ActionScript 3.0 – Essentials

Essentials

Course Objectives

This 3-day courses focuses on enhancing your Flash projects. The course provides Flash designers with the knowledge and hands-on practice they need to create dynamically generated content, event-driven animation and interactive games with Flash. The course teaches fundamental programming techniques.

Duration

3 Days

Cost

£895 +VAT

Schedule

Course Dates

Prerequisites

This course is for students who want to learn how to program Flash content using ActionScript 3. Before taking this course, delegates should have completed the Adobe Flash CS5 Professional – Essentials course or have equivalent knowledge of Flash.

Additional Notes

Courses can be run on Windows and Macintosh platforms and tailored to meet customers’ requirements.

Courses run in Edinburgh and at client sites in Glasgow, Scotland and throughout the UK.

Related Courses

• Flash Essentials
• Flash Video Development

Course Outline

ActionScript 3.0 – Essentials

Introduction

• History of Flash & ActionScript
• Scripting new Programmers

Navigating the Flash Timeline

• Placing Code on the Flash Timeline

Working with Events & Functions

• Creating Event Listeners & Event Handling Functions
• Creating Navigation with a Button Click

Creating Animation with ActionScript

• Controlling MovieClip Properties
• Creating Animation

Creating ActionScript in External Files

• Creating an AS File
• Creating Instances of a Class File in Flash

Using ActionScript and Components to Load Content

• Creating an Instance of the List Component and Settings its
  Parameters
• Adding an Instance of the UILoader Component
• Adding a CHANGE Event Listener to the List Component
• Loading SWF Files into a UILoader Component
• Creating the Gallery File
• Adding a Scroll Bar to the Text Field

Creating Preloaders

• Tools in the Testing Environment
• Creating a Text Field and Progress Bar to Track Loading
• Track Progress of the UILoader Component
• Controlling the Frames of a MovieClip to Reflect Loading Progress

Using Arrays and Loops

• Adding MovieClip Instances to the Stage from the Library
• Generating Multiple Instances with a for Loop
• Adding Event Listeners to the Block Instances
• Creating Animation using ENTER_FRAME
• Adding the testDone() function

Creating a Radio Button Quiz

• Creating a New ActionScript File
• Setting up the RadioButtonQuiz Class
• Adding Variables to the RadioButtonQuiz Class
• Creating Quiz Functionality
• Formatting Text
• Creating the Quiz
• Creating checkAnswer() – the Final Function
• Integrating your New Class into the Flash Project

Controlling Sound

• Adding Sliders to the Project
• The Sound, SoundChannel and SoundTransform Classes
• Setting the Song Titles using a For Loop
• Making the Sliders Invisible until Needed
• Programming the Buttons to Select Songs
• Controlling the Visibility of the Volume and Pan Controls
• Adding a Listener for the ID3 Tags of an MP3 File
• Adding a Text Format Object
• Adding the Slider Controls

Working with an XML Playlist

• Understanding the Basic Structure of an XML File
• Examining the Startup File
• Replacing the songList Array with an XML Instance
• Loading an external Playlist using the URLLoader Class
• Responding to COMPLETE and IO_ERROR Events
• Moving the Event Listeners into the xmlLoaded() Function
• Updating the chooseSong() function
• Creating Hyperlinks using XML Data
• Navigating through the Song List

Using ActionScript and Components to Control Video

• Adding the FLVPlayback Component
• Setting FLVPlayback Properties in Flash
• Adding Control of FLVPlayback Properties
• Working with Color
• Adding the FLVCaptioning Component
• Playing multiple Video Files from an XML Playlist
• Using the Full-Screen Publish Settings

Delving Deeper into Graphics and Animation

• Inverse Kinematics in Flash CS5
• Working with Animation
• Creating Sound and SoundChannel Instances
• Playing and Stopping the Sound Effects
• Accessing the User’s Webcam or Video Camera
• Using the Bitmap and BitmapData Classes
• Examining the Pixel Bender Toolkit

Printing and Sending Email with ActionScript

• Adding a Simple Email Link
• Sending Email from Flash
• Adding Printing Capabilities with the PrintJob Class

Creating AIR Applications

• AIR Specific ActionScript
• Flash Publish Settings for an AIR Project
• Including a File in the AIR Application
• Creating an AIR Application
• Listening for Drag Events