Adobe® Flash®Professional CS6Digital Classroom

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Adobe® Flash®Professional CS6Digital Classroom

Fred Gerantabee and the AGI Creative Team

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Adobe® Flash® Professional CS6 Digital ClassroomPublished byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.10475 Crosspoint Blvd.Indianapolis, IN 46256

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, IndianaPublished simultaneously in CanadaISBN: 978-1-118-12408-6Manufactured in the United States of America10987654321

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Depart-ment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6088, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifi cally disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organiza-tion or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

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Trademarks: Wiley and the John Wiley & Sons logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affi liates in the United States and/or other countries, and may not be used without written perm ission. The AGI logo is a trademark of American Graphics Institute, LLC in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trade-marks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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About the AuthorsFred Gerantabee is an award winning interactive designer, web developer and author based in New York City. He is a subject matter expert in Flash and ActionScript, standards-based web development and various scripting languages and platforms. Fred has worked with the AGI team for several years as a contributor to the Digital Classroom series, training events and currently leads the technology initia-tives at Grey Worldwide in NYC. Fred is the author of several books in the Digital Classroom series on Flash and Dreamweaver, and co-author with AGI instructors Jennifer Smith and Christopher Smith of the Creative Suite 6 Design Premium for Dummies, also published by Wiley.

Greg Heald has 20 years of design and production experience in both Web and print environments. He has served as a contributing author or editor on a number of books on Dreamweaver, Flash, InDesign, and Acrobat. Greg has contributed to the development of Adobe’s certifi cation exams, and as Training Manager for American Graphics Institute, he oversees the delivery of professional develop-ment training programs for individuals and organizations. Greg holds a degree in Advertising Design from the acclaimed College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University.

Jeremy Osborn is the Content Director at American Graphics Institute. He has more than 15 years of experience in web and graphic design, fi lmmaking, writing, and publication development for both print and digital media. He has contributed to several of the Digital Classroom book series. Jeremy holds a MS in Management from the Marlboro College Graduate Center and a BFA in Film/TV from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

The AGI Creative Team is composed of Adobe Certifi ed Experts and experienced instructors from American Graphics Institute (AGI). The AGI Creative Team has authored more than 25 Digital Classroom books, and previously created many of Adobe’s offi cial training guides. They work with many of the world’s most prominent companies, helping them use creative software to communicate more eff ec-tively and creatively. They work with design, creative, and marketing teams around the world, deliver-ing private customized training programs, and teach regularly scheduled classes at AGI’s locations. The Digital Classroom authors are available for professional development sessions at companies, schools and universities. More information at agitraining.com.

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AcknowledgmentsThanks to our many friends at Adobe Systems, Inc. who made this book possible and assisted with questions and feedback during the writing process. To the many clients of AGI who have helped us better understand how they use Flash and provided us with many of the tips and suggestions found in this book. A special thanks to the instructional team at AGI for their input and assistance in the review process and for making this book such a team eff ort.

Thanks to the following photographers for the use of their images: Lesson 12: Shayna Zaid & The Catch photo by Jamie Santamour; Leslie Graves photo by Calvin Williams; Christopher Heinz photo by Calvin Williams; Shayna Zaid photo by William Kates; Oscar Rodriguez/Nakatomi Plaza photo by Dave Sanders; Emek Rave photo by Holly Danger..

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Credits

Additional WritingGreg Heald, Jeremy Osborn

President, American Graphics Institute and Digital Classroom Series PublisherChristopher Smith

Executive EditorJody Lefevere

Technical EditorsSean McKnight, Haziel Olivera

EditorKarla E. Melendez

Editorial DirectorRobyn Siesky

Business ManagerAmy Knies

Senior Marketing ManagerSandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group PublisherRichard Swadley

Vice President and Executive PublisherBarry Pruett

Senior Project CoordinatorKatherine Crocker

Project ManagerCheri White

Graphics and Production SpecialistJason Miranda, Spoke & Wheel

Media Development Project SupervisorChris Leavey

ProofreadingJay Donahue, Barn Owl Publishing

IndexingMichael Ferreira

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xiContents

Starting up

About Flash Digital Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Starting Adobe Flash Professional CS6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Resetting the Flash workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Loading lesson files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Working with the video tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Setting up for viewing the video tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Hosting Your Flash content and websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Lesson 1: Flash CS6 Jumpstart

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

What is Flash? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

About Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Flash file types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Creating a new document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Setting up your new document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Saving your Flash document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Opening documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

The Flash workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

The Stage and work area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

The Flash Tools panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

The Property Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Panels and panel groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

The Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Practicing with the Flash tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

The drawing and selection tools in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Using gradient and color tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Animation in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Contents

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Support forums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Moving forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Lesson 2: Getting Started with the Drawing Tools

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Drawing in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Using the Merge Drawing mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Creating artwork in Merged Drawing mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Working with Drawing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Putting it all together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Using the Line tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Using the Pen tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Using the Add and Delete Anchor Point tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Using the Combine Objects menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Using the Primitive tools (Smart Shapes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Using the Oval Primitive tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

The Rectangle Primitive tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Adding text to your artwork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Flash Text: TLF & Classic Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Working with Threaded and Multi-Column Text . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Adding filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Working with colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Getting set up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Creating gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Using opacity with gradient colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Creating custom colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Saving a custom color set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Organizing and layering graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Working with layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Arranging, locking, and hiding layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Creating layer folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

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xiiiContents

Contents

Transforming graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

The Transform menu and Free Transform tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

The Transform panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Transforming gradients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Lesson 3: Using Symbols and the Library

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

What are symbols?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

A look at the Library panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Creating symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Converting a graphic to a symbol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Creating blank symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Building artwork with symbol instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Positioning and snapping in symbol instances . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Editing and duplicating symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Editing symbols in place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Modifying individual symbol instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Modifying instance color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Fine-tuning your background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Duplicating symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Adding graphics and text to your banner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Swapping symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Managing the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Organizing symbols with folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

The Move To command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Deleting items from the library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Controlling library views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Wrapping up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

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Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroomxiv

Lesson 4: Advanced Tools

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Working with gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Adjusting gradients with the Gradient Transform tool . . 135

Flash CS6 tools for advanced drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Spraying symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Introducing the Deco tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Advanced Deco tool techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

The Deco Tool’s new options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Introduction to IK tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Lesson 5: Creating Basic Animation

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Introducing keyframes and the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Frames and keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Building animation: Enter the tween . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Tween layers and automatic keyframing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Tweening multiple objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Previewing animation with Test Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Moving and transforming tween paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Incorporating color effects and scaling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Introducing the Motion Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Modifying the animation using the Motion Editor . . . . . . . 166

Tweening rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Controlling animation paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Where did Motion Guide layers go? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

What happens to my existing Flash files that use Motion Guide layers?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

How do I create a motion guide if I still want to? . . . . . . . . . 174

Morphing graphics and colors with shape tweens . . . . . . . 174

Shape tween basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Legacy techniques: Creating classic tweens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

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Classic tween rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Adding color effects and scaling to a classic tween . . . . . . 181

(Re)creating motion guides for classic tweens . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Troubleshooting Motion Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Adjusting animation with onion skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Looking ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Lesson 6: Advanced Animation

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Copying, pasting, and saving animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Using Copy and Paste Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Creating Motion Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Applying Advanced Easing Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Animating Masks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Creating Animation with IK Poses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Sequencing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Shifting, Moving, and Extending Tween Spans . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Rendering and Animating in 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

The 3D Rotation tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

The 3D Translation tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Fine-Tuning tweens with the Motion Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Adding shape tweens and shape hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Creating Shape Hints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Lesson 7: Customizing Your Workflow

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Customizing workspace layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Opening the completed file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Working with panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Collapsing and storing panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Managing workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Setting preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

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Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Visual aids for alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Rulers and guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Guide layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Advanced alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Refining your aligned objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Lesson 8: Working with Imported Files

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Import formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Importing still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Viewing the completed lesson file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Import a bitmap image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Adding text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Swapping out an imported file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Modifying imported artwork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Updating imported files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Importing Photoshop files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Importing a layered Photoshop file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Importing Illustrator artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Animating the bat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Lesson 9: Introducing ActionScript

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Exploring the lesson file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

What is ActionScript? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Which version of ActionScript should you use? . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Where Do I Place ActionScript? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

The Code Snippets Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

An important note about Publish settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

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The Actions panel at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Standard (default) script editing mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Using Script Assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Adding and removing actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Adding actions to frames with the Code Snippets Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Adding a stop() action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Placing a goto action using the Actions Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Controlling Movie Clip Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Wrapping up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Lesson 10: Creating Navigation Controls

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Working with button symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Building buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Adding text to a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Duplicating and modifying buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Creating text-based buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Creating frame labels for ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Adding ActionScript: Events and event handlers . . . . . . . . . 315

Understanding events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Responding to events with event handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Tying it all together with event listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Linking buttons to specific frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Adding an event listener to a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Linking buttons to a website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Introducing navigateToURL() and URLRequest(). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

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Lesson 11: Adding Sound to Your Movies

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Preparing sound files for Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Sample rate and bit depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Editing your audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Mono or stereo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Audio file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Importing sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Placing sounds on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Adding sound to your slide show project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Adding the remaining narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Adding sound effects to buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Placing Event sounds on button frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Editing sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Trimming sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Controlling sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Repeating and looping sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Looping sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Introducing the SoundMixer and stopAll() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

More sync menu controls: stop and start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Start sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Stop sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Sound publishing options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Wrapping up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Lesson 12: Introducing Movie Clips

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

About movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Creating movie clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Laying the foundation: Your first movie clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Previewing movie clip animation from the main Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Creating the landing gear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

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Combining movie clips and main Timeline animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Nesting movie clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Adding ActionScript to movie clip Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Controlling movie clip playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Adding some variation to the propellers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Tweening movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Adding a second tween . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Combining movie clips for complex animation . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Adding filter effects to movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Using the Filters panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Creating a filter effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Wrapping up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Lesson 13: Working with Video

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Video in Flash: formats and fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Understanding video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Embedded versus linked video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Flash Video formats: FLV and F4V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Understanding codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Understanding Adobe Media Encoder CS6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Converting video with the Adobe Media Encoder . . . . . . . . 392

Working with embedded video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Adding embedded video to the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Building controls for embedded video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

The Bandwidth Profiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Working with linked video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Adding cue points in the Adobe Media Encoder . . . . . . . . . . 402

Adding linked video to the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Live Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Adding Cue Points in the Property Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Working with the FLVPlayback component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

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Lesson 14: Delivering Your Final Movie

Starting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

The publishing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Publishing to the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Customizing the Publish settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Publishing for the Desktop with Adobe AIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

About Digital Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Installing Your New AIR Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Publishing for Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Publishing for iOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Publishing for Android OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Using Export Movie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

New: Export PNG Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

An overview of FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Self study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Lesson 15: What’s New in Adobe Flash CS6?

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

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1Starting Up

About the Flash Professional CS6 Digital ClassroomAdobe® 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.

PrerequisitesBefore 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 requirementsBefore 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.

Starting up

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Prerequisites

Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom2

Windows

• 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

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3Starting Up

Resetting the Flash workspace

Starting Adobe Flash Professional CS6As 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 timeRegister 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 filesMake 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 workspaceTo 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.’

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Loading lesson fi les

Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom4

Loading lesson filesThe 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).

2 In the fl lessons info window, click the triangle to the left of Sharing and Permissions to reveal the details of this section.

3 In the Sharing and Permissions section, click the lock icon, if necessary, in the lower-right corner so that you can make changes to the permissions.

4 Click to select a specifi c user or select everyone, then change the Privileges section to Read & Write.

5 Click the lock icon to prevent further changes, and then close the window.

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5Starting Up

Working with the video tutorials

Working with the video tutorialsYour 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.

0DVD video icon.

Setting up for viewing the video tutorialsThe 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 PlayerThe 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.

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Hosting Your Flash content and websites

Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom6

Playing the video tutorials:

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 D E FC

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 websitesWhile 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 from Apple to set up a Mac computer as a web server.

If you are just getting started, you may not need to worry about web hosting just yet. But you’ll fi nd this information useful once you start creating sites and content as you progress through this book.

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7Starting Up

Additional resources

Additional resourcesThe 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 AuthorsThe 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 seriesExpand 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 conferencesThe 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 educatorsVisit digitalclassroombooks.com to request resources for educators, including instructors’ guides for incorporating Digital Classroom books into your curriculum.

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