FREE BASIC ADOBE FLASH TUTORIALS
Beginner Flash Tutorials
Flash is an incredibly powerful program but I discovered quickly that it was a difficult program to learn. Even if you are familiar with Adobe's layout and style, many attributes are unique to Flash and can be very frustrating to learn without help.
If you don't own a copy of Adobe Flash, you can download a free one-month version from Adobe's website. Click here to go to their website. It's a fully functional version which is really nice because you can jump right in and find out what the program can do.
What is Flash and what can I do with it? What is Flash anyways? What does it do? Why would I need it? This video is a very beginner's introduction to Flash. It describes how Flash relates to the web in conjunction with HTML, CSS, and other programing languages. The video also gives examples of Flash based sites as well as simple Flash components.
Flash Interface So I have the program now, where do I start? This tutorial is a simple explanation of Flash's interface. Stage, timeline, properties panel, and tools are pointed out with a short description.
Tutorials on Flash Animation
There are advantages and disadvantages to every method of web design and creation. Flash too has its advantages and disadvantages. The tutorials in this section are dedicating to teacing the first half of Flash, the graphical interface. Tutorials will include tips about how to create and animate in Flash graphically.
Right click on the links and select 'save link as' to download the video files.
Picture Rotator Slideshow This tutorial shows you how to create a picture rotating slideshow, that fades in and out using Adobe Flash. Using optimized embeded photos is not the only way, but it is a very basic and easy method to create a slideshow picture rotator.
Layer Masks Layer masks create a viewing window to the layer(s) behind it. Manipulating the mask can create certain effects or animation without editing the object or layer directly.
Motion & Shape Tweens. Motion tweens are used when an object merely changes location or minor attributes (such as transparency). The tween creates a smooth transition. Shape tweens can allow you to give the impression that an object is morphing into another.
Using motion tweens to fade objects in and out. Motion tweens can be used to create a fading in effect on objects or photos. Press F8 to turn an object into a graphic. In the properties panel under the 'color' section set one frame of the object to a desired alpha and change it in another keyframe. A motion tween will tween between the two attributes creating a fade in or out effect.
Introduction into Movie Clips Movie clips offer the ability to nest timelines within timelines. It also is an important part of creating interactive flash elements later with actionscript and important to know about. Select any object and press F8 to turn an item into a movie clip. Double clicking on and outside the item will open anc close the movie clip's timeline.
Importing photos and photoshop documents. There are a few ways to bring pictures into a Flash file. This tutorial shows one simple way to do that. You can work with the photos in many ways, which will be discuss in later tutorials. Importing a .psd directly into Flash can be very useful because it maintains the layers in CS3, making it easy to animate or apply action script later to the layer.
Flash Actionscript Tutorials
The second half of the powerful capabilities of Adobe Flash is actionscript. Actionscript experience is very sought after and can also be very difficult to learn. You can incorporate a whole new level of interactivity,flexibility, dynamic ability into your site or Flash components. There are many things you can do with graphics and actionscript combined. Theses tutorials should give you some ideas on how to get started.
Start/Stop Button for Animation This Tutorial shows you how to make your own start/stop button for an animated sequence.
Start and Stop Drag Add interactivity to your Flash files with this basic tutorial on start/stopDrag functions in actionscript 2.0. This function allows the user to manually move objects with their mouse clicks.
Rotating This is a tutorial that shows you an easy way to make an object rotate with actionscript.
Loading Sound This basic tutorial shows how to import sound into a Flash file with and without actionscript.
Mouse RollOver & RollOut This is a basic Flash tutorial showing you how to make an event occur when you scroll the mouse on and off an object using actionscript 2.0.
ActScript 2.0 Stop & restart animation .swf files loop by default, if the timeline is more than one frame. With simple actionscript you can control and navigate a frame-by-frame animated sequence.
Progress Bar Preloader Viewing and loading files on the web often takes time, especially multimedia. Progress bar preloaders are important to show the viewer that content is coming. This tutorial is the first of two tutorials that will show you how to create and code a preloader. It will show you how to make a graphical and numerical representation of download progress of the file.
Progress Bar Preloader Actionscript Preloaders indicate the rate at which a file is being downloaded or displayed. This tutorial shows the actionscript 2.0 method to create such a progress bar. Go to the Flash Files section to download the actual .fla file. Make sure to check out the other tutorial on progress bars to help create the correct components.
Publishing Flash
So you have some things built in Flash, what do you do with it now? There are a lot of ways to publish your material. The traditional method is to create a .swf file by pressing apple+enter or ctrl+enter, then import that .swf file into an html webpage.
There are more ways to publish and use Flash elements. I will soon put up tutorials describing more ways and ideas to use and get your stuff out there.
Links
There are a lot of great free rescources out there available if you want to learn more about Flash. I've gathered some of my favorite Flash tutorial websites.
gotoandlearn.com In my opinion this is one of the best free Flash tutorial sites I've seen. Good for medium to advanced skill levels
knowflash.com This is one I found through looking up tutorials on youTube. It's a great site for free tutorials as well.
Flash and Math Tutorials on Actionscript 3.0
Swftools.com More Tutorials on Flash
w3Schools.com Not Flash but pretty much THE place to start to learn HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, and pretty much everything internet.
FlashScope.com A site created as a market place for Flash content. Useful for Flash developers looking to sell their product and for people who are looking to purchase Flash pieces.
Have a good link? Want your site here? Send me an email.