So much content and so little space in which to display it. In this tutorial, I want to discuss the basics of creating scrollable content in ActionScript 3. In our examples, scrollable content will include much more than simple scrollable text fields. For our purposes here, we want to learn how to create scrollable content [...]
A couple years ago, I accidentally discovered method for giving Flash text an extruded, 3D look, and it’s insanely easy to do. Step 1 – Create Some Text – Easy enough, right? In this case, I want to put a gradient on the text, so to keep things simple, I’m just going to break the [...]
I recently posted a couple of ActionScript button tutorials that made use of the Tweener class instead of the traditional Tween class, so I thought it would be appropriate to talk a little more about the Tweener class and discuss why and how to use it. Tween vs Tweener It doesn’t take a Flash developer [...]
For some people, creating a separate class for a simple button is overkill. However, if you find yourself reusing the same kind of button over and over, it may behoove you to apply some simple object-oriented ActionScript. In the last tutorial, I demonstrated how to create an ActionScript 3 Button that didn’t rely on the [...]
In a previous tutorial, I demonstrated how to create a Movie Clip button in Flash. Movie Clips are much more flexible than Button Symbols, so it often makes more sense to use a Movie Clip and treat it as a Button. However, even the previous tutorial was a little limited in its possibilities in that [...]
The New Kid on the Block – HTML5 As a designer who has spent the better part of the last decade learning, working with, and teaching Flash, it has been very difficult for me to swallow the idea that there might be a new kid on the block. HTML5 is taking the web design world [...]
It has been a while since the last time I posted, and for those of you who hang on every word I say, I sincerely apologize for my time away from the blog. I’m going to make a concerted effort to post a little more regularly. Okay. Down to business. The issue of Apple’s decision [...]
Flash CS4 changed the way that motion tweens are handled. In CS3, tweens were very timeline-oriented, but CS4 has made them more object-oriented. This tutorial is a great overview of both the old and new ways of creating Motion Tweens using Flash.
Having problems with your preloader? It’s to be expected. Preloaders have a history of causing a lot of grief among Flash designers. Even once you get the loader bar working, you’ll often find that it takes the preloader itself several seconds before it shows up. Which defeats the purpose of having a preloader in the [...]