Introducing Flash CS5
Adobe Flash CS5 (or simply Flash), previously known as Macromedia Flash. It is a multimedia graphics application specially used to add animation and interactivity to web pages. You can create vector graphics in Flash which allows you to scale the graphics to any size without losing clarity or quality. Web developers use this to create websites with custom, elaborate graphic intensive interfaces that contain music files, movies and games which can be easily and quickly downloaded. Moreover, organisations use Flash to create advertisements to promote their products on the internet.
It also has its own scripting language, called ActionScript which is based on the syntax and semantics of JavScript. Designed specially for web site animation. ActionScript allows Web developers to create interactive applications such as games and tutorials that can respond to user input through the keyboard or mouse. Many applications are able to display Flash content, such as the popular Adobe flash Player, which can be used with almost all web browsers.
A Flash file is saved with the .fla extension by default, and the test movies command. Used to execute these files, saves the rendered output in the .swf format along with the original .fla file. Every time a Flash file (.fla) is altered and executed by using the Test Movie command. Its associated .swf output file is automatically updated with the changes in the original file.
The Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) software support both the .fls and .swf file formats.
The latest version of Flash is Flash CS5, and includes various new and enhanced features. For example, the improved spring feature with the inverse Kinematics (IK) technique of Flash and Bone Tool makes adding realistic characters in your animations earier than ever before. In addition, the new Text Layout Framework (TLF) engine. It allows you to render text from right to left similar to many Asian languages. Apart from this, the code snippets included in Flash CS5 are arranged in a new CODE SNIPPETS panel for easy access. Moreover, unlike in earlier versions of Flash, where you could add cue points to videos either before the video was encoded or by using ActionScript versions, in Flash CS5 you can as quickly and easily by using the PROPERTIES panel.
The chapter begins by exploring the new and enhanced feature of Flash CS5. You then learn to start the Flash CS5 on your computer. After this, the chapter shows you how to create a new Flash document. Then acquaints you with the various components of the Flash CS% user Interface (UI). In addition, you learn to work with the workspaces available in Flash . You also learn to save your Flash document in different formats. After this, the chapter discusses the predefined templates available in Flash, where you also learn to open a template. Towards the end of the chapter, you learn to close a Flash document.
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