What Are The Four Types Of User Events That Adobe Animate Can Listen For?

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Chapter 1. Getting Around Wink

As mentioned in this book's introduction, Flash performs several feats of acoustic magic. Y'all use it to create animations, to display video on a website, to create handheld apps, or to build a complete spider web-based application. And so it'south not surprising that the Flash workspace is crammed total of tools, panels, and windows (Figure 1-1). But don't be intimidated—you don't have to conquer these tools all at once. This affiliate introduces you lot to Flash's main work areas and often-used toolbars and panels, so you can kickoff creating Flash projects right away. Y'all'll experiment with Flash'due south stage and timeline, and see how Flash lets yous animate graphics and so that they movement forth a path and change shape.

Tip

To get further acquainted with Flash, you can check out the built-in help screens by selecting Aid→Flash Help. Once the help panel opens, click Using Flash Professional person. Information technology'southward on the left side of the somewhat busy window. Y'all can read more nearly Wink's assistance system in Appendix A.

Starting Flash

You commencement Wink just equally y'all would any other program—which means you can do it in a few unlike ways, depending on whether you have a PC or a Mac. Installing the program puts Flash CS6 and its related files in the binder with your other programs, and y'all can start it past double-clicking its icon. Hither's where it's unremarkably installed:

• Windows . Get to C:\Plan Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS6\Wink.exe . You can create a shortcut or drag the file to the taskbar for quicker starting.

• Mac . Go to Macintosh Hard disk drive\Applications\Adobe Flash CS6\Adobe Wink CS6 . Y'all can make an alias or drag the file to the Dock for quicker starting.

Figure i-1. The Flash Professional workspace is divided into three main areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. This entire window, together with the timeline, toolbars, and panels, is sometimes called the Flash desktop, the Wink interface, or the Wink authoring environment.

Here are some other Windows ways to showtime the program:

• From the Vista or Windows 7 Outset menu, cull All Programs→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• For Windows XP, become to Start→All Programs→Adobe→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• If you're a keyboard enthusiast, press the Windows fundamental and begin to type flash . As you lot type, Windows searches for a lucifer and displays a list with programs at the top. Most likely, the Flash program is at the top of the list and already selected, and then simply press Enter. Otherwise, utilise your mouse or arrow keys to select and outset the program.

Here are some Mac launching options:

• Even if you haven't added the Flash icon to the Dock, you can all the same notice it in the Dock's Applications folder. Click and hold the Applications folder icon and cull Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• Want to chase down Flash in the Finder? Most of the fourth dimension, it's installed in Macintosh HD→Applications→Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Wink CS6.

• If you'd rather type than chase, use Spotlight. Press ⌘-infinite and then begin to type flash . As you blazon, Spotlight displays a listing of programs and files that match. Virtually likely, the Wink program is at the meridian of the list and already selected, and so just press Return. Otherwise, use the mouse or pointer keys to select and start the plan.

When you lot commencement outset Flash, up pops the Welcome screen, shown in Figure 1-2. This screen puts all your options—similar starting a new document or returning to a work in progress—in one handy identify. For good mensurate, Adobe includes some links to help references and resources on its website.

Figure 1-ii. This Welcome screen appears the starting time fourth dimension yous launch Wink—and every subsequent time, besides, unless yous plow on the "Don't bear witness again" checkbox (pull down the lesser of the window if you don't run across information technology). If yous ever miss the convenience of seeing all your recent Flash documents, congenital-in templates, and other options in one place, so you can plough it dorsum on past choosing Edit→Preferences (Windows) or Flash→Preferences (Mac). On the General panel, choose Welcome Screen from the On Launch pop-up menu.

Note

If Wink seems to take forever to open—or if the Flash desktop ignores your mouse clicks or responds sluggishly—y'all may not have plenty retention installed on your figurer. See Flash CS6 Minimum System Requirements for more communication.

When you choose one of the options, the Welcome screen disappears and your certificate takes its place. Here are your choices:

• Create from Template . Clicking one of the footling icons nether this option lets you create a Flash document using a predesigned form called a template . A template helps y'all create an blitheness more quickly, since a Wink developer has already done office of the work for you. You can find out more about templates in Affiliate 7.

• Open a Recent Item . As you lot create new documents, Flash adds them to this list. Clicking one of the filenames listed here tells Flash to open that file. Clicking the folder icon lets you browse for and open any other Wink file on your calculator.

  Tip

  The options for creating new Wink documents and opening recent documents also appear on the File menu, as shown in Figure one-3.

  

  Figure 1-3. Several of the options on each menu include keystroke shortcuts that let y'all perform an activity without having to mouse all the way up to the carte du jour. For case, instead of selecting File→Save As, yous can press Ctrl+Shift+South to tell Wink to save your Flash document. On the Mac, the keystroke is Shift-⌘-S.

• Create New . Clicking one of the options listed here lets you lot create a brand-new Flash file. Most of the time, you want to cull the first option, ActionScript 3.0, which is a garden-variety animation file. ActionScript is the underlying programming language for Flash animations. The current version of ActionScript is 3.0, and it's the version used for the projects in this book. You tin utilise the ActionScript 2.0 option if you need to work with a Wink project that was created several years agone. For details on the file formats for different Wink projects, meet the box below.

  Note

  Old programming pros—yous know who you are—may have reasons to prefer ActionScript 2.0. For example, you might choose this choice if you're continuing work on a project created using ActionScript 2.0, or if you're working with a squad using ActionScript 2.0.

• Extend . Clicking the Flash Exchange link under this option tells Flash to open your spider web browser and load the Flash Exchange website. There, you tin can download Flash components, sound files, and other goodies that you can add to your Flash animations. Some are free, some are fee-based, and all of them are created past Flashionados just like you.

• Learn . As you might estimate, these links pb to materials Adobe designed to help you get upwards and running. Click an option, and your spider web browser opens to a page on the Adobe website. The first few topics innovate bones Flash concepts like symbols, instances, and timelines. Farther down the list, you lot find specific topics for edifice applications for mobile devices or websites (AIR). At the lesser of the Welcome screen, "Getting Started" covers the very, very basics. "New Features" explains (and celebrates) some of Flash CS6'southward new bells and whistles. "Developers" leads to an online magazine with articles and videos with an ActionScript programming slant. "Designers" leads to a similar resource for the Flash graphics and pattern community.

A Tour of the Flash Workspace

The best way to master the Flash CS6 Professional workspace is to carve up and conquer. Outset, focus on the three main work areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. And then you can gradually learn how to employ all the tools in those areas.

One big source of confusion for Flash newbies is that the workspace is so easy to customize. Yous tin can open bunches of panels, windows, and toolbars. You can move the timeline higher up the stage, or you can have it floating in a window all its own. In one case you're a seasoned Wink veteran, you'll take strong opinions virtually how you want to set up up your workspace so the tools you use most are at hand. If y'all're just learning Flash with the help of this book, though, information technology'south probably best if you gear up your workspace so that it matches the pictures in these pages.

Fortunately, there's an piece of cake way to do that. Adobe, in its wisdom, created the Workspace Switcher—a tool that lets y'all rearrange the unabridged workspace with the click of a menu. The thinking is that an platonic workspace for a cartoon animator is different from the ideal workspace for, say, a rich internet awarding (RIA) developer. The Workspace Switcher is a card in the upper-right corner of the Wink window, next to the search box. The menu displays the name of the currently selected workspace; when you first first Flash, it probably says Essentials . That's a peachy workspace that displays some of the most oft used tools. In fact, information technology's the workspace used throughout virtually of this book.

Hither's a quick little exercise that shows you how to switch among the different workspaces and how to reset a workspace after you've mangled it past dragging panels out of place and opening new windows.

1. Commencement Wink .

   Flash opens, displaying the Welcome screen. Unless you've made changes, the Essentials workspace is used. Encounter Figure one-4, top.

2. From the Workspace menu near the upper-right corner of the Wink window, choose Classic .

   The Classic arrangement harkens back to earlier versions of Flash, when the timeline resided to a higher place the stage (Effigy 1-4, bottom). If yous wish, get alee and cheque out some of the other layouts.

3. Choose the Essentials workspace again .

   Back where you lot began, the Essentials workspace shows the timeline at the bottom. The phase takes upward virtually of the main window. On the correct, the Panels dock holds toolbars and panels. Now'southward the fourth dimension to crusade a fiddling havoc.

   

   Figure ane-4. Top: The Essentials workspace is the one used throughout this volume. Bottom: The Classic workspace shows the timeline to a higher place the stage, a wait familiar to Flash Pro veterans.

4. In the Panels dock, click the Properties tab and drag information technology to a new location on the screen .

   Panels can bladder, or they can dock to one of the edges of the window. For this experiment, it doesn't matter what you choose to exercise.

5. Elevate the Color and Swatches toolbars to new locations .

   The Color toolbar has an icon that looks similar an artist's palette at the peak. Like the larger panels, toolbars can either dock or float. You tin drag them anywhere on your monitor, and you tin can expand and collapse them by clicking the double-triangle push button in their top-right corners.

6. Go to Window→Other Panels→History .

   Wink has dozens of windows. Only a few are available now, because you oasis't even created a document yet.

   Tip

   As you work on a project, the History panel keeps track of all your commands, operations, and changes. Information technology's a great tool for undoing mistakes. For more than details, see Other Flash Panels.

7. From the Workspace menu, choose Reset Essentials .

   The workspace changes back to the original Essentials layout, even though you did your all-time to mess it upward.

Anytime you want your workspace to match the one used throughout most of this book, do the "Essentials 2-step": Cull Essentials from the Workspace Switcher (if yous're non already at that place), and then choose Reset Essentials. As shown in Effigy one-four, when yous use the Essentials workspace, the Wink window is divvied upwards into three chief work areas: the stage (upper left), the timeline (lower left), and the panels dock (right). Before exploring each of these areas in particular, here are a few words about Flash'southward menu bar.

Menu Bar

Like most computer programs, Flash gives y'all menus to interact with your documents. In traditional style, Windows menus announced at the top of the program window, while Mac menus are always at the very height of the screen. The commands on these menus list every style you can interact with your Flash file, from creating a new file—as shown on Starting Flash—to editing information technology, saving it, and decision-making how information technology appears on your screen.

Some of the menu names—File, Edit, View, Window, and Help—are familiar to anyone who'southward used a PC or a Mac. Using these menu choices, you lot tin perform basic tasks like opening, saving, and printing your Flash files; cutting and pasting artwork or text; viewing your project in different means; choosing which toolbars to view; getting aid; and more.

To view a menu, simply click the menu'southward name to open information technology, and then click a menu choice. If y'all prefer, you can also drag downwardly to the option you lot want. Let go of the mouse button to activate the option. Effigy 1-3 shows you what the File carte looks like. Most of the time, yous see the same menus at the top of the screen, but occasionally they modify. For example, when y'all use the Debugger to troubleshoot ActionScript programs, Flash hides some of the menus not related to debugging.

Tip

You'll learn about specific commands and card options in their related chapters. For a quick reference to all the menu options, see Appendix B.

The Stage

As the name implies, the stage is ordinarily the center of attending. It'due south your virtual canvas. Hither's where y'all describe the pictures, display text, and make objects movement beyond the screen. The phase is besides your playback arena; when you run a completed animation—to run into if it needs tweaking—the animation appears on the stage. Effigy ane-five shows a projection with an blitheness under construction.

Figure one-5. The stage is where you draw the pictures that will somewhen go your animation. The piece of work area (lite gray) gives you lot a handy identify to put graphic elements while you effigy out how yous desire to arrange them on the stage. Here a text box is existence dragged from the piece of work area dorsum to middle phase.

The work area is the technical name for the greyness area surrounding the stage, although many Flashionados call it the backstage . This work area serves as a prep zone where you can place graphic elements earlier you movement them to the stage, and as a temporary holding pen for elements you want to move off the stage briefly as you lot reposition things. For example, permit's say you depict three circles and 1 box containing text on your stage. If you lot decide you demand to rearrange these elements, you tin can temporarily drag one of the circles off the stage.

Annotation

The phase always starts out with a white groundwork, which becomes the groundwork colour for your blitheness. Changing it to whatever color imaginable is easy, as you'll learn in the adjacent affiliate.

You'll near always change the starting size and shape of the stage depending on where people will see your finished animation—in other words, your target platform . If your target platform is a smartphone, for example, yous're going to want a smaller phase. If, on the other hand, you lot're creating an animation for a ballpark's JumboTron, you lot're going to desire a giant phase. You'll get to try your hand at modifying the size and background colour of the stage afterwards in this chapter.

The Timeline

When you go to the theater, the stage changes over time—actors come and go, songs are sung, scenery changes, and the lights shine and fade. In Wink, you're the director, and you lot become to control what appears on the stage at any given moment. The timeline is the tool used to specify what'south seen or heard at a detail moment. The concept is pretty simple, and if you've ever used video editing software, it will exist familiar. Flash animations (or movies) are organized into chunks of time called frames . Each little box in the timeline represents a frame or a point in time. You use the playhead , shown in Figure 1-6, to select a specific frame. So when the playhead is positioned at Frame 10, the phase shows what the audience sees at that point in time.

Effigy ane-half-dozen. The playhead is a blood-red box that appears in the timeline; here the playhead is fix to Frame x. You can drag the playhead to whatever point in the timeline to select a single frame. The Flash stage shows exactly what'south in your animation at that point in time.

The timeline is laid out from left to right, starting with Frame 1. Simply put, you lot build Flash animations past choosing a frame with the playhead then arranging the objects on the phase the way you desire them. The timeline uses a special tool called a keyframe (see Figure one-6) to recall exactly what'due south on stage at that moment. You'll learn more about the keyframes and other timeline tools in Affiliate 3. Nearly simple animations play from Frame 1 through to the stop of the movie, but Flash gives you lot ways to start and stop the blitheness and control how fast information technology runs—that is, how many frames per 2d (fps) are displayed. Using some ActionScript magic, y'all can control the order in which the frames are displayed. Yous'll learn how to do that on Organizing Your Animation.

Tip

The outset time you run Flash, the timeline appears automatically, but occasionally you want to hibernate the timeline—mayhap to reduce screen clutter while yous concentrate on your artwork. You can show and hide the timeline by selecting Window→Timeline or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T (or for the Mac, Pick-⌘-T).

Panels and Toolbars

If y'all followed the lilliputian exercise on A Bout of the Flash Workspace, you know y'all can put panels and toolbars almost anywhere onscreen. Withal, if you lot use the Essentials workspace, yous start off with a few frequently used panels and toolbars docked neatly on the right side of the plan window.

It's easy to get confused by the Wink nomenclature. Flash has toolbars, panels, palettes, and windows. Sometimes collapsed panels look like toolbars and open up when clicked—like the oft used Tools panel. Toolbars and panels pack the near commonly used options together in a nice compact space, so you don't have to exercise a hunt-and-peck through the master menu every fourth dimension you want to practise something. Panels are great, simply they take up precious real estate. As you work, you can hide certain tools to get a ameliorate view of your artwork. (You tin always get them back by choosing their names from the Window carte du jour.)

Toolbars and panels are such an integral function of working with Flash that information technology's helpful to learn some of their tricks early on:

• Movement a panel . Just click and drag the tab or top of the console to a new location. Panels tin float anywhere on your monitor, or dock on an edge of the Flash plan window (equally in the Essentials workspace). For more details on docking and floating, run into the box on Docked vs. Floating.

• Expand or collapse a panel . Click the double-triangle button at the top of a panel to expand or collapse it. Collapsed panels look like toolbars, showing a few icons that hint at the tools' purposes. Expanded panels accept upward more existent estate, but they also give you more details and ofttimes have word labels for the tools and settings.

• Evidence or hide a panel . Use the Window bill of fare to bear witness and hide individual panels. Checkmarks appear side by side to the panels that are shown.

• Close a floating panel . In Windows, click the small X in the panel'due south upper-correct corner. On the Mac, click the X in the upper-left corner.

• Show or hide all panels . The F4 key works like a toggle, hiding or showing all the panels and toolbars. Use it when you desire to apace reduce screen clutter and focus on your artwork.

• Divide or combine tabbed panels . Click and elevate the name on a tab to separate it from a group of tabbed panels. To add together a tab to a group, but drag information technology into place.

• Reset the console workspace . Cull Reset <workspace name> from the Workspace Switcher. Instead of <workspace name>, you run into the name of the current workspace—something like Essentials or Classic . You can also practice a reset using the menus; choose Window→Workspace→Reset <workspace proper noun>.

Figure one-seven. Top: To conserve space on Flash's jam-packed desktop, only one toolbar—the Edit bar—appears automatically. Information technology'south positioned directly above the phase. To brandish the other two, select Window→Toolbars→Chief (to brandish the Main toolbar, Windows merely) and Window→Toolbars→Controller (to display the Controller window). Bottom: The checkmarks on the bill of fare prove when a toolbar is turned on. Choose the toolbar'due south name again to remove the checkmark and hibernate the toolbar.

Annotation

When you reposition a floating toolbar, Flash remembers where you put it. If, later on, you hibernate the toolbar—or exit Flash and run it again—your toolbars appear exactly equally you left them. If this isn't what you want, use the Workspace Switcher to choose a new workspace layout or to reset the current workspace.

Toolbars

Strictly speaking, Flash has but iii toolbars: Main, Controller, and Edit. (Everything else is a panel, even if information technology looks suspiciously like a toolbar.) Figure 1-7 shows all iii toolbars.

• Main (Windows only) . The Chief toolbar gives you ane-click basic operations, like opening an existing Wink file, creating a new file, and cutting and pasting sections of your drawing.

• Controller . If yous've ever used a DVD player or an iPod, you'll recognize the Stop, Rewind, and Play buttons on the Controller toolbar, which lets you control how you lot want Flash to run your finished animation. (Not surprisingly, the Controller options appear grayed out —meaning you can't select them—if yous oasis't all the same synthetic an animation.) With Wink Professional person CS6, the Controller is a trivial obsolete, because at present the same buttons appear below the timeline.

• Edit bar . Using the options here, you can change your view of the stage, zooming in and out, besides every bit edit scenes (named groups of frames ) and symbols (reusable drawings).

Note

The Edit bar is a little different from the other toolbars in that it remains fixed to the stage. Y'all tin can't reposition it.

Tools Panel

The Tools panel is unique. For designers, it's probably the about used of all the panels and toolbars. In the Essentials workspace, the Tools panel appears along the correct side of the Flash plan window. In that location are no text labels, just a serial of icons. However, if y'all need a hint, just hold your mouse over one of the tools, and a tooltip shows the proper noun of the tool. And so, for example, mouse over the arrow at the meridian of the Tools panel, and the tooltip says "Selection tool (V)." The letter in parentheses is the shortcut key for that tool. Press the letter Five while you're working in Wink, and your cursor changes to the Choice tool.

Most animations kickoff with a single cartoon. And to draw something in Wink, you need drawing tools: pens, pencils, brushes, colors, erasers, then on. The Tools panel shown in Figure 1-8 is where you lot find Wink'due south drawing tools. Chapter ii shows y'all how to use these tools to create a simple cartoon; this section gives you a quick overview of the six sections of the Tools panel, each of which focuses on a slightly different kind of drawing tool or optional feature.

Selection and Drawing Tools

At the elevation of the Tools panel are the tools you need to create and modify a Flash cartoon. For example, you might utilize the Pen tool to kickoff a sketch, the Paint Saucepan or Ink Canteen to utilize color, and the Eraser to clean upwards mistakes.

Figure one-8. The Tools panel groups tools by unlike drawing chores. Selection and Transform tools are at the superlative, followed by Cartoon tools. Next are the IK Bones tool and the Color tools. The View tools are for zooming and panning. The Color tools include two swatches, one for strokes and one for fills. At the bottom you find the Options buttons, which change depending on the drawing tool you've selected. If you like, you can drag the docked Tools panel abroad from the edge of the workspace and turn information technology into a floating panel.

View Tools

At times, you'll discover yourself drawing a picture and then enormous yous can't encounter it all on the stage at ane time. Or possibly you lot'll find yourself drawing something you want to have a super-close look at and so y'all can change it pixel by pixel. In either of these situations, you tin use the tools Flash displays in the View section of the Tools panel to zoom in, zoom out, and pan around the stage. (You'll become to try your hand at using these tools later in this chapter; see The Wink CS6 Test Drive.)

Note

The term pixel is curt for "film element." Images on a computer screen are made up of lots of tiny dots emitting different colors. Each dot is a pixel.

Colour Tools

When you're creating in Flash, you're drawing i of ii things: a stroke , which is a apparently line or outline, or a make full , which is the surface area inside an outline. You can apply these tools to cull a color from the Color palette before you click one of the drawing icons to begin drawing (or after to modify the colors, as discussed in Chapter two). Wink applies that color to the stage as you depict.

Options Tools

Which icons appear in the Options section at any given time depends on which tool y'all've selected. For case, when you lot select the Zoom tool from the View section of the Tools console, the Options section displays an Enlarge icon and a Reduce icon that y'all can use to change the way the Zoom tool works (Figure 1-9).

Effigy 1-nine. On the Tools console, when you click each tool, the Options section shows you buttons that allow you modify that particular tool. In the Tools panel's View section, for example, when you click the Zoom tool, the Options section changes to show you simply zooming options: Enlarge (with the + sign) and Reduce (with the – sign).

Properties Console

In many ways, the Properties panel is Command Central as yous piece of work with your animation, because it gathers all the pertinent details for the objects you piece of work with and displays them in one place. Select an object, and the Backdrop panel displays all of its backdrop and settings. It'due south not just an information provider; you as well use the Properties panel to change settings and tweak the elements in your animation. When there'due south fine-tuning to be done, select an object and accommodate the settings in the Properties panel. (You can learn more in the "Exam Drive" section on The Flash CS6 Test Drive.)

The Backdrop panel unremarkably appears when yous open up a new document. Initially, information technology shows information most your Flash document, like the stage dimensions and the blitheness's frame rate. Whenever yous select an private object in your animation, the Properties panel shows that object'southward details. For example, if you select a text field, the Properties panel lists the typeface, font size, and text colour. Y'all also see information on the paragraph settings, like the margins and line spacing. Because the Properties panel crams so many details into one identify, yous'll find yourself using the collapse and expand buttons to show and hide some of the information in its subpanels, as shown in Figure i-10.

Figure one-10. The Properties panel shows merely those properties associated with the object you've selected on the stage. Hither, considering a text field is selected, the Properties console gives you options yous tin can employ to change the typeface, font size, font colour, and paragraph settings. Click the triangular expand and collapse buttons to show and hide details in the Backdrop panel.

Note

If you don't run across the Properties panel, you lot can display it by selecting Window→Properties or by pressing Ctrl+F3 (⌘-F3 on a Mac).

Properties Subpanels

On the Properties panel, you lot see dissimilar subpanels depending on the object y'all've selected. Some objects have a lot of settings, and subpanels are Flash'south way of giving you access to all of them. Fortunately, the diverse panels and tools work consistently. For example, many objects have settings that decide their onscreen positions and define their width and height dimensions. These common settings usually announced at the top of the Properties panel, and y'all fix them the same way for most kinds of objects. If you want to change colors or add together special furnishings like filters or blends, you lot'll notice that the tools work the same way throughout Wink.

Library Panel

The Library panel (Figure 1-11) is a place to shop objects yous desire to employ more than once. Allow'due south say, for case, that you create a flick-perfect bubble, sun, or snowflake in one frame of your animation. (You'll learn more almost frames on Frame-by-Frame Blitheness.) Now, if yous want that chimera, sun, or snowflake to appear in xv additional frames, you could depict it over again and again, just it really makes more sense to store a re-create in the electric current projection library and then but drag it to where it's needed on those other 15 frames. This trick saves time and ensures consistency to boot. The Library panel has quite a few other important tricks, and you'll learn more almost it on Symbols and Instances. To show the Library panel, click Window→Library, or press Ctrl+L (Windows) or ⌘-L (Mac).

Tip

In the upper-correct corner of most panels is an Options menu button. When you lot click this button, a card of options appears—unlike options for each panel. For example, the Color Swatch panel lets you add and delete color swatches. You'll find many indispensable tools and commands on the Options menus, so it's worth checking them out. You'll learn virtually different options throughout this book.

Figure i-11. Storing simple images as reusable symbols in the Library panel does more than just save yous fourth dimension: It saves y'all file size, besides. (Y'all'll learn a lot more than about symbols and file size in Chapter seven.) Using the Library console yous see here, yous can preview symbols, add together them to the stage, and easily add symbols you created in one Flash document to another.

Other Wink Panels

As you tin run across from the examples on the preceding pages, each Flash panel performs specific functions, and most of them deserve several pages to describe them fully, as you'll observe throughout this book. For now, Tabular array 1-1 gives a thumbnail description and notes the page where the panel is described in detail. If you're eager to get started actually using Flash, jump to The Wink CS6 Test Drive to start the Flash CS6 Exam Drive.

Table ane-one. Flash Panels and their uses (in order as they announced on the Window menu)

Panel Proper name	KEYBOARD SHORTCUT	PURPOSE
Timeline	Windows: Ctrl+Alt+K Mac: Selection-⌘-T	Technically, the timeline is just another panel. You tin can motion, hide, expand, and collapse the timeline just as yous would any other console. See Frame-past-Frame Animation for more.
Movement Editor	none	A powerful tool used to create and control animation effects. See A Tour of the Motion Editor for more than.
Tools	Windows: Ctrl+F2 Mac: ⌘-F2	Perhaps the most frequently used panel of all—it holds drawing, selecting, and coloring tools. The Tools console also includes specialized tools similar the IK Bones tools and the 3D Rotation tool. Encounter Using Merge Fashion and Object Fashion Together for more than.
Properties	Windows: Ctrl+F3 Mac: ⌘-F3	Everything that appears on the stage has backdrop that ascertain its appearance or characteristics. Even the stage has backdrop, like width, height, and background colour. You can review and edit an object'southward backdrop in the Properties panel. Come across Color Tools for more.
Library	Windows: Ctrl+50 Mac: ⌘-L	Holds graphics, symbols, and unabridged movies that yous want to reuse. Meet Symbols and Instances for more.
Common Libraries	none	When you desire to share buttons, classes, or sounds among several different Flash documents, apply the common libraries. That way, they'll be bachelor to all your projects. See the tip on Tip for more.
Motion Presets	none	Serves upward dozens of predesigned animations. Run into Applying Motion Presets for more.
Actions	Windows: F9 Mac: Option-F9	You lot use this console to write ActionScript lawmaking. The Actions panel provides a window for code, a reference tool for the programming language, and a visual display for the object-oriented nature of the code. See Writing ActionScript Lawmaking in the Timeline for more.
Lawmaking Snippets	none	Contains predesigned chunks of code—someone else sweated the details so you lot don't have to. Specific bits of code perform timeline tricks, load or unload graphics, handle audiovisual tasks, and program buttons. See the box on Create an Upshot Handler in a Snap for more.
Behaviors	Windows: Shift+F3 Mac: Shift-F3	The earlier version of ActionScript (version two.0) uses this console to provide predesigned $.25 of code.
Compiler Errors	Windows: Alt-F2 Mac: Pick-F2	Here's where you troubleshoot ActionScript code. Messages explain the location of an mistake and provide hints as to what went wrong. See Setting and Working with Breakpoints for more.
Debug Panels	none	Additional panels to help you find errors in your ActionScript programs. See Analyzing Code with the Debugger for more.
Motion picture Explorer	Windows: Alt+F3 Mac: Option-F3	Helps you examine the elements in your Wink animation, including separate scenes if you've created them. The display uses a tree structure to show the relationship of the elements.
Output	Windows: F2 Mac: F2	Another place to debug ActionScript programs. The Output panel is used to display text messages at certain points as a program runs. See Using the Output Panel and trace() Argument for more.
Align	Windows: Ctrl+K Mac: ⌘-One thousand	Lets yous align and adapt graphic elements on the stage. Run across Aligning Objects with the Marshal Tools for more.
Color	Windows: Shift+F9 Mac: Shift-⌘-F9	Lets you select and apply colors to graphic elements. Come across Advanced Color and Fills for more.
Info	Windows: Ctrl+I Mac: ⌘-I	Provides details about objects, like their location and dimensions. The Info panel also keeps runway of the cursor location and the color immediately under the cursor. See Making It Move with Motion Tweens for more.
Swatches	Windows: Ctrl+F9 Mac: ⌘-F9	Colors and gradients that you lot tin apply to graphic elements. You lot tin can create your ain swatches for colors you want to reuse. See Specifying Colors for ActionScript for more than.
Transform	Windows: Ctrl+T Mac: ⌘-T	Lets you change the size, shape, and position of graphic elements on the stage. You can even use the Transform console to reposition or rotate objects in 3-D space. See Transforming Objects for more.
Components	Windows: Ctrl+F7 Mac: ⌘-F7	Holds predesigned components yous tin can employ in your Flash projects. You'll notice user interface components similar buttons and checkboxes, components that can exist used to create data tables, and components used to control movie and audio players. Come across Reversing Frames in the Timeline for more than.
Component Inspector	Windows: Shift+F7 Mac: Shift-F7	Provides compatibility with older animations. (Wink CS6 displays component properties in the Properties panel. Before versions of Flash used the Component Inspector. See the box on Learning the Parameters for more.)
Accessibility (under Other Panels)	Windows: Alt+Shift+F11 Mac: Shift-⌘-F11	Tools that help you ensure that vision- and hearing-impaired folks can enjoy the animations you lot create using Flash. See the box on Why Accessibility Matters.
History (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F10 Mac: ⌘-F10	Lets yous backtrack or undo specific steps in your piece of work. Flash keeps track of every petty matter you do to a file, starting with the time you lot created it (or the concluding fourth dimension you opened it). You can likewise use this console to save a serial of commands you lot want to reuse later.
Scene (under Other Panels)	Windows: Shift+F2 Mac: Shift-F2	Helps you organize and manage your scenes. (Yous can intermission long Flash animations into separate scenes, as described on Working with Scenes.)
Strings (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F11 Mac: ⌘-F11	Need to create an animation or application that works in different languages? Using the Strings panel, you can create and manage multi-language versions of the text. (This book doesn't encompass multi-language Wink.)
Web Services (nether Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+Shift+F10 Mac: Shift-⌘-F10	Used only with ActionScript ii.0 projects that connect to the Internet. (This book doesn't encompass ActionScript two.0.)

The Wink CS6 Examination Drive

For the tutorials in this section, you lot need a Flash blitheness to do on. In that location's ane ready and waiting for you on the Missing CD page at world wide web.missingmanuals.com/cds/flashcs6mm. The file is named 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

Notation

In case yous're wondering, the number 01 at the beginning stands for Chapter 1, and the -1 indicates it's the kickoff exercise in the chapter. Other Missing CD files for this book are named the same way. Y'all can download all the exercise files in a single ZIP file or you can grab them chapter by chapter. The Missing CD as well includes links to all the spider web-based resources mentioned in this book.

Open up a Wink File

Get the file 01-1_First_Animation.fla and save it on your computer. You may want to create a FlashMM folder in your My Documents or Documents folder to agree your Missing Manual exercises. Launch Flash, and so cull File→Open up. When the Open dialog box appears, navigate to the file you simply downloaded, and and then click Open. When you open a document, the Welcome screen disappears. Flash shows you the blitheness on the stage, surrounded by the usual timeline, toolbars, and panels. If y'all're using the Essentials workspace, it should wait similar Figure 1-12.

Figure 1-12. After you open the practice in Flash, your screen should look similar this. At the bottom, the timeline shows 2 layers—1 named background and the other, bike. The stage shows (surprise, surprise) a background and a wheel. To the right, the Properties panel displays the properties for the document.

Explore the Properties Panel

The Properties console appears docked to the right side of the phase when yous open up a new certificate. As shown in Figure i-13, information technology shows the Property settings for objects. Initially, it shows the backdrop for the Wink document itself. Click another object, such equally the bike, and you lot encounter its properties. Why are properties so of import? They give y'all an extremely authentic clarification of objects. If you need to precisely ascertain a color or the dimensions of an object, the Properties panel is the tool to apply. Information technology not but reports the details, merely information technology as well gives y'all the tools to make changes, as shown in this piffling exercise:

1. At the summit of the Tools panel, click the Selection tool (solid arrow) .

   As an alternative, press V, the keyboard shortcut for the Selection tool.

2. Click the white part of the stage .

   The Properties panel shows the properties for your Flash document. At the pinnacle, you come across the word "Document," and underneath, you run across the filename.

   

   Figure 1-xiii. Left: When you get-go open a document, the Properties console shows belongings settings for the document. Right: Select the wheel in the document, and y'all see its properties. Click the triangle buttons to aggrandize and collapse the subpanels.

3. Click the triangle button to open up the Properties subpanel .

   The button works like a toggle to open and shut the subpanel. The subpanel displays three settings: FPS (frames per second), Size, and Stage.

4. Click the white rectangle next to Stage .

   A panel opens with color swatches.

5. Click a colour swatch—whatsoever color volition do .

   The background colour of the phase changes to the color y'all chose.

6. Click the bike .

   Data about the bicycle fills the Properties panel. The wheel is a special blazon of object called a Movie Clip symbol . You'll larn much more near Movie Clips and other reusable symbols in Chapter vii.

Note

You may discover that you lot can't select anything else in this document. That's because the other objects are in the background layer, which is locked. (For more details on locking layers, see Locking and Unlocking Layers.)

Resize the Phase

In Flash, the size of your stage is the actual finished size of your animation, so setting its exact dimensions is one of the first things yous practise when you create an animation, as y'all'll meet in the next chapter. But you lot tin resize the stage at any time.

Here'due south how to alter the size of your stage:

1. With the Selection tool, click on a blank area of the stage (to make sure nada on the stage is selected) .

   Alternatively, yous can click the Choice tool and and so choose Edit→Deselect All.

2. In the Properties panel, open the Properties subpanel, so click the Edit push .

   The Document Settings window appears, every bit shown in Figure 1-14. At the summit of the window are boxes labeled Dimensions. That's where you're going to work your magic.

   

   Figure 1-xiv. The Certificate Settings dialog box puts several related settings in one place. At the top are the certificate's dimensions. In the lower-left corner are settings for the phase'south background color and the frame rate. Click "Ruler units" to choose among Inches, Points, Centimeters, Millimeters, and Pixels.

3. Click in the width box (which currently reads "550 px"), and then blazon 600 .

   Y'all can change both the width and the elevation. The changes won't take place until you click OK. So if you accept second thoughts and don't desire to make whatsoever changes, then just click Abolish.

   Tip

   If you want to alter the stage back to its original dimensions after y'all've clicked OK, you can do that by choosing Edit→Disengage or pressing Ctrl+Z (⌘-Z on a Mac). Disengage works similar information technology does in most programs, undoing your last activity, and you can printing it multiple times to work your way dorsum through your recent actions.

4. Click OK when you're done .

   The stage resizes co-ordinate to your instructions.

Zoom In and Out

When your Wink projection gets large or complicated, you may want to focus on simply a portion of the stage. If you've used other graphics programs—from Windows Pigment to iPhoto or Photoshop—there's not much mystery to the process. In the Tools panel, click the Zoom tool, which looks similar a magnifying glass (Effigy i-xv). Initially, the Zoom tool shows a + sign, pregnant it'south all set to zoom in. Click any spot you desire to zoom in on, and you get a closer view. Equally an alternative, y'all can click and drag over an expanse to zoom in with more precision. Every bit you drag, a rectangle appears to mark the surface area of interest.

Figure 1-15. Choose the Zoom tool and and then click the stage to zoom in on your Wink document. Hold the Alt (Pick) key down to zoom out. Once you're zoomed in, you tin can motility around using either the scrollbars or the Hand tool (H).

Using the Zoom tool, you can get so close that you see individual pixels in your artwork. Very handy for some operations. Once you're zoomed in, y'all tin employ the scroll bars at the right and bottom of the stage to reposition the stage in the viewing area. Even easier, choose the Hand tool (H) and so click and drag the stage within the viewing area.

Want to zoom out? Hold downward the Alt (Option) key as you use the Zoom tool. Each time you click, you come across more than and more of the phase. Directly in a higher place the phase is the Edit bar. (If you lot don't see it, select Window→Toolbars→Edit Bar.) A menu on the Edit bar sets the Magnification or Zoom property every bit a per centum, as shown in Effigy 1-xvi.

Figure 1-xvi. The Magnification menu in the Edit bar gives y'all a quick readout on the Zoom gene. Click the menu to choose from several presets, including "Fit in Window," which shows the unabridged phase, or Bear witness All, which zooms in or out to show all the objects drawn on the stage.

Make Information technology Motility

If you lot've followed along in the exercises upward to this indicate, you deserve a taste of the Flash magic to come. Enough studying panels and tools—Flash is an animation programme. It's time to brand something move, or more than precisely, to make something bounce. With the help of a trivial feature chosen Motion Presets, it's easier than you think:

1. In the Magnification menu, choose "Fit in Window."

   This gives yous a view of the unabridged stage.

2. With the Selection tool (V), drag the wheel to the top of the phase .

   All the parts of the bicycle (tire, spokes, hub) motility as a single unit because they're grouped within a Flash symbol, called a Movie Clip.

3. Choose Window→Motion Presets .

   A floating panel appears, equally shown in Figure 1-17. Motion Presets are covered in particular on Applying Motion Presets, but for this practice, you just need a couple of basic steps.

4. Click the triangle next to Default Presets .

   The Default Presets binder opens, showing many predesigned motions.

5. Click the words "bounce-smoosh."

   At the tiptop of the panel, the preview window gives you an idea of how the bounciness-smoosh preset works.

6. Brand certain the bicycle is selected on the phase and that "bounce-smoosh" is selected in the Motion Presets console, and so click the Utilize button .

   A light-green line appears hanging from the bottom of the cycle. This line is called the motility path , and information technology shows you how the bicycle will move over the course of the animation. In the timeline, the wheel layer turns to blue to bespeak that it'southward now a motion tween .

   Notation

   Tween is an animation term that comes from all those in-between frames that animators have to describe to create a smooth animated motion.

   

   Figure 1-17. The Motion Presets window has two folders. The one called Default Presets (shown open up here) holds presets designed past Adobe. The other folder holds presets that you design and salve. The "tail" hanging downwards from the wheel is the motility path.

7. Close the Motion Presets console .

   That'due south all it takes to animate the wheel, so you might besides shut the Motion Presets window. Y'all can always bring it back later if you want to try out some of the other presets on the wheel.

Play an Blitheness

Naturally, later you've animated an object in Wink, you want to see the results. You'll be checking your piece of work oft, so Adobe makes it easy to play an animation. Merely press Enter (Return), and your animation bounces and smooshes equally advertised. In the timeline, notice how the playhead moves along frame by frame as your animation plays. You tin run across your animation at all the different stages by dragging the playhead up and down the timeline—a procedure sometimes called scrubbing .

New in Flash CS6, the animation controller is fixed to the bottom of the timeline (Figure 1-xviii). That'due south the perfect place because it's e'er bachelor.

Figure one-18. If you've ever used a DVD player or an iPod, the animation play icons at the bottom of the timeline expect comfortingly familiar. You tin can motion 1 frame at a fourth dimension or leap to the beginning or end of an animation.

Salve a File

Saving your work often is important in any programme, and Flash is no exception. Y'all don't want to have to get back and recreate that perfect blithe sequence because the power went out. The minute you finish a sizable chunk of piece of work, relieve your Flash file by pressing Ctrl+S (⌘-South). The Salve command likewise appears on the menu bar: File→Save. Both maneuvers salve the animation with the current name. Then, if after following the exercises in this chapter, you use the Save control, you end up with a single Flash document using the original filename: 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

If yous desire to salvage the file nether a dissimilar proper name, use Relieve As or Ctrl+Shift+South (Shift-⌘-Due south). A standard window opens where you lot tin cull a folder and give your document a name. When you lot use Salvage As, y'all terminate upward with ii documents, the original and 1 saved with the new name. The newly named document is the ane that remains open in the Flash workspace.

If you close a document (File→Shut) afterwards you've made changes, Flash automatically asks if you want to relieve it. You lot're given three options. Choose Save to salvage your work and shut the document. Cull Don't Salve to close the document without saving your work. Choose Cancel if you don't want to save and don't desire to close the document.

Note

Flash Professional person CS6 provides a new life-saving feature for files. When you create a new document you can turn on Auto-Salvage. This feature saves your document periodically fifty-fifty if you forget. Y'all even become to cull the period. Initially, the Auto-Save menstruum is prepare to every x minutes. To change that, click the number and type a new value.

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