Duration 2 days

Objectives
Flash is the leading web animation and interactivity software for designers and developers alike. On this course you will learn the key elements of Flash MX, including drawing tools, the timeline, scenes and the graphic library. You will also learn how to construct basic navigation and interactivity using labels, buttons and other flash elements. Animation techniques including morphing and movement are covered in detail, plus the integration of event and streaming audio. Finally you will bring it all together and construct a web banner and a simple flash web page ready for publishing and integration within a web site.

Requirements
Good PC or Mac Skills. Experience of the Web as a user, with either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.


Course Outline

The Flash MX workspace
• The Flash MX Interface
• The Tool Bar
• The Timeline
• The Library
• Scenes

Animation Techniques
• Fames, Keyframes and Tweening
• Shape Tweens
• Library Symbols and Instances
• Motion Tweens

Working with Libraries and Symbols
• Graphic Symbols
• Button Symbols
• MovieClip Symbols
• Using Libraries
• The Movie Explorer

Simple Interactivity: Navigation
• Labelling the timeline
• Creating and Using buttons
• About actionscript and interactivity
• Adding Actionscript to the timeline
• Adding Actionscript to a Button
• Linking to Labels and a URLs

Importing Sound to your Movie
• About Sound in Flash
• Streaming and Event Sounds
• Importing and Trimming Sound
• Starting and stopping sounds

Adding Video to your Movie
• About Video in Flash MX
• Importing Video
• The Sorenson Spark Codec
• Tips for using Video in Flash MX

Low-bandwidth SWF files
• Using the Bandwidth Profiler
• Using LoadMovie to manage load times
• Using shared Libraries to reduce duplication

Publishing Movies to the Internet
• Publish settings in Flash MX
• Previewing in a browser
• Using the bandwidth profiler
• Flash MX file formats
• Optimisation techniques

Wrap-up
• Q and A
• Flash MX 2004 Resources