Flash MX 2004 Professional 16 Jul 2004 03:33 pm
“Flash Gems” contest
You have probably noticed lately that Mike Chambers and I are starting to post some of the little (sometime hidden) “Flash gems” that tend to make users’ lives so much better. The idea was sparked after we visited with a designer who was importing dozens of PNGs onto the stage and then manually copy/pasting them on to seperate layers. I just pointed out the “Distribute to Layers” command and the response was something like, “Oh my God, that is going to save me so much time!”.
So, on that note, we’ve decided to run a little, unofficial contest. Basically, we’d like all of you to post little tips and tricks that may be unknown by a lot of users. These can be workflow related, hacks to overcome limitations, better ways of doing certain common practices (ie: importing an .AI file instead of exporting to SWF from Illustrator, or something of that nature).
Mike Chambers and I will be the judges and will post the finalists some time in the coming week or two. The person that we determine to have the best “Flash Gem” will win a box of Flash MX 2004 books and perhaps a few other goodies.
Let the games begin!
on 16 Jul 2004 at 7:08 pm 1.Ping said …
Well, selecting something in AI, CTRL+C, and then CTRL+V’ing into Flash, would save some of the trouble of ‘importing’ or ‘exporting’ stuff. (Apart from CTRL+Z’ing :-))
on 16 Jul 2004 at 7:13 pm 2.Mike Downey said …
One note on Copy/Paste from Illustrator - you actually need to go into the Clipboard prefs in Illustrator (CS) and tell it to copy as paths (PDF) or else it will paste as a bitmap in Flash 2004.
MD
on 16 Jul 2004 at 9:54 pm 3.Matt said …
I’ve found many:
* Transition Classes
* History Panel
* Formatting Library
* Drag and Drop from Fireworks while maintaining editable text and other symbols and wrapping it in a movieclip.
* Document and Scene wide Search & Replace Panel
I’m sure I’ll think of more… but I’d say of those I’ve listed, the Transition classes are far and above the biggest gem I’ve found.
on 17 Jul 2004 at 12:42 pm 4.eyezberg said …
Nice feature:
export settings => check “gif”,
select “animated” radio button,
and use frame labels “#fisrt” and “#last” to select the frames you want to export as animated gif!
or:
the “strings panel” for multi-language content!
on 17 Jul 2004 at 12:55 pm 5.eyezberg said …
PS: I have linked to the contest
on 18 Jul 2004 at 5:31 am 6.Mario Klingemann said …
OMG- reading eyezberg’s post about the #first and #last labels, I just discovered something that I didn’t know it exists: by using the #Static label on a frame you can mark a different keyframe than the default first for export to a bitmap.
on 18 Jul 2004 at 5:34 am 7.Halans said …
This one’s about an extension, the Data Connection Wizard, to connect to an XML file using this wizard. There is a Document URL field which requires you to enter a URL to an XML file for example. You cannot simply copy/paste via ctrl+C/ctrl+V in the text field there (which is kind of strange in itself). But when putting focus on the textfield, you can mouse right-click, and select ‘paste’ from the context menu.
on 18 Jul 2004 at 5:36 am 8.John Dwight said …
I’ve been told that imported bitmaps “perform” better (in the Player) when animated, or manipulated by ActionScript, if they have been “Broken Apart” after Import (not to be confused with Modify –> Bitmap –> Trace Bitmap). Menu –> Modify –> Break Apart.
on 19 Jul 2004 at 4:09 am 9.urbian said …
Credit: Andre Michelle : 33.5 frames per second plays back equally well in the browser plugin, without degrading. Useful to know upfront before designing a game at 60 fps! Also the _quality = low feature doesn’t degrade bitmaps and embedded fonts. Design with view>preview mode>fast to see how a design will degrade at low quality hence producing quicker playback. Also you can compress a transparent png with jpg compression in the library, which is actually quite amazing. Oh geez I was teaching my younger brother flash and being the old school flasher, I was amazed to find that you could draw something in flash and convert it to a symbol just by dragging it into the library! Never think you know it all!
on 19 Jul 2004 at 1:15 pm 10.Jim Connolly said …
Quick Graphic Symbol Syncing
I found something a few years ago that I’ve never seen documented or talked about. If you are using the Graphic Symbols with lots of tweens, and the sync button is checked, swapping the 1st symbol will automatically change every symbol that is on that tween. I’ve tried this out with Movie Clips, and it doesn’t work like that.
This trick would be good for character and text animators. It’s improved my workflow many times. If I am animating text, I usually keep them as Graphic symbols for that reason, because I may be using that text symbol somewhere else, so I swap the 1st symbol in the tween and the rest change. You can use this with movie clips if you highlight all with Edit Multiple Frames on and turn them into graphics(you will lose your instance names though). It’s a neat feature.
on 19 Jul 2004 at 6:01 pm 11.DanD said …
Probably not award-worthy, but incredibly helpful for newbies:
Adding _mc to Movie Clip instance names keeps ActionScript code readable and allows the ActionScript editor to suggest and auto-complete appropriate attributes and handlers. Same goes for buttons (_btn) and text fields (_txt).
on 28 Jul 2004 at 3:07 am 12.jfalcon said …
best things about flash i use every day:
1) paste-in-place
2) alt-drag selected frame(s) to copy it
3) alt-click a shape edge to create a subdivision on the edge
4) write some text -> break apart text -> distribute to layers -> select all layers -> right click on layers and Create Motion Tween -> select all auto-created graphic symbols and change them into Movieclip instances on the stage -> write actionscript to animate each letter however you like (the hard part)
on 17 Aug 2004 at 5:38 pm 13.Robert Hoekman Jr said …
Here’s one that bothered me and a lot of other people for a long time, until I discovered the very simple cure:
I’ve always thought document tabs were a great addition to Flash MX 2004, despite the glaring annoyance that there was no keyboard shortcut for tabbing through them.
But then I found it. It’s Ctrl+Tab. (Unfortunately, this does not work on Mac, but it sure helps when I’m at work on the Windows box!)
on 30 Mar 2005 at 10:36 am 14.Connor G said …
Is there a keyboard shortcut for creating a motion tween? I am so tired of right clicking… It would save me alot of time if I could just use a shortcut instead.
on 13 Nov 2005 at 1:55 pm 15.google左侧排å?? said …
” and “#last” to select the frames you want to export as animated gif
on 22 Jul 2008 at 12:00 pm 16.amsterdamspoker said …
interessant artikel, kan ik het op mijn blog plaatsen? gr, remcowoudstra