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Art 444 Lecture Notes

Flash MX 2004 Lecture Notes

Flash Authoring Tool (Chapter 1)

  • Timeline Window: timeline is framed-based not time-based (as in After Effects. Frame rates are variable. Window> Timeline
  • Properties Window: Click on stage screen for Movie Properties: size, background color, frame rate, and publish settings. Window> Properties
  • Grids, Guides & Rulers: In View menu> Show Rulers. Pull guides from your ruler for precise alignment of objects. Use View> Snapping to snap objects to grid or guides.
  • Toolbar: contains flash drawing tools . Window> Tools
  • Controller: playback controls for your movie. Window> Toolbars> Controller
  • Magnifications: command key with + or -
  • Multiple Levels of Undo: command key + z
  • Design panels: these include align, color mixer, color swatches, info, scene, and transform. Window> Design Panels
  • Help Panel: searchable support database. Help> Help

Creating Simple Graphics (Chapter 2)

  • Line Tool: creates straight line segments
  • Set Stroke Attributes: Properties Panel> sets stroke weight, color, and style i.e. dashed, etc. or custom. Stroke is represented by the pencil icon.
  • Fill Attributes: Properties Panel> sets fill color, transparency or gradient. Fill is represented by the paint bucket icon.
  • Geometric Shape Tools: Tools> Oval and Rectangle & PolyStar tool. Options: corner radius (rounded corners)
  • Pencil Tool: creates a freely drawn stroke. Options: straighten, smooth, and ink modes (by passes assistance features).
  • Bezier Curves: Flash offers the option of drawing with with pen tool to create shapes with Bezier curves.
  • Pen Tool: you can draw straight & curved line segments.
  • Paint Bucket: fills or changes the color of a stoked shape. Options: don't close gaps, close small gaps, close medium, and close large gaps.
  • Brush Tool: creates freely-drawn, brush-rendered fill w/o a stroke. Options: brush size, brush shape, and paint normal, paint fills, paint selection, paint inside modes.
  • Text Tool: creates blocks of editable text.
  • Text Properties: font typeface, size, color, style (italic or bold), kerning, line spacing, tracking, superscript/subscript, and paragraph alignment. Text may be set vertically as well.
  • Text Type: Static (use as default always), dynamic, or input text (forms).
  • Device Fonts: allows the .swf to use of a limited set of basic fonts available on all computer platforms and saves file size becasue fonts are not embedded. Options; _sans, _serif, _typewriter.
  • Breaking Apart Text: Modify> Break Apart. Breaks text bos into indiviual letterts. To break into individual vectors shapes, apply twice.

 

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