Flash ActionScript Training | Chicago & LA

Adobe Flash Class

Flash CS4 Level 2: ActionScript

Flash ActionScript 3 is a 3 day class designed for Flash animators seeking to learn Flash ActionScript 3, and thereby build more flexible and dynamic design-based Flash content.
This course focuses on teaching students ActionScript topics that will remove a reliance on Timeline-based visual tools. Students will learn to generate dynamic design and navigation elements that cannot be created without ActionScript.

Target Audience

This Flash Training course is aimed at existing Flash Designers who would like to further their knowledge of Flash by learning ActionScript 3. Students should have already completed Flash CS4 Level 1: Essential Skills class or have equivalent experience prior to enrolling in this class. This is a Flash programming class, and not suitable for people that do not like programming. Find out more about our Flash training deals.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this Flash training course students will be able to:

Work with Events and Functions
Animate using ActionScript
Load External Content using ActionScript
Create Preloaders
Work with Arrays and Loops
Create a Radio Button Quiz
Control Sound with ActionScript
Create an XML Songlist
Control Video with ActionScript
Print and send email with ActionScript
Creating a small AIR application.

Los Angeles	Mar 1 - 3 *	Register
Chicago	May 10 - 12 !	Register
Los Angeles	May 10 - 12 !	Register
Los Angeles	Jul 26 - 28	Register
Chicago	Aug 2 - 4	Register

* Class almost full ! Class guaranteed to run † Class is full

Navigating the Flash Timeline

Getting started
Placing code on the Flash timeline

Working with Events and Functions

Creating event listeners and event handling functions
Creating navigation with a button click

Creating Animation with ActionScript

Reviewing the starting file
Controlling MovieClip properties with ActionScript
Creating animation using ActionScript tweens

Creating ActionScript in External Files

Creating an ActionScript file
Creating instances of a class file in Flash

Using ActionScript and Components to Load Content

Creating an instance of the List component and setting its parameters
Adding an instance of the UILoader component
Adding a CHANGE event listener to the List component
Loading SWF files into a UILoader component
Creating the gallery file
Adding a scroll bar to the text field

Creating Preloaders in ActionScript 3.0

Tools in the testing environment
Creating a text field and progress bar to track loading
Inserting ActionScript to track progress of the UILoader component
Controlling the frames of a MovieClip to reflect loading progress

Using Arrays and Loops in ActionScript 3.0

Adding MovieClip instances to the stage from the Library
Generating multiple instances with a for loop
Adding event listeners to the Block instances
Creating animation using ENTER_FRAME
Adding the testDone() function

Creating a Radio Button Quiz in an ActionScript File

Creating a new ActionScript file
Setting up the RadioButtonQuiz class
Adding variables to the RadioButtonQuiz class
Creating the quiz functionality
Formatting text with ActionScript
Creating the quiz
Creating checkAnswer()—the final function
Integrating your new class into the Flash project

Controlling Sound with ActionScript

Adding sliders to the project
The Sound, SoundChannel, and SoundTransform classes

Setting the song titles using a for loop
Making the sliders invisible until needed
Programming the buttons to select songs
Controlling the visibility of the volume and pan controls
Adding a listener for the ID3 tags of an MP3 file
Adding a text format object
Adding the slider controls

Working with an XML Playlist

Understanding the basic structure of an XML file
Examining the starting file
Replacing the songList array with an XML instance
Loading an external playlist using the URLLoader class
Responding to COMPLETE and IO_ERROR events
Moving the event listeners into the xmlLoaded() function
Updating the chooseSong() function
Creating hyperlinks using XML data
Navigating through the song list
Some suggestions to try on your own

Using ActionScript and Components to Control Video

Adding the FLVPlayback component
Setting FLVPlayback properties in Flash
Adding ActionScript control of FLVPlayback properties
Working with color
Adding the FLVCaptioning component
Playing multiple video files from an XML playlist
Using the full-screen publish settings

Delving Deeper into Graphics and Animation with ActionScript

Inverse kinematics in Flash CS4
Working with IK animation in ActionScript
Creating Sound and SoundChannel instances
Playing and stopping the sound effects
Accessing the user's webcam or video camera using ActionScript
Using the Bitmap and BitmapData classes
Examining the Pixel Bender Toolkit

Printing and Sending Email with ActionScript

Adding a simple email link
Sending email from Flash
Adding printing capabilities with the PrintJob class

Adobe AIR Applications with Flash and ActionScript

AIR-specific ActionScript
Flash publish settings for an AIR project
Including a file in the AIR application
Creating an AIR application
Listening for drag events