Excerpt from Adobe Flash CS4
Professional Digital Classroom

• Page 1
• Page 2

Links

• Additional Resources for Learning Flash

What you’ll learn in this lesson

• Exploring the improved drawing tools
• Using Copy and Paste Motion
• Examining improved video import and export
• Using ActionScript 3.0 and Flash Player 10
• Previewing movies with Adobe Device Central

What’s New in Adobe Flash CS4?

Adobe Flash is the premier program for designing rich, interactive content for the Web. It is also a leader in the creation of games, educational aids, mobile phone content, and cool desktop applications using Adobe AIR. Flash CS4 Professional contains many significant new features and updates for designers and media publishers, including a complete overhaul of Flash’s infamous animation engine.

Starting up

This lesson does not require any lesson files from the included DVD. You can start Flash CS4 Professional and explore each new feature as it is discussed. If you haven’t done so already, install Flash CS4 Professional and the Adobe Media Encoder. Instructions for installation, system requirements, and information on how to use lesson files from the included DVD are in the Starting up section on page 3 of this book.

If you are new to Flash, or simply want to jump right into a lesson, move ahead to Lesson 2, “Flash CS4 Jumpstart.” Like all the lessons in this book, the Jumpstart lesson is a hands-on approach to learning Flash CS4 Professional.

See Lesson 1 in action! Use the accompanying video to gain a better understanding of how to use some of the features shown in this lesson. Click here to view this lessonls sample video.

Testing the waters

Flash CS4 Professional includes dynamic additions and updates that appeal to all types of Flash users, designers, and developers alike. These include some great new drawing tools, 3D tools, and an all-new animation engine that makes working with Flash easier and more enjoyable. Here’s an overview of some of the updates you will find in Flash CS4.

New animation engine

Flash introduces a brand new animation engine, which changes the way motion tweens (automatic animations) are created and makes the process easier and more intuitive. Animation now creates tween spans, groups of frames that record and animate changes in position, scaling, and color to an object as you make them on the Stage.

Motion tweens now automatically include motion paths, which show a symbol’s trajectory on the Stage.

Now, you simply move the playhead to a position on the Timeline and reposition your object on the Stage; Flash takes care of creating the animation for you. Motion tweens now automatically display a motion path on the Stage, which shows you the trajectory your object will follow. These new motion paths can be directly selected and manipulated, allowing you to tweak the trajectory or move or resize an entire tween easily and quickly.

Motion Presets

You can now save animation behavior from any existing motion tween into a Motion Preset. You can recall and apply a Motion Preset to any tween span or tweened object to have several objects on the stage follow the same animation behavior.

The new Motion Presets panel (Window > Motion Presets) lets you manage, sort, and apply motion presets to existing tween spans on the Timeline.

The new Motion Preset panel lets you manage saved presets and apply them to tween spans on the Timeline.

The Motion Editor

You can now fine-tune and enhance motion tweens with the Motion Editor, a new panel that displays every aspect of an animation in a graph-style format. You can visually tweak properties such as position and transparency, and add easing behavior to mimic forces such as gravity and inertia. The Motion Editor gives you unprecedented control over every possible aspect of a motion tween, and even lets you add to and subtract from animation behavior without having to touch anything on the Stage.

The new Motion Editor gives you a lot of tactile control over your motion tweens.

New easing behaviors

Designers and animators now have access to several new easing behaviors (such as Bounce and Spring) that were only previously available to ActionScript programmers. You can even use different easing behaviors across each property, even for a single tween.

New drawing tools: The Deco and Spray Brush tools

Flash CS4 expands on its existing creative toolset with the addition of the Deco and Spray Brush tools, both of which use symbols from the Library to create interesting patterns and effects.

The Deco tool can create elaborate fills using a flower and leaf style pattern that can be animated to create interesting effects with little effort. The Deco tool also includes a new Symmetry Brush, which uses symbols from your library to draw elaborate symmetrical patterns.

The Spray Brush tool lets you paint creative patterns and textures using symbols from the Library ; it also gives you full control over brush size, symbol scaling, and randomization of ink drop sizes.

Illustrator users will find Flash’s Spray Brush tool to be nearly identical to Illustrator CS4’s Symbol Sprayer tool.

Learn more about the new drawing tools in Lesson 3, “Getting Started with the Drawing Tools,” and Lesson 5, “Advanced Tools.”

Unique patterns can be created easily with the Spray Brush tool (top) and Deco tool (bottom).

Adobe Flash Training Class Locations

AGI offers regularly scheduled and private Flash classes at our training centers. Adobe Flash Training in or near Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Orlando, and London, England. Learn Flash with a Flash class from AGI. Visit our Adobe Flash training class locations page.