Starting up. . . 437 Expanded Publishing and Support for iOS and
Android Devices. . . 438 A little ruler goes a long way: Integrated Ruler
on TLF text boxes . . . 439 New AIR and Mobile Code Snippets. . . 439 Convenience Features: Auto-Save and File Recovery plus Scale Content with Stage . . . 440 PNG Sequence Export. . . 442 Bitmap Editing with Adobe Photoshop CS6. . . 442
About the Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom
Adobe® Flash® Professional CS6 is used to create and deliver interactive content. Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is the authoring environment for creating rich, interactive content and advertisements for digital, web delivery.
The Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom helps you to understand these capabilities and to get the most out of your software so that you can get up-and-running right away.
You can work through all the lessons in this book, or complete only specifi c lessons.
Each lesson includes detailed, step-by-step instructions, along with lesson fi les, useful background information, and video tutorials.
Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom is like having your own expert instructor guiding you through each lesson while you work at your own pace. This book includes 15 self-paced lessons that let you discover essential skills, explore new ones, and understand capabilities that will save you time. You’ll be productive right away with real-world exercises and simple explanations. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions, lesson fi les, and video tutorials, all of which are available on the included DVD. The Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom lessons are developed by the same team of Adobe Certifi ed Experts and Flash professionals who have created many of the offi cial training titles for Adobe Systems.
Prerequisites
Before you start the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom lessons, you should have a working knowledge of your computer and its operating system. You should know how to use the directory system of your computer so that you can navigate through folders.
You also need to understand how to locate, save, and open fi les, and you should also know how to use your mouse to access menus and commands.
Before starting the lesson fi les in the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom, make sure that you have installed Adobe Flash Professional CS6. The software is sold separately, and is not included with this book. You may use the free 30-day trial version of Adobe Flash Professional CS6 available at the adobe.com website, subject to the terms of its license agreement.
System requirements
Before starting the lessons in the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom, make sure that your computer is equipped for running Adobe Flash Professional CS6, which you must purchase separately. The minimum system requirements for your computer to eff ectively use the software are listed on the following page and you can fi nd the most current system requirements at http://www.adobe.com/products/fl ash/tech-specs.html.
• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
• Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3 or Windows 7
• 2 GB of RAM (3 GB recommended)
• 3.5 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable fl ash-based storage devices)
• 1024×768 display (1280×800 recommended)
• Java™ Runtime Environment 1.6 (included)
• DVD-ROM drive
• QuickTime 7.6.6 software required for multimedia features
• Some features in Adobe Bridge rely on a DirectX 9–capable graphics card with at least 64 MB of VRAM
• Broadband Internet connection required for online services
Mac OS
• Multicore Intel processor
• Mac OS X v10.6 or v10.7
• 2 GB of RAM (3 GB recommended)
• 4 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive fi le system or on removable fl ash-based storage devices)
• 1024×768 display (1280×800 recommended)
• Java Runtime Environment 1.6
• DVD-ROM drive
• QuickTime 7.6.6 software required for multimedia features
• Broadband Internet connection required for online services
Starting Adobe Flash Professional CS6
As with most software, Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is launched by locating the application in your Programs folder (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac OS). If you are not familiar with starting the program, follow these steps to start the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 application:
Windows
1 Choose Start > All Programs > Adobe Flash Professional CS6.
2 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe Flash Professional CS6.
Mac OS
1 Open the Applications folder, and then open the Adobe Flash CS6 folder.
2 Double-click on the Adobe Flash CS6 application icon.
3 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe Flash Professional CS6.
Menus and commands are identifi ed throughout the book by using the greater-than symbol (>).
For example, the command to print a document appears as File > Print.
Access lesson files and videos any time
Register your book at www.digitalclassroombooks.com/CS6/Flash to gain access to your lesson fi les on any computer you own or watch the videos on your Internet-connected computer, tablet, or mobile device. You’ll be able to continue your learning anywhere you have an Internet connection and a device that supports playing online video. This provides you access to lesson fi les and videos even if you misplaced your DVD.
Checking for updated lesson files
Make sure you have the most up-to-date lesson fi les and learn about any updates to your Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom book by registering your book at www.digitalclassroombooks.com/CS6/Flash.
Resetting the Flash workspace
To make certain that your panels and working environment are consistent, you should reset your workspace at the start of each lesson. To reset your workspace, choose Window > Workspace > Reset ‘Essentials.’
Loading lesson files
The Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD includes fi les that accompany the exercises for each of the lessons. You may copy the entire lessons folder from the supplied DVD to your hard drive, or copy only the lesson folders for the individual lessons you wish to complete.
For each lesson in the book, the fi les are referenced by the name of each fi le. The exact location of each fi le on your computer is not used, as you may have placed the fi les in a unique location on your hard drive. We suggest placing the lesson fi les in the My Documents folder (Windows) or at the top level of your hard drive (Mac OS), or on your desktop for easy access.
Copying the lesson files to your hard drive:
1 Insert the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD supplied with this book.
2 On your computer desktop, navigate to the DVD and locate the folder named fl lessons.
3 You can install all the fi les, or just specifi c lesson fi les. Do one of the following:
• Install all lesson fi les by dragging the fl lessons folder to your hard drive.
• Install only some of the fi les by creating a new folder on your hard drive named fl lessons. Open the fl lessons folder on the supplied DVD, select the lesson you wish to complete, and drag the folder(s) to the fl lessons folder you created on your hard drive.
Unlocking Mac OS files
Mac users may need to unlock the files after they are copied from the accompanying disc.
This applies only to Mac OS computers, and is because the Mac OS may view files that are copied from a DVD or CD as being locked for writing.
If you are a Mac OS user and have difficulty saving over the existing files in this book, you can use these instructions so that you can update the lesson files as you work on them, and also add new files to the lessons folder
Note that you only need to follow these instructions if you are unable to save over the existing lesson files, or if you are unable to save files into the lesson folder.
1 After copying the fi les to your computer, click once to select the fl lessons folder, then choose File > Get Info from within the Finder (not Flash).
Working with the video tutorials
Your Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD comes with video tutorials developed by the authors to help you understand the concepts explored in each lesson.
Each tutorial is approximately fi ve minutes long and demonstrates and explains the concepts and features covered in the lesson.
The videos are designed to supplement your understanding of the material in the chapter.
We have selected exercises and examples that we feel will be most useful to you. You may want to view the entire video for each lesson before you begin that lesson. Additionally, at certain points in a lesson, you will encounter the DVD icon. The icon, with appropriate lesson number, indicates that an overview of the exercise being described can be found in the accompanying video.
0
DVD video icon.
Setting up for viewing the video tutorials
The DVD included with this book includes video tutorials for each lesson. Although you can view the lessons on your computer directly from the DVD, we recommend copying the folder labeled videos from the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD to your hard drive.
Copying the video tutorials to your hard drive:
1 Insert the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD supplied with this book.
2 On your computer desktop, navigate to the DVD and locate the folder named videos.
3 Drag the videos folder to a location onto your hard drive.
Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player
The videos on the Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom DVD are saved in the Flash projector format. A Flash projector fi le wraps the Digital Classroom video player and the Adobe Flash Player in an executable fi le (.exe for Windows or .app for Mac OS).
Note that the extension (on both platforms) may not always be visible. Projector fi les allow the Flash content to be deployed on your system without the need for a browser or prior stand-alone player installation.
1 On your computer, navigate to the videos folder you copied to your hard drive from the DVD. Playing the videos directly from the DVD may result in poor quality playback.
2 Open the videos folder and double-click the Flash fi le named PLAY_FLCS6videos to view the video tutorials.
3 After the Flash player launches, press the Play button to view the videos.
The Flash Player has a simple user interface that allows you to control the viewing experience, including stopping, pausing, playing, and restarting the video. You can also rewind or fast-forward, and adjust the playback volume.
A B C D E F
A. Go to beginning. B. Play/Pause. C. Fast-forward/rewind. D. Stop. E. Volume Off /On. F. Volume control.
Playback volume is also aff ected by the settings in your operating system. Be certain to adjust the sound volume for your computer, in addition to the sound controls in the Player window.
Hosting Your Flash content and websites
While you can work on everything in this book using only your computer, you will eventually want to post your Flash content to the Web and create sites to share with the world. To do this, you will need to place your website fi les on a web server, which is a computer that is persistently connected to the Internet and designed to handle multiple users at once.
If you don’t want to get involved in hosting a website, there are a number of cost-effi cient, web hosting services such as GoDaddy, FatCow, and Blue Host as well large, scalable cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2. If you want to set up your own computer for hosting a web server on your own, and you are using a Windows computer, you can turn it into a web server at no cost by using the Web Platform Installer available at: www.microsoft.com/web. If you are a Mac OS user, you can get Mac OS X server
Additional resources
The Digital Classroom series goes beyond the training books. You can continue your learning online, with training videos, at seminars and conferences, and in-person training events.
Training from the Authors
The authors are available for professional development training workshops for schools and companies. They also teach classes at American Graphics Institute including training classes and online workshops. Visit agitraining.com for more information about Digital Classroom author-led training classes or workshops.
Book series
Expand your knowledge of creative software applications with the Digital Classroom training series. Books are available for most creative software applications as well as web design and development tools and technologies. Learn more at DigitalClassroom.com.
Seminars and conferences
The authors of the Digital Classroom seminar series frequently conduct in-person
seminars and speak at conferences, including the annual CRE8 Conference. Learn more at agitraining.com and CRE8summit.com.
Resources for educators
Visit digitalclassroombooks.com to request resources for educators, including instructors’
guides for incorporating Digital Classroom books into your curriculum.
What you’ll learn in this lesson:
• What is Flash and what can it do?
• Creating and saving new documents
• Getting familiar with the workspace and tools
• Try your fi rst drawing and animation exercises!
This lesson takes you through the basics you’ll need to get up-and- running with Flash Professional CS6.
Starting up
In this lesson, you will set up a new Flash document and work with several prepared fi les to explore Flash’s tools and features. If you haven’t done so already, install Flash Professional CS6 and the Adobe Media Encoder. Instructions for installation, system requirements, and information on how to use lesson fi les from the included DVD are in the Starting up section of this book.
Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your workspace. See “Resetting the Flash workspace” in the Starting up section of this book.
Before you start, be sure to register your book at www.digitalclassroombooks.com/CS6/Flash to learn about updates to any of the lesson fi les and gain access to the accompanying video tutorials on any Internet connected computer, tablet, or smartphone.
You will work with several fi les from the fl 01lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the fl lessons folder onto your hard drive from the supplied DVD. See
“Loading lesson fi les” in the Starting up section of this book.
Flash CS6 Jumpstart
See Lesson 1 in action!
Use the accompanying video to gain a better understanding of how to use some of the features shown in this lesson. You can fi nd the video tutorial for this lesson on the included DVD.
What is Flash?
You may have heard about Flash and seen it on eye-catching websites, online and social games, and banner advertisements. But did you know that you can use Flash for more than creating animated graphics? With Flash CS6 Professional, you can also manipulate video and sound, and even connect to databases to build web-based applications, such as shopping carts, or display news feeds of continuously updated information.
There are four key feature areas in Flash CS6 Professional:
Drawing environment. Flash features a complete set of drawing tools to handle intricate illustration and typography. Like its cousin, Adobe Illustrator CS6, Flash is a native vector- drawing application where you’ll create rich, detailed, and scalable digital illustrations.
Flash supports Illustrator and Photoshop fi les in their native fi le formats, .ai and .psd, making it easy to work with your favorite applications. All the content you create in Flash or these other programs can be brought to life through animation and interactivity.
Animation. Flash creates lightweight animation that incorporates images, sound, and video, and can be quickly downloaded through the Web. It has become a favorite—and essential—tool among web designers and developers who want to take their creativity to a whole new level. Flash animation is featured on websites and social networks, and is a primary tool for developing interactive, web-based advertisements. Flash’s capabilities also extend beyond the Web, with tools and options for creating applications and content for smartphones and tablets, too.
1
Flash supports traditional frame-by-frame animation as well as its own method of animation, known as tweening. With tweening, you specify an object to animate, create starting and ending frames, and Flash automatically creates the frames in between (hence tween) to create slick motion, color, and transformation eff ects. You’ll design your own Flash animations in Lesson 5, “Creating Basic Animation.”
Flash’s animation tweening easily generates animation between starting and ending frames.
Layout. The Flash stage gives you the fl exibility to create extraordinary website layouts limited only by your creativity. You can position content anywhere on the Flash Stage with fl exibility and precision, taking your layouts far beyond the “box” often associated with traditional web pages. Flash movies can also include any typefaces you choose, allowing you to use fancy typography and unusual fonts freely on your web pages, which is typically more involved and less consistent outside of Flash.
Programming. Hidden beneath the beauty of Flash Professional CS6 is the brain of ActionScript, a powerful, built-in scripting language that extends your capabilities beyond simple design and animation. With basic ActionScript, which you’ll learn about in Lesson 9, “Introducing ActionScript,” you can control movie playback or add functionality to buttons. If you venture deeper, ActionScript can turn Flash into a full-fl edged,
application-building environment to create shopping carts, music players, games, and mobile applications.
Flash can develop lightweight games for the Web and smartphones.
About Flash Player
The Flash Player is a stand-alone application found most often as a plug-in to such popular browsers as Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. The Flash Player is required to play compressed Flash movies (.swf fi les), much like a movie projector is needed to play fi lm reels.
As of this writing, the Flash Player is installed on more than 98 percent of Internet- enabled computers, so a majority of your online audience is already equipped to view your Flash creations. For users who do not have Flash Player installed, it is available as a free download from the Adobe website, adobe.com.
Flash Player 11 includes both a stand-alone application and browser plug-in, and is automatically installed with the Flash Professional CS6 application.
For environments where Flash player is not supported (such as on iPhones and iPads), you can publish Flash content as HTML and JavaScript, so it can run in nearly any device or browser.
Flash file types
You will encounter up to four types of fi les in Flash: .fl a, .xfl , .swf and .html. Each one has a very specifi c purpose in the process of creating or delivering Flash movies.
Flash work fi les are generally created and saved in the .fl a (Flash authoring) format. These are the working documents you’ll use to design, edit, and store resources such as graphics, images, sound, and video. Additionally, each .fl a document stores its own unique settings for fi nal publishing. Because they are intended for designing and editing, .fl a fi les can’t be viewed with the Flash Player or in a browser—they’re only used as the foundation to publish your fi nal movie fi les in the .swf fi le format. You can also save source fi les in the .xfl fi le format, which allows for open exchange between Flash and other authoring applications. For nearly all examples in this book, however, it’s assumed you are editing and saving to the .fl a fi le format.
“Swiff ”, or .swf, fi les are completed, compressed movie fi les exported from your original .fl a authoring fi les. These are played via the Flash Player in either a browser or your desktop. Although you can import .swf fi les into the Flash Professional CS6 application, you cannot edit them; you will need to reopen the original .fl a fi les to make changes or additions. You can now also publish your movies to a variety of other formats, including HTML (for display in browsers and devices that don’t support the Flash plug-in), AIR (for desktop applications), and popular mobile application formats for iOS and Android devices.
Now that you know what you’re going to be working with, it’s time to get your fi rst Flash document started and begin exploring the Flash Professional CS6 workspace.