FLASH TUTORIAL


Getting Started
Document Properties
The Grid
The Oval Tool
Creating a Symbol
Gradients
The Rectangle Tool
The Pencil Tool
Grouping
Drawing a Car
Draw the Buildings
Layers		 The Free Transform Tool
Add Grass
Add a Road
Add a Title Area
Add Trees
Keyframes
Motion Tween
Adding Sound
Stopping the Action
Adding a Button
The Text Tool

In this tutorial I will take you step-by-step through the process of creating this Flash movie. You will learn how to create graphics, work with layers, and add motion, sound, and text to your movie. Note: If using Flash CS3, open a new file that uses ActionScript 2.

Getting Started

To begin, open Flash. You will be presented with the screen shown here.

The upper left corner of the screen displays the Tool palette, which contains tools you can use to create or modify graphics and text. You select a tool by clicking on it. Tool modifiers for the selected tool display below the Tool palette. You use modifiers to set tool options.

The Timeline appears in the upper portion of the screen. You use the Timeline line to lay out the sequence of the movie.

The Stage displays in the center of the screen. You create your movie on the Stage.


Document Properties

You start creating your movie by setting the Frame Rate, Dimensions, Background Color, and Ruler Units.

Frame Rate The speed of the movie
Dimensions The size of the Stage.
Background Color The color of the Stage.
Ruler Units The unit of measure the ruler displays.

You will set these properties in the Document Properties dialog box.

To set the properties for the movie you are going to create:

  1. In the Properties panel, click on the button that shows the stage size. The Document Properties dialog box will open.


  2. Type 5 in the Frame Rate field.
  3. Type 400 px in the Width field.
  4. Type 400 px in the Height field.
  5. Click on the Background color box and set the Background color to white.
  6. Select Pixels from the drop-down menu in the Ruler Units field.
  7. Click on OK.

The Grid

In the exercises that follow, you will be creating graphics. When creating graphics, the grid is often helpful. To turn on the Grid:

  1. Choose View > Grid > Edit Grid from the menu. The Grid dialog box will display.


  2. Click on the Color box and select gray to have the gridlines display in gray.
  3. Select Show Grid to cause the grid to display.
  4. Select Snap to Grid to cause the edges of your graphic to align with the grid lines.
  5. Set the Horizontal field to 20 px to separate horizontal lines by 20 pixels.
  6. Set the Vertical field to 20 px to separate vertical lines by 20 pixels.
  7. Set the Snap Accuracy to Normal.
  8. Click on OK.

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