Adobe Flash CS4: Advanced Design Techniques

London (WC1)

04/05/10

£

525

London (WC1)

16/06/10

£

525

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Course Overview

This course will enable you to use ActionScript to create dynamic design and navigation elements in Flash that cannot be created any other way.

The course covers advanced techniques for working with graphics and text, methods for advanced graphics loading, using ActionScript to create sophisticated animations, customising components and working with XML and cascading style sheets within a Flash environment.

This two day course is designed to enable you to design and produce more sophisticated, responsive and dynamic Flash content. This course has been classified as IT Technical Training.

Audience

This Adobe authorised course is for Flash designers with some ActionScript knowledge who wish to use more advanced ActionScript techniques to remove any reliance on timeline based tools and features.

Course Outline

Introduction

• Exploring a finished project
• Reviewing the beginning template

Working with graphics

• Understanding the object drawing model
• Using gradients
• Using strokes
• Understanding filters
• Understanding blend modes
• Pixel perfect control
• Using Shape Primitives
• Understanding Scale-9 methodology

Importing content using XML

• Reviewing the text controls - dynamic, static, input
• Understanding XML
• Introducing the XML class
• Loading XML
• Retrieving text nodes
• How to grab individual values
• Populating page text fields
• Parsing XML data into Flash data
• Working with arrays of objects
• References to external graphics

Working with text

• Introducing anti-alias rendering
• Minimising file size with the text rendering engine
• Using the TextFormat object for styles
• Using Cascading Style Sheets with text
• Adding CSS to text fields

Advanced graphic loading

• Loading JPG/GIF/PNG formats
• Using LoadMovie
• MovieClipLoader
• Image caching
• Attaching movie clips dynamically
• Creating a pre-loader
• Displaying random images
• Creating Position-Aware elements

Reviewing animation basics with ActionScript

• Reviewing animation on the timeline
• Introducing custom easing
• Modifying timeline animation with custom ease control
• Masking with ActionScript
• Animating with ActionScript
• Using setInterval()
• Understanding bitmap caching

Advanced animation with ActionScript

• Introducing the Tween Class / Penner formulas
• Introducing the transition class

Optimising use of the Actions window

• Collapsing selected code
• Collapsing between braces
• Applying block and line comments
• Pinning scripts

Customising components

• Using styles
• Styling with CSS
• Modifying component graphics and/or skins
• Using pre-built interactive components

Questions and answers