Flash Speaks Actionscript

Flash templates have become very popular and very useful for most individuals looking to get a head start on their next project. Check out this list created by Scott of activeden which exemplifies the quality and diversity of Flash templates that are available for a small fraction of the cost. Enjoy!

Corporate Template by blackandwhite

Green Web Template by barisintepe

XML_Creative_Portfolio by dsym

Italian Desktop Template by MaikoStudio

Fullscreen Template v2 by lifwanian

Black Flash Website Template by robwes19

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This tutorial by Flash Farmer covers how to create a dynamic Flash XML navigation menu using Actionscript 2.0 and XML. Each button has a roll over and roll out animation. Control the clickthroughs, button titles and the total number of buttons with the external XML file. Once the Flash file is created you can update the menu just by editing the XML file.

This file consists of a nice structure and code is well commented.  Also, files to be downloaded comes along with full offline documentation.

Example of final product:

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:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/files/FF_LipSync.swf" height="363" width="500" /]

With all the image galleries available on the web, it’s not easy to get a user to look twice at your version of an image gallery unless it’s unique.  Cube is a very nice attempt to creating a image gallery that makes a statement with its creativity and therefore it deserves some extra attention.

The creativity level of this image gallery is high, however, its performance is a little sluggish at times during transitions.  Other than that, this image gallery is definitely worth a second look.

Download Cube

Ever since Flash fullscreen within your browser was introduced, it has been used and abused time and time again but for good reason. There is definitely a time and place for Flash fullscreen. Here are 31 different sets of Flash fullscreen backgrounds. These Flash fullscreen backgrounds are resizable and of high quality available at activeden.net. Also, take note that many of fullscreen backgrounds listed are Flash animated backgrounds. These will will definitely give you an edge over others when it comes to your Flash projects. Enjoy!

Pack 20 Backgrounds Wood By triworks

Cool Fullscreen Backgrounds and Border – 11 styles By modular

Tiled Grey Diagonal Background By triworks

Pack 10 Backgrounds Float Mix By triworks

Pack 5 Backgrounds Carbon By triworks

Fullscreen Float Background V1 By triworks

Fireflys By djankey

Pack 10 Backgrounds Oriental By triworks

Fullscreen Float Background Hearts By triworks

8 Gray Tiled Backgrounds Pack By louros

Moving Line Background By MaikoStudio

Tiled Blue Diagonal Background By triworks

3D DNA Rotation By schus

ActionScript Snowing By Ondra

Pack 10 Backgrounds Retro By triworks

Pack 12 Backgrounds Bricks By triworks

Adjustable plant animation By digitalplant

City Scape Background By Norppa

Pack 10 Backgrounds Victorian By triworks

Country Scene By mottomoyoi

Tiled Black Dots Background By triworks

Field Particles By CalicoMonkey

Fluffy White Clouds By oz_sprog

Flying Balloons By barisintepe

20 Pattern Backgrounds By louros

Grey Tiled Diagonal Background By samiyilmaz

Growing Swirls and Curves Background By nstas

Spinning Arrows By Yombull

JFX Random Star Field By JFXIW

Sea Shore Animated Background By mottomoyoi

Pink Growing Flowers By BOOJOO

Update: Based on your feedback on this tutorial, I decided to create a hassle free CountdownTimer AS3 class that will assist in creating your very own flash countdown timer.  Learn how to create a Flash Countdown in AS3 using this class.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a timer in Adobe Flash that will count down the time to a given date in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. If you were looking for a great Flash tool for counting down holidays, birthdays, etc, this is the tutorial for you.

Also, this Flash countdown timer tutorial allows you to preset any day of your choice with in AS2 and AS3. Have fun!

[kml_flashembed publishmethod="static" fversion="9.0.0" movie="http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/files/CountdownAS2/countDownTimer.swf" width="500" height="200" targetclass="flashmovie"]

Create the Flash Countdown Timer in AS2

This tutorial will go over the basics on constructing a Flash countdown timer within Actionscript 2.0.

Step 1: Create a dynamic text field with the string value of “00:00:00:00″. Note:this is simply to get the text field to the size needed for the dynamic content.

Step 2: Delete the string value of text field and name the text field “time_txt”.

Step 3: Create a new layer named “actions” and insert the following code in the first keyframe:

Source File: countDownTimer.fla

//onEnterFrame allows for a function to be called every tick
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
	//Stores the current date
	var today:Date = new Date();
	//Stores the Current Year
	var currentYear = today.getFullYear();
	//Stores the Current Time
	var currentTime = today.getTime();
	//Creates and stores the target date
	var targetDate:Date = new Date(currentYear, 11, 25);
	var targetTime = targetDate.getTime();
	//Determines how much time is left.  Note: Leaves time in milliseconds
	var timeLeft = targetTime-currentTime;
	var sec = Math.floor(timeLeft/1000);
	var min = Math.floor(sec/60);
	var hours = Math.floor(min/60);
	var days = Math.floor(hours/24);

	//Takes results of var remaining value.  Also converts "sec" into a string
	sec = String(sec%60);

	//Once a string, you can check the values length and see whether it has been reduced below 2.
	//If so, add a "0" for visual purposes.
	if (sec.length<2) {
		sec = "0"+sec;
	}

	min = String(min%60);
	if (min.length<2) {
		min = "0"+min;
	}

	hours = String(hours%24);
	if (hours.length<2) {
		hours = "0"+hours;
	}

	days = String(days);

	if (timeLeft>0) {
		//Joins all values into one string value
		var counter:String = days+":"+hours+":"+min+":"+sec;
		time_txt.text = counter;
	} else {
		trace("TIME'S UP");
		var newTime:String = "00:00:00:00";
		time_txt.text = newTime;
		delete (this.onEnterFrame);
	}

};

What is FlashVars?

FlashVars is Flash answer to Query String.  It’s a way to pass data or variables from html to a Flash movie.  Variables passed via FlashVars will go into the _root level of the Flash movie.

Differences Between AS2 and AS3

The key difference between AS2 and AS3 is how to retrieve the FlashVars. The FlashVars are no longer available in the _root level of the movie. Instead, you must use the new LoaderInfo class object to access the FlashVars.  The FlashVars is available in the parameters member of the LoaderInfo. This makes the AS3 solution much more dynamic and independent to each object that is created. See below for an example of both.

FlashVars in AS2

var myFlashVar:String;
_root.createTextField("myTextField", 1, Stage.width/2 - 50, Stage.height/2 , 150, 40);
myTextField.text = myFlashVar;

FlashVars in AS3

function loaderComplete(myEvent:Event)
{
this.flashVars=this.loaderInfo.parameters;
this.flashVarsLoaded=true; // set a flag to indicate that the FlashVars is loaded
}

I hope this post helped you understand the key difference between defining your FlashVars within AS2 and AS3.  If your interested in learning more about FlashVars, check out the resources below as they will go deeper into the topic.

Resources on FlashVars:

• Understanding FlashVars within AS2
• Understanding FlashVars within AS3
• FlashVars in AS3
• What is LoaderInfo?

I would like to hear from you on how I can make the series of posts “Moving From Flash AS2 to Flash AS3” better.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

AFC Announces All 14 Actionscript 2.0 Components as FREE!

This a very impressive list of Flash components. The original value of all of these combined are over $310. As of today, you can find them all free at Advanced Flash Components. Enjoy these great tools and make sure to spread the word.

Also, don’t forget to thank the guys over at Advanced Flash Components for this great opportunity.

Flow List

Flow List Component loads external images and creates a 3D flow animation. Flexible API makes it easy to integrate this component into your web application.

Media List

The Media List component is an adaptable list that can be used as a navigation for a variety of media. It allows you to easily scroll to, and select items in the list, with a clear indication of which item is selected.

Tooltip

Tooltip Component is the perfect tool for displaying text and image tool tips in Flash. Enhanced functionality, easy to use interface and scalability makes this component a valuable tool for every flash developer.

IMG Loop

IMG Loop Flash Component creates continuous image scroll. Component supports XML, RSS 2.0 as well as direct data input. All of the component properties can be modified to seamlessly integrate with your project.

FLV Player

The FLV Player component provides standard user interface controls (play, pause, stop, etc) for Flash video playback.

Map

Map Component displays geographical locations and polylines, allowing for easy map navigation. Component uses Equidistant Cylindrical Map Projection and Longitude and Latitude position data to display location points.

MP3 Player

Easily load and play MP3 files inside Flash using MP3 Simple Player component. Player supports XML and RSS 2.0 Podcast Feeds.

IMG Gallery

IMG Gallery Flash component is a fully customizable and scalable tool for displaying dynamic slide shows. Component supports XML, RSS 2.0 as well as direct data input.

IMG Thumbnail Gallery

IMG Thumbnail Gallery Flash component is a fully customizable and scalable tool for displaying dynamic slide shows. Component supports XML, RSS 2.0 as well as direct data input.

FLV Gallery

FLV Gallery Flash Component is a perfect solution for playback of multiple flash video files and can be easily integrated within any flash application. FLV Gallery supports XML and RSS 2.0 feeds and is fully customizable through component properties.

FLV List Gallery

FLV List Gallery Flash Component combines extensible functionality and easy to use user interface for multiple flash video files playback. FLV List Gallery supports XML and RSS 2.0 feeds and is fully customizable through component properties.

IMG Loader Blur, IMG Loader Pixelate, IMG Loader Tint

The IMG Loader component is a container that can display external image files (JPEG/GIF/PNG but not progressive JPEG files) with Flash 8 Blur Transition, Flash 8 Pixelate Transition, and Flash 8 Tint Transition; respectively.

Source: Advanced Flash Components

What ever happened to getURL within Actionscript 3.0?

If you wanted to create a link to another website in Actionscript 2.0, here’s what it would have looked like:

The command getURL used to a be very easy way to create an outbound link within Flash. This one line of code code easily fitted perfectly within a button onRelease event. Not so easy anymore.

Along with many other easy Actionscript 2.0 calls, getUrl has changed. It uses a couple more lines of code and has changed to navigateToURL. You might be asking why would the amount of lines increase for such a simple task. Craig Campbell just recently posted an in depth example and explanation to creating outbound links within Actionscript 3.0.

Source: School of Flash

The FIVe3D initiative is an open source code for the conception of interactive vector- based 3D animations. The classes originally written in Actionscript 2.0 and based on the Actionscript 3.0 structure are now ported in Actionscript 3.0. The FIVe3D system provides extra 2D functionalities.

This is huge for the Flash industry as FIVe3D always provided exceptional 3D support within the Flash environment. FIVe3D now joins other big 3D engines by switching it’s platform to Actionscript 3.0. Online documentation will be available soon at FIVe3D’s home site. Below are a few examples of FIVe3D.

Examples of FIVe3D at work

Elements Menu

Fake Equalizer

Famous Quote

Source: FIVe3D