Topic: Time to learn Flash

ok.. so I have decided.. I want to learn Flash...so I guess I would ask some of Flash people here...

What are the most important aspects in Flash? Like.. what should I start with? for example, when I picked up PS I learned about layers and that helped me understand and do more stuff, then I moved on to different things, and then different... What would it be in Flash?

Any tips? Suggestions? Any good "simple" books I should get? I went to the store to look for some but there were different ones, like Flash 5 and then Action Script for Flash? What the hell is the difference? Does Flash requires hard programming skills?

Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated...

:: m a x ::

Personally, I started with the tutorials found in the help menu. (Probably only comes with the legal version; dont know if you got that or not - *wink*) Then again, I'm pretty bad with the actual timeline and stuff. Personally, I jumped right into the actionscript. That was much more worth the time for me; it's what I'm used to. The timeline seems very restricting.

However, if you're not a coder, start with the timeline. It's weird, try to figure out how it works. Work with tweening. I'd say if layers are the fundamental part of PS, then the timeline is the fundamental part of Flash.

Yeah I got those tutorials, but they seem so dull

I think I am going to get a book today.. any suggestions???

:: m a x ::

Wait a week, MX is out on the 15th. It's a different application, built in stuff, dynamic this.that - the gui rawks. Get flash 6 (mx), 5 isn't worth the time/cash investment imo.

Weadz (hth)

See.. thats where I am confused...


For example.. it took me 1 minute to figure out how to work around LiveMotion. But then LIveMotion 2 is comming out and it suppose to support ActionScript...

I find it easier to work around Adobe Products than Macromedia (with exeption of Dreamweaver) All I know is that I want to learn something new, something that would help me make a site interactive, like Flash...

Everytime I surf on the net and look at those nice, clean Flash sites it just makes me so fired up about learning it.

:: m a x ::

Foundation Flash 5, best intro book you'll find. and learn Flash, don't worry about livemotion.

chris


KAIROSinteractive

like Fig said - Foundation Flash 5 after you finish that, Foundation Actionscript. if you need to learn the program fast- Flash 5 visual quickstart guide-but it doesn't have much depth.
Also if you don't want to fork out $30-$50 for a Friends of ED book there are good resources and tuts here:

www.flashkit.com

I wouldn't worry about actionscript until you get the hang of the program, wnich probably won't take that long. For the most part, its a pain in the neck version of illustrator (ok, I hate Freehand) with a timeline.

If you don't like flash's drawing tools or you simply prefer Adobe's products, you can use Illustrator 9 to design your graphics and then export them as .swfs for import into flash.

Avoid Livemotion - adobe will be giving it away in 6 months

-----
tiki



[This message has been edited by tikigod (edited 03-11-2002).]

What about a book that details how to build sites in Flash? I like tuts for photoshop cause tehy show how to achieve a result and from that I move to other uses. Just learning a tool does nothing for me as I don't know what to do with it. Make sense? So is there a tut or such that details using Flash to actually build a site? That would be a book that I would buy!

so what you want? book or tute?
and with building site you mean creatin everything in flash? no html at all?

take a look at Foundation Flash by friends of ED and its companion Foundation Actionscript.

----
tiki

ok, i have acouple of thier other books (friends of ed).

as for mix of html and flash or straight - that's my problem. I don't know what I can or can't do
with it in relation to a web page. Would actionscript give me the ability to, say, use frams that have
multiple movies in them or would that be better suited to one whole movie. See what I mean?
I've used Director before to create CD multi-media stuff so I do understand the timeline and how to use it there but flash is a different animal. Hence the confusion.

book i gots is flash5 bible its way expensive but it does have some insites to site building and interaction and even a section on animating cartoon characters as well as other progs like swift 3d illustrator ect and comes with a kool cd with alot of samples like preloaders and tuts...



[This message has been edited by mel (edited 04-25-2002).]

Zro Flash and HTML interactions are pretty easy. As for your site building questions, I or several others here could help you on a case by case basis, just post 'em. I've never used flash movies in seperate frames before(never had the need).

I came from a director background before learning flash and your right, it is different. My biggest problem came from the way actionscripting was set-up. I like to control my shockwave movies from one centralized script. Flash don't work like that, its annoying. But flash has some cool features of its own.

----
tiki

Gtocha tiki. I was thinking that it was just me not getting it for some reason. I have to adjust my thinking from director/lingo. What about using the Director 8 shockwave thing? I'm in no way interested in making cartoons or movies of that nature. Just not my thing although I do think it's tres cool. I'd just like to add some interactivity to my sites that I can't achieve with dhtml and js. Or the new MX version? Is that supposed to be more user friendly?

Flash mx is isn't much different then Flash 5. Its got some new features and its GUI is more friendly to people on single moniers(it doesn't have pallettes everywhere). As for using a shockwave to add additional interactivity on your site, I dont recommend it unless your making games. The shockwave plug-in is a larger download for users, it does not have as high a penetration, and shockwave media file size is more than twice as large. But is cool.

Learning flash isnt that hard id just stick with it for the web.

----
tiki

*coughM* *Xcough* *coughsu* *ckscough* >_>

Quick, somebody, get bmud a glass of water.

Poor bmud seems to be trying to dis MX, but maybe it's Mr. Max. I can't quite tell.....

~slaps back, starts CPR~

Speak English!

Ducati if you skipped right to the Actionscript part of learing flash, then you should have no problems. One thing I've found with flash is that efficiency with Actionscripting is the surest way for faster load times and fluid animation. I'm not so much a coder myself (I skipped right to trying to animate every detail on the timeline...including mouseover events, EVERYTHING!, and wondered why my movies were 500kB!) As soon as you learn all of the heirarchal crap that Flash uses as far as instances and their sublevels, as well as the timeline structuring, you'll be a master! It's actually very simple!

edit- nm



[This message has been edited by tikigod (edited 04-28-2002).]

I'm creating an interacitive CD for my porfolio. And I have the flash movie all laid out.
Question is :how do you convert the movie into projector.
I was following a tutorial but they apparently left this important bit out.
Anyone?

yes

You should make a projector for Mac and PC. It should be under the publish settings.


--tiki



[This message has been edited by tikigod (edited 05-02-2002).]

not sure if you know this, but you can make an autorun.ini really easily. Just copy one from any program CD, look at the format, change the file name to your projector file name and viola, it should autostart on systems with that enabled.

[edit] I've done this a bunch of times when using Director


don't you?!?

[This message has been edited by zro1zro (edited 05-02-2002).]