Adobe Flash CS4 Course

Hello and welcome to this tutorial series on learning Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. My name is James Gonzales. I'll be your guide through this look at the world's leading software tool for creating media-rich interactive presentations and websites. This course is composed of movies between about 3 minutes and 7 minutes in length, organized with other movies and sections of related Flash techniques or topics. I start with this section providing an overview of the tutorial and the Flash application itself, including all the new features in this CS4 version of Flash. The Flash program interface is then covered including a review of all Flash's important windows, panels, and interface components. Next you'll learn how to create and modify content in Flash using the Drawing and Selection tools, and also how to work with non-Flash graphics imported into the Flash authoring environment. Next you'll learn the fundamental topics of symbols and instances. The entire middle section of the tutorial is devoted to Flash animation, including basic frame by frame animation techniques, Shape Tween animations, Classic Tweens in the new object based animation technique now referred to as Motion Tweens. You next learn how to create working animated buttons and all about movie clips. The final one third of the tutorial is devoted to working with text, audio, and video media, and with adding interactivity to your Flash projects with behaviors in Flash's powerful internal scripting language ActionScript. The tutorial concludes then with a review and demonstration of the various publishing and export options available in this CS4 version of Flash Pro. Before we begin, I need to orientate you on how these videos work. I'm currently using screen capturing software to record my voice and computer screen. The video images you see on my screen are being captured by this screen recording program. I'll be recording my screen while demonstrating all of the important features of Flash CS4 Professional, giving you a very detailed and very visual look at the application. The movies were recorded on a PC running Vista with the Windows based version of Flash. However, the Mac version is almost identical and in the few instances where there are differences, I'll point them out. In most cases, this is when I use the right mouse button. If you have a Mac with a two button mouse, these right mouse button calls will work for you as well. If you only have a one button mouse, the equivalent to a right click is to press your mouse while holding down the Control key. One of the best features of this tutorial I think are all the working Flash FLA files, SWF files, and media files that I've included here in the Work Files folder that we'll use to demonstrate all the Flash techniques covered in the individual movies. Access these files in the Work Files folder right here labeled Work Files on your CD. They are named in accordance with the name of the movie they were used in. For example, to have a look at the FLA file used in the movie covering the Bones tool, open the FLA file entitled Bones right here. You'll find these working files very helpful in your efforts to learn Flash CS4 in the most efficient and effective manner. In many cases you'll want to use these working files to work right along with my demonstrations in a particular movie. For example, completed examples from the movie entitled Creating Rollover Buttons are found in the file Animated Button Finish right here. To complete the demonstration on your own from the start, you would use the animated button Start File, this one right there. Opening and investigating the wealth of files I've organized for you here in the Work Files folder will give you insights and learning opportunities beyond what is simply covered in the tutorial movies. Use these working FLA and SWF and media files to practice techniques covered in the movies as well as to see how the author has set up scripts, layer stacks, libraries, instance properties, and much, much more. Each movie was chosen or created to demonstrate and instruct on a specific Flash skill or technique, so I've included them in the tutorial to give you much more help in mastering this information. So what exactly is Adobe Flash CS4 Professional and why spend the effort to learn how to use it? Well let's move on to the next movie so I can answer these questions in some detail.  

Download WorkFiles