Institute on Journalism and Media

University of Florida | July 2007

Beginning Flash

This two-hour workshop assumes no prior experience with Flash, an application published by Adobe.

Beginning Flash 8

  1. Overview of the Flash 8 interface
  2. BMPs inside, JPGs outside
  3. Photo file size for the Web (see Tip Sheet/PDF)
  4. Importing and optimizing BMP images
  5. Moving (example: slide.swf)
    • Symbols
    • Keyframes
    • ActionScript: stop();
  6. Zooming (transformation point; example: zoom.swf)
  7. Fading (alpha and 99%; example: fades.swf)
  8. Cross-fades (layer management; example: crossfades.swf)
  9. Adding buttons and frame labels
    (example: zoom_no_mask_with_button.swf)
    • ActionScript: gotoAndPlay();
    • Loading an external JPG via a button (examples.swf; when you download th FLA, you must also get bikers.jpg to load)
  10. Adding text (if we have time)
    • Select the Text Tool from the Tools panel
    • Change settings in the Propertes panel
    • Make sure Text Type says "Static Text"

Handouts

Tip Sheet -- optional; how to handle photos in Flash (PDF, 173 KB)

Flash Basics -- follow-along handout from the workshop (PDF, 4 pages, 178 KB)

Files | Photos | FLAs

Resources

Flash Journalism (the book): At Amazon.com

10-Minute Tutorials for learning Flash

Flash Journalism: Web site for the book
An assortment of professional examples are linked on this page.

Flash Journalism: Professional Practice Today
Online Journalism Review, Sept. 22, 2005
12 online journalists tell us why and how they use Flash.

Flash tutorials at GotoAndLearn.com (free)
This site has the best video tutorials for Flash 7 and 8. You can play the FLV tutorial videos in the free Democracy Player.

SNDies (recent monthly winners)
Society of News Design annual interactive awards (direct links to the 2005 annual winners and to the 2006 annual winners).

Interactive Narratives
A database and group blog of great online work and news about our journalism tools -- site is not updated now, but it has links to many excellent examples.