Tut - Designer

3D Hammer using Illustrator

2009-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

Output:

Download Source File

Step 1: Create a new document in Illustrator.

Step2: In the tools panel select Rounded Rectangle Tool.

Step 3: Now draw a rounded rectangle on the screen.

Step 4: Select Fill color as white and remove the Stroke color. You can remove the Stroke color by selecting Default Transparency on the Appearance Panel. Now change the Stroke weight to zero.

Step 5: Now left click the rounded rectangle. Click Effects on menu bar and select 3D and select Extrude & Bevel.

Step 6: Select Preview option.
Now change values in the text box,
Rotate on X-axis: 58
Rotate on Y-axis: -76
Rotate on Z-axis: 43

Set Extrude Depth as 346 pt
In Bevel select Complex 2
Select Height as 12 pt

Step 7: Now the rounded rectangle will appear like this,

Step 8: Similarly draw two circles, one circle slightly bigger than the other.
Select the bigger give it dark shade color and remove the stroke color.
Left click on the bigger circle, select Effects -> 3D -> Extrude & Bevel.

Set X-axis rotation: -171
Set Y-axis rotation: -68
Set Z-axis rotation: 1

Extrude Depth: 58 pt
Bevel: None

Step 9: Now select the smaller circle, give it a light color shade and remove the Stroke color.
Left click on the smaller circle, select Effects -> 3D -> Extrude & Bevel.

Set X-axis rotation: -171
Set Y-axis rotation: -68
Set Z-axis rotation: 1

Extrude Depth: 462 pt
Bevel: None

Now the two circles will look like this,

Step 10: Finally align all the pieces to make 3D hammer.
Copyright by : http://www.getw3help.com

Obama Logo Tutorial

2009-10-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

No matter what you think of his politics, U.S. presidential cantidate Barack Obama has a pretty incredible marketing and design machine behind him. One strong example of this is his “O” logo. Simple, attractive, symbolic, it’s undeniably an effective logo.

Another aspect of the Obama campaign that is attractive to a lot of American’s is the grass-roots, everybody can be involved attitude that they’ve been trying quite successfully to convey. In honor of that attitude, and just in time for the Democratic Convention, I thought I would show some really helpful Illustrator techniques by making the Obama logo. In this tutorial, we’ll be going over the Pathfinder, Envelope Warps, Opacity Masks, and Gradient Meshes. And we’ll use a drop shadow!

What’s that? You don’t think we can do it? I have three words for you my friend.

Yes. We. Can.

Step 1. Get Yourself Ready

I’m working with a 400px by 400px artboard. I’ve set a verticle gradient from #0768A4 to #168ACB. Also, it’s important you’re working in CMYK for this tutorial. I’ll explain later when we get down to the Opacity Masks.

Step 2. Lay the Foundation

Make a 350px by 350px white circle in the middle of your artboard.

Step 3. Lay Another Foundation

Select your cirlce and copy in front (ctrl + f, mac cmd + f) to make a copy in the same position. Size it down to 320px by 320px and apply the same gradient that you have on the background. You’ll want to have the light blue on the bottom of this circle, and push it up past the middle.

Step 4. And a Third Foundation

Now copy in front (ctrl + f, mac cmd + f) again, size the circle down to 175px by 175px, and change the fill to white.

Step 5. Stripes

Now we have to make the gently sloping stripes that represent the bountiful fields of the American mid-west. We start to do this by making five rectangles, alternating red and white. You can start by making one rectangle, then hold down alt (mac option) and drag the shape to make another copy. Line them up, and repeat till you have your five stripes.

Step 6. Bendy Stripes

Now it’s time to get your warp on! Yeah! Hit ctrl + alt + shift + w (mac cmd + option + shift + w) or go to Object>Envelope Distort>Make With Warp… A dialogue box will pop up. Click the preview box, so you can see what you’re doing, and set distortion just the way you like it. I have mine set to Arc, with the bend at 25%, and the horizontal distortion at -50%.

Step 7. Bendy, Stripey Ground

Now you want to size up, rotate, and align your stripes. You want the top of your shape stopping slightly below the halfway mark of your innermost white circle, representing the sunrise of a new day or something. The bottom of the stripes need to cover the bottom of the inner blue circle.

Step 8. Pathfinding

Now we’re going to use an incredibly helpful tool that I’ve used in other tutorial’s. Say hello to the Pathfinder. Select the inner blue circle, copy it in front (ctrl + f, mac cmd + f) and move the copy to the front (ctr + shift + ], mac cmd + shift + ] ). Now select your stripes, expand (Object>Envelope>Expand) and ungroup (ctrl + shift + g, mac cmd + shift + g) them. Finally, select your stripes and the blue circle copy, and hit the crop button in the pathfinder window. You should end up with this:

Now, if you’re the boring type, you could stop right here with a perfectly functional Obama logo. If you’re the adverterous type, why don’t you continue with me?

Step 9. Depth and Shadow

Now you’re going to copy the big white circle from the back, and move it to the front (remember that one? ctrl + shift + ], mac cmd + shift + ] ). Here’s another really great illustrator thing, the gradient mesh. Object>Create Gradient Mesh, then a dialogue window will popup. I set it to 3 columns and three rows. The more detail you want on your gradient, the more rows and columns you should set. For our purposes, 3 is fine.

Now we’re going to begin adding color to individual points on our mesh. Anywhere you want to darken (in my case the bottom left side of the logo) should be assigned darker shades.

In the transparency panel, we’re going to set the blend mode to multiply, and the opacity to 80.

Step 10. The Bright Horizon

Now we have to make the bright glow coming up from beyond the horizon. Any ideas on how to do this? If you said, “Let’s just use a simple white to black gradient with the blend mode set to lighten or screen.” you’d be wrong. Dead wrong.

Because of some problem, which I won’t pretend to understand, with working with CMYK in Illustrator, sometimes you can’t do lighten or screen gradients. Why don’t we just work with RGB then? Because the gradients look cruddy, that’s why.

The solution lies in something called an Opacity Mask. First select your inner blue circle, copy it, and move it to the front. Now set the fill to white and set the blend mode to lighten. While in the transparency panel, open up the more options menu and select Make Opacity Mask. Now with your opacity mask selected, make a rectangle with a white to black gradient fill. Keep in mind, the white area displays fully what’s underneath, and as you’re getting closer to black, it masks more and more.

Step 11. More Practice Masking

Now we need to set up another opacity mask for the “shine” cast by the rising sun. Copy, paste, and move to front The blue circle. Size it down slightly, and align it with the bottom of the original blue circle. Now Copy this circle, but don’t paste it yet. Set the blend mode of the white circle to Screen.

Now create an Opacity Mask on this layer, like you did for your last layer. With the opacity layer selected, paste the circle into it from your clipboard and set the fill to a black to white gradient. Play around with your gradient till you get the effect you want.

Step 12. The Finishing Touch

To finish things off we’re going to add a little dropshadow. Select Effect>Stylize>Drop Shadow, set your settings, and go for it. I have the mode set to Multiply, opacity at 75%, x offset -10px, y offset 10px, and blur to 15px.

Illustrator Tutorial: How to Make an Icy Cocktail

2009-10-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Do you desire to drink an icy refreshing cocktail on a sunny day? I know I am, so in this tutorial, I will explain how I draw a refreshing cocktail drink in illustrator. Hope you will find this useful and inspiring to make other kinds of drinks or cocktails.

Drawing the Glass Shape

Open a new document, any size, RGB mode. Take the Pen tool and draw the shape that you see in the image below or just draw half of it and then reflect it to be symmetrical, like I did. Fill it with the linear gradient shown. Colors are: (230,230,230) or 10% black; white (255,255,255) and (204,204,204) 20% black.

Now copy and paste in front this shape. Take the Direct Selection tool and select the upper point of the shape and drag it a bit down like in the image. Make the same with the lower point of the shape. Then fill it with the linear gradient shown using the colors: (191,191,191) or 25% black; white (255,255,255) and (230,230,230) 10% black.

Next, copy and paste in front of the shape again and make it a little smaller. Fill it with the linear gradient using the colors: (77,77,77) 70% black; white and (51,51,51) 80% black, then set it to Color Burn. We will use this shape again later to make the liquid inside the glass. You should get something like in the image below:

Drawing the Glass Legs

Now let’s make the ‘leg’ of the glass. Draw the shape from the image below or just half of it and reflect it, then fill it with the gradient shown: (204,204,204) 20% black; (230,230,230) 10% black; white; (242,242,242) 5% black and (153,159,164).

Drawing the Glass Foot

For the ‘foot’ of the glass take the Ellipse tool and draw the shape that you see in the image and fill it with the linear gradient. Colors I’ve used are: (230,230,230) 10% black; white and (178,178,178) 30% black. To create more depth, copy and paste the shape that we just made, fill it with a darker gray and place it like in the image below. Now, the glass should look like this:

Coloring the Drink

It’s time to color the drink. Copy the shape that I said we will use it for this part and fill it the gradient using the colors: (63,98,46); (85,124,62); (168,194,88); (248,211,103) and (251,232,191) or any other colors that you prefer. The original shape, set to Color Burn that we made, has to be on top of this one not the other way.

Next, draw a simple shape like the one below and fill it with a linear gradient using the orange from above and a darker one. This way we will get the surface of the liquid inside and a more realistic look for the cocktail.

Drawing the Ice Cubes

Now, we will make the ice cubes. Take the Pencil tool and draw some shapes like the ones below. Fill them with a radial gradient from white to black, set the mode to Screen and lower the opacity for each one of them. You can adjust this later also till you like what you see.

Now place them all on top of the glass shape and you should have now something like this:

Adding in Details for Ice Cubes

We will continue to add some details to the ice cubes. Take the Pencil tool, draw some random shapes and fill them using different shades of orange. If necessary, lower the opacity for each one of them.

Creating Reflections

We will add some reflections in this step. With the Pen tool draw the shapes from the image below, fill them with a linear gradient using white and a similar green color to the one used for the liquid, then set the mode to multiply and lower the opacity.

Water Fizzles

To make the cocktail look more realistic, I decided to draw some water fizzles on the glass. With the Pen tool draw a shape like the one below or any other shape that will fit on top of the glass later. Copy and paste the shape and fill it with the linear gradient shown using black, white and gray. Place the second shape on top of the first one and go to Transparency panel and select Make opacity mask.

Now go to Effects/Pixelate/Mezzotint and select Fine Dots. Place the shape on top of the glass, set the mode to Screen and reduce the opacity till you get the icy effect that you like.

Water Droplets Dripping Effect

Take the Pen tool and draw a shape like the next one to make the water drop flow. Fill it with a linear gradient using the same colors like the drink inside the glass. Next, go to Effects/Pixelate/Crystallize and set the Cell size to 4, this will make the flow look more natural.

Now, place the shape on top of the water fizzles shape made earlier. Set the mode to multiply and lower the opacity.

Water Droplets

For the water droplets, take the Ellipse tool, draw 3 shapes, color them with (63,98,46) dark green; (179,202,109) light green and white, then place them on top of each other like in the image below. Go to Effects/Stylize/Drop Shadow and set the values like you see in the image and then group them all.

Placing the Water Droplets

Place the water drop like in the image and reduce the opacity to 25%. Copy one more water droplet and made it smaller to get a more realistic look.

We are done with this part and the cocktail should now look like the image below.

Drawing the Straw

It’s time to draw the cocktail accessories. With the Pen tool draw a shape like a straw. Fill it with white and a 0.5px light gray stroke.

With the Rectangle tool draw a small rectangle, fill it with green or other color that you prefer and drag it to the Brushes panel. Then I made the orange rectangle, we will need this one later for the second straw.

Next, draw a path with the Pen tool following the straw shape and stroke it using the green brush that we just made. Place it on top of the other one and make an Opacity mask. Copy the straw shape, select the path with the green stroke, double click the black square that you see in the image and paste the straw shape that we copied, then exit the mask mode. You should get something like in the image below.

Now make another Opacity mask so the bottom of the straw looks more transparent when we will place it in the glass. You can adjust the mask later if needed.

Make the second straw like we did the green one. Then place them on top of the glass and adjust the Opacity mask for both of them to look realistic. I got something like this:

Drawing the Umbrella Stem

We will make the little umbrella for our cocktail. Use the brush from the Library that you see in the image, Expand appearance and fill it with a light brown. Copy and paste this shape, then delete the points except the 3 ones from the tip to make the little shape from the image. Copy and make 8 shapes that we will use later.

Drawing the Umbrella

Using the Pen tool draw a shape like the one below and fill it with a linear gradient using 2 green colors or other colors that you prefer. Draw some lines starting from the top and color them using a light and a dark green like in the image below.

Next, place the 8 shapes that we made earlier and draw with the Pen tool the little shape on top. The flower I used is from the Symbols Library and I set it to multiply. The umbrella is ready and should look like this:

Cocktail Stirrer

Next using the Ellipse tool and the Rounded Rectangle tool draw the cocktail stirrer. Fill them with a linear gradient. The colors that I have used are (244,237,203) and (244,187,58).

Final Cocktail

The final cocktail image is done. The final image of the cocktail looks like this:

Hope you have enjoyed this cocktail tutorial and find it useful and refreshing.

How to Create a Mesh Flower in Illustrator

2009-10-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Illustrator
Version: CS4
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours

Step 1

Open up a new document and select the Polygon Tool. Click once on the artboard and choose Radius 50pt and Sides: 6 in the pop up window. Fill the polygon with an orange color.

Step 2

Select the Mesh Tool (U) and start adding mesh points. Click once on the top line of the polygon.

Step 3

Then repeat the step by clicking in the middle and on the right of the top horizontal line of the polygon as shown.

Step 4

Then click once right into the middle of the polygon with the Mesh Tool (U).

Step 5

Select the Direct selection Tool (A) and highlight the center mesh point, then fill it with a darker orange.

Step 6

Next, select each corner mesh point and fill it with a yellow.

Step 7

Start dragging each middle mesh point of each side of the polygon towards the middle until you create a similar star shape, just like you see in the image below.

Step 8

Let's move onto the flower pedal creation. Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a similar shape as shown in the image below. Fill it with 5% Black.

Step 9

Create another shape similar to the one shown below, which will be the bottom part of the flower pedal. Fill it with a pink or any other color of your choice. Then go to Effect > Stylize > Feather, then set the Feather amount to 5pt. Place it on top of the gray pedal.

Step 10

Apply mesh points to the pedal with the Mesh Tool (U). Select random mesh points and fill them with a darker gray.

Step 11

Select the smaller pink shape and make a copy. Then scale it down to about 75% of the original one. Fill it with a darker pink or a purple. Apply a Feather effect of 2pt.

Step 12

Group the flower pedal and the two small shapes together. Then select the grouped shape and Rotate (R) and duplicate it until you have six pedals.

Step 13

Select the orange shape from Steps 1-4 and place it on top of the pedals. Set the layer mode to 88% Opacity and apply a Feather effect of 5pt.

Step 14

Make a copy of the orange feather shape and scale it down.

Step 15

Create a rectangle and fill it with green. Then add mesh points with the Mesh Tool (U). Select random points and fill them with a darker or lighter green. This will be the backdrop.

Step 16

Group all the flower shapes together and make a copy. Then apply a Gaussian Blur effect of 21 pixels.

Step 17

Place it on top of the backdrop.

Step 18

You can add some text on the right.

Step 19

Make a copy of the blurred flower, scale it down and place it to the right of the bigger one. Set the layer mode to 20% Opacity.

Step 20

Make another copy and apply a stronger Gaussian Blur of 65 pixels, then place it on top of the big flower. Set the layer mode Opacity back to 100%.

Step 21

I started adding some Opacity Masks to the original non-blurred flower and placed several into the background in order to create a sense of depth of field. will explain how in the next step.

Step 22

Take a copy of the original flower and apply an Opacity Mask. Select the Opacity Mask window (Black square).

Step 23

Create a circle that is bigger than the flower and fill it with a black to white linear gradient.

Step 24

Add another smaller ellipse on top with a black to white gradient. This will hide the edges of the pedals. Remember, we are still in the same Opacity Mask.

Step 25

Leave the Opacity Mask. Place another original flower on top. We want to add another Opacity Mask.

Step 26

Repeat Step 24 and apply another Opacity Mask. As you can see, the image is set up with several flowers placed on top or behind, scaled down or blurred. This will create the illusion of a depth of field and it makes it much more interesting.

Conclusion

Voila, that's it folks. Opacity Masks can be difficult to understand, but they can help to create some awesome effects. Just remember that black hides and white reveals and always make sure that you are in the active Opacity Window and that you leave it by clicking on the layer window next to it.

How to Create A Realistic Chef’s Knife in Illustrator

2009-10-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes

Step 1

We want to create a chef's knife in perspective view to incorporate in an illustrated recipe. First read up what Wikipedia has to say about this type of knife. Now fire up Illustrator, hit Command + N to create a new document and choose A4 with landscape orientation. Imagine a big chef's knife lying on the cutting board at an angle, then draw the following shape using the Pen Tool (P).

Step 2

That will be the blade. Make sure it's a closed shape. Get rid of the black stroke and fill it with a soft medium-to-light gray gradient, making sure it's aligned with the blade so the tip will be lighter. From now on let's assume that the light comes from the left so the right side will be darker.

Step 3

Let's draw the cutting edge. With the blade selected copy it (Command + C) and paste it in front (Command + F). With the Direct Selection Tool (A) slide the bottom right vertex close to the edge, then reshape the edge's curve by manipulating the handles of the top left vertex. You should get a thin shape as shown.

Step 4

Shade the cutting edge with a Linear Gradient from medium gray (top) to white (bottom) - nice and shiny!

Step 5

Draw two arched rectangles across the blade to simulate reflections. Always use Smart Guides (Command + U) to make sure the anchor points snap to the paths. Make the bottom vertices to overlap the cutting edge a little.

Step 6

Shade the reflections with standard, white to black gradients aligned with their direction. The manipulator in the next image, available only in Illustrator CS4, shows you the gradient's direction.

If you have an older version of Illustrator just grab the Gradient Tool (G) from the toolbar, then click and drag on the object to orient the fill. We want to make the reflections fade as they recede from view so put the black color on top. Now in the Transparency panel, select the Screen blending mode from the pull-down menu and reduce the Opacity to 60%.

Step 7

Draw the bolster now. Make the right part stand out from the blade's profile, but snap the left anchor points to the cutting edge, so the bolster will look thicker at the top and tapered down at the bottom.

Step 8

Shade the bolster with a linear gradient. Always maintain consistency with the light's direction by applying the lighter shade to the left side.

Step 9

Add thickness to the bolster by drawing the following shape. Again use Smart Guides for precision.

Step 10

Fill this shape using a gradient with three shades to emphasize the curve.

Step 11

Draw the top of the handle with a single closed path.

Step 12

Fill it with a very dark gradient and make sure the left edge is slightly brighter. For the orientation refer to the following image.

Step 13

Create a copy of this object, right-click on it and select Arrange > Send to Back, or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + Left Bracket key. Then move it down and snap it to the bottom of the bolster's thickness.

Step 14

Erase the topmost anchor point then draw vertical connection lines:

Step 15

Now grab the Scissors Tool (C) and click on the bottom curve where the vertical connection line touches it (15a). Erase the little path that sticks out (15b). Now with the Direct Selection tool (A), draw a window around the new anchor point. Hit J to Join the two paths, choosing the Smooth option (15c).

Step 16

Join the leftmost segments as in the following image.

Step 17

Duplicate the top curve and hide it. We'll combine its copy with the bottom curve to create the side of the handle. Lock the middle connection line, then use the Scissors Tool (C) to cut both the top and bottom curves where they intersect with it. When you're done, erase the S-shaped segment between the two curves. Refer to the image below.

Step 18

Join the new paths to create two shapes for the side of the handle. Follow the instructions in the next image.

Step 19

Let's shade the side of the handle. Again use gradients that help define the shape, remaining consistent with the light's direction.

Step 20

Create the tang of the blade, the thin metal strip enclosed in the handle, by copying (Command + C) and pasting in front (Command + F) the two side shapes.

Lock the original shapes to avoid selecting them. Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), move the top anchor points down and the bottom points up, effectively creating a thin, centered slice of the side shapes. Shade the tang with light gray gradients, simulating both the rounded shape and the reflections.

Step 21

Create the handle's rivets with three simple ellipses. Align and position them correctly by using a perspective guide. Make them bigger as they get closer. Shade them with linear gradients from white to light gray to simulate subtle ambient reflections. Our chef's knife is now finished!

Conclusion

Even if you don't possess advanced Illustrator skills you can still create realistic objects by paying attention to volume, perspective and shading. I hope this tutorial inspired you and made you hungry for more!

3D Vase

2009-10-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

This tutorial shows you how to create a nice 3D vase in 5 minutes with Illustrator CS2 3D Revolve Tool. It is fun and easy!

Version: Illustrator CS2

Download Source File

1. Create a path

First, create a path like the image shown below with the Pen Tool, go to menu Effect > 3D > Revolve

3D Revolve Options

The 3D Revolve Options window should pop up and look like the image below. Click on More Options if the lower portion window is not showing. You can leave most of the setting as default, but add an additional light spot by click the New Light icon and drag it to the lower left corner as shown. Enter 35 for Blend Steps, maximum Blend Steps is 256, higher Blend Steps results better rendering quality but also increases file size and memory.

2. Create the flower symbol

Now use the Ellipse Tool, create a flower like the image below. I have a very simply flower illustration here, but you can create anything as you like. Drag the flower to the Symbols Library Pallate to create a new symbol. If your Symbols Pallate is not showing, press Ctrl+Shift+F11 or go to Windows > Symbols to show Symbols.

3. Create Map Art

With the vase object selected, in Appearance Pallate, double click on the 3D Revolve effect icon(f) to change the 3D Revolve Options.

When the 3D Revolve Options window pop ups, click on Map Art button.

Map Art options

Check Preview option so you can preview the result. At the top where it says, Surface, use the arrow buttons to locate the surface that you want to Map Art. Notice there is a red wireframe on your object which show you the surface you’ve selected. In this case, it is 4 of 5. From the Symbol drop down, select the symbol that you’ve created in the previous step. You can position and resize the symbol in way as you want. You can also create multi-surface Map Art by selecting the Surface then the Symbol. Click OK when you are happy with the result.

Final

That’s it! With just 3 simple steps, I just created a nice 3D Vase with Illustrator 3D Revolve Tool.

Advanced Flash Website

2009-09-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Creating the Layout

For the first part, we're going to create the basic layout.

Step 1.

To start off, create a new Flash document with the following settings.

Step 2.

Double click on the rounded rectangle and set the corner radius to 15

Step 3.

Create a greay (#E4E4E4) rounded rectangle, using the settings shown below. I've zoomed out to 50% here.

Enlarge

Step 4.

Convert the rectangle into an MC (Movie Clip Symbol) called main. This is where we'll be creating the site.

Step 5.

Go into the 'main' MC and convert the rectangle into another MC, this time calling it 'bg'

Step 6

Open up the 'bg' mc, create a 2nd layer and a grey/green (#839597) rectangle, without rounded corners

Enlarge

Step 7

Create a 3rd, darker (#B4B4B4) rectangle on another new layer.

Enlarge

Step 8

Make a 4th lighter grey rectangle

Enlarge

Step 9.

Go back to the 'main' MC, and import the header image onto the stage.

Step 10

Convert the header image into an MC (Movieclip) called 'header'

Adding the Content.

Step 11.

Next we'll be adding the content for the website. Create a layer called 'content' in the main MC, and then create a light grey rounded rectangle.

Step 12.

This will be used for background of each section, so convert it to an MC called 'sectionBackground. We'll also be using it has a mask as the sections scroll, so give it an identifier of the same name, by ticking the 'export for actionscript' box.

Step 13.

So, now that we've created an MC for the background, we'll start creating each section. Convert the background to a new MC called 'section_flash'. Give it the identifier 'section_flash' also. This identifier will be used later to add the section dynamically using actionscript.

Step 14.

Now we're going to add some content to the 'section_flash' MC. I've added a header to an new layer in the MC, using the settings below.

Step 15.

Some body text using the settings below.

Step 16.

Next I've added some some thumbnails, which i'll be creating some actionscript to make them open a new window.

Step 17.

Convert the thumbnail to a new mc 'flash_thumb_0'

Step 18.

Give it an instance name with the same name, so that we can use actionscipt to make it do something.

Step 19.

Create several more thumbnails, each with a different instance name. As you can see below, ive give tne 2nd thumbnail the instance name 'flash_thumb_1'

Step 20.

Now create a layer called 'script'. The code below tells flash to open a new window and go to the URL, when 'flash_thumb_0' is pressed.

Step 21.

Now add the code for each of the other thumbnails

Step 22.

Now that we've create the first content section, we can use it as a template to create the others. Right click on the section_flash MC from the library and choose 'duplicate'. You'll then be presented with the follow window.

Step 23.

Change it's name to a new section, and give it the same identifier. As you can see i've changed it to photoshop, as i'll be changing the flash thumbnails to photoshop thumbnails.

Step 24.

Open up the new section MC, and change the brightness of the background.

Step 25.

Add some different thumbnails, giving them new instance names. Then add some new text.

Step 26.

Change the code so that the new thumbnail instance names are refered to.

Creating the Buttons

Step 27.

In part 3 we're going to be creatig the buttons for the drop down menu, but first make a new layer called 'bar'. Import (File > Import > Import to Stage) the bar graphic onto the new layer, placing at the positions shown below,

Enlarge

Step 28.

Now we're going to create a button, that will be used to activate the drop down menu. So, create a layer called 'main button'. Use the rectangle tool to create a dark grey (#898989) rectangle, and use the selection tool to cut off the bottom.

Step 29.

Convert the rectangle into an button symbol called 'mainButton'

Step 30.

Go into the 'mainButton,' create a key frame at the over state, and then increate the darkness of the rectangle.

Step 31.

Create a new layer called text, and then add some text for the main button.

Step 32.

Next we're going to make the drop down menu sub buttons, which we'll later write the actionscript to attach them dynamically. For the moment we'll create the sub buttons temporarily on the stage, so create a new layer, and then create a rectangle. The outline is grey (#CCCCCC) and the fill is white.

Step 33.

Convert the rectangle to an MC called subButton, giving it an identifier of the same name,

Step 34.

Go into the subButton MC and create a key frame on frame 2. Change the color of the fill color to something you'd like as the sub button is rolled over. I've used a peach color (#F1E3DE)

Step 35.

Next add the text on a new layer, using the setting shown below. It's important to make it 'dynamic' so that it has the ability to change while the SWF file is being viewed. We also need to give it a var (txt) so that the name of the button can be assigned dynamically.

Creating the Menu & Sections With Actionscript

Step 36.

Now that we've created all the assets for the website, it's now time to start writing the actionscript, to make the website functional. So, in the 'main' MC, create a new layer called 'script' and open up the Actions Panel (F9)

Step 37.

Line 1 - On the first line, enter the code shown above. The 'menu' array is created to hold each menu button name. We'll be writing the actionscript so that menu buttons can be added by simply add and subtracting names from the menu array.

Step 38.

Line 2 - An empty MC is created, called 'content' which will later be used to attach each section onto. The content MC can then be scrolled along the X axis, rather than moving each individually section.

Line 3 - The 'sectionBackground' MC is attched and given the instance name 'mask'. The mask MC will be used to mask the content MC.

Line 4 - The mask and content MC's are placed at the Y position where we want the content to appear.

Line 5 - The mask and a variable called target are placed at an X position of where we want the content to appear. When the website loads, to make it more interesting, the first section will be displayed off screen and then scroll to the 'target' position. The target value will later be used to hold a value that the content must scroll to, each time it's associated menu button is pressed.

Line 6 - The content MC is set to be masked by the mask MC.

Line 7 - The content MC is set to start at -1000 X position. We'll later write some Actionscript to scroll the content MC from this value to the target value.

Step 39.

Line 8 - A speed is set for how fast the section MC will scroll at.

Step 40.

Line 9 - xStart is the X position where the 1st drop down button will appear.

Line 10 - yStart is the Y position where the 1st drop down button will appear.

Line 11 - bWidth is the width of the button. Since the button has a hairline border (stroke), the thickness of it won't change as the width and heigh of the button are changed.

Line 12 - bHeight is the height of the button. This value will be used to place each button vertically.

Step 41.

Line 13 - A 0.05 second insterval is stored in this variable, which will be used inbetween scrolling down each menu button. The higher this number, the longer it will take for each button to move down after the previous one.

Line 14 - This variable holds number of items in the menu array. It'll be used when attaching the menu buttons - More will be explaing later.

Line 15 - A variable to hold a boolean value for the menu being open or closed.

Line 16 - A time stamp will be held in this variable.

Step 42.

Line 17 - The speed at which the buttons will scroll.

Step 43.

Line 18 - A for loop is created to loop through the items in the menu array. The "i" in the loop will start off at 0 and increment by 1 (i++), while i is below the menu's length.

Line 19 - Using the loop, each menu item is attached the empty 'content' MC, by referencing the identifier ('section_photoshp' etc) that we gave each section MC earlier. Each section is assigned to a temporary variable called "section", that we can use to set its properties.

Step 44.

Line 20 - The section's X position is set using it's width and multiplying it by the incrementing "i" in the loop. So since the each section is 588 in width, the 1st section, from the menu array, will be placed at 0 (0x588) X position in the "content" empty MC. The 2nd section will be placed 588 (1X588), and so on until "i" has reached the menu array length.

Line 21- Each sub button MC is attached, by referencing the identifier ('subButton') that we gave the button earlier. The subButton is then assigned to 'b', which we can then use to reference it.

Line 22- When the buttons scroll down, each will appear from behind the previous one, so when they're created they need to be attached on a level below the preious button. So, the countDown variable is used on line 21 to give the subButtons a level, and then decreased by 1, for the next button appears to appear on a level below.

Step 45.

Line 23 - 'b' (The current subButton MC) is told to stop since it has 2 frames.

Line 24- 25 - The subButtons are positioned at xStart and yStart, which were decalred at the top earlier.

Step 46.

Line 26 - A interval' property is then given to the 'b'. The interval, which was created earlier, is multiplied by 'i', so the buttons descend sequentially.

Line 26 - When the 'mainButton' is pressed, each subButton needs a target Y position to scroll down to. So the subButton height is multiplied by 'i' and then added on to the star position of the sub buttons. This valued is assigned to the target property.

Step 47.

Line 28 - Remember when the subButton dynamic text was created, a var (txt) was given to it? Now this can be used to display the sub button text, using the text stored in the menu array.

Line 29 - The content MC, containing each section, also needs a target each time a subButton is pressed, so this is stored in the 'pos' property of each subButton. The target of the 1st section was set at the start, so it's now added to i - the section width.

Step 48.

Line 30 - An onPress function is given to 'b'

Line 31 - When the sub button is pressed the target variable will be set as the pos property

Line 32 - The closeMenu function, which is about to be created, is called.

Line 33 - A function is going to be created to tell the sub button to go to it's roll over state (frame 2) whenever it's rolled over. When the sub button is pressed, the buttons's state must change back to the default (frame 1).

Step 49.

Line 35 - 40 - The roll over and out functions are created.

Line 41 - Each sub button is set to be insible when they are first created.

Step 50.

And this is the Actionscript so far:

Scrolling the Buttons and Content With Actionscript

Step 51.

In the previous part the sections and the menu were created with Actionscript. In the final part the drop menu and the content sections will be made to scroll, when the main button is pressed. Here is rest of the code explained:

Line 43 - A closeMenu() function created which will be called when a subButton is pressed, or if the drop down menu is open and the main button is pressed again.

Line 44 - 46 - The sub button MCs are then looped through and made invisible.

Line 47 - 48 - They're then positioned back to the start, ready to be scrolled down again.

Line 50 - menuOpen is then set to false

Step 54.

Line 52 - Next an onPress function is created for the main button.

Line 53 - menuOpen is checked to see if it's false (!menuOpen)

Line 54 - If is false, that means to menu is closed, so the current time (getTimer) is assigned to 'theTime'. This variable will then be used as an interval between each button scrolling.

Line 55 - Now that the button has been pressed, while it's closed, menuOpen is set to true.

Line 56 - 58 - A FOR loop is then used to make each button visible.

Line 59 - 61 - If menuOpen is true (else) and the main button MC is pressed the menu is currently open, so the closeMenu() function is called.

Step 57.

Line 63 - 64 - Next a function is created to scroll the buttons if the menu is open

Line 65 - 66 - The buttons are looped through again, and b is assigned to hole the current button in the loop.

Line 67 - Back over at line 26, an interval was assigned to each subButton. This is now added on to the time recorded at line 54, when the mainButton was pressed, and checked to see if it's lower than the current time (

Line 68 - This is the code used to move the b (subButton) to b's "target" value minus b's current X position divided by the scroll speed

Step 59.

Line 73 - An onEnterFrame function is created which will execute any code inbetween the braces {} repedly, at the frame rate of the movie.

Line 74 - This is the code used to move the "content" MC to the "target" value minus the content's current X position divided by the scroll speed.

Line 75- The scrollButtons function can be called repetedly, since there's an IF statement checking to see if the menu is open.

Step 60.

Here' is 2nd part of the code all at once:

Preloading the Website

Step 61.

For the final part we'll be creating the preloader for the website. So, go back to root of the time, where the 'Main' MC is, and move the frame that it's on to frame 2.

Step 62.

Now make a text field on the 1st frame, with the text "loading", using the settings shown below

Step 63.

Convert the text field (F8) to an MC called 'loader'

Step 64.

Double click on the 'loader' MC and create a 2nd text field on the right, with the text "99%". From the properties panel the text has been made "dynamic", and a Var (variable) has been given to it called "p". When the website is preloading, this variable will hold the percent value that's loaded so far, and it'll be displayed in the dynamic text field.

Step 65.

Go back to the root timeline. Now instead of placing the code on a frame on the timeline, place it on the loader MC, by clicking on it, open up the Actions Panel, and then entering the code below. This piece of Actionscript will check to see how much of the website has loaded and display the percentage in the text, using the 'p' variable. Once the whole of it is loaded, the timeline will go to frame 2, and the site will be displayed

Step 66.

Lastly, on the 1st frame of the root timeline, place a stop() action on a new layer.

And that brings us to the end of this Flash tutorial to create an advanced website. Download FLA

Basic Flash Website

2009-09-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Part 2) Creating the Main Movieclip

Step 5.

Next we'll be creating the main MC (movieclip) where all the parts of the website will go. The main MC will be on the root timeline of the flash movie. So, click on the white rectangle and convert it into an MC called 'main'. You can do this by either pressing f8 or by going to Modify > Convert to symbol.

Step 6.

So, now that we've created the main MC, double click on it.

Step 7.

Click on the white rectangle again and convert into another MC, this time named 'background'

Step 8.

Double click on the background MC and choose the Selection Tool (V). Drag your mouse over the white rectangle, selection around 3/4 of it.

Step 9.

Set the fill color (circled in blue) to a dark grey color (#484848)

Enlarge Image

Step 10.

So that's the background MC created, go back to the Main MC. Name the layer with the background MC "background" and create 2 other layers called "content" and "buttons"

Part 3) Adding Some Content

Step 11.

In part 3 we're going to be adding some content. Using the Text Tool (T), add a title for the site's homepage, using the settings below.

Step 12.

Convert the text into an MC called 'content'

Step 13.

Go into the content MC and name the layer "sections"

Step 14.

Add a subheading, if you like, using the settings shown below.

Step 15.

And some body text.

Step 16.

You can use the Align Panel (Window > Align) to align all the text to the right, by click on the icon circled in red.

Step 17.

I've copied (edit > copy) the title and subtitle and pasted (edit > paste in place) it to the right for a 'featured' section.

Part 4) Optimizing an Image & Making it a Button

Step 18.

Now we're going to add an image and optimize it. When importing images (File > Import > Import to Stage) into flash you have the ability to optimize them, but a balance must be struck between quality and low file size, to allow for quick loading of the flash file (SWF). It's good to optimize your images from within flash, becuase you can tweak their quality whenever you want, without having to open them up again in an image editing program. So the file extension i usually use for images is PNG, which provides a high quality image. So below you can see a image, that I've imported, as the featured item of the Flash site.

Step 19.

The image is called "best.png". You can optimize it by right clicking on 'best', from the layers panel, and by choosing properties. You'll then be shown the panel shown below.

Step 20.

Un-check the 'Use document default quality' settings, and the default quality (50) will be revealed. You can see a preview of th quality in the image to the left which, as you can see, is quite poor. You can also see the size of the image at the bottom.

Step 20.

Step 21.

Now that the image has been optimized, we're going to create turn it into a button, that opens up a browser window. Convert the image into an MC (F8) called 'bestMC'

Step 22.

Give the MC an instance name, from the properties panel, called 'best'.

Step 23.

The image can now be given some functionality by refering to the instance name. In the content MC, create a new layer called script and click on the 1st frame of the layer. Open up the actions panel and enter the code shown below. This code refers to the image, using the instance name 'best', giving it an onRelease function. So when ever the image is pressed and release, it can be told to do something. In this case, it's told to open up a browser window (getURL), using the address of this website. We also have to add a stop action, because we're about to create more frames in the content MC.

Part 5) Adding More Content

Step 24.

Next we're going to add the rest of the content. Later on we'll be creating some buttons which. when pressed, will display it's corresponding section. In the content MC we''re going to create each section at a different frame. When one of the buttons is pressed, the content MC will go to the frame with the right content on. To do this, we're going to give each section a label that we can tell the content MC to go to. So, create a new layer called 'labels', inbetween the script and section layer. Click on the first frame of the labels layer and, at the properties panel, enter 'about' under 'frame' (cirlced in red).

Step 25.

Select frame 10 of all the layers and then insert key frames for each layer (F6)

Step 26.

On frame 10, of the labels layer, add another label called "portfolio". You can add more frames, extending them fto frame 20, by using f5 while layer 10 of all frames are selected.

Step 27.

Change all the text to suit this section and add the first thumbnail for your portfolio

Step 28.

Convert the image to an MC called 'thumb0'

Step 29.

Add more thumbnails, also converting them to MC's called thumb1, thumb2, thumb3 etc. Then give the thumb0 mC the same instance name, which we'll use to give some functionality. Do the same with each of the other thumbs, giving thumb1 MC the instance name 'thumb1' etc.

Step 30.

Click on frame 10 of the script layer and open up the Actions panel. As we did with the featured image, add the code show below, this time swapping the URL address for what ever you want the thumbnails to open up.

Step 31.

Add an onRelease function for each of the other thumbnails.

Step 32.

For the 3rd section, create another key frame (F6) at frame 20 of all the layers

Step 33.

Create the a label for the 3rd section. As you can see i've made it 'resume'

Step 34.

So that's all the sections completed in the content MC, go back to the main MC and give the content MC and instance name. We can then use the instance name to control the content MC.

Part 6) Creating the Buttons

Step 35.

Now we're going to create some buttons to tell the content MC to go to the corresponding label. First of all, double click on the rectangle tool and set the corner radius to 10 points.

Step 36.

On the buttons layer, create a rounded rectangle, using the same grey that was used for the background.

Step 37.

Conver the rectangle into an MC called "button_background"

Step 38.

We can now use and instance of button_background MC for each button. So copy and paste the 1st one, placing it to the right.

Step 39.

Create a 3rd instance, and then convert the 1st one into another button symbol called 'about'. This button will be used to tell the content MC to go to the 'about' label.

Step 40.

Convert the button_background instance into a button symbol called 'portfolio' and the 3rd into a button symbol called 'resume'.

Step 41.

Double click on the about button symbol and you'll be displayed with what's shown in the image below.

Step 42.

Create a new layer and add the text 'about'

Step 43.

Then do the same with the portfolio button symbol, but this time placing the text 'portoflio' in the 2nd layer.

Step 44.

Go back to the main MC. Do the same for the resume button, and then give the about button symbol the instance name 'about'. Give the portoflio button the instance name 'portolfio' and the resume button the instance name 'resume'

Step 45.

Create a layer called "script", above the buttons layer in the main MC. Open up the Actionc spanel and add the actionscript shown below. This script give each button functionality, so that when they're pressed, the content MC goes to the corresponding sections.

Preloading the Website

Step 46.

For this final part, of the tutorial to create a basic Flash website, we're going to create a preloader for the website. Go back to root of the time, where the 'Main' MC is, and move the frame, that it's on, to frame 2.

Step 47.

Now make a text field on the 1st frame, with the text "loading", using the settings shown below

Step 48.

Convert the text field (F8) to an MC called 'loader'

Step 49.

Double click on the 'loader' MC and create a 2nd text field on the right, with the text "99%". From the properties panel the text has been made "dynamic", and a Var (variable) has been given to it called "percent". When the website is preloading, this variable will hold the percent value that's loaded so far, and it'll be displayed in the dynamic text field.

Step 50.

Go back to the root timeline. Instead of placing the code on a frame on the timeline, put it on the loader MC, by clicking on it, opening up the Actions Panel, and then entering the code, shown in the image below. This block of Actionscript will check to see how much of the website has loaded and display the percentage in the text, using the 'p' variable. Once all of it is loaded, the timeline will go to frame 2, and the site will be displayed

Step 51.

Last of all, on the 1st frame of the root timeline, place a stop() action on a layer called, 'script'.

And that brings us to the end of this Flash tutorial to create a Basic Website. Download FLA
Copyright by : flash-game-design.com

How to design a cool futuristic website interface

2009-09-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

In this easy Flash 8 professional lesson I will explain you how to design a great interface for your Flash website. You will learn to make the following:

How to create a spherical, circular orb-like screen for the interface, encased in a black matte frame,
How to animate a part of the spherical screen with some extremely simple ActionScript code,
How to use the blending effects & filters in Flash 8 professional to achieve cutting-edge effects on your interface,
How to create the interactive part of the interface, with hi-tech menu buttons,
How to make blinking buttons that connect to the sphere,
How to use pixel and bitmap fonts for a cooler look,
How to make a sonar-like animation on a map (more coolness),
How to make a simple but cool glowing digital clock and a lot more.

You can see the result of what you're going to learn in this lesson below. Ain't it cool? Of course, you can always expand on it.

1. Creating the matte black frame

1.1. Open a new Flash document. Save it immediately, because you'll want to just press Ctrl+S later to be able to save it again, because there is going to be a lot of work here. And you surely don't want to bang your head against the wall if your computer crashes down, the power goes down, etc. Make your life easier!

1.2. Select the Oval tool (O). In the Options section of the Tools panel:

turn off the Object drawing (1) and also the
Snap to objects (2) options.

1.3. With the Oval tool selected, go to the Colors section of the Tools panel and block the outline color:

Select the outline color first,
Click the No color icon,
Select any color for the fill.

You want to make a borderless circle, that's why you did this.

1.4. Draw a circle (and not an ellipse) by doing the following:

Hold down Shift on your keyboard,
Click anywhere on the stage and
Start dragging your mouse to draw a circle.

1.5. Ok. You want to make this circle a specific size now, so:

Select it by clicking it with the Selection tool (V). In the Property inspector panel, you should see the word "Shape" appear, indicating the selected vector circle shape.
Below that , click the padlock icon. This will lock the width and height of your circle together. Remember, you want it to stay a circle, you don't want an ellipse.
Type in 195 (that's a pixel value) in either the W or H field and hit Enter— the other one will assume the same value.

Here's the result:

1.6. You will give a nice gradient color fill to your circle now. Before doing that, you must unselect it. Unselect your circle by clicking on an empty spot of the working area with the Selection tool (V).

1.7. Select the Paint Bucket tool (K). Go to the Color Mixer panel (it should by open by default in the top right part of your Flash working space). Set up linear gradient fill by following these easy steps:

Select the fill colour (click the little paint bucket icon),
Choose the Linear fill type in the menu in the top right corner,
Select the left-end colour of the gradient (click the little square) and
Enter the hexadecimal colour code for this end of the gradient — type it inside the field above the gradient strip: #404040.
Click the colour square on the right edge of the gradient and enter its code in the field above it: #000000.

The alpha (degree of transparency) for both colours should stay at 100%. Why the two different shades of black, so close to one another? You will see that this makes the matte frame look more real. A single colour would make it too flat and unrealistic. Trust me, this can be felt, even if not seen by the eye at the first glance.

1.8. Pick up the Paint bucket tool (K) to apply the gradient colour fill to the circle:

Press and hold Shift on your keyboard and click with your mouse somewhere on the upper left part of the circle.
Drag your mouse diagonally down and to the right, until you reach the other side.
Release your mouse button and voila', the circle is filled.

1.9. Select the circle now, after you have filled it with the colour gradient, and then choose Modify > Convert to Symbol to create a movie clip symbol. The Convert to Symbol window will appear. Select these:

Call the new symbol orb screen.
Select Movie clip as symbol type.
Pay attention now: select the middle central registration point for the new symbol. It is clearly marked with a red arrow in the screenshot below (the little black square among the other, empty ones).

Click OK and you're done.

NOTE This specific registration point that you chose will make your remaining work on this part of your interface much easier, because you will need to align all of its elements around that same central point.

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2. Creating the dark green core for the spherical screen

2.1. Now you have your new movie clip symbol on the stage. Double click it with the Selection tool (V) to go inside it.

2.2. You're inside the orb screen movie clip symbol (clearly seen on the screenshot below). Name the first layer in it outer ring. Lock it by clicking on the little dot beneath the padlock icon.

Make a new layer above it and call it core. It's here that you'll create the circular screen for your interface. You'll see, at the end, it will look like a sonar or radar from a sci-fi movie.

2.3. Use the Oval tool (O) again to draw a borderless circle of any size. This new circle will of course be drawn in the new core layer. You can use any fill color that you want. Select it and set both of its dimensions to 170 pixels in the Property inspector.

2.4. You will now align it with the existing circle (outer ring, the black one):

Select the circle (click it with the Selection tool (V)).
Go to the Align panel (select Window > Align if you don't see it in any of the panels yet).
Make this to align the circle with the registration point of your orb screen movie clip:

The Align/Distribute to Stage option must be enabled.
Click the Align horizontal center button.
Click the Align vertical center button.

Here's the result after the alignment has been done:

2.5. Deselect the circle by clicking once outside it (don't do it twice because you will exit the movie clip).

2.6. Select the Paint Bucket tool (K). You'll do some more gradient colour filling, albeit with a radial fill this time. Return to the Color Mixer panel. To create a nice radial colour fill, do this:

Just like the previous time, be sure that the fill colour is selected.
Set the Type menu to Radial.
Click and drag the left colour square a little bit inside, to the right (see 3 on screenshot below).
Enter the square's colour code in the hex code field: make it #339999, a nice turquoise green.
Select the other square and make it's colour code #154040.

2.7. Using the Paint Bucket tool (K), fill up the circle with your newly made fill, by clicking on its centre.

3.1. To be able to achieve cool effects and take advantage of the powerful blending filters available in Flash, you will have to make a new movie clip symbol:

Select the newly filled dark green circle.
Select Modify > Convert to Symbol.
Just like before, the Movie clip type should be selected, along with the central registration point. Just call it screen core this time and click OK.

3.2. Enter inside the screen core movie clip by double clicking on it with the Selection tool (V):

Call the layer the dark green circle is on green fill.
Make a new layer and call it white glow.

3.3. By using the techniques that I have explained up to this point, make a:

Borderless circle, 146 by 146 pixel,
Align it with the registration point (i.e. center it in relation to the existing ones),
Fill it with a linear gradient colour fill. Both gradient colour values should be set to white (#FFFFFF), but the alpha (transparency) of the left one should be 70%, while the right one should be 0%. You should fill the circle vertically, from top to bottom.

3.4. Select the circle. Convert it to a movie clip symbol but do not enter inside it. You won't need to go any deeper than this. Call this new symbol white shine.

3.5. While the newly made symbol is selected, apply some cool filters to it, like this:

Select the Filters tab in the Property inspector.
Click the blue plus icon to open the filters menu and select the Blur filter.
Set both blur values to 18.
Select the Low quality from the menu.

OK, the next filter is optional. You may apply it if you think it will make your spherical screen look better. The great thing about Flash is that you can add more filters to the existing ones, but they don't have to affect your final result (you can turn them off). Let me show you how to do this.

3.6. Click the little plus icon once more, but this time, select the Glow filter and set its options like this:

Both Blur values should be set to 5.
Enter 120% as the value for the Strength option.
Set the Quality to Low.
Choose white (#FFFFFF) for the filter colour.

3.7. Click and drag the Glow filter so that it is above the Blur filter.

NOTE The stacking order of the blending filters in Flash is important, much like in Photoshop or any other graphic application. Depending on the order the filters are applied to a symbol or an object, you can obtain completely different effects and visual appearance.

3.8. To turn off the Glow blending filter, just click the green check mark next to it. It will turn into a red cross.

Why is this so practical? Well, because you don't have to erase the filter completely. It is here, with all its characteristics and options. They won't disappear once you turn the filter off, the effects just won't be applied to your object.

And now, here are the differences — the look of the interface's spherical screen with and without the Glow filter applied to it:

In the case where the Glow filter wasn't applied, the spherical screen perhaps looks more realistic, while after turning the said filter on, it has a definitely shiny and more spherical, bubble-like look. Again, the one isn't necessairly better then the other. Everything depends on what you need for your website and what you think looks better.

I will continue this tutorial with the Glow filter turned off, but you may retain it if you wish. All it requires is one simple click, so it really doesn't matter that much.

3.9. Click on the Properties tab (next to the Filters tab in the Property inspector panel). On the right side of the panel, you'll see the Color menu. Select the Alpha option and turn it down to 79%. This will make your spherical screen even more realistic.

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4. Creating the rotating part of the spherical screen

You'll make a small but important element that will add to the overall coolness of your interface. This one will move! It will be a nice rotating element.

4.1. Add a new layer inside the screen core symbol and call it rotator.

4.2. Using the Oval tool (O), make a circle. It should have the following properties:

The circle must be borderless.
The fill color should be a pale green flat one. I used #C7E2E2. Pay attention: maybe the alpha stayed on 0% or 70% from the previous fill. If so, change it to full opacity (100%).
The dimensions of the circle are 161x161 pixel.
After you have created it, align the circle, like the ones before it. Here's how it should look like:

4.3. But, this rotating part will be a ring. So you need to make one (when will they introduce this option in Flash? Arrrgh...). In order to create a ring, you will have to make a second, smaller circle, with a different color, and then use it to cut out a portion of the first one. Make this circle outside the existing one and then center it later:

So, make a 153 by 153 pixel borderless circle, with some other flat color.
Align it horizontally...
And then vertically.

Note: to be able to pull this off, you should have the Object drawing option disabled. I told that in the very first step of this tutorial.

4.4. To make a ring by cutting out a shape, do this with the Selection tool (V):

Click once on an empty part of the stage to deselect the smaller circle.
Select the smaller circle again.
Press Delete on your keyboard. You should have a ring now, like this:

4.5. Now, to cut this ring into three parts, you need another vector shape to assist you:

Select the Rectangle tool (R).
Make a borderless rectangle (no outline color, exactly like you did for all the circles).
The important thing is that the rectangle should be 4 pixels wide and a little bit higher than the circle.

Why would you want to cut the ring up into separate parts? Well, if you don't do it, the rotation wouldn't be visible at all. There must be an interruption in it, otherwise the animation cannot be seen (even if it's there).

4.6. Place the rectangle like it is shown below, unselect it, then select it again and delete it.

4.7. After that, you can make two other rectangles at 120 degrees, to cut up the ring into three equal parts. If you have a steady hand and are precise, you can just use the Eraser tool (E) to delete a couple of bits more. Personally, I like to be as precise as possible, and that's why I use rotation, the align panel and other shapes to this kind of work.

Regardless of the method that you use, try achieving the following result:

4.8. Select all 3 segments of the ring and convert them to a movie clip symbol. Call the new symbol rotating ring and click OK.

4.9. Go to the Property inspector and assign an Instance name to this smybol: call it rotator_mc.

If you wish so, you can change the Alpha property for this element if you find it too bright (just like you did for the white shine a few steps before).

5.1. I like tinkering around with various shiny effects and making a more complex visual composition in my Flash interfaces. That's why I added one last shiny overlay inside the screen core movie clip. Add another layer and call it soft shine.

5.2. Take the Oval tool (O):

Make a 142 by 132 pixel oval.
Align it horizontally with the registration point.
As for the vertical positioning, place it so that there is only a small gap (1 or 2 pixel) left between it and the ring's upper part (see below).

5.3. Fill the oval with a white linear gradient, vertically, top to bottom:

Here is the gradient with its Alpha values (remember, all three squares are white):

Hint: to add a third color square, just click between the two existing ones.

5.4. Click on the orb screen link above the layers to go back to the orb screen symbol's timeline.

5.5. Select the screen core movie clip that you have just exited. Give it the Instance name core_mc.

Top of page

6. Creating the inner black shiny ring

6.1. Add a third layer inside the orb screen movie clip symbol.

6.2. Select the Oval tool (O). In the Property inspector, set the following options for it:

Select a linear gradient for the Stroke (outline color) if you wish, but make it a very dark one, close to black. I chose a two-coloured linear gradient, going from #333333 to #536868.
Block the fill colour.
As for the line type, select Solid.
Set the thickness of the line to 2.

6.3. Draw a 170 by 170 pixel circle and center it with the aid of the Align panel.

Note that you can't see any other spherical screen elements on the screenshot below because I hid them to make it easier for you to see this part of the lesson.

6.4. Draw a bigger outline circle using the same properties as you did for the previous one. Make this one 185 by 185 pixels. Align it with the registration point.

6.5. Select the Paint Bucket tool (K):

Create a linear gradient with the values as shown below.
To make a flawless horizontal gradient, press and hold Shift on your keyboard.
While holding it, click on the left side of the ring (see the middle screenshot below) and start dragging your mouse to the right.
When you reach the other side, release your mouse. There! You have filled the ring nicely.

6.6. Select both outline rings and the fill with the Selection tool (V). Convert them to a movie clip symbol called inner ring.

6.7. Click the Filters tab and apply the following filter for this movie clip:

Select the Bevel filter.
The Blur X and Y options should be set to 13.
Set the Strength to 100% and Quality to High.
The Shadow color should be set to #000000.
The Highlight color should be set to #000033.
Set the Angle to 45.
Set the Distance to 5.

Note: Leave the Knockout option unchecked and the type set to Inner.

...and here's the final result — the finished spherical screen:

Here it is with the rotating part's alpha changed to 40%:

It looks cool, doesn't it? In the next part of this tutorial (coming soon) you will see how the create the part with the buttons, text and some other cool widgets! You can download the source fla file for this part of the interface below.

Download the source FLA file for the spherical screen

Creating a flash website using actionscript 2.0

2009-09-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Creating a flash website using actionscript 2.0

Download PSD

Download FLA

Result of the flash website tutorial, click to view in flash:

Step1 – Making a Flash Preloader

Open a new flash file.

And give it these settings.

First we are going to make the preloader.
Make a new movie clip. Insert —>> New Symbol (Ctrl+F8)

Now you are in the preloader movie clip.

And make 3 layers with 100 frames. Name the maskT, text and textW.

Make another symbol and call it loading_mc.

In that movie clip type in loading.

Once you have made that movie clip then duplicate it. And call it loading1_mc.

And in that movie clip make the text green.

Now open your preloader_mc and drag the movie clip loading_mc on to the stage.
Make sure that you are in the layer textW.

Don’t forget to center it on the stage.

And in the layer called text you drag the loading1_mc into it. And center
it.

Now in the first frame of the maskT layer we will draw a rectangle. Like
this.

Still in the maskT layer go to frame 100 and right click to convert to key
frame.

Now drag the rectangle on top of the text.

Place your cursor in between frame 1 and 100 from the maskT layer, right click
and add a motion tween.

Now move with the cursor on the layer, right click and select mask.
This will add the layer text under the mask.

Now go back to your scene1 and change the name of the first layer to preloader.

Now drag your preloader_mc onto the stage.

While in the first layer press F9 to open up the actions window. Click on the movie
clip in the stage and the paste this in the window.

onClipEvent (load) {
total = _root.getBytesTotal();
}
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
loaded = _root.getBytesLoaded();
perc1ent = int(loaded/total*100);
perc1 = “”+perc1ent+”%”;
gotoAndStop(perc1ent);
if (loaded == total) {
_root.gotoAndPlay(2);
}
}

Now click on the layer and go to the actions window and give it this code

stop();

Now make a second layer and convert it to a key frame.(F6) and paste this code.

This code tells flash to check the bytes that are loaded .if it’s loaded then go
to frame3 if not stay in frame 1.

You may think what happened to frame2 . Well you are in it.

if(_root.getBytesLoaded() ==
_root.getBytesTotal()){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
else{
gotoAndPlay(1);
}

Step 2 – Making the Smooth Page Transitions

Start by importing your PSD to flash, if you do not know how to do this, read our Importing Images in to Adobe Flash Tutorial.

href=”http://www.webdesigndev.com/flash/importing-images-in-to-adobe-flash”>
Now make a new movie clip and name it content_mc. And drag the square
on it.

Now make a second layer in scene1 and call it content.
Click on the third frame and press F6 to make it a key frame.

Now drag your content_mc to the stage and center it horizontal.

Select frame 15 and convert it to a key frame. Now right click between frame
3 and 15 and make a motion tween.

In frame 3 and change its brightness to -100%

lets make the pages first. the content to fill these is up to you. I will show
you how to do those page transitions that so many people want to know.

I will show you a very easy way to do this.

Lets me the pages first . make a new movie clip and call it homePage_mc.

Make a layer for each thing that you add. Will be allotting better if you
want to change some things later on.

I have 2 layers. a layer with bigger text and the some text to fill this page.

Now change some text for the other pages . Since I don’t use this site I will
only change the main text .

So you will see that the pages change. Once you made all the pages we will implant
them into scene1.

So go to scene1 and add 2 new layers , call it pages
and the other 1 actionsMain.
.
First insert frames on frame 140 for the layers content
, pages and actions.
Add a stop(); in the actionsmain on frame
35.

In the pages layer you need to add key frames . So when we link the buttons
that know where to go to.

Add key frame in the following frames : 35 , 45 , 54 , 59 , 69 , 78 , 82 , 92,
101 , 105 , 115 , 124

Now do the same for the actions layer.

It should look like this.

In the pages layer select frame 35 . Now drag your homePage_mc on the stage and
place it like this.

Copy frame 35 and paste in frames 45 and 54.

Now change the alpha of the movie clip homePage_mc to 0%.

Now right click between 35 and 45 and 45 –54 and add a motion tween.
Like this.

Add the other movie clips to the other key frames. After that you have this.

Select your actionsmain layer and in the key frames 45 , 69 , 92 and 115 add a
stop in your action script.
This is to make sure that it doesn’t loop all the time.
stop();
And now label the frames.
35 = home
59 = about
82 = port
105 = contact

Now comes the tricky part. All the AS . you need to get this right or we will
get allot of errors.
All of this will go in the actionsmain layer. . So when the page opens the
buttons are already in pause state.
Code for frame 36
home_mc.gotoAndStop(”pause”);//if you hit this frame then the button
will go to the pause state
over1_btn.enabled= false ; //here you say that when you go over that button
it can’t do anything

frame 60
about_mc.gotoAndStop(”pause”);
over2_btn.enabled= false ;

frame 83
port_mc.gotoAndStop(”pause”);
over3_btn.enabled= false ;

frame 106
contact_mc.gotoAndStop(”pause”);
over4_btn.enabled= false ;

Now we will tell flash were to go when a button is released. And we will give
it a little timeout. If you put in 1000 then that’s 1 second.
So we will give in 500 , that’s a half second.
Code for frame 54
stop();

function moveOn()
{
gotoAndPlay(target);

}
setTimeout(this, “moveOn”, 500);// this will delay the transition
by 1/2 second
over1_btn.enabled= true ; //this will make sure that the button works again

home_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″); //and that the button play’s the rest
of the animation

Frame 78
stop();

function moveOn()
{
gotoAndPlay(target); //this is were the flash will go after you clicked a
button

}
setTimeout(this, “moveOn”, 500);
over2_btn.enabled= true ;
about_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);

Frame 101
stop();

function moveOn()
{
gotoAndPlay(target);

}
setTimeout(this, “moveOn”, 500);
over3_btn.enabled= true ;
port_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);

Frame 124
stop();

function moveOn()
{
gotoAndPlay(target);

}
setTimeout(this, “moveOn”, 500);
over4_btn.enabled= true ;
contact_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);

This is
what you should have now.

Step 3 – Enable and Disable Buttons

Again make a new symbol , and name it home_mc. Now make 4 layers. Call them left , right , text and actions.

In the text layer type in home and the select that text and press

F8 to convert it to a movie clip. name this homeText_mc

Now in your movie clip home_mc Add this image. to layers left and right in
the first frame.

Convert it to a movie clip called indi_mc.

And place them on the side of the text.

Add a key frame in frame 7 of the layers left and right.

Go back to the second frame and move the indi_mc away from the text by 15
pox each. 1 to the left the other to the right.

And give them in the first frame 0% alpha. Now copy these 2 frames and paste
them in to frame14.

And give it a between the key frames a motiontween.

Now give frame 8 a key frame in the layers left , right and actions.

In the actions layer give in stop(); in
the first frame , frame 7 and give frame 1 label h1
, frame7 pause and frame 8
style=’color:#00CC00′>h2.

You should have this now.

Now you have to do the same with the other buttons.

When you have that then go to scene1 and add a folder. And call it buttons.

And add 8 layers and place them in that folder.

Now give them the names like below.

Make key frames in these 8 layers . In frame 23.

Now drag the buttons you just made in the right layer. homeB =
style=’color:#00CC00′>home_mc , aboutB = about_mc
, ….

And now drag the swirls into position. Select the each and give them these
names and put them in the right layer.

Give these movie clips instance names. So that flash knows that you mean them
in the action script.

Do this for the other movie clips too. Name them the same as the movie clips.

Now we are going to make a button. Like this.

Drag that button into the layer inviB in scene1.and place it right on top of
the home_mc. Now copy and paste the button 3 more times and place

Them on top of the other 3 movie clips. And name them like below.

Now with those 4 buttons selected put the alpha to 0%.

Make a new layer on top of the rest and call it buttonactions. And give it
this code.

I
n this code you will say what flash needs to do when you go over , or press ,
… a movie clip.

//button home_mc//
over1_btn.onRelease = function(){
play();
target=”home”;
}
over1_btn.onRollOver = function(){
home_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h1″);
}
over1_btn.onRollOut = function(){
home_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);
}
over1_btn.onReleaseOutside = function(){
home_mc.gotoAndStop (”pause”);
}
//button about_mc//
over2_btn.onRelease = function(){
play();
target=”about”;
}
over2_btn.onRollOver = function(){
about_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h1″);
}
over2_btn.onRollOut = function(){
about_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);
}
over2_btn.onPress = function(){
about_mc.gotoAndStop (”pause”);
}

//button port_mc//
over3_btn.onRelease = function(){
play();
target=”port”;
}
over3_btn.onRollOver = function(){
port_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h1″);
}
over3_btn.onRollOut = function(){
port_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);
}
over3_btn.onReleaseOutside = function(){
port_mc.gotoAndStop (”pause”);
}
//button contact_mc//
over4_btn.onRelease = function(){
play();
target=”contact”;
}
over4_btn.onRollOver = function(){
contact_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h1″);
}
over4_btn.onRollOut = function(){
contact_mc.gotoAndPlay(”h2″);
}
over4_btn.onReleaseOutside = function(){
contact_mc.gotoAndStop (”pause”);
}

Let’s make the animation when the buttons enter the screen.

Select the topL_mc and place it right above your screen.And place the
buttomL_mc right under it.

Now add a key frame in frame 33 for those 2 layers .In frame 33 move them on
how they were from the beginning.

Click between frame 23 and 33 and a motiowtween.

Now for the mask. add a key frame in 23 and draw a rectangle that will cover
your buttons.

Make a key frame in 33 and go back to 23 and place it like this.

And add a motiontween.

Now for the last piece . The header/logo. You can use any logo or banner you
want . This is to show you how you can tween with AS.

So take the logo and make it a movie clip.

And call it logo_mc

Make a new layer in scene1. make a key frame in frame 10 and drag Logo_mc
into the stage and place it on the left side.

Take a look on the Y axis.

Select the logo and press F9 to open Up the actions window. And give this code.

The first part will tell the movie clip where to start. and the second 1 will
say where to stop.

onClipEvent (load) {
//here you say where to start
this._y = -170;
}
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
//this will tell the As on were to stop the animation. the 25 is what speed
you want it to move.
if (this._y<100) {
this._y += 25;
}

}

SO , press Ctrl+enter and you are done.

You should have learned some new but very simple things that you can use to
make your own site.

Visit later for more tutorials.

Learn How to Create a Portfolio Website Using Adobe Flash

2009-09-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Learn How to Create a Portfolio Website Using Adobe Flash

To take a quick peek at what you’ll be creating, go to www.jwright.info | Download Source Files

Getting Started: Setting up our Project

Open up Adobe Flash CS3 and create a new Flash Project. File–>New–>Flash Project.
Click Ok. Name your project jwright.info.flp.

Tip: I like to create a folder as one central location for all of my files (e.g.
a folder named jwright.info) to keep everything together.

Next, select File–>New–>Flash File (ActionScript 3.0). Click Ok.
It’s a good idea to go ahead and save your project. Let’s do so. File–>Save (or Ctrl+S). Name the new Flash file jwright.info.fla.

Now we can add our Flash file to our project. Right click on the project file and
click Add File… as shown below. If you do not see you Project Panel, open
it up by selecting Window–>Project (or Shift+F8) from the main toolbar.

Add the file jwright.info.fla to the project.

Setting up the Timeline

Let’s start by setting up the layers that make up our site. Click the Insert Layer
Folder button for the timeline. Rename this folder Pages by right
clicking the folder and choosing Properties or by double clicking the folder.

Follow the similar procedure for adding a new folder for each page we will need: Start, Home, Profile, Resume, Contact, Portfolio, and Respect. Also,
create a folder called Master.

Here’s a look at what you should now have in your timeline. Ensure that each page
folder is a subfolder of Pages. You can do this by dragging the layer into
the proper place. (You may delete the default layer Layer1, if it’s still
listed.)

Oh boy, we’re rockin’ now! Let’s insert a new layer in the Master folder.
Click the Insert Layer button found near the the Inser Layer Folder button.

Name the new layer Splash. Again, be sure that the Splash layer is
inside of the Master folder.

Follow the same steps to add the rest of our Master layers: Main Menu, House,
Logo, Arrows, Copyright, and of course Splash.

Here’s a stunning view of our timeline so far.

Okay, now in each page folder (excluding Master) insert two layers named Content and Actions like so.

Now, we want to add the keyframes for our website. Essentially, each page has a
keyframe used to display the page we need. Then we can navigate to each requested
page via frames.

Insert a keyframe on each page layer in sequence. Example: The Start page’s
keyframe goes on frame 1; The Home page’s keyframe goes on frame 2; etc.
Like so. To insert a keyframe, right click on the desired frame and choose Insert
Keyframe (or select the frame and hit F6).

A couple more things before the real fun begins.

Create two more layers (not in any folder) named Frame Labels and Actions.

We’ll place a lot of our ActionScript for the site in the Actions layer later
on. We’re going to use the Frame Labels layers for our site navigation. So,
let’s setup our Frame Labels.

Actually, let’s first define a Frame Label. Simple, simple. A Frame Label is really
just a way we can use an identifier for our page instead of always accessing a page
by its frame number. It’ll make more sense in a minute–bear with me.

Select the first seven frames on the Frame Labels layer. Then, convert them
to keyframes (F6). Here’s a look.

We need to give these Frame Labels a name. Select the first frame (frame 1) and give
it a name in the Properties panel. Let’s call it start_frm. This naming
convention is consistent with our page layer names.

You should now see little flag in the first frame. Repeat these steps to name the
rest of our Frame Labels. Here’s a look at what you should have when all are named.

Well done ladies and gentlemen. Moving on…

Creating the Main Layout

On the Properties panel, Window–>Properties–>Properties (or Ctrl+F3), click
the size button. This will display the Document Properties form.

Set the Dimensions width to 885.15 px and the height to 578 px. Set the Background
color to White (#FFFFFF), the Frame rate to 32 fps (frames per second),
and the Ruler units to Pixels.

Ready for our first graphic? Me too. First, let’s lock all of the layers but the
one we need– the Splash layer.

Secondly, from the Tools toolbar, Window–>Tools (or Ctrl+F2), select the Rectangle Primitive Tool (or R). Change the stroke color to #EBEBEB, and
set the fill color to #FFFFFF via the color pickers on the Properties panel. Set
the corners rounded to 18.

Here’s a shot of the properties panel for some help.

Now draw a primi rectangle 787.1 (width) by 468.4 (height) on the stage. Note: Ensure
the Splash layer is selected.

It’s Movie Clip time. Select your primi and hit F8. This will pop up the Convert
to Symbol form. Name it SplashMc and select Movie clip as the type. Click Ok.

This Mc looks pretty sad. Let’s spice it up! Select Window–>Properties–>Filter.
Select our SplashMc and hit the Add Filter button on the Filters panel
and select Drop Shadow.

Next set the drop shadow’s properties shown below.

Let’s align this bad boy! Open up the align panel Window–>Align (or Ctrl+K).
Select your Mc and click Align horizontal center and then Align vertical center.

Now that it’s centered beautifully, let’s move it down a little. About six hits
on the down arrow on your keyboard. My X,Y coords for this Mc is now 442.6,307.2;
however, I’ve seen these X,Y’s vary a little from computer to computer. Not sure
why, but that’s life I guess.

The copyright. First, lock the Splash layer and unlock the Copyright layer. Create a new Text Box using the text tool (T). Type in Copyright © 2007-2008
jwright.info. All Rights Reserved. Note: You can find the copyright symbol on your Windows start menu. Start–>All Programs–>Accessories–>System
Tools–>Character Map. (That is, if you have a PC with Windows.)

Again, use the Align tool to center the copyright horizontally and then align on
the bottom edge. So far, so good. Right? Here’s our stage.

Next, our navigation arrows. Let’s look at how to make an arrow button. I’m not
going into this a great deal as I want to focus on the “programming a flash site”
as opposed to “creating each little graphic for a flash site.” Michael’s got some
great tutorials for graphics. I’ll leave that to the pros.

To make a button, open up the Library (Ctrl+L). You should see the SplashMc we created earlier. Click the New Symbol… in the bottom left of the Library
panel. Name the button ForwardBtn and be sure to select Button. Click Ok.

As a side note here, it’s a good idea to create some folders in the library to organize
everything. One for MovieClips, one for Buttons, etc.

Back on the stage now, place your arrow button center stage. Add a new keyframe
in the Over frame. Make the button how you want it to look when you hover
over it–I just changed my fill color to white. Then again for the Down frame.

Follow the same steps for your back button. Be sure to name it BackwardBtn.

Let’s go back to the main stage by clicking Scene1 as shown below.

From the Library, drag your two buttons onto the Arrows layer. Using the
Align tool, align the backward arrow on the left edge and the forward arrow on the
right edge.

To align the arrows vertically we’re going to use Rulers. We don’t want to just “Align vertically” because our SplashMc is not aligned vertically. Remember?
We moved it down some? We want the arrows to be aligned with good ol’ splashy.

Bring up the rulers by selecting View–>Rulers (or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R). Select
the SplashMc on the Splash layer (you may need to unlock it). Drag
a ruler guide down from the horizontal ruler, intersecting the center point of splashy.

Now select both arrows and intersect them with your ruler guide, like so.

On to the logo. Use whatever logo you’d like. Place it on the Logo layer.

You may do the same for the little house button on the upper right. Place it on
the House layer.

Our main layout so far.

The Flying Menu

Although the main menu is definitely a part of our main layout, it deserves its
own section. This, my friends, is the most difficult part of the site; however,
it’s just a bit tedious–nothing earth shattering. Let us begin!

To get started, create a new symbol (just like you did for the arrow buttons). Name
it MainMenuMc and select Movie clip as the type. Click Ok.

Secondly, let’s setup or Mc’s timeline. Create a new folder called Menu Items and insert five new layers into the folder. Name them Profile, Resume, Contact, Portfolio, and Respect respectively (no pun intended).

On the Contact layer, place a new Text Box with the text contact.
This text should be black, 15pt font, Arial, with a letter spacing of 1. See below.

Convert the Text Box to a button. Select it, hit F8, select type Button,
name it ContactBtn click Ok. Double click the new symbol to edit it.
Insert a new keyframe in the Over frame and change the text color to #999999.

Now let’s set up some guide lines. From the ContactBtn’s center point, drag
two vertical guides to the left of the button. One spaced 100 units away and
the other spaced 200 units away from the button’s center point. Do the same to the
right of the button. Also, drag a horizontal guide intersecting the button’s center
point.

Here’s a clarifying example.

Next, create the other four buttons just like the ContactBtn we just made: ProfileBtn, ResumeBtn, PortfolioBtn, and RespectBtn. Then, place those
buttons on the intersecting guides like the following. Be sure to place each button
on the proper corresponding layer.

No, we’re not done with the menu yet, but we need a reference point for the rest of
it. So, let’s go ahead and place our menu (from the Library) on our main stage on
the Main Menu layer–centered vertically and centered horizontally in respect
to splashy.

Double click the MainMenuMc to return to edit mode. Drag a horizontal guide
to where you want the menu to fly to.

Next, insert a new layer and call it Dummy. Copy and paste all five buttons
into this dumb layer. Align them horizontally on the guide we just made. Trust me
on this one. Here’s a look see.

This is going to be how we set up our destination point for our menu items when
they fly into place. If you can think of a better way, awesome. Go for it.

Space each button about 3 little units away from the button to its right. Use the
guide lines to help.

Now intersect some guides on each dummy menu item’s center point. Be careful not
to confuse these guides with the ones for our real menu.

Okay, now hide the dummy layer. We could delete it now as we won’t need it anymore,
but just in case we need to return to it–it’s there. Hide by selecting the layer
and clicking the dot on the dummy layer under the Show/Hide All Layers button.

On to the flight plan. Let’s draw some motion guides. First, select the Respect layer. Click the Add Motion Guide button.

Using the Line tool (N), draw a line from the RespectBtn’s center point to
it’s corresponding flight destination. Be sure to draw the guide on the the Repect layer’s motion guide layer.

Follow the previous steps for the rest of the buttons.

Here’s what you should end up with.

Go ahead and lock each guide layer so that we don’t accidentally select it.

Now for some animation! All right. Insert a frame (not keyframe) on frame 20 for
each layer (excluding Dummy). Right click on frame 20 on the profile layer
and select Create Motion Tween. Carefully select the ProfileBtn button
and drag it up to its destination point.

This will create your flying tween. Here’s the results.

You can drag the red timeline slider back and forth (or use the ‘,’ (comma) and
‘.’ (period) keys) to see your tween in action.

Proceed to do the same for the rest of your menu item buttons.

So that’s the up flight plan. What about it’s descent? Well, I’m glad you asked.
This is simple. Select frame one on each layer, right click on the selection. Choose Copy Frames.

Now select frame 20 for each layer and select Paste Frames, like so.

Well, that was the descent. Check it out using the slider to see your animated menu
in all its glory! (Go ahead and delete the dummy layer if you’d like.)

Almost done with the menu!

Time for some ActionScript! We need to add some timeline control for our menu. Insert
a new layer named Timeline Control. Select frame 20 in the new layer and
hit F9. Like magic the ActionScript panel opens. Simple stuff here. Just type stop(); This will stop the menu at the top of the flight plan when it’s
played.

Do the same for frame 40 so that the menu will stop at the bottom of its flight
plan. Notice the little a denoting the frame has some ActionScript. Here’s
a glance.

We need a way to control the menu from the main timeline. So, the solution? We need
to create two functions. First, add another layer in the MainMenuMc timeline
called Actions.

Add the following ActionScript to the Actions layer.

function goHome():void
{
   gotoAndPlay(20);
}

function leaveHome():void
{
   gotoAndPlay(1);
}

We’ll be able to use these two functions to control our main menu.

Congrats! That’s the end of our main menu. That wasn’t too bad, right? Great job!

Navigation Control

Now that we have our flying menu, logo button, and our little house on the stage button, let’s put ‘em
to good use. We’ll be using a good bit more ActionScript (AS) from here on out. Excited?

The first thing we need to do is make sure that our Master layer displays throughout the timeline. To do so,
insert a frame into frame 8.

The next thing we need to do is to name our menu. Select the MainMenuMc symbol and set it’s Instance Name
to mainMenu_mc. Now, let’s add a couple lines of ActionScript to the Actions layer that’ll run when the
flash file first loads.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Startup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
stop();
mainMenu_mc.stop();

The Startup block serves no purpose but to identify the associated lines of code–essentially keeping our
code looking pretty and easy to find.

If you have not done so yet, go back into your MainMenuMc symbol and
assign Instance Names to our menu item buttons. Try to stick with the same naming convention. Like, name the
ProfileBtn profile_btn, etc.

Notice how we use the _btn postfix for Buttons and the _mc postfix for Movie Clips. This will
tell the AS compiler to generate intellisense (What’s that? See below.) for your object. Kinda like Visual Studio,
Dreamweaver, and other programming IDEs.

In order to handle the onclick events of our navigational buttons, we need to setup some event handlers.
Add the following lines of AS to the Actions layer. I’ll explain the navigationClicked part in a second.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Setup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
mainMenu_mc.profile_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);
mainMenu_mc.resume_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);
mainMenu_mc.contact_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);
mainMenu_mc.portfolio_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);
mainMenu_mc.respect_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);

So what in the world did we just do? It’s called event handling programming. I’m sure
you’re familiar with it, but it’s basically just saying that function “X” gets called
when the user clicks button “B”–pretty basic.

So, we have hooked up our main menu’s navigational buttons to a function called navigationClicked
that we are about to define. Now, any time one of those buttons are clicked, this function will be executed.

Here’s what you should have in your Actions layer for the main stage thus far.

I know it’s getting a little more complicated, but hang in there and take your time.

Next, we need to define our navigationClicked function. Here’s the stubbed out function.
We’ll add more to this function in a minute. Copy and paste this code under your other code in the
Actions layer.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Handlers.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function navigationClicked(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
}

This next batch of AS (the body of the navigationClicked function) is a
little long; however, it’s not too complicated. I’ll try to explain it well as we go along.

We need to determine what page to go to based on what button was clicked. Remember the Frame
Labels we discussed earlier? Here’s where we’re going to use them. Bascially, we’re going
to associate each button with a Frame Label via a common switch statement.

function navigationClicked(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //We'll use this to store the Frame Label's name.
   var frmLabel:String = '';

   //Determine what Frame Label to use based on which
   //button was clicked.
   switch (Event.target)
   {
       case mainMenu_mc.profile_btn :
           frmLabel = "profile_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.resume_btn :
           frmLabel = "resume_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.contact_btn :
           frmLabel = "contact_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.portfolio_btn :
           frmLabel = "portfolio_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.respect_btn :
           frmLabel = "respect_frm";
           break;
       case logo_btn :
           frmLabel = frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
       case home_btn :
           frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
   }
}

Okay, so now we know what Frame Label we need to use. (You may be asking what about our
LogoBtn and HouseBtn. We’ll get to that in a minute.)

In order to display the page we’ll use the built-in AS function gotoAndPlay(frame:Number). We have
a Frame Label which is a string; however, we need the frame’s number. Let’s write a little function
to retrieve that number. Here ya go.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Helper Functions.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function getFrame(frameName:String):Number
{
   var frame:Number = 1;

   //Loop through all Frame Labels to find our requested frame.
   for (var i = 0; i < currentLabels.length; i++)
   {
       if (currentLabels[i].name == frameName)
       {
           frame = currentLabels[i].frame;
           break;
       }
   }

   return frame;
}

All we are doing here is looping through all of our Frame Labels (via the built-in currentLabels property)
and comparing the name we found in our switch block to the label we’re currently looping on.

We can now add the following two lines to the bottom of our navigationClicked function.

var frmGoto:Number = this.getFrame(frmLabel);
gotoAndPlay(frmGoto);

Here’s our function so far.

function navigationClicked(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //We'll use this to store the Frame Label's name.
   var frmLabel:String = '';

   //Determine what Frame Label to use based on which
   //button was clicked.
   switch (Event.target)
   {
       case mainMenu_mc.profile_btn :
           frmLabel = "profile_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.resume_btn :
           frmLabel = "resume_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.contact_btn :
           frmLabel = "contact_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.portfolio_btn :
           frmLabel = "portfolio_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.respect_btn :
           frmLabel = "respect_frm";
           break;
       case logo_btn :
           frmLabel = frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
       case home_btn :
           frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
   }

   //Find the frame number based on our Frame Label.
   var frmGoto:Number = this.getFrame(frmLabel);

   //Go to the requested page.
   gotoAndPlay(frmGoto);
}

Well, let’s test out what we have so far. Select Debug–>Debug Movie (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) from
Flash CS3’s main menu. This will compile and run your Flash file. If you’ve missed anything, the
compiler will show you an error.

Here’s what you should see.

Feel free to click some buttons, but you really won’t be able to see the pages changing since all
of our pages are blank. Let’s skip ahead a little and change that. That way we’ll know our menu
is working.

First, select the frame in your Content layer under the Start page.

Secondly, place a Text Box, with text-aligned right, by the HouseBtn symbol, like so.

Next, follow those same steps to place a label (in the same place) on the Content layers of each page.
Then change the text to represent each page.

Tip: You can select the Text Box you just made on your Start page, select the frame for the Content layer on
the Home page, and select Edit–>Paste in Place (or Ctrl+Shift+V). This will paste the Text Box
in the exact same place as your Start page.

You will also need to add the following one line of AS to each of the Actions layers for each page–except the Start
page.

stop();

This will ensure that your Flash movie will stop on the requested frame. If not, we would be hitting the requested
frame and then the movie would continue to play out the rest of the movie.

As for the Start page, we need to add the following line of AS. We’re bascially going to
just skip the start page. The reason is simple. I may want to, at a later time, change my home page to something
different and make the current home page a welcome page. But, for now we’ll just use our home page as our welcome.
Basically, we’re just trying to keep our site as maintainable as possible.

gotoAndPlay(2);

Again, notice the little ‘a’ on each frame containing AS code.

Before we debug again, let’s add a couple of lines of AS to our navigationClicked function.

We’re going to put our gotoAndPlay(frmGoto); line of AS inside of an if statement.
Here’s the function now.

function navigationClicked(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //We'll use this to store the Frame Label's name.
   var frmLabel:String = '';

   //Determine what Frame Label to use based on which
   //button was clicked.
   switch (Event.target)
   {
       case mainMenu_mc.profile_btn :
           frmLabel = "profile_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.resume_btn :
           frmLabel = "resume_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.contact_btn :
           frmLabel = "contact_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.portfolio_btn :
           frmLabel = "portfolio_frm";
           break;
       case mainMenu_mc.respect_btn :
           frmLabel = "respect_frm";
           break;
       case logo_btn :
           frmLabel = frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
       case home_btn :
           frmLabel = "home_frm";
           break;
   }

   //Find the frame number based on our Frame Label.
   var frmGoto:Number = this.getFrame(frmLabel);

   //Don't do anything if we are already on the requested page.
   if (currentFrame != frmGoto)
   {
       //Go to the requested page.
       gotoAndPlay(frmGoto);
   }
}

Go ahead and debug now to see your changes in action. Notice how the page label
by the HouseBtn symbol changes as you go from page to page.

Next, let’s set up our LogoBtn and HouseBtn buttons. After you assign an Instance Name
to your buttons, all you need to do is attach the click event of those buttons to our navigationClicked
function. Forget how? That’s cool. Here’s a
refresher.

logo_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);
home_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, navigationClicked);

So now we need to add those guys to our switch statement. After you do that, feel free
to debug again to check it out.

case logo_btn :
   frmLabel = "home_frm";
   break;
case home_btn :
   frmLabel = "home_frm";
   break;

How about that flying menu? It’s time to put it to work! Remember those two functions we made, goHome();
and leaveHome();? That’s how we’re going to control the menu from our navigationClicked function.
Let’s have a look how.

All we need to do to implement our flying menu is make a couple of modificaitons to our if statement
in our navigationClicked function. Below are the changes. Be sure to read the commented lines to
understand what we’re trying to accomplish.

//Don't do anything if we are already on the requested page.
if (currentFrame != frmGoto)
{
   //Get and remember the Home page's frame number.
   var frmHome:Number = this.getFrame("home_frm");

   //If our requested page is the Home page, the flying menu
   //needs to go home.
   if(frmGoto == frmHome)
   {
       mainMenu_mc.goHome();
   }
   //Else, if we are on the Home page and are leaving, then
   //leave home.
   else if(currentFrame == frmHome)
   {
       mainMenu_mc.leaveHome();
   }

   //Go to the requested page.
   gotoAndPlay(frmGoto);
}

We’ve only got two buttons to go. Our ForwardBtn and BackwardBtn buttons.

To get started with those fellas, assign them Instance Names and hook them up to our
navigationClicked function as we’ve done several times previously.

It’s a tad tricky to get our forward_btn and backward_btn buttons to cycle the
pages appropriately. I think it will be much clearer if I just give you the code and have you
read through the comments–instead of dissecting the functions line by line.

The main function here is getSequencedFrame(forward:Boolean). This function accepts a
Boolean value indicating if the next page is requested or the previous. Then, the function
will determine the Frame Label of the requested page.

Here’s the two functions you’ll need. Just copy and paste them into your Helper Functions section.

function getFrameLabel(frame:Number):String
{
   var frmLabel:String = '';

   //Loop through all Frame Labels to find the requested Frame Label.
   for (var i = 0; i < currentLabels.length; i++)
   {
       if (currentLabels[i].frame == frame)
       {
           frmLabel = currentLabels[i].name;
           break;
       }
   }

   return frmLabel;
}

function getSequencedFrame(forward:Boolean):String
{
   //Used to remember the Frame Label of our page.
   var frmSequence:String = '';

   //If we're looking for the next page in sequence...
   if(forward)
   {
       //If our current page is that last page...
       if(currentFrame == this.getFrame("respect_frm"))
       {
           //...then, we need to go Home.
           frmSequence = "home_frm";
       }
       else
       {
           //...else, we just need to go to the next frame.
           frmSequence = this.getFrameLabel((currentFrame + 1));
       }
   }
   //...else, we're looking for the previous page in sequence.
   else
   {
       //If we're on the first page (remember, we skipped our Start page)...
       if(currentFrame == this.getFrame("home_frm") ||
          currentFrame == this.getFrame("start_frm"))
       {
           //...then, we need to go to the last page.
           frmSequence = "respect_frm";
       }
       else
       {
           //...else, we just need to go to the the previous frame.
           frmSequence = this.getFrameLabel((currentFrame - 1));
       }
   }

   return frmSequence;
}

Almost there! Just add this code to your switch statement and you’re done.

case backward_btn :
   frmLabel = this.getSequencedFrame(false);
   reak;
case forward_btn :
   frmLabel = this.getSequencedFrame(true);
   break;

Congrats folks! You’ve just completed the hardest part of
jwright.info.

From here on out, let’s make each page its own section. That way it will be easier for you
to stop and pick up again later if need be.

The Home Page

First things first. Let’s spice up our Home page! Make sure that the following symbols go on the
Content layer of our Home page layer.

Create a new Text Box and type in JAMESWRIGHT or use your own name for kicks. Use Arial, 28pt font, and
letter spacing of 33. Now, convert this Text Box to a Movie Clip called NameMc. Also, while we’re there,
give it an Instance Name of name_mc.

You may use my logo if you’d like or your own–as long at it’s a Movie Clip with an instance name of logo_mc.
Drop it onto the Home page as well.

I also made a little footer called DetDriDetMc with an Instance Name of ddd_mc.

Here’s a look at our Home page.

Go ahead and test it out! You can debug like before, or hit Ctrl+Enter to run test mode.

Pretty cool, huh? Well it’s about to get better. Let’s add some fade transitions. Since we’re going to be
using the same transitions on multiple pages and other Movie Clips, we need to put the transition code
into its own class. Here’s how.

Select File–>New–>ActionScript File. Click Ok. Save the file in the same directory as your
Flash files named utils.Fader. Two things are crucial here. The location of the file and the naming of
the file. It must be in the same directory because this is how your AS code will reference this file. Also, the
name signifies the package (a.k.a namespace) to be used.

Add the following code to your new utils.Fader.as file.

package utils
{
   //Import the needed packages.
   import fl.transitions.Transition;
   import fl.transitions.TransitionManager;
   import fl.transitions.Fade;
   import fl.transitions.easing.*;
   import flash.display.MovieClip;

   //Fader class definition.
   public class Fader
   {
       //This function will apply a "fade in" effect for any given Movie Clip.
       public static function fadeIn(mc:MovieClip):void
       {
           //Use the TransitionManager to fade in the movie clip.
           TransitionManager.start(mc, {type:Fade, direction:Transition.IN, duration:1, easing:Strong.easeIn});
       }

       //This function will apply a "fade out" effect for any given Movie Clip.
       public static function fadeOut(mc:MovieClip):void
       {
           //Use the TransitionManager to fade in the movie clip.
           TransitionManager.start(mc, {type:Fade, direction:Transition.OUT, duration:1, easing:Strong.easeOut});
       }
   }
}

Click here to read more about the TransitionManager.

Now, go ahead and add this AS file to your Flash project as we did in the beginning of the tutorial.

Next, add this code to your main Actions layer. This will allow you to be able to use your Fader
class on the main timeline.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Includes and Imports.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
import utils.Fader;

To implement your Fader class, simply add these line of AS to your Actions layer for your Home page.

utils.Fader.fadeIn(logo_mc);
utils.Fader.fadeIn(name_mc);
utils.Fader.fadeIn(ddd_mc);

Great! Now you can test it and check out the cool fade effect! That’s all for the Home page!

The Profile Page

The first thing we need to do is create a new Movie Clip (Remember, you can do this from the Library panel). Then we want
to place a graphic on the MC that kinda looks like a tab from a tabbed document. Place the tab on its own layer called
Tab. Again, you can find this graphic and others in the package supplied with the tutorial.

Secondly, we need to create some buttons–just some simple buttons that tell our readers a little bit about us.
All you need to do is create a new button, as you’ve done before, and place some text in it. Nothing new here.
Here’s a little snapshot of one of my buttons.

You can create whatever you want here, but if you want to stick with me here, create a button for each Who, What,
When, Where, and Why section that looks like the following. These buttons should be placed in their own
layer, named Buttons.

Go ahead and give each button an Instance Name. For example, I named my WhoBtn button
whoCap_btn–since these buttons are like captions.

Now for some pretty cool effects! Let’s create some “popups” for each button we just made. To do so, first create
a new movie clip called WhoPopupMc. These are real simple to make. Essentially, all you need is two layers:
Text and Window.

On the Text layer, simply place the WhoBtn you just made from the Library. Then, on the Window
layer place a Rectangle, fill color #333333 and stroke color #FFFFFF, that is a little bigger than your button. You
will also need to create another little button used to close the popup. Feel free to make that button whatever
you like. I just used a little circle. Here’s a look!

Be sure to give your CloseBtn an Instance Name called close_btn.

Now that you know how to do that, create a “popup” for each button.

Once you have created all of your popups, place each popup on its own layer on your ProfileTabMc
symbol and assign Instance Names to your popups. Here’s what I ended up with.

Next, you’ll need to insert another layer called Actions to your ProfileTabMc symbol. On this layer
let’s add some AS event handlers for our buttons. Here they are to save you some time and typing.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Setup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
whoCap_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, showPopup);
whatCap_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, showPopup);
whenCap_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, showPopup);
whereCap_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, showPopup);
whyCap_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, showPopup);
whoPup_mc.close_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, closePopup);
whatPup_mc.close_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, closePopup);
whenPup_mc.close_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, closePopup);
wherePup_mc.close_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, closePopup);
whyPup_mc.close_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, closePopup);

Before we define our event handler functions, we need to add some AS to help us control which popup is
currently showing. So, how do we do that? Again, nothing new here. We’re just going to write a simple
switch statement to set a variable called currentPopup.

All that’s going on here is we are determining which button was clicked and then setting a Movie Clip variable
to the popup we need to display. Here’s the code.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Variables.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
var currentPup:MovieClip = null;

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Helper Functions.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function setCurrentPopup(e:Event):void
{
   //Set the current popup based on which caption was clicked.
   switch(e.target)
   {
       case whoCap_btn:
           currentPopup = whoPopup_mc;
           break;
       case whatCap_btn:
           currentPopup = whatPopup_mc;
           break;
       case whenCap_btn:
           currentPopup = whenPopup_mc;
           break;
       case whereCap_btn:
           currentPopup = wherePopup_mc;
           break;
       case whyCap_btn:
           currentPopup = whyPopup_mc;
           break;
   }
}

Next, we need to define our event handler functions showPopup and closePopup.

I know I say this alot, but, this shouldn’t be too complicated. Just a couple basic event handlers. We’ll
also want to add some cool fading effects here as well, so we’re going to import the utils.Fader
class.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Includes and Imports.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
import utils.Fader;

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Handlers.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function closePopup(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
 //If the current popup has been set, fade it out.
   if(this.currentPopup != null)    utils.Fader.fadeOut(currentPopup);
}

function showPopup(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Set the current popup.
   this.setCurrentPopup(Event);

 //If the current popup has been set, fade it in.
   if(this.currentPopup != null)   utils.Fader.fadeIn(currentPopup);
}

To see your changes, you’ll need to go back to the main timeline and add your new ProfileTabMc symbol
to your Content layer in the Profile page section. You can use the Free Transform tool (Q) to make
it fit to your stage accordingly if the size of your symbol isn’t just right.

You can preview you profile page now if you’d like (Ctrl+Enter).

You’ll probably notice that your popups start out being visible. To fix this issue let’s add some more AS to
the ProfileTabMc’s Actions layer. This AS block will tell the popups to not be visible on startup.
After you add this code to your MC, test it out and see the cool effects!

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Startup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
whoPopup_mc.visible = false;
whatPopup_mc.visible = false;
whenPopup_mc.visible = false;
wherePopup_mc.visible = false;
whyPopup_mc.visible = false;

You like? Cool. Well, only one more tweak before we move on to the next page. If you notice, when you click any
of your buttons, the corresponding popup displays. That’s what it should do; however, even after a popup displays
you can still click another button. This is not a desired behavior. Let’s come up with a way to stop this. Here’s
what I have.

My proposal is to make a layer that will cover up the other buttons while a popup is being displayed. So, go back
into your ProfileTabMc symbol and copy the tab–just the tab part, not the buttons. Next, paste that tab into
a new symbol. Call it TabCoverMc. One small touch, change the graphic’s Alpha property to 80% in fill color
picker.

After you create that symbol, drag it into your ProfileTabMc symbol on a new laber called TabCover. Be
sure that the layer is above the Buttons layer and below the Popups layer. Here’s the result.

Now you can give the TabCoverMc symbol an Instance Name of tabCover_mc. We also want this symbol
to be hidden on startup. So, let’s hide it just like our caption buttons.

tabCover_mc.visible = false;

When the user clicks a caption button to see a popup, we can now cover up the other buttons with the new TabCoverMc
symbol in our showPopup and closePopup functions. Here are the modified functions.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Handlers.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function closePopup(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Fade out the tab cover.
   utils.Fader.fadeOut(tabCover_mc);

   //If the current popup has been set, fade it out.
   if(this.currentPopup != null) utils.Fader.fadeOut(currentPopup);
}

function showPopup(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Set the current popup.
   this.setCurrentPopup(Event);

   //Fade in the tab cover.
   utils.Fader.fadeIn(tabCover_mc); 

   //If the current popup has been set, fade it in.
   if(this.currentPopup != null) utils.Fader.fadeIn(currentPopup);
}

To finish off this section, add a fade effect to the ProfileMc symbol in your Actions layer. This
will fade in your ProfileMc symbol when the page is displayed.

Take a look at the Profile page now. It’s a beauty! Great job!

The Résumé Page

The Résumé page won’t take long at all. First create a new Movie Clip call ResumeMc.
Inside of the MC, you’ll need to either copy and paste my résumé or use your own. One little thing,
make sure to check the Check Box marked Export for ActionScript.

Well that was simple enough. Now, let’s use it. Next you’ll need to create another Movie Clip called
ResumeScollerMc. Inside of this MC you’ll need a ScrollPane from the Components panel. You
can find that under Window–>Components (or Ctrl+F7). Once you locate the ScrollPane, drag one
onto your ResumeScrollPaneMc.

This is a really neat control. Since our résumé is too long to fit on splashy, the ScrollPane component will
scroll our ResumeMc symbol up and down. All we need to do is to set a couple of the ScrollPane’s
parameters to tell it which MC we want it to scroll.

To view the ScrollPane’s parameters, select Window–>Properties–>Parameters. Then select your ScrollPane
and you should see its parameters listed on the Parameters panel.

The only parameter you should need to set is the source parameter. Set that to the symbol we want to
scroll–ResumeMc. This is the reason you needed to check Export for ActionScript when making the
ResumeMc symbol. In a nutshell, since we’re not adding this directly to our stage, the AS compiler needs
to know what MC to scroll.

You may now drag the ResumeScrollerMc onto the main timeline on the Content layer of the Resume
page. Also, add a fade effect to the ResumeScrollerMc symbol in your Actions layer. You can do this
the same exact way you did the ProfileMc symbol’s fade effect.

More than likely, you’re going to notice that your scrollbar does not look like mine. If that’s the case, you can
actually edit the ScrollPane component–just like a Movie Clip. Pretty awesome, huh?! Just locate the ScrollPane
in your Library (probably under Component Assets), right click, and choose Edit.

You should see something like the following. Double click the ScrollBar Skins symbol.

Now, you can edit any of the skins you see before you. Here’s what mine look like after I’ve tweaked them.

That’s it for the Resume page! On to the Contact page.

The Contact Page

The Contact page really does not need much explanation. You’ve already done this multiple times.

But, just for kicks, here you go. All you need to do is create a new Movie Clip called ContactMc
that contains your contact information. Simple stuff really. Then you can give it an Instance Name
and use the utils.Fader class to fade in the MC when the Contact page’s frame is hit.

That’s it!

The Portfolio Page

My Portfolio page definitely needs some work. But we’ll walk through what we have anyway. It’s
basically just using two buttons that will open a new window.

All I did to create my buttons was take a screen shot of a couple websites I’ve been working on. Then I imported
them into my Library and dropped them on a button. Then, on the Over frame of the button, I made the
image a little bigger and added a caption at the bottom. Here’s the first button for reference.

After you create your two buttons, simply drop them onto your main stage.

Next you can add a little heading if you’d like.

Select your three items–the heading and the two buttons. Next, hit F8 and convert those
three things into one Movie Clip so we will be able to add our fade effect. I called my new MC PortfolioMc.

We’re almost done! Let’s add a little bit of AS to open up a new browser window when a button is clicked. Double click
your PortfolioMc symbol to take it into Edit mode. Next, add a new layer called Actions. In that layer
paste the following code.

css_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, cssClicked);
mlt_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mltClicked);

function cssClicked(event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Create a new URL request.
   var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.clixsoftwaresolutions.com/");

   //Open up the URL in a new window.
   navigateToURL(url, "_blank");
}

function mltClicked(event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Create a new URL request.
   var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.mylooptracker.com/");

   //Open up the URL in a new window.
   navigateToURL(url, "_blank");
}

I know what you’re thinking. Yes, we could’ve used another switch statement, but for just two buttons
I opted to just use two functions. Good catch though!

Finally, just add your utils.Fade.fadeIn(portfolio_mc) function call into the Portfolio pages’s
Action layer on the main timeline, and you’re done!

Note: If you debug your movie now and try to click one of your buttons on the Portfolio page, you will
probably see the following warning. No worries, it’s supposed to do that. If you test your movie (Ctrl+Enter) or
deploy your movie–it should work like a charm!

The Respect Page

Ahhhhhh, at last. The final page. Well, in my opinion, I’ve saved the best for last. I love this little scroller,
and the best part is that it’s not too hard to achieve this awesome effect.

Start out by making a new Movie Clip called RespectStageMc. On the first layer in our MC we want to introduce
something new to jwright.info–masking. You’ll see the power of masking real soon.

Secondly, place a rectangle centered on the page on a layer called Scroll Area. Set its fill color to #999999
with no stroke. Don’t worry about size quite yet. Next, go back to your main timeline and add the MC to the Content
layer on your Respect page.

Now, you can go back into your MC and adjust the size of your rectangle to be the exact width of splashy.
(Remember him?) Make sure that your MC is centered with your navigational arrow buttons before you resize anything.

Let’s add a little more to our MC. Let’s place a darker rectangle (#333333) above and below our Scroll Area layer.

Next, add a heading.

On to the thumbnails! Again, feel free to use the thumbnail buttons I’ve already made, or you can make your own. The concept
is pretty much like what you did on the Portfolio page–just a little smaller. Here’s what one of mine looks like.

After you get all of your thumbnails made, place them all centered, and spaced evenly, on a single layer called
Thumbs in your MC.

Next, you’ll need to go back into that MC and paste this code. No real need to explain here. We’re just popping up a new
browser window and loading the site that was clicked.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Includes and Imports.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
import flash.net.navigateToURL;
import flash.net.URLRequest;

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Setup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
advanced_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
henz_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
kalou_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
studio_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
crystal_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
deepBlue_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
wolf_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);
freedom_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoSite);

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Handlers.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function gotoSite(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   var url:URLRequest = null;
   switch (Event.target)
   {
       case advanced_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.2advanced.com/");
           break;
       case henz_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.henzstudio.com/");
           break;
       case kalou_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.kalou.ch/fr/");
           break;
       case studio_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.studiopiro.com/index2.htm");
           break;
       case crystal_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.crystalmedia.co.yu/");
           break;
       case deepBlue_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.deepblue.com/");
           break;
       case wolf_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.wolfpeak.net/");
           break;
       case freedom_btn :
           url = new URLRequest("http://www.freedomoftheseas.com/");
           break;
   }

   if (url != null)
   {
       navigateToURL(url, "_blank");
   }
}

After you’ve done that, select all of your thumbs and convert them into one single Movie Clip called ThumbsScrollerMc.
You’ll see why in just a minute.

As you can see right now, the thumbnails are running off of the stage to the left. If you test your movie you’ll
see them there as well. This is not what we want. We want the thumbnails to disappear as they move off of splashy.

To achieve this effect we need to use a technique called Masking. To mask the thumbnails, insert a new layer
above your Thumbs layer called Scroll Mask. Right click on the new layer and select Mask.

On this layer you’ll need to create a rectangle the same exact size as the one on your Scroll Area layer. May I suggest that
you just copy and paste-in-place that rectangle from the Scroll Area layer. You will need to change its
fill color alpha value to 10%. This is just so you can see what’s behind the mask.

If you test your movie now, you’ll notice how the only thumbnails that display are the ones that are directly behind the mask.

Now, the cool part. To be able to scroll left and right, you’ll need a left and right arrow. I just used the arrow buttons
we used on our main timeline and placed them on a new layer. I also added a little white border around the arrows.

Here’s the code you’ll need to scroll your ThumbScrollerMc named thumbs_mc.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Includes and Imports.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
import fl.transitions.Tween;
import fl.transitions.easing.Regular;

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Setup.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
left_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, scrollLeft)
right_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, scrollRight)

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Event Handlers.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function scrollLeft(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Shift the MC left 150 units.
   var myTween:Tween = new Tween(thumbs_mc, "x", Regular.easeOut, thumbs_mc.x, (thumbs_mc.x - 150), 1, true);
}

function scrollRight(Event:MouseEvent):void
{
   //Shift the MC right 150 units.
   var myTween:Tween = new Tween(thumbs_mc, "x", Regular.easeOut, thumbs_mc.x, (thumbs_mc.x + 150), 1, true);
}

Essentiall, we are just shifting the ThumbsScrollerMc left and right when the user clicks an
arrow button. Test it out!

The only thing left to do is to add the fade in effect on the main timeline for the RespectStageMc
symbol. Great work!

Conclusion

Well congrats fellow Flashians! You have successfully completed the entire
jwright.info website!

Feel free to also look at the HTML file included in the package to see how the .swf file is displayed in the
browser.

I know this tutorial was a little long–maybe the longest you’ve ever done. But the content covered in this
walk through should give you a great foundation for developing your own Flash site. Keep up the good work!

Learn How to Create a Flash Website

2009-09-13T08:32:00.001-07:00

1. Open flash click new flash document.

2. Open the page properties if its not already opened which it should be Window/Properties/Properties

3. Change the size of the canvas to 800, 600.

4. Click on the background button and change it to #333333

5. After you have done this click the square tool

6. The color of the square should be white so click on the paint bucket tool and choose the color white. the stroke should also be off.. this is what it looks like. the stroke tool is right intop of the paint bucket.

7.Drag and make a square any size we would change that manually in a moment.

8. now change the width, height, x, and y positioning( change the width to 650, the height to 469.2, the x positioning to 398.1, and the y positioning to 299.3.) to change this dimmensions is all in the page properties. you have to click on the square and with it selected you can start making this changes.

9. with the square still selected now make it into a symbol to do this press (F8) a screen will come up what will ask you to name it. Name it “Background Symbol”. make sure the movie clip button is clicked.

10. make a new layer to do tis click on the insert layer button.

11. Select the new layer and click on the square tool again and make another square with the stroke off and the color instead of white make it black. This time with this dimensions.( width: 632.4, height: 450.4, x positioning: 81.6, and y positioning:73.3)

12. Make the new square into a symbol by pressing (F8) and name it masked symbol.

13. after you have made it into a symbol double click into the square this will take you inside the symbol and a new time line. this is just like the time line you were in but now you are inside of a symbol. make a new layer just like you did it before by clickin on the insert layer button. all the art work is in the bottom layer as of right now you can tell because of the little black dot under and on the top layer there is a white dot. the white dot means there is no art work on this layer.

14. Now clck and hold down on “Layer 1″ and with it still clicked drag it intop of “Layer 2″ . remember that all this is happening inside that symbol we made called “masked symbol”.

15. the picture on top shows what it should look like.

16. Right click on “Layer 1″ and then select “Mask”

17. when you do this both layers are goint to be locked you can tell because now the have a little lock next to them. click on the bottom lock to take it off.

18. Select “Layer 2″ find an image you like and now we are going to place in there. the way you do this is you go File/Import/Import to stage. then a search window is goign to come up and you find where your picture is and double click and it will be placed on the stage.

19. Now lock that layer back up by clicking where the lock was. and you should have something that looks kind of like this.

20. Now go tot the main time line. if you remember we were working inside a symbol so now get out of the symbol and go to the main timeline. a simple way to do this i to click somewhere were there is no artwork outside of the canvas, in the grey area.

21. Now lets make some buttons.Start by making a new layer and drag it all the way down so it becomes the bottom layer.

22. Make a square with the square tool.(background color #666666, width 130, height 50, positioning 137.2, y positioning 553.4).

23. Make this square into a symbol and call it “buttons”

24. select the square and copy and paste in the same place. To do this while with the square selected press (Ctrl + C) this will copy it and the press (Ctrl + Shift + V) and this will copy it in the same place now with it still selct it change the x positioning ( x positioning 269.9 )

25. Follow step 24 three more times but each time with a diffrent x positioning. (x positioning 398.8), (x positioning 529.6), (x positioning 660.5) it should look something like this.

26. Add some text to the buttons click on the text tool. is the one witht the letter “A” right intop of the square tool.

27. change the text color just like if you were changing the background color on a square. After click intop of one of the buttons and type “Home” , then click intop of the second button and type “portfolio”, on the third button type ” About” on the fourth type “FAQ” and on the last button type “ontact”

29. Make a new layer intop of the buttons layer to do this select the buttons layer and then click insert layer and it will put a layer intop of it.

30. here we are going to to create a hit areao for the buttons so you can actually click on them. click on the square tool again and create a square with the color white make this square about the same size of the buttons

31. make this square into a symbol but this time instead of making it a movie clip click on the button selection.

32. double click inside this symbol and it will look a little diffrent than a movie clip symbol. i tsays “Up”, “Over”, “Down”, and “Hit”.

33. there is a littel black dot under the text “Up” right click it and dont leg go and just drag it to where is says hit and now the little black dot should be under the text that says “Hit”

34. Go back to the main timeline. and the box should look blue

35. copy and paste it 4 times and drag each one under on button until all of them have one.

36. Now create a layer at the very top click on the square tool and take the stroke off and the bacgound color black have this settings (width: 304.8, height: 429.1, x positioning: 551.5, and y positioning: 297.0)

36. Now select the square and do the following go to the top menu and click on Modify/Shape/Soften fill edges

37. a new screen is goingt come up which si going to ask you “distance” , and “number of steps in both of this put 20 and make sure expand is clicked.

38. The next step is important so pay close attention. if you look where all the layers are to the right there are a bunch of numbers what you need to do is on the number 30 at the top click and drag down to select all the layers and the right click and click insert frame.

39. Create two more layers at the very top.

40. on the very top on the teh time line whre the number 5 is press it dont drag this time and press (F6) do that a the number 10,15, and 20

41. now on the little sircle on the number one frame select it and press (F9) this will bring up the actionscript window. here type the following “stop();”

42.as you can tell now intop of that littel circle there is a letter “a” this means that there is actionscrip on that frame. now do the same on layer 5,10,15, and 20.

43. Ok now press (F6) again on the layers5,10,15, and 20 but this time on the layer right under.

44. we are going to do something a little diffrent this time we are going to name the little sircles instead of inserting actionscript. do this click on the first frame on the circle with nothing on it and then go to the bottom left corner and there is something that says frame there enter the following “home”.

45. Now name all the other little circles this shouuld be the names ( portfolio, about, faq, and contact).

46. ok now on the layer under what you need to do is to Press (F6) also on frames 5,10,15,and 20. after this you will have a litte black dot on each one of those.

47. on the frist frame where the black square was type whatever you want

48. Now type something diffrently on frames 5,10,15 and 20.

49. after you have typed everything you wanted on the diffrent squares now its time to make it all work. what you need to do is to click on the blue square ontop of the “home button” dont double click it just select it. afte you have it selected press (F9) this will bring up the the actionscript window type the following

on(press){

gotoAndStop(”home”);

}

this will make it that when you click on that button it will go to the frame that you named home. follow the same steps on every blue box but where the parentises are intead of having home type in the appropiate name. such as( portfolio, about, faq, and contact.

50. Now you have finished this simple but very nice looking flash site. save your work. and to see it at work press (Ctrl + Enter) to see the swf. hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Create a Gallery Flash Tutorial

2009-09-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Step 1.

First of all you'll need to download the FLA containing some images images for you to work with and the gallery background. Once you've done that, open it up and go into the gallery MC, where you'll see the background on it's own layer and MC (Movieclip)

Step 2.

I the library you'll see the image and thumbnails in their own folder.

Step 3.

To initiate the image transition, we're going to use some thumbnails. Drag over the thumb-0 image from the library to a new layer called "thumbs", and Convert it to an MC called thumb0.

Step 4.

Add the rest of the thumbnails and convert them to MC's thumb1, thumb2 etc

Step 5.

This is part 2 of the tutorial to create a gallery with a jagged transition effect. Next, click on the 1st thumbnail MC and, from the properties panel, give it the instance name thumb0. We'll be using this instance name to refer to the thumbnail with Actionscript.

Step 6.

Drag the larger version of the image onto the stage, and convert it to an MC called image0, making sure to check the box "Export for Actionscript". This will give the MC the identifier "thumb0", which will be used later to reference the MC when the Actionscript is written. ONce you've done that delete the MC from the stage.

Step 7.

Add each other large image, convert them to MCs and give them identifiers.

Step 8.

This is part 3 of the tutorial, where we'll be creating the jagged shaped masks. Next, create a rectangle the same size as the large images (320 x 230)

Step 9.

Convert the rectangle into an MC called mask0, with an identifier of the same name.

Step 10.

Go into the MC.

Step 11.

Choose the Lasso Tool (image a) and, under the Tools options, choose "Polygon Mode" (image b).

a)		b)

Step 12.

We're going to use the lasso tool to cut the red rectanle into 2 jagged shapes. Start by clicking from the top left, just outside of the rectangle, and then click again below the rectangle, to create a steep diagonal line. Click for the 3rd time at the top, above the rectangle, and continue to creating diagonal line across the rectangle.

Step 13.

ONce you get to the end to the right, join the last diagonal line with the 1st point that was clicked. This should create a selection, as shown below.

Step 14.

Convert the selection to an MC called "mask1", giving it an identifier with the same name.

Step 15.

Delete the mask1 MC, leaving you with the bottom jagged shape in mask0.

Step 8.

This is part 3 of the tutorial, where we'll be creating the jagged shaped masks. Next, create a rectangle the same size as the large images (320 x 230)

Step 9.

Convert the rectangle into an MC called mask0, with an identifier of the same name.

Step 10.

Go into the MC.

Step 11.

Choose the Lasso Tool (image a) and, under the Tools options, choose "Polygon Mode" (image b).

a)		b)

Step 12.

Step 13.

ONce you get to the end to the right, join the last diagonal line with the 1st point that was clicked. This should create a selection, as shown below.

Step 14.

Convert the selection to an MC called "mask1", giving it an identifier with the same name.

Step 15.

Delete the mask1 MC, leaving you with the bottom jagged shape in mask0.

Step 16.

In the gallery MC create a new layer called script, open up the Actions panel and enter the code shown below

Line 1 - 2: Create an array called order. When we attach the images, two masks & copies of each image will be attached. A 2D array (Arrays within an array) is used to hold the order of each image segment. The numbers have been rearranged so that none of the images will be alligned properly, when the gallery is first dispalyed.

Step 17.

Line 3: A for loop is created to create two groups of images, consisting of an empty MC and a mask (mask0 & mask1). The "j" in the loop will start off at 0 and increment by 1 (j++), while j is below 2 (i

Line 4 : Variable "i" will temporarily hold the path of images.

Line 5 : Variable "m" will temporarily hold the path of the masks.

Line 6 : The mask's X position and image target's are set.

Line 7 - 8 : The mask's and image's Y position are set.

Line 9 : The mask (m) is set to mask the images (i)

Step 18.

Line 10: Another loop is used to attach a version of each image to each images MC (image0 -image2). Using "j" from the previous loop and "k" from this loop, the "order" array is looped through to attach the image number from the library.

Line 11: We use the temp variable "i", holding the path of the images0 - image2, to attach them images. We store the new path in the img variable.

Line 12: Each image is placed on an X position, using the images width multiplied by the increment K number.

Line 13: We use a temporary "thumb" variable to hold the name of each thumb associated with the image position.

Line 14: The thumbnail is given propertes (2 in total) for each position images0 - images1 must move to in order to display an alligned image.

Step 19.

Line 19 - 24: 2 functions are created to increase and decrease the opacity of the thumbnails, as they are rolled over and rolled out.

Step 20.

Line 27 - 28: The targets are set to equal the positions to display image4, which is stored in thumb4.pos0 & thub4.pos1

Line 29 : A speed variable is set for how fast the images scroll.

Step 21.

Line 30: An onEnterFrame function is created which will execute any code inbetween the braces {} repeatedly, at the frame rate (30) of the movie.

Line 31 - 33: This is the code used to move "images0" & "images1" MC to the "target" value minus the images current X position divided by the speed, whenever a thumb is pressed.

Step 22. Entire Code

And that's all the Actionscript that needs to be written to create the jagged transition gallery.

Download FLA (not preloaded)

Download FLA (preloaded)