Basics

Flash is formost an animation tool for the web. You can use Flash to create vector-based interactive animation or a vector graphic, plus you can incorporate sound. The Flash authoring environment is made up of:

• The Stage, this is where you create and view individual frames
• The Timeline, where you define the movie over time
• Drawing tools you use to create graphics

When working in Flash what you are creating is a movie which will then be exported to a Flash Shockwave file.

These are the parts of a Movie:

Frame: Frames define each moment in the Flash movie. A frame may be a keyframe if it defines a change in the animation.

Layer: Help with the organization of your Flash movie, such as, keeping symbol and other objects separate.

Symbol: A symbol is a reusable object in Flash. These can be a graphic, button, or movie clip. This becomes important when using tweening to create animation.

Interactivity: Interactivity is created by assigning an action to a frame or symbol.

Exporting Flash:

Once you are done creating you Flash movie you must export it to a Shockwave Flash format. You can then place the Shockwave file in an HTML document with either Dreamweaver, Aftershock or by creating the HTML document yourself.

You can also export a Flash movie to Quicktime and AVI video files. You lose any interactivity you had in your Flash movie.

Flash allows you to export the current frame into a still image. If exported as a vector graphic file all vector information is preserved. If you save the Flash image as a bitmap GIF, JPEG, PICT or BMP, then all vector information is lost and the image is saved with pixel information.