want your workspace to match the one used throughout about of this book, exercise the "Essentials two-pace": Choose Essentials from the Workspace Switcher (if you're not already at that place), and and then cull Reset Essentials. As shown in Figure ane-4, when you use the Essentials workspace, the Wink window is divvied up into three main work areas: the phase (upper left), the timeline (lower left), and the panels dock (correct). Before exploring each of these areas in detail, here are a few words almost Wink'south carte bar.

Menu Bar

Similar most computer programs, Flash gives y'all menus to collaborate with your documents. In traditional fashion, Windows menus announced at the top of the program window, while Mac menus are always at the very top of the screen. The commands on these menus list every way you tin can collaborate with your Flash file, from creating a new file—equally shown on Starting Flash—to editing it, saving it, and controlling how it appears on your screen.

Some of the bill of fare names—File, Edit, View, Window, and Assist—are familiar to anyone who's used a PC or a Mac. Using these menu choices, yous can perform bones tasks like opening, saving, and printing your Wink files; cutting and pasting artwork or text; viewing your project in different ways; choosing which toolbars to view; getting help; and more.

To view a menu, simply click the menu'due south name to open up information technology, and and so click a menu option. If you prefer, yous can also elevate down to the selection you want. Permit go of the mouse push button to activate the option. Figure 1-iii shows you what the File menu looks similar. Well-nigh of the time, you see the same menus at the acme of the screen, but occasionally they change. For example, when yous use the Debugger to troubleshoot ActionScript programs, Flash hides some of the menus not related to debugging.

Tip

You'll learn about specific commands and menu options in their related capacity. For a quick reference to all the menu options, come across Appendix B.

The Stage

Every bit the name implies, the stage is usually the eye of attention. It'southward your virtual canvas. Here'southward where y'all draw the pictures, display text, and make objects motion across the screen. The stage is also your playback arena; when you run a completed blitheness—to see if it needs tweaking—the animation appears on the phase. Effigy 1-v shows a project with an animation nether construction.

Figure ane-5. The phase is where y'all draw the pictures that will eventually go your animation. The work area (low-cal gray) gives you a handy place to put graphic elements while you figure out how you lot want to arrange them on the stage. Here a text box is being dragged from the work area dorsum to centre phase.

The piece of work expanse is the technical name for the gray area surrounding the stage, although many Flashionados call information technology the backstage . This work area serves as a prep zone where you tin place graphic elements before you move them to the stage, and equally a temporary holding pen for elements y'all want to motion off the stage briefly equally you reposition things. For example, allow's say you lot draw three circles and ane box containing text on your stage. If you make up one's mind y'all need to rearrange these elements, you can temporarily drag one of the circles off the stage.

Note

The stage e'er starts out with a white groundwork, which becomes the background colour for your blitheness. Irresolute it to any colour imaginable is easy, equally yous'll acquire in the adjacent chapter.

Yous'll nigh always change the starting size and shape of the stage depending on where people will see your finished animation—in other words, your target platform . If your target platform is a smartphone, for example, yous're going to want a smaller stage. If, on the other hand, you're creating an blitheness for a ballpark's JumboTron, you're going to desire a giant phase. You'll get to try your hand at modifying the size and background colour of the stage later in this chapter.

The Timeline

When you go to the theater, the stage changes over fourth dimension—actors come and get, songs are sung, scenery changes, and the lights shine and fade. In Flash, you're the manager, and you get to control what appears on the phase at whatsoever given moment. The timeline is the tool used to specify what'south seen or heard at a particular moment. The concept is pretty simple, and if you lot've ever used video editing software, it will be familiar. Wink animations (or movies) are organized into chunks of time chosen frames . Each lilliputian box in the timeline represents a frame or a betoken in fourth dimension. You employ the playhead , shown in Figure 1-6, to select a specific frame. And so when the playhead is positioned at Frame x, the stage shows what the audience sees at that signal in time.

Figure one-6. The playhead is a red box that appears in the timeline; here the playhead is set to Frame 10. You tin drag the playhead to any point in the timeline to select a unmarried frame. The Flash stage shows exactly what's in your animation at that betoken in time.

The timeline is laid out from left to right, starting with Frame 1. Only put, you build Flash animations by choosing a frame with the playhead and so arranging the objects on the stage the mode you lot want them. The timeline uses a special tool called a keyframe (run across Figure one-6) to remember exactly what'southward on stage at that moment. Y'all'll learn more most the keyframes and other timeline tools in Chapter 3. Virtually unproblematic animations play from Frame 1 through to the end of the pic, but Flash gives you ways to start and stop the animation and control how fast it runs—that is, how many frames per second (fps) are displayed. Using some ActionScript magic, you lot tin control the guild in which the frames are displayed. You'll acquire how to exercise that on Organizing Your Blitheness.

Tip

The first time you lot run Flash, the timeline appears automatically, but occasionally you want to hide the timeline—perchance to reduce screen ataxia while y'all concentrate on your artwork. You tin testify and hide the timeline by selecting Window→Timeline or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T (or for the Mac, Option-⌘-T).

Panels and Toolbars

If yous followed the little exercise on A Bout of the Flash Workspace, y'all know you can put panels and toolbars near anywhere onscreen. However, if y'all use the Essentials workspace, you lot start off with a few oftentimes used panels and toolbars docked neatly on the right side of the program window.

It's easy to get confused by the Flash classification. Flash has toolbars, panels, palettes, and windows. Sometimes collapsed panels look like toolbars and open upwardly when clicked—similar the frequently used Tools panel. Toolbars and panels pack the nigh commonly used options together in a nice compact space, then you don't accept to do a chase-and-peck through the main carte every time you want to do something. Panels are great, only they have up precious real estate. Every bit you piece of work, you can hibernate sure tools to get a better view of your artwork. (You can e'er get them back by choosing their names from the Window menu.)

Toolbars and panels are such an integral part of working with Wink that it'south helpful to acquire some of their tricks early:

• Move a panel . Just click and drag the tab or top of the panel to a new location. Panels can bladder anywhere on your monitor, or dock on an edge of the Flash program window (as in the Essentials workspace). For more details on docking and floating, see the box on Docked vs. Floating.

• Expand or collapse a panel . Click the double-triangle push at the acme of a panel to expand or collapse information technology. Collapsed panels look like toolbars, showing a few icons that hint at the tools' purposes. Expanded panels take up more than real manor, but they besides give you more details and oftentimes have word labels for the tools and settings.

• Show or hide a panel . Utilise the Window carte du jour to show and hide individual panels. Checkmarks appear adjacent to the panels that are shown.

• Shut a floating panel . In Windows, click the pocket-size 10 in the console's upper-correct corner. On the Mac, click the X in the upper-left corner.

• Testify or hide all panels . The F4 key works similar a toggle, hiding or showing all the panels and toolbars. Utilize information technology when yous want to quickly reduce screen clutter and focus on your artwork.

• Split or combine tabbed panels . Click and drag the name on a tab to separate information technology from a group of tabbed panels. To add a tab to a group, just drag it into place.

• Reset the panel workspace . Cull Reset <workspace name> from the Workspace Switcher. Instead of <workspace name>, you lot see the name of the electric current workspace—something like Essentials or Archetype . Y'all tin likewise do a reset using the menus; cull Window→Workspace→Reset <workspace name>.

Figure i-seven. Top: To conserve space on Flash'due south jam-packed desktop, only ane toolbar—the Edit bar—appears automatically. It's positioned direct higher up the stage. To brandish the other 2, select Window→Toolbars→Main (to display the Chief toolbar, Windows simply) and Window→Toolbars→Controller (to brandish the Controller window). Lesser: The checkmarks on the card show when a toolbar is turned on. Cull the toolbar'due south name once again to remove the checkmark and hide the toolbar.

Note

When y'all reposition a floating toolbar, Flash remembers where you put it. If, after, you hide the toolbar—or exit Flash and run it again—your toolbars appear exactly equally you left them. If this isn't what you want, utilize the Workspace Switcher to choose a new workspace layout or to reset the current workspace.

Toolbars

Strictly speaking, Flash has only three toolbars: Main, Controller, and Edit. (Everything else is a panel, even if it looks suspiciously like a toolbar.) Figure one-7 shows all iii toolbars.

• Primary (Windows only) . The Chief toolbar gives you one-click basic operations, similar opening an existing Wink file, creating a new file, and cut and pasting sections of your drawing.

• Controller . If y'all've ever used a DVD player or an iPod, y'all'll recognize the Cease, Rewind, and Play buttons on the Controller toolbar, which lets you control how you want Flash to run your finished blitheness. (Non surprisingly, the Controller options appear grayed out —meaning you can't select them—if yous haven't yet constructed an blitheness.) With Flash Professional CS6, the Controller is a picayune obsolete, because now the aforementioned buttons appear below the timeline.

• Edit bar . Using the options hither, you tin can change your view of the phase, zooming in and out, as well as edit scenes (named groups of frames ) and symbols (reusable drawings).

Note

The Edit bar is a little different from the other toolbars in that information technology remains fixed to the stage. Y'all can't reposition it.

Tools Panel

The Tools console is unique. For designers, information technology'southward probably the most used of all the panels and toolbars. In the Essentials workspace, the Tools panel appears along the correct side of the Wink plan window. In that location are no text labels, just a serial of icons. However, if you need a hint, simply concord your mouse over i of the tools, and a tooltip shows the name of the tool. So, for example, mouse over the arrow at the top of the Tools panel, and the tooltip says "Selection tool (V)." The letter in parentheses is the shortcut key for that tool. Press the letter Five while you're working in Flash, and your cursor changes to the Option tool.

Almost animations start with a single drawing. And to draw something in Flash, y'all need drawing tools: pens, pencils, brushes, colors, erasers, then on. The Tools panel shown in Figure ane-8 is where you find Flash'southward cartoon tools. Chapter 2 shows y'all how to use these tools to create a uncomplicated cartoon; this department gives y'all a quick overview of the six sections of the Tools console, each of which focuses on a slightly different kind of cartoon tool or optional characteristic.

Selection and Drawing Tools

At the top of the Tools panel are the tools you need to create and alter a Wink drawing. For example, you might utilise the Pen tool to commencement a sketch, the Paint Bucket or Ink Bottle to use color, and the Eraser to clean upwards mistakes.

Effigy i-8. The Tools panel groups tools past dissimilar cartoon chores. Selection and Transform tools are at the summit, followed past Drawing tools. Next are the IK Bones tool and the Color tools. The View tools are for zooming and panning. The Color tools include two swatches, one for strokes and one for fills. At the bottom you notice the Options buttons, which modify depending on the drawing tool you've selected. If you like, y'all tin elevate the docked Tools panel abroad from the border of the workspace and plough it into a floating console.

View Tools

At times, you lot'll detect yourself drawing a flick so enormous y'all can't run into it all on the stage at once. Or perhaps yous'll notice yourself cartoon something yous desire to take a super-close look at so you can modify it pixel by pixel. In either of these situations, you can use the tools Flash displays in the View section of the Tools panel to zoom in, zoom out, and pan around the stage. (Y'all'll get to endeavour your mitt at using these tools later in this chapter; meet The Flash CS6 Test Drive.)

Note

The term pixel is short for "picture element." Images on a figurer screen are made up of lots of tiny dots emitting unlike colors. Each dot is a pixel.

Colour Tools

When you're creating in Flash, yous're drawing one of two things: a stroke , which is a plain line or outline, or a fill , which is the surface area inside an outline. Yous tin can use these tools to choose a color from the Color palette before you click 1 of the drawing icons to begin drawing (or afterward to alter the colors, every bit discussed in Affiliate 2). Wink applies that colour to the stage every bit you lot draw.

Options Tools

Which icons announced in the Options department at any given time depends on which tool you've selected. For example, when y'all select the Zoom tool from the View section of the Tools panel, the Options section displays an Enlarge icon and a Reduce icon that yous tin employ to change the way the Zoom tool works (Figure ane-9).

Figure 1-9. On the Tools panel, when you lot click each tool, the Options section shows you buttons that let you modify that detail tool. In the Tools panel's View section, for instance, when you click the Zoom tool, the Options section changes to show you just zooming options: Enlarge (with the + sign) and Reduce (with the – sign).

Properties Panel

In many ways, the Backdrop panel is Command Fundamental as you work with your animation, because it gathers all the pertinent details for the objects you work with and displays them in one place. Select an object, and the Properties panel displays all of its backdrop and settings. Information technology's not just an information provider; y'all also apply the Backdrop panel to change settings and tweak the elements in your animation. When there'south fine-tuning to be done, select an object and adjust the settings in the Properties panel. (Yous can learn more than in the "Test Bulldoze" department on The Wink CS6 Test Bulldoze.)

The Properties panel usually appears when you open a new certificate. Initially, it shows information about your Wink certificate, like the stage dimensions and the animation's frame rate. Whenever you select an individual object in your blitheness, the Properties panel shows that object'southward details. For example, if you lot select a text field, the Properties panel lists the typeface, font size, and text color. You also run into information on the paragraph settings, like the margins and line spacing. Considering the Properties panel crams so many details into one place, you'll discover yourself using the collapse and expand buttons to show and hibernate some of the information in its subpanels, as shown in Figure one-10.

Figure 1-10. The Properties console shows but those properties associated with the object you've selected on the stage. Here, because a text field is selected, the Backdrop panel gives you options you can use to change the typeface, font size, font color, and paragraph settings. Click the triangular expand and collapse buttons to show and hibernate details in the Properties panel.

Note

If y'all don't encounter the Properties console, you can display it by selecting Window→Properties or by pressing Ctrl+F3 (⌘-F3 on a Mac).

Properties Subpanels

On the Properties panel, you run across unlike subpanels depending on the object you lot've selected. Some objects have a lot of settings, and subpanels are Flash's way of giving y'all access to all of them. Fortunately, the various panels and tools work consistently. For case, many objects have settings that make up one's mind their onscreen positions and define their width and acme dimensions. These common settings usually announced at the top of the Properties console, and yous set them the same mode for most kinds of objects. If you want to change colors or add special effects like filters or blends, you'll find that the tools work the same way throughout Flash.

Library Console

The Library panel (Effigy 1-11) is a place to store objects y'all desire to use more than once. Permit's say, for example, that you create a pic-perfect bubble, lord's day, or snowflake in one frame of your blitheness. (You'll learn more than virtually frames on Frame-by-Frame Blitheness.) At present, if you desire that bubble, dominicus, or snowflake to appear in fifteen additional frames, y'all could draw it over again and again, just it actually makes more sense to store a re-create in the current projection library and then just drag information technology to where it'south needed on those other 15 frames. This trick saves fourth dimension and ensures consistency to boot. The Library panel has quite a few other important tricks, and y'all'll learn more about it on Symbols and Instances. To show the Library panel, click Window→Library, or printing Ctrl+L (Windows) or ⌘-L (Mac).

Tip

In the upper-right corner of most panels is an Options menu button. When y'all click this button, a menu of options appears—unlike options for each console. For instance, the Color Swatch panel lets y'all add and delete color swatches. Y'all'll find many indispensable tools and commands on the Options menus, and then it's worth checking them out. Yous'll acquire about different options throughout this book.

Figure 1-11. Storing elementary images as reusable symbols in the Library panel does more than just save y'all time: It saves you file size, besides. (Y'all'll learn a lot more near symbols and file size in Chapter 7.) Using the Library panel you see here, you tin preview symbols, add together them to the phase, and hands add symbols you created in one Wink document to some other.

Other Flash Panels

As you can see from the examples on the preceding pages, each Flash panel performs specific functions, and almost of them deserve several pages to depict them fully, as you lot'll find throughout this volume. For now, Table 1-1 gives a thumbnail description and notes the page where the panel is described in detail. If y'all're eager to go started actually using Flash, jump to The Flash CS6 Exam Drive to beginning the Flash CS6 Test Drive.

Table 1-1. Wink Panels and their uses (in social club as they appear on the Window menu)

PANEL Name	KEYBOARD SHORTCUT	PURPOSE
Timeline	Windows: Ctrl+Alt+K Mac: Option-⌘-T	Technically, the timeline is just another console. You can move, hibernate, expand, and collapse the timeline just equally you would any other panel. See Frame-past-Frame Animation for more.
Motion Editor	none	A powerful tool used to create and control animation effects. See A Tour of the Motion Editor for more.
Tools	Windows: Ctrl+F2 Mac: ⌘-F2	Perhaps the about frequently used panel of all—it holds drawing, selecting, and coloring tools. The Tools console also includes specialized tools like the IK Bones tools and the 3D Rotation tool. See Using Merge Mode and Object Mode Together for more.
Backdrop	Windows: Ctrl+F3 Mac: ⌘-F3	Everything that appears on the phase has properties that define its appearance or characteristics. Even the stage has properties, similar width, height, and background color. You tin review and edit an object'south backdrop in the Properties panel. See Colour Tools for more.
Library	Windows: Ctrl+L Mac: ⌘-Fifty	Holds graphics, symbols, and unabridged movies that you want to reuse. See Symbols and Instances for more than.
Mutual Libraries	none	When you lot desire to share buttons, classes, or sounds among several unlike Flash documents, utilise the common libraries. That way, they'll be available to all your projects. See the tip on Tip for more.
Move Presets	none	Serves up dozens of predesigned animations. See Applying Movement Presets for more.
Actions	Windows: F9 Mac: Option-F9	You utilize this panel to write ActionScript code. The Actions panel provides a window for code, a reference tool for the programming language, and a visual brandish for the object-oriented nature of the lawmaking. Run across Writing ActionScript Lawmaking in the Timeline for more than.
Code Snippets	none	Contains predesigned chunks of lawmaking—someone else sweated the details so you don't have to. Specific bits of code perform timeline tricks, load or unload graphics, handle audiovisual tasks, and program buttons. Run into the box on Create an Event Handler in a Snap for more.
Behaviors	Windows: Shift+F3 Mac: Shift-F3	The earlier version of ActionScript (version ii.0) uses this console to provide predesigned $.25 of code.
Compiler Errors	Windows: Alt-F2 Mac: Selection-F2	Here'southward where y'all troubleshoot ActionScript code. Messages explain the location of an mistake and provide hints equally to what went incorrect. Meet Setting and Working with Breakpoints for more than.
Debug Panels	none	Additional panels to help y'all detect errors in your ActionScript programs. See Analyzing Lawmaking with the Debugger for more.
Moving-picture show Explorer	Windows: Alt+F3 Mac: Pick-F3	Helps you examine the elements in your Flash blitheness, including separate scenes if you've created them. The brandish uses a tree construction to show the relationship of the elements.
Output	Windows: F2 Mac: F2	Some other place to debug ActionScript programs. The Output panel is used to brandish text messages at certain points as a program runs. See Using the Output Panel and trace() Statement for more.
Align	Windows: Ctrl+K Mac: ⌘-K	Lets yous align and arrange graphic elements on the phase. See Aligning Objects with the Align Tools for more.
Color	Windows: Shift+F9 Mac: Shift-⌘-F9	Lets you lot select and utilize colors to graphic elements. Come across Advanced Color and Fills for more.
Info	Windows: Ctrl+I Mac: ⌘-I	Provides details virtually objects, like their location and dimensions. The Info panel too keeps runway of the cursor location and the color immediately under the cursor. Come across Making It Move with Movement Tweens for more.
Swatches	Windows: Ctrl+F9 Mac: ⌘-F9	Colors and gradients that you lot tin employ to graphic elements. You tin create your own swatches for colors you want to reuse. Run across Specifying Colors for ActionScript for more.
Transform	Windows: Ctrl+T Mac: ⌘-T	Lets y'all change the size, shape, and position of graphic elements on the stage. You can even utilize the Transform panel to reposition or rotate objects in three-D space. See Transforming Objects for more than.
Components	Windows: Ctrl+F7 Mac: ⌘-F7	Holds predesigned components yous can use in your Wink projects. You'll detect user interface components similar buttons and checkboxes, components that can be used to create data tables, and components used to command movie and sound players. Encounter Reversing Frames in the Timeline for more.
Component Inspector	Windows: Shift+F7 Mac: Shift-F7	Provides compatibility with older animations. (Wink CS6 displays component properties in the Properties panel. Earlier versions of Flash used the Component Inspector. See the box on Learning the Parameters for more.)
Accessibility (under Other Panels)	Windows: Alt+Shift+F11 Mac: Shift-⌘-F11	Tools that aid you ensure that vision- and hearing-impaired folks tin savor the animations you create using Flash. See the box on Why Accessibility Matters.
History (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F10 Mac: ⌘-F10	Lets you backtrack or undo specific steps in your work. Flash keeps track of every little affair you lot do to a file, starting with the time y'all created it (or the last time you opened it). You can as well use this console to save a series of commands you want to reuse later.
Scene (under Other Panels)	Windows: Shift+F2 Mac: Shift-F2	Helps you lot organize and manage your scenes. (You tin break long Flash animations into separate scenes, as described on Working with Scenes.)
Strings (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F11 Mac: ⌘-F11	Need to create an animation or awarding that works in different languages? Using the Strings panel, y'all tin can create and manage multi-language versions of the text. (This volume doesn't cover multi-language Wink.)
Web Services (nether Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+Shift+F10 Mac: Shift-⌘-F10	Used but with ActionScript 2.0 projects that connect to the Internet. (This book doesn't encompass ActionScript ii.0.)

The Wink CS6 Exam Drive

For the tutorials in this section, you need a Flash blitheness to practise on. In that location'due south one ready and waiting for you on the Missing CD page at world wide web.missingmanuals.com/cds/flashcs6mm. The file is named 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

Note

In case you lot're wondering, the number 01 at the beginning stands for Chapter 1, and the -1 indicates information technology's the first practice in the chapter. Other Missing CD files for this book are named the aforementioned mode. You can download all the practise files in a single ZIP file or you can grab them affiliate past affiliate. The Missing CD also includes links to all the web-based resources mentioned in this book.

Open a Flash File

Get the file 01-1_First_Animation.fla and salve it on your calculator. You may desire to create a FlashMM binder in your My Documents or Documents folder to hold your Missing Manual exercises. Launch Flash, then cull File→Open. When the Open dialog box appears, navigate to the file you lot just downloaded, and then click Open. When you lot open up a document, the Welcome screen disappears. Flash shows you the animation on the stage, surrounded past the usual timeline, toolbars, and panels. If yous're using the Essentials workspace, it should wait like Figure 1-12.

Figure ane-12. After y'all open the exercise in Flash, your screen should look like this. At the bottom, the timeline shows ii layers—1 named background and the other, cycle. The stage shows (surprise, surprise) a groundwork and a wheel. To the right, the Backdrop panel displays the properties for the document.

Explore the Properties Panel

The Properties panel appears docked to the right side of the stage when you lot open up a new document. As shown in Figure 1-13, it shows the Holding settings for objects. Initially, it shows the backdrop for the Flash certificate itself. Click some other object, such every bit the wheel, and yous see its properties. Why are properties so of import? They give you an extremely accurate description of objects. If you need to precisely define a color or the dimensions of an object, the Properties panel is the tool to use. Information technology not only reports the details, simply it too gives you the tools to make changes, as shown in this little do:

1. At the superlative of the Tools panel, click the Selection tool (solid pointer) .

   Equally an alternative, press V, the keyboard shortcut for the Selection tool.

2. Click the white part of the phase .

   The Backdrop panel shows the properties for your Flash document. At the summit, you see the word "Document," and underneath, you see the filename.

   

   Figure 1-xiii. Left: When you outset open a document, the Properties panel shows holding settings for the document. Right: Select the wheel in the document, and you see its properties. Click the triangle buttons to expand and collapse the subpanels.

3. Click the triangle button to open the Backdrop subpanel .

   The push button works similar a toggle to open and close the subpanel. The subpanel displays three settings: FPS (frames per second), Size, and Phase.

4. Click the white rectangle next to Stage .

   A panel opens with colour swatches.

5. Click a color swatch—any colour will do .

   The background color of the stage changes to the color you lot chose.

6. Click the bike .

   Data about the wheel fills the Properties console. The bike is a special type of object chosen a Moving picture Clip symbol . You'll learn much more near Movie Clips and other reusable symbols in Chapter 7.

Note

You may notice that you can't select anything else in this document. That's because the other objects are in the background layer, which is locked. (For more details on locking layers, encounter Locking and Unlocking Layers.)

Resize the Stage

In Wink, the size of your stage is the bodily finished size of your animation, and then setting its exact dimensions is one of the first things you lot do when you create an blitheness, as you'll run into in the adjacent affiliate. Just you can resize the phase at any time.

Hither'due south how to change the size of your stage:

1. With the Selection tool, click on a bare area of the phase (to brand sure nothing on the stage is selected) .

   Alternatively, yous can click the Selection tool then choose Edit→Deselect All.

2. In the Properties panel, open the Backdrop subpanel, then click the Edit button .

   The Document Settings window appears, every bit shown in Figure i-14. At the superlative of the window are boxes labeled Dimensions. That'south where you're going to work your magic.

   

   Figure one-xiv. The Certificate Settings dialog box puts several related settings in i place. At the top are the certificate's dimensions. In the lower-left corner are settings for the phase's background colour and the frame rate. Click "Ruler units" to cull among Inches, Points, Centimeters, Millimeters, and Pixels.

3. Click in the width box (which currently reads "550 px"), and and then type 600 .

   You tin can change both the width and the height. The changes won't take place until you click OK. So if you have 2d thoughts and don't want to brand any changes, then just click Cancel.

   Tip

   If y'all want to change the stage back to its original dimensions after you've clicked OK, yous tin do that past choosing Edit→Undo or pressing Ctrl+Z (⌘-Z on a Mac). Undo works similar information technology does in nearly programs, undoing your last action, and you can press it multiple times to work your manner dorsum through your recent actions.

4. Click OK when you're washed .

   The stage resizes according to your instructions.

Zoom In and Out

When your Flash project gets big or complicated, you may want to focus on but a portion of the stage. If you've used other graphics programs—from Windows Paint to iPhoto or Photoshop—there's non much mystery to the process. In the Tools console, click the Zoom tool, which looks like a magnifying glass (Figure one-15). Initially, the Zoom tool shows a + sign, meaning it's all fix to zoom in. Click any spot y'all want to zoom in on, and you get a closer view. As an culling, y'all can click and drag over an area to zoom in with more precision. Every bit you drag, a rectangle appears to mark the area of interest.

Figure 1-15. Cull the Zoom tool and so click the phase to zoom in on your Flash document. Hold the Alt (Option) central down to zoom out. Once you're zoomed in, yous can move around using either the scrollbars or the Hand tool (H).

Using the Zoom tool, you tin can get so close that you see private pixels in your artwork. Very handy for some operations. In one case you lot're zoomed in, yous tin use the scroll bars at the right and bottom of the stage to reposition the stage in the viewing area. Even easier, choose the Hand tool (H) and then click and drag the phase inside the viewing area.

Want to zoom out? Concur downwards the Alt (Option) central equally you use the Zoom tool. Each time you click, yous meet more and more of the stage. Directly higher up the stage is the Edit bar. (If y'all don't see it, select Window→Toolbars→Edit Bar.) A card on the Edit bar sets the Magnification or Zoom belongings as a percentage, as shown in Figure 1-16.

Figure ane-16. The Magnification carte in the Edit bar gives you a quick readout on the Zoom factor. Click the carte to choose from several presets, including "Fit in Window," which shows the entire stage, or Prove All, which zooms in or out to evidence all the objects drawn on the stage.

Make It Move

If you've followed forth in the exercises upward to this point, y'all deserve a gustation of the Flash magic to come up. Enough studying panels and tools—Flash is an blitheness programme. Information technology's time to make something movement, or more precisely, to make something bounce. With the aid of a little feature called Motion Presets, it'south easier than y'all retrieve:

1. In the Magnification card, cull "Fit in Window."

   This gives y'all a view of the entire phase.

2. With the Pick tool (V), drag the bike to the top of the stage .

   All the parts of the bike (tire, spokes, hub) move as a single unit because they're grouped within a Flash symbol, chosen a Motion picture Clip.

3. Cull Window→Motion Presets .

   A floating panel appears, as shown in Figure 1-17. Motion Presets are covered in detail on Applying Motion Presets, but for this do, y'all just need a couple of basic steps.

4. Click the triangle next to Default Presets .

   The Default Presets folder opens, showing many predesigned motions.

5. Click the words "bounce-smoosh."

   At the top of the panel, the preview window gives y'all an thought of how the bounce-smoosh preset works.

6. Make sure the wheel is selected on the stage and that "bounce-smoosh" is selected in the Movement Presets panel, and and then click the Utilize push .

   A green line appears hanging from the bottom of the cycle. This line is called the move path , and it shows y'all how the wheel will motility over the course of the animation. In the timeline, the wheel layer turns to blue to indicate that information technology's now a movement tween .

   Note

   Tween is an animation term that comes from all those in-betwixt frames that animators have to draw to create a smooth blithe motion.

   

   Figure i-17. The Move Presets window has 2 folders. The one called Default Presets (shown open hither) holds presets designed by Adobe. The other folder holds presets that you blueprint and salvage. The "tail" hanging downwards from the bike is the motion path.

7. Close the Motion Presets panel .

   That's all it takes to animate the cycle, so you lot might as well close the Motion Presets window. Yous can always bring it back afterward if you desire to try out some of the other presets on the wheel.

Play an Animation

Naturally, after yous've blithe an object in Flash, you want to see the results. Yous'll be checking your work frequently, then Adobe makes it easy to play an animation. Just press Enter (Return), and your blitheness bounces and smooshes every bit advertised. In the timeline, detect how the playhead moves along frame by frame as your animation plays. Y'all can see your animation at all the unlike stages by dragging the playhead upward and downwards the timeline—a process sometimes called scrubbing .

New in Flash CS6, the animation controller is fixed to the bottom of the timeline (Figure ane-18). That'south the perfect identify because information technology's ever available.

Figure 1-18. If y'all've e'er used a DVD actor or an iPod, the blitheness play icons at the lesser of the timeline look comfortingly familiar. You tin move one frame at a time or jump to the beginning or end of an animation.

Save a File

Saving your work oftentimes is of import in any program, and Flash is no exception. You don't want to take to get back and recreate that perfect animated sequence because the power went out. The infinitesimal you finish a sizable chunk of work, save your Flash file by pressing Ctrl+South (⌘-Southward). The Salve command as well appears on the menu bar: File→Save. Both maneuvers relieve the blitheness with the electric current name. So, if after following the exercises in this chapter, you use the Save command, you stop upward with a single Flash document using the original filename: 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

If you desire to save the file under a different name, utilise Salvage As or Ctrl+Shift+S (Shift-⌘-South). A standard window opens where you lot can choose a binder and give your document a name. When you use Save Every bit, yous end up with two documents, the original and one saved with the new name. The newly named certificate is the one that remains open in the Flash workspace.

If you lot shut a document (File→Close) after you've fabricated changes, Flash automatically asks if yous want to salve information technology. You're given three options. Choose Save to save your work and close the document. Choose Don't Save to shut the document without saving your piece of work. Choose Abolish if you don't desire to save and don't want to close the document.

Note

Flash Professional CS6 provides a new life-saving characteristic for files. When you create a new document you tin can turn on Auto-Salvage. This feature saves your document periodically fifty-fifty if you forget. You fifty-fifty get to choose the menses. Initially, the Auto-Save period is set to every ten minutes. To change that, click the number and blazon a new value.

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