Exploring the Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview

The Adobe Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview ("AS3 Preview" for short) is a preview of the next release of the Flash authoring tool. Formerly known as "Blaze," it extends the capabilities of Flash Professional 8 and includes a small subset of the features that will be shipped with Flash 9, which is scheduled for release in 2007.

This preview includes support for ActionScript 3.0, which takes advantage of the new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) in Adobe Flash Player 9. This enhanced AVM allows ActionScript 3.0 code to execute an estimated 10 times faster than legacy ActionScript code. For more information about Adobe Flash Player 9, check out the Flash Player product page.

The Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview allows you to compile FLA files that contain or import scripts written in the new ActionScript 3.0 language. It utilizes a brand new compiler to target Flash Player 9 and new ActionScript. Scripts attached to frames or associated with library symbols can be compiled to add interactivity to content created on the Stage.

This article walks you through creating a new shape using the drawing tools in Flash. After learning how to interact with the shape so it reacts to button clicks and mouse movement, you'll see how to move the ActionScript from the main Timeline into an external file that you can link to symbols in the Library or to the main Flash document itself.

Needless to say, you'll be suitably impressed.

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software and files:

Sample files:

• flash9_as3_preview.zip (ZIP, 32K)

Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview

Adobe Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview provides registered users of Flash Professional 8 with early access to the new ActionScript 3.0 language and the ability to publish to the newly-released Flash Player 9. ActionScript 3.0 and the new ActionScript Virtual Machine introduced with Flash Player 9 are among the most significant advances in the history of Flash. These new advancements, made in Flash Player 9, provide a more robust programming model, achieve standards compliance, and deliver ground-breaking performance improvements.

Designing and Animating Characters in Flash 8

Many animators use Macromedia Flash for detailed vector-based animation. One of the strengths of Flash is its versatile workflow and production process. I have developed some custom techniques that can help you create and manage the various moving parts of a complex animated character. In this article I reveal some of my best-kept Flash secrets while taking a single character from pencil sketch to fully animated Flash cartoon.

Requirements

To make the most of this tutorial you need the following software and files:

Macromedia Flash Professional 8

Tutorials and sample files:

• mudbubble_boy.zip (ZIP, 106K)

Prerequisite Knowledge

None whatsoever. This article is written for the beginner as well as anyone with any amount of experience using Flash.

Achieving Amazing Easing Effects in Flash

In previous versions of Flash, motion tweening was a difficult and time-consuming way to give animations realistic motion effects. The Ease In/Ease Out feature was helpful but its limitations became apparent when you applied it to complex animations because you had to create a lot of frame-by-frame shape and motion tweening to mimic something that looked natural.

Flash Professional 8 enhances easing with Custom Ease In/Ease Out. This new feature provides you with a graph that gives you much more control over tweening. Using the velocity curve provided, you can control motion tweening precisely and at specific frames. In addition, the Custom Ease In/Ease Out feature gives you the option of applying a custom velocity curve for each symbol property independently.

This improved easing feature in Flash Professional 8 can yield amazing motion tweening effects that are easy to create and fun to play with.

This article will help you understand the Ease In/Ease Out graph by showing you specific examples that create interesting animation effects. I also discuss custom easing properties and applying multiple easing effects.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial, install the following software and files:

Flash Professional 8

Sample files:

• custom_easing.zip (ZIP, 50K)

Prerequisite Knowledge

Basic knowledge of Flash and a practical knowledge of easing and motion tweening in Flash.

Getting back into Flash

Now you are ready to bring your 3D star animation back into Flash. You will want to import it as an image sequence:

1. Create a new Flash file called star_animation.fla and create a new movie clip by choosing Insert > New Symbol.
2. In the Create New Symbol dialog box, set the Type to Movie Clip and name it StarAnimation. Click OK to close the dialog box.
3. Choose File > Import > Import to Stage.
4. Select the first PNG file in the sequence you just exported. It should be named Comp 1 01.png. Flash will detect that the image is part of a sequence. Click Yes to import the images as a sequence in the Timeline.

5. Drag your movie clip to the Stage (see Figure 7).

   

   Figure 7. Animation sequence imported into Flash

6. To give it even more of 3D look, apply Drop Shadow filter by clicking the plus icon in the Filters panel.
7. Set the Blur x and Blur y of the star movie clip to 30.
8. Set the color of the shadow to black with 35% alpha value.
9. Set the angle of the shadow to 90 and its distance to 50.

Have fun with this. For example, you could create two other star animations with different size and filter effect settings, and resize the document file to accommodate all three stars (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. Three animated stars in Flash

The star_animation.swf demo file contained in the sample ZIP linked to at the beginning of the article shows the final animation of the star with the 3D properties applied.