Macromedia

Lesson 1:The Interface.

 

In order to start creating Macromedia Flash applications, you need to buy the Macromedia Flash Pro 8 software from any computer retail store or online store (The installation is self explanatory, remember to check the requirements first!). After installing Macromedia Flash Pro 8(which is the version of Flash that I am using, there are many other versions.),  the program and you would see the interface of the program as shown below.

 

Figure 1.1

 

To build a new flash project, click on Flash Document under the Create New label. The startup interface should look like this:

                                                   Figure 1.2

Lesson 2:Introducing the Flash tools

In this lesson, I will introduce you the tools in Macromedia Flash Pro 8.The tools in Macromedia Flash Pro 8 are shown in Figure 2.1

 

Figure 2.1

1.Selection Tool	2.Subselection Tool	3.Free Transform Tool	4.Gradient Transform Tool	5.Line Tool	6.Lasso Tool
7.Pen Tool	8.Text Tool	9.Oval Tool	10.Rectangle Tool	11.Pencil Tool	12.Brush Tool
13.Ink Bottle Tool	14.Paint Bucket Tool	15.Eyedropper Tool	16.Eraser Tool	17.Hand Tool	18.Zoom Tool
19.Stroke color	20.Fill color	21.Black and white	22.Swap color	23.No color

Other  tools will be explained in the coming lessons as we teach you to create  simple Flash applications.

n, drag the textbox to any size you want the textbox to be on the blank space. After that, it should look like this:

Figure 3.2

Now, you can input any text you want  into the text box:

 

Figure 3.3

Does it seem too small? If it is too small, you can change the size of the text :

Figure 3.4

After you change the text size, it should look like this:

Figure 3.5

you can also change the font of the text:

Now, you can put text in your flash applications.

esson 4: Smoothen/Straighten Flash drawings

 

In this lesson, I will show you how to smoothen lines and drawings. First, draw a line with the pencil tool or brush tool. The outline of the drawing doesn't look smooth, does it?

Figure 4.1

To smoothen the drawing/line, right click the drawing and click smooth. 

Figure 4.2

After that, it should look like this:

Figure 4.3

Compare the drawing that has been  smoothened with the previous drawing, does it look smoother?

To straighten a drawing, just click straighten after right-clicking the drawing. After that, it should look like this:

Figure 4.4

Now, you can use this method to improve the quality of the drawings you draw in flash, though it is also good if you use other programs to draw the pictures.