Exporting Sprite Sheets From Flash

The concept/use of sprite sheets in the gaming industry is such a common technique.  It is a technique that cannot be left out of your nifty toolbox.  At the most recent  Flash on the Beach, Adobe demoed an exciting new feature that allows you to export sprite sheets from your library MovieClips. This will be extremely useful for game developers and for anyone doing mobile development.

Check out this sneak peek video create by Lee Brimelow on export sprite sheets from a future release of Flash.

Stage3D Cover Flow

The magic of Stage3D appears to be an ongoing affair throughout the Flash community.  The most recent sighting is a cover flow created using Alternativa3D and Stage3D.  The performance on this guy is awesome!

Check it out for yourself.

Adobe Flash “Speed” Feature

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use the “Speed” feature in Adobe Flash. If you use the Bone tool (Inverse Kinematics) you may find this hidden gem useful.  Enjoy!

Reach the Final Frontier with Circ and Flash Builder

Circ, available for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS, is so simple in its gameplay but challenging at the same time—players navigate their spaceships collecting stars and points, while escaping from planets and stars trying to pull the ship away from its course.

It’s the kind of game that’s perfect for passing the time between train stops or even just for a quiet few minutes at home. Learn more!

Check out the official trailer!

New to ActionScript 3.0 is the ability to dynamically change the frame rate of an animation via runtime. By having this ability, you can create a slow motion animation without the exact precisiong in keyframe timing. You can also use this to lower the frame rate for slower machines dynamically.  Let’s see it in action.

Getting Started

I’ve created a small example that will demonstrate this new feature. In this example, you can simply use the arrow buttons to increment/decrement the animation’s frame rate by 1. You will noticeable see the difference of how changing its frame rate will have on the animation.

Also, you can thank webtasarim for the animation sample.

Setting a Frame Rate of 60+

If you noticed, I’ve capped the frame rate off at 60 fps. According to a study, the in browser Flash Player will cap out at 60 fps. Basically, if you ever wanted to exceed the frame rate of it will have no effect on the animation…so why bother.

Example

The ActionScript Used in the Example

//imports the necessary as events
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
//Define the initial stage frame rate
this.stage.frameRate=1;
rateTxt.text="1 fps";

//attaching mouse events to the buttons on stage
arrowUp.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,arrowPressUp);
arrowUp.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT,arrowOut);
arrowUp.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,arrowOver);

arrowDown.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,arrowPressDown);
arrowDown.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT,arrowOut);
arrowDown.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,arrowOver);

function arrowPressUp(event:MouseEvent):void {
 if (this.stage.frameRate<59) {
 //Incrementing the frame rate
 this.stage.frameRate=this.stage.frameRate+1;
 rateTxt.text=this.stage.frameRate+1+" fps";
 }
}

function arrowPressDown(event:MouseEvent):void {
 if (this.stage.frameRate>1) {
 //Decrementing the frame rate
 this.stage.frameRate=this.stage.frameRate-1;
 rateTxt.text=this.stage.frameRate-1+" fps";
 }
}

//On mouse over function
function arrowOver(event:MouseEvent):void {
 event.target.alpha=1;
}

//On mouse out function
function arrowOut(event:MouseEvent):void {
 event.target.alpha=.7;
}

Download the example .fla

Crappy Cat is a Flash experience that offers no real reasoning or solution, but provides every bit of an enjoyable experience.  Experience Crappy Cat for yourself.

What is Flash in a Flash?

“Flash in a flash” is a series of training videos that John Schuman of Adobe designed to get you going with Adobe Flash CS3—in a flash.   This series of training video takes you through the creation of a Flash project as you learn the fundamentals of working with Flash including working with symbols, creating and controlling animations, adding audio, creating buttons, and video.

How can I access these training videos?

John Schuman’s series, Flash in a Flash, can be found at Adobe Tv or as a channel that can be subscribed via the Adobe AIR application, Adobe Media Player.

As you can see these videos are intending for beginners looking to get into Flash CS3 or simply need a rundown of Flash CS3′s capabilities. Take a look at the following training videos below to see if any fit what you are expecting to learn from Flash CS3.

Episode 1: Fundamentals of Flash CS3

John Schuman introduces the fundamentals of Flash CS3 such as creating symbols, drawing tips and tricks and more.  John will also introduce introduce the virtual hero of the series, Victor Vector.

Episode 2: Creating Animations

In this episode you will explore the fundamentals of animation and some of the various animation techniques like keyframing and motion tweening and how to use ease in/ease out control.

Episode 3: Integrating Sound within Animations

Continuing with the Victor Vector project, putting the various animation and graphical components together and introducing sound.  You’ll also learn how to use MovieClip filters, blends, and alter the speed of a motion tween.

Episode 4: Introduction to Flash Video

An introduction to Flash video, in you will learn how to add video to your Flash project, how to create cue points and closed captioning for accessibility, fullscreen viewing, and more.

Episode 5: Basic Interactivity and ActionScript 3.0

An introduction to basic interactivity and ActionScript 3.0.  Learn how to create a simple UI slider, component, invisible buttons, and add basic interactivity in Flash CS3.

Episode 6: Publishing Your Project

This episode will the various publishing options in Flash CS3 including the latest plug-in for Adobe AIR.

Additional Resources:

• Download the sample file to the series
• Check out more of the videos available on Adobe TV

Here’s a sweet interactive Flash experiment created by Noel Billig called “curious robots”. The robots will watch and approach the mouse cursor, but will flee in fear if the mouse cursor gets too close. The best part is that you can single out a robot and chase him around with the mouse while the others watch in fear. Enjoy this fine piece of work!

This tutorial is great for beginner Flash animators. It covers everything from how to know what sounds go with what mouth movements to animating the mouth movements to fit with an audio clip.  Lip-syncing is huge for successful Flash animations and the technique used within this tutorial is probably the easiest and most effective way known to handle lip-syncing.

In a matter of 10 simple steps, Flash Farmer will get you on your away to becoming a better Flash animator.  Enjoy!

Check out the tutorial: Create A Realistic Flash Animation Lip-Sync

Example of final product:
]]> http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/create-a-realistic-flash-animation-lip-sync/feed/ 1 http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/morphing-text-in-flash/ http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/morphing-text-in-flash/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:53:28 +0000 Angel Romero http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/2007/12/30/morphing-text-in-flash/

Here’s a great example on how to creatively use morphing text within Adobe Flash. The video is by Bert Lee of LearnFlash.com. This is just one of many ways you can possibly morph text inside of flash. Great tutorial if you never really toyed with the morphing tween inside of Adobe Flash before. Take a look for yourself.

via LearnFlash

Below are the expected results of this video tutorial:

Looking to get the most out of the new filters in Flash Professional 8. In today’s tip, you’ll learn how to use the “blur” filter to create some very realistic clouds, and then you’ll learn how to animate those clouds in Flash. The great thing about this tutorial is not only that it is easy, but you don’t necessarily have to be a great artist to accomplish this effect.

via LearnFlash

Below is an example of the expected results: