There are a number of forum posts about code hinting not showing up as expected in Flash CS5 documents. There are a number of possibilities about why code hints do not show up, but the following post will collect some troubleshooting tips that may help you out.
Continue Reading »
Some people have been asking how to create button code in Flash (CS3, CS4, or CS5) that progresses the playhead in a SWF to the next or previous frame using ActionScript 3.0. This is not too difficult, and is a super simple code modification from any other button in AS3 (and is actually a touch easier than AS2 due to scoping issues).
This post includes an example of how to create two buttons that click between a few different frames. I’ll also include a (CS4) FLA file for you to look at and the AS2 equivalent.
The following examples show how you can get started with the TLFTextField class in ActionScript in Adobe Flash Professional CS5.
I’ve seen a couple questions in regards to looping new motion tweens – essentially having all of the properties copied from the beginning of the tween span to the end of the tween span. This is something I also ran into when testing, so requested a feature found in Flash CS4 and CS5 – Copy/Paste Properties.
There are actually a few ways of doing this, so I’ll outline it below:
a) Select the individual keyframe (Cmd/Ctrl+click) you want to copy, and then Alt+drag the property keyframe to copy it and move it to a new location. You can pass over existing property keyframes.
b) Select the individual keyframe then right-click and choose Copy Properties. Select where you want to paste the properties and choose Paste Properties.
c) F6 – this will add a keyframe for all available properties in the same position as the previous one like classic tweening (may or may not be what you will need though, such as when you’ve already tweened the instance).
You can also use Paste Properties Special, which will paste only a subset of property keyframes onto the frame. For instance, if you only need to paste the transformation keyframes but not the spatial properties, then this will be handy.
Flash CS5 ships with a bunch of templates that haven’t been seen in Flash before. The “Advertising” templates are still in there as with previous versions, but you’ll also see new categories for Animation, Banners, Media Playback, Presentations, and Sample Files. These FLAs all contain content within them to help you either start out with a document, or learn how certain functionality works in Flash. Most of them also contain instructions to help you set the file up for use. Just swap out the graphics and/or add a bit of content and you’re ready to go.
To access templates, choose File > New and choose the Templates tab, or choose a category from the “Create from Template” category on the Start page.
The Animation category includes:
The Banners category includes:
The Media Playback category includes:
The Presentations category includes:
Sample Files include:
Please let us know any feedback, and please let us know of templates you’d like to see in future versions of Flash!
It’s available for a trial – go download it and let us know what you think!
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/
One of the great new features you’ll see in Flash CS5 is XFL, the new file format that is XML-based. This gives you so much more control over your documents, and saves you from encountering nastiness like corrupt files. And Live Editing lets you edit your images easily from Flash. Just go to Photoshop, edit your work, and you’ll see it updated when you return to Flash.
For the details and a great video on this new Flash CS5 feature, see Valerio Virgillito’s blog post here: http://blog.mencio.com/?p=28
So the Flash CS5 announcement is a little buried perhaps under the weight of other related news, so here are some screenshots of CS5. For the Adobe announced features of Flash CS5, see this page here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/whatsnew/. The following post has screenshots from Flash CS5 to show you the new features in a bit more detail. The post will follow the categories and topics from the page linked previously, if they can be shown in the UI.
A “FAQ” about new motion tweens is how to scale the entire animation after you have created it. New motion tweens “auto-keyframe”. This can be very helpful when animating, because it saves you a step – you can just make your changes and everything tweens nicely. However, it also means that you need to think about things when you need to revise the entire animation. You don’t use “Edit multiple keyframes”, since you really only have one keyframe at the beginning of the animation. So I’ll go over a few of the things you may encounter.
1. Moving an entire animation with a motion path.
If you have a motion path, this is easy – you select the motion path (click it, or marquee-select over your instance), and then drag it to a new location on the stage or use the X-Y hot text for the path.
2. Moving an entire animation without a motion path.
If you do not have a motion path and do not want a motion path, you need to make sure your playhead is at frame 1 of the tween span, and then move the instance to a new location. Make sure you haven’t accidentily placed any position keyframes. If you do have a path, delete it or go to the Motion Editor and right-click the X and Y motion paths and choose “Reset Property” (or click the Reset button for Basic motion if you don’t have rotation applied).
3. Scaling an entire animation that doesn’t have Scale X or Scale Y animated.
You can scale the tween with the motion path. Just go to the first frame of the tween, and select the instance and path using the Free Transform Tool (hold Shift to multi-select), or use the Transform panel for each selection. Scale it as you do any path or instance, and because you’re at the first frame the changes will apply across the entire tween.
4. Scaling an entire animation that does have Scale X or Scale Y animated.
If you have previously scaled anything in the tween, doing this is applied to the first keyframe and the tween would animate to the earlier scaling (the auto-keyframing feature can be a detriment in this situation, especially when it comes to scaling due to the percentages being reset – for this reason Motion Presets also won’t help). In this situation, I recommend scaling using the Motion editor:
1. Go to the Scale X and Y properties in the Motion Editor.
2. Press the Alt key while dragging the curve in each graph up and down. This scales the entire scale animation at the same time (same as edit multiple keyframes).
3. If you need to proportionally scale the motion path for the tween as well, select the path on the Stage and use Free Transform or enter a new value in the Transform panel.
Pretty much as the subject says! Hold down the Shift key when selecting frames with sound will play that frame’s sound. We’ve had this request from users to be able to play a snippet of sound when you click a frame. It seems that was written into Flash with the Shift key modifier.
There are some limitations with reselecting the same frame, and because Shift selects contiguous frames you need to go in the same direction along the Timeline or re-start your selection to play the individual frames. However, it does add some functionality that you might be able to add to your workflow.