Bring new life to your graphics and easily create and publish movies, sound files, presentations, interactive web content, and much more with help from this step-by-step guide. How to Do Everything with Flash 8 shows you how to get the most from this tremendously powerful multimedia design tool through easy-to-follow and well-organized bits of information. Fully updated to cover all the new and existing Flash features--including advanced interactivity with ActionScript--this valuable resource will help you discover why Flash is the world’s most popular web graphics application.
Flash 8 certainly bears no resemblance to the fi rst version of Flash I worked on way back
in 1997. Unlike its predecessor, Flash 8 is truly a solid program with rich features and a
sophisticated interface.
Flash 8 now ships in two versions, Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional. The basic drawing
and animation features in both programs are identical, as are the simple scripting capabilities.
Flash 8 Basic is an ideal solution for those needing to produce interactive animation that is of
simple to medium complexity. In fact, you can even embed video clips into Flash 8 Basic files,
so even though the application is “basic” it still has many features you find in the Professional
version.
Flash 8 Professional does all that Flash Basic does and much more. The Flash 8 Professional
user may be a web developer, programmer, video user, experienced designer, or anyone else
who likes to control the more complex elements of Flash design, like scripting. A Flash “power
user” would look to the Professional version for the more advanced features it offers. New and
intermediate users, whether in Flash Basic or Professional, will find that this book provides a
comprehensive foundation in all you need to know in Flash to get you up and running in no time.
By the time you finish the first chapter of this book, you will have created your first animation.
In the last half of the book, you will learn all you need to know about working with video in
Flash and scripting with ActionScript to make objects and movies interact with one another and
your audience.