How To Use The Wand Tool On Adobe Flash Animate

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Affiliate 1. Getting Around Flash

Every bit mentioned in this volume'due south introduction, Wink performs several feats of sound-visual magic. You employ it to create animations, to display video on a website, to create handheld apps, or to build a consummate web-based application. So it'south not surprising that the Flash workspace is crammed full of tools, panels, and windows (Figure ane-1). Only don't be intimidated—you don't take to conquer these tools all at once. This chapter introduces you to Flash'southward main work areas and often-used toolbars and panels, so y'all can start creating Flash projects correct away. You'll experiment with Flash'due south stage and timeline, and run across how Flash lets yous breathing graphics so that they movement forth a path and change shape.

Tip

To get farther acquainted with Flash, you can bank check out the built-in assist screens by selecting Help→Flash Help. Once the assistance panel opens, click Using Flash Professional. It'due south on the left side of the somewhat decorated window. Yous can read more about Flash's assist arrangement in Appendix A.

Starting Wink

You lot first Flash only as you would any other plan—which means you tin do it in a few different ways, depending on whether you have a PC or a Mac. Installing the program puts Flash CS6 and its related files in the binder with your other programs, and you can showtime it by double-clicking its icon. Here'due south where it's usually installed:

• Windows . Go to C:\Plan Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS6\Flash.exe . Yous can create a shortcut or elevate the file to the taskbar for quicker starting.

• Mac . Get to Macintosh Hd\Applications\Adobe Flash CS6\Adobe Wink CS6 . Yous can brand an alias or elevate the file to the Dock for quicker starting.

Figure 1-1. The Flash Professional person workspace is divided into three main areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. This entire window, together with the timeline, toolbars, and panels, is sometimes called the Flash desktop, the Flash interface, or the Wink authoring surround.

Here are some other Windows means to start the plan:

• From the Vista or Windows vii Start menu, cull All Programs→Adobe Wink Professional CS6.

• For Windows XP, go to Start→All Programs→Adobe→Adobe Flash Professional person CS6.

• If you're a keyboard enthusiast, press the Windows key and brainstorm to blazon flash . Equally y'all blazon, Windows searches for a friction match and displays a list with programs at the top. Most likely, the Flash plan is at the pinnacle of the list and already selected, so just press Enter. Otherwise, use your mouse or arrow keys to select and start the program.

Here are some Mac launching options:

• Even if you oasis't added the Flash icon to the Dock, you lot can still find it in the Dock's Applications folder. Click and concord the Applications folder icon and cull Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• Want to hunt down Flash in the Finder? Most of the time, it's installed in Macintosh Hard disk drive→Applications→Adobe Wink CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• If yous'd rather blazon than chase, utilize Spotlight. Press ⌘-space and then begin to blazon flash . As yous blazon, Spotlight displays a list of programs and files that lucifer. Most likely, the Flash plan is at the top of the list and already selected, so simply press Return. Otherwise, apply the mouse or arrow keys to select and start the program.

When yous kickoff start Flash, upwardly pops the Welcome screen, shown in Effigy 1-two. This screen puts all your options—like starting a new document or returning to a work in progress—in one handy place. For good measure, Adobe includes some links to assist references and resources on its website.

Figure 1-two. This Welcome screen appears the first time yous launch Flash—and every subsequent time, too, unless you plough on the "Don't show once again" checkbox (pull down the bottom of the window if y'all don't see it). If you ever miss the convenience of seeing all your recent Wink documents, built-in templates, and other options in ane place, so you can turn information technology back on by choosing Edit→Preferences (Windows) or Flash→Preferences (Mac). On the General panel, cull Welcome Screen from the On Launch pop-upwardly menu.

Notation

If Flash seems to have forever to open—or if the Wink desktop ignores your mouse clicks or responds sluggishly—y'all may not have enough memory installed on your computer. See Flash CS6 Minimum System Requirements for more communication.

When you lot cull one of the options, the Welcome screen disappears and your document takes its place. Here are your choices:

• Create from Template . Clicking i of the fiddling icons nether this option lets you create a Flash certificate using a predesigned form called a template . A template helps you create an animation more quickly, since a Flash developer has already washed part of the work for yous. Y'all can notice out more about templates in Chapter vii.

• Open up a Recent Detail . As y'all create new documents, Flash adds them to this listing. Clicking one of the filenames listed hither tells Flash to open that file. Clicking the binder icon lets you lot scan for and open whatever other Flash file on your computer.

  Tip

  The options for creating new Flash documents and opening recent documents as well appear on the File menu, as shown in Figure one-3.

  

  Figure i-three. Several of the options on each carte include keystroke shortcuts that let y'all perform an action without having to mouse all the way upward to the card. For example, instead of selecting File→Save Every bit, you tin can press Ctrl+Shift+South to tell Flash to save your Flash document. On the Mac, the keystroke is Shift-⌘-S.

• Create New . Clicking one of the options listed here lets you lot create a brand-new Flash file. Most of the time, you desire to choose the first pick, ActionScript 3.0, which is a garden-variety animation file. ActionScript is the underlying programming linguistic communication for Flash animations. The current version of ActionScript is 3.0, and it's the version used for the projects in this volume. Yous tin can use the ActionScript ii.0 option if you lot need to work with a Flash project that was created several years agone. For details on the file formats for different Wink projects, run into the box beneath.

  Note

  One-time programming pros—you know who you are—may have reasons to prefer ActionScript two.0. For case, you might cull this option if you're continuing work on a project created using ActionScript 2.0, or if you're working with a team using ActionScript ii.0.

• Extend . Clicking the Flash Exchange link under this option tells Flash to open your web browser and load the Flash Exchange website. There, you can download Flash components, sound files, and other goodies that yous can add to your Flash animations. Some are free, some are fee-based, and all of them are created by Flashionados just like you.

• Learn . As y'all might guess, these links lead to materials Adobe designed to assistance you lot become upwardly and running. Click an option, and your spider web browser opens to a page on the Adobe website. The kickoff few topics introduce bones Flash concepts similar symbols, instances, and timelines. Further down the list, you notice specific topics for building applications for mobile devices or websites (AIR). At the bottom of the Welcome screen, "Getting Started" covers the very, very basics. "New Features" explains (and celebrates) some of Wink CS6's new bells and whistles. "Developers" leads to an online magazine with articles and videos with an ActionScript programming slant. "Designers" leads to a similar resource for the Flash graphics and design community.

A Tour of the Wink Workspace

The best way to master the Wink CS6 Professional workspace is to separate and conquer. Get-go, focus on the three master work areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. Then you can gradually learn how to utilise all the tools in those areas.

One large source of confusion for Flash newbies is that the workspace is so easy to customize. You can open bunches of panels, windows, and toolbars. You lot can move the timeline above the phase, or you can take it floating in a window all its ain. In one case you're a seasoned Flash veteran, you'll have potent opinions about how y'all desire to fix your workspace so the tools you use most are at hand. If you lot're just learning Flash with the help of this volume, though, information technology's probably best if you ready upwardly your workspace so that it matches the pictures in these pages.

Fortunately, there'due south an like shooting fish in a barrel way to do that. Adobe, in its wisdom, created the Workspace Switcher—a tool that lets you rearrange the entire workspace with the click of a menu. The thinking is that an ideal workspace for a cartoon animator is different from the ideal workspace for, say, a rich internet application (RIA) developer. The Workspace Switcher is a menu in the upper-right corner of the Flash window, next to the search box. The menu displays the proper noun of the currently selected workspace; when you first offset Flash, it probably says Essentials . That'southward a great workspace that displays some of the most ofttimes used tools. In fact, it's the workspace used throughout almost of this book.

Here'due south a quick little practice that shows you how to switch among the different workspaces and how to reset a workspace after you've mangled it by dragging panels out of place and opening new windows.

1. Beginning Flash .

   Flash opens, displaying the Welcome screen. Unless you've made changes, the Essentials workspace is used. See Figure 1-4, top.

2. From the Workspace carte near the upper-right corner of the Flash window, choose Classic .

   The Classic arrangement harkens back to earlier versions of Flash, when the timeline resided to a higher place the stage (Effigy one-4, bottom). If you wish, go ahead and bank check out some of the other layouts.

3. Choose the Essentials workspace again .

   Back where y'all began, the Essentials workspace shows the timeline at the lesser. The stage takes upward nigh of the main window. On the right, the Panels dock holds toolbars and panels. Now's the time to cause a little havoc.

   

   Figure ane-4. Height: The Essentials workspace is the one used throughout this book. Bottom: The Classic workspace shows the timeline above the phase, a look familiar to Flash Pro veterans.

4. In the Panels dock, click the Backdrop tab and drag it to a new location on the screen .

   Panels tin float, or they can dock to one of the edges of the window. For this experiment, it doesn't thing what you lot choose to do.

5. Drag the Color and Swatches toolbars to new locations .

   The Color toolbar has an icon that looks like an artist'due south palette at the top. Like the larger panels, toolbars can either dock or float. You tin can drag them anywhere on your monitor, and you tin expand and plummet them past clicking the double-triangle push in their top-correct corners.

6. Get to Window→Other Panels→History .

   Flash has dozens of windows. But a few are bachelor now, considering you haven't even created a certificate notwithstanding.

   Tip

   As you work on a projection, the History panel keeps track of all your commands, operations, and changes. It's a groovy tool for undoing mistakes. For more than details, run into Other Flash Panels.

7. From the Workspace menu, cull Reset Essentials .

   The workspace changes back to the original Essentials layout, even though you did your best to mess it up.

Someday you desire your workspace to friction match the ane used throughout most of this book, do the "Essentials two-footstep": Choose Essentials from the Workspace Switcher (if y'all're not already there), and then choose Reset Essentials. As shown in Figure 1-4, when you utilize the Essentials workspace, the Flash window is divvied up into iii main work areas: the stage (upper left), the timeline (lower left), and the panels dock (right). Before exploring each of these areas in detail, here are a few words well-nigh Flash's menu bar.

Menu Bar

Like most computer programs, Flash gives y'all menus to interact with your documents. In traditional fashion, Windows menus appear at the height of the plan window, while Mac menus are ever at the very top of the screen. The commands on these menus listing every way you can interact with your Flash file, from creating a new file—every bit shown on Starting Flash—to editing information technology, saving it, and controlling how information technology appears on your screen.

Some of the menu names—File, Edit, View, Window, and Help—are familiar to anyone who's used a PC or a Mac. Using these card choices, you tin can perform basic tasks similar opening, saving, and printing your Flash files; cutting and pasting artwork or text; viewing your projection in different ways; choosing which toolbars to view; getting help; and more.

To view a carte, simply click the menu'southward name to open up it, so click a card option. If you lot prefer, you tin can too drag down to the option you want. Let go of the mouse button to activate the option. Figure 1-3 shows you what the File card looks like. Nigh of the time, you see the same menus at the top of the screen, only occasionally they change. For example, when you utilise the Debugger to troubleshoot ActionScript programs, Wink hides some of the menus not related to debugging.

Tip

Yous'll learn about specific commands and carte options in their related chapters. For a quick reference to all the card options, see Appendix B.

The Stage

Equally the proper noun implies, the stage is commonly the center of attention. It'southward your virtual sail. Here's where y'all draw the pictures, display text, and make objects move across the screen. The phase is also your playback arena; when you run a completed animation—to run into if it needs tweaking—the blitheness appears on the phase. Figure 1-5 shows a project with an animation nether construction.

Figure one-5. The phase is where you depict the pictures that volition eventually become your blitheness. The piece of work area (light gray) gives you lot a handy place to put graphic elements while y'all figure out how you want to adapt them on the phase. Here a text box is beingness dragged from the work area dorsum to center stage.

The piece of work surface area is the technical name for the grayness area surrounding the stage, although many Flashionados phone call it the backstage . This work area serves as a prep zone where you can place graphic elements before you move them to the stage, and as a temporary property pen for elements you want to motility off the stage briefly as yous reposition things. For example, let'south say you draw iii circles and 1 box containing text on your stage. If you determine you need to rearrange these elements, you can temporarily drag i of the circles off the stage.

Note

The stage ever starts out with a white background, which becomes the groundwork color for your animation. Changing it to any color imaginable is easy, equally you'll learn in the next chapter.

Y'all'll almost always modify the starting size and shape of the stage depending on where people will see your finished animation—in other words, your target platform . If your target platform is a smartphone, for case, you're going to want a smaller stage. If, on the other hand, y'all're creating an animation for a ballpark's JumboTron, you lot're going to want a giant phase. You'll get to try your hand at modifying the size and background color of the stage afterwards in this chapter.

The Timeline

When you go to the theater, the stage changes over time—actors come and get, songs are sung, scenery changes, and the lights shine and fade. In Flash, you're the director, and y'all get to control what appears on the stage at whatever given moment. The timeline is the tool used to specify what's seen or heard at a particular moment. The concept is pretty simple, and if you've ever used video editing software, it will be familiar. Flash animations (or movies) are organized into chunks of time called frames . Each trivial box in the timeline represents a frame or a bespeak in time. You utilize the playhead , shown in Effigy i-vi, to select a specific frame. And then when the playhead is positioned at Frame ten, the phase shows what the audience sees at that signal in fourth dimension.

Effigy 1-half dozen. The playhead is a red box that appears in the timeline; here the playhead is set to Frame 10. You tin can drag the playhead to any betoken in the timeline to select a single frame. The Flash stage shows exactly what's in your animation at that point in time.

The timeline is laid out from left to right, starting with Frame 1. Just put, yous build Flash animations by choosing a frame with the playhead and then arranging the objects on the stage the fashion you want them. The timeline uses a special tool called a keyframe (see Figure 1-6) to remember exactly what's on phase at that moment. Yous'll learn more than about the keyframes and other timeline tools in Affiliate 3. Most simple animations play from Frame one through to the end of the movie, but Flash gives you means to start and stop the blitheness and control how fast it runs—that is, how many frames per second (fps) are displayed. Using some ActionScript magic, you tin control the order in which the frames are displayed. You'll learn how to exercise that on Organizing Your Animation.

Tip

The first fourth dimension you lot run Flash, the timeline appears automatically, just occasionally you want to hibernate the timeline—perhaps to reduce screen clutter while y'all concentrate on your artwork. You can show and hide the timeline past selecting Window→Timeline or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T (or for the Mac, Option-⌘-T).

Panels and Toolbars

If you lot followed the little exercise on A Bout of the Flash Workspace, you know you can put panels and toolbars almost anywhere onscreen. Withal, if you apply the Essentials workspace, you start off with a few frequently used panels and toolbars docked neatly on the right side of the program window.

It's easy to get confused by the Flash nomenclature. Flash has toolbars, panels, palettes, and windows. Sometimes complanate panels look like toolbars and open upward when clicked—similar the ofttimes used Tools panel. Toolbars and panels pack the most normally used options together in a nice compact space, then you don't have to do a chase-and-peck through the chief menu every time yous want to do something. Panels are great, but they take up precious real estate. As yous work, yous can hide certain tools to get a meliorate view of your artwork. (You can e'er get them dorsum by choosing their names from the Window menu.)

Toolbars and panels are such an integral part of working with Flash that it's helpful to learn some of their tricks early:

• Move a panel . Just click and drag the tab or tiptop of the panel to a new location. Panels tin can float anywhere on your monitor, or dock on an edge of the Flash programme window (as in the Essentials workspace). For more details on docking and floating, see the box on Docked vs. Floating.

• Expand or plummet a panel . Click the double-triangle button at the peak of a panel to aggrandize or collapse it. Collapsed panels look like toolbars, showing a few icons that hint at the tools' purposes. Expanded panels take up more real estate, but they also give you more details and often have discussion labels for the tools and settings.

• Show or hide a panel . Utilise the Window menu to testify and hide individual panels. Checkmarks announced adjacent to the panels that are shown.

• Shut a floating console . In Windows, click the pocket-sized Ten in the panel'southward upper-right corner. On the Mac, click the X in the upper-left corner.

• Evidence or hide all panels . The F4 key works like a toggle, hiding or showing all the panels and toolbars. Use it when you want to quickly reduce screen clutter and focus on your artwork.

• Split up or combine tabbed panels . Click and drag the proper noun on a tab to carve up it from a group of tabbed panels. To add a tab to a grouping, only elevate information technology into identify.

• Reset the console workspace . Cull Reset <workspace proper noun> from the Workspace Switcher. Instead of <workspace name>, you see the name of the electric current workspace—something like Essentials or Classic . You can as well exercise a reset using the menus; choose Window→Workspace→Reset <workspace name>.

Figure 1-7. Top: To conserve space on Wink'due south jam-packed desktop, simply one toolbar—the Edit bar—appears automatically. Information technology's positioned directly higher up the stage. To brandish the other two, select Window→Toolbars→Main (to display the Main toolbar, Windows merely) and Window→Toolbars→Controller (to brandish the Controller window). Bottom: The checkmarks on the menu show when a toolbar is turned on. Choose the toolbar'south name once again to remove the checkmark and hide the toolbar.

Notation

When you reposition a floating toolbar, Flash remembers where yous put it. If, later on on, you hide the toolbar—or exit Flash and run it again—your toolbars appear exactly every bit yous left them. If this isn't what you desire, apply the Workspace Switcher to choose a new workspace layout or to reset the electric current workspace.

Toolbars

Strictly speaking, Wink has only three toolbars: Principal, Controller, and Edit. (Everything else is a panel, fifty-fifty if it looks suspiciously similar a toolbar.) Effigy i-7 shows all iii toolbars.

• Main (Windows simply) . The Main toolbar gives you i-click basic operations, like opening an existing Flash file, creating a new file, and cutting and pasting sections of your drawing.

• Controller . If yous've ever used a DVD role player or an iPod, you'll recognize the Finish, Rewind, and Play buttons on the Controller toolbar, which lets you control how you lot want Flash to run your finished animation. (Not surprisingly, the Controller options announced grayed out —meaning yous can't select them—if you haven't yet constructed an animation.) With Wink Professional CS6, the Controller is a little obsolete, considering now the same buttons appear below the timeline.

• Edit bar . Using the options here, you tin can alter your view of the stage, zooming in and out, as well as edit scenes (named groups of frames ) and symbols (reusable drawings).

Note

The Edit bar is a little different from the other toolbars in that information technology remains stock-still to the stage. You tin't reposition it.

Tools Panel

The Tools panel is unique. For designers, it's probably the most used of all the panels and toolbars. In the Essentials workspace, the Tools console appears along the right side of the Flash plan window. In that location are no text labels, simply a series of icons. Notwithstanding, if y'all need a hint, just hold your mouse over one of the tools, and a tooltip shows the proper noun of the tool. So, for example, mouse over the arrow at the peak of the Tools panel, and the tooltip says "Selection tool (5)." The letter in parentheses is the shortcut key for that tool. Press the alphabetic character 5 while you lot're working in Wink, and your cursor changes to the Selection tool.

About animations offset with a single drawing. And to draw something in Flash, yous need cartoon tools: pens, pencils, brushes, colors, erasers, and so on. The Tools console shown in Figure one-eight is where you lot find Flash's drawing tools. Affiliate 2 shows you how to employ these tools to create a simple drawing; this department gives you lot a quick overview of the half-dozen sections of the Tools panel, each of which focuses on a slightly different kind of cartoon tool or optional characteristic.

Selection and Cartoon Tools

At the top of the Tools panel are the tools yous need to create and modify a Flash drawing. For example, you lot might use the Pen tool to beginning a sketch, the Pigment Bucket or Ink Canteen to employ color, and the Eraser to clean upwards mistakes.

Effigy i-8. The Tools panel groups tools by different drawing chores. Selection and Transform tools are at the top, followed by Drawing tools. Next are the IK Basic tool and the Colour tools. The View tools are for zooming and panning. The Color tools include two swatches, ane for strokes and 1 for fills. At the bottom you discover the Options buttons, which change depending on the cartoon tool you've selected. If yous like, you lot can drag the docked Tools panel away from the edge of the workspace and turn it into a floating panel.

View Tools

At times, you lot'll detect yourself drawing a picture so enormous you can't see information technology all on the stage at in one case. Or perchance you'll observe yourself drawing something you desire to take a super-shut look at so you tin modify it pixel by pixel. In either of these situations, you lot can utilize the tools Flash displays in the View department of the Tools panel to zoom in, zoom out, and pan around the stage. (You'll become to try your hand at using these tools subsequently in this affiliate; see The Flash CS6 Test Drive.)

Note

The term pixel is short for "pic chemical element." Images on a computer screen are made up of lots of tiny dots emitting different colors. Each dot is a pixel.

Color Tools

When you lot're creating in Wink, yous're cartoon one of two things: a stroke , which is a plain line or outline, or a fill , which is the area within an outline. You can use these tools to cull a color from the Color palette before you click one of the drawing icons to begin drawing (or afterward to modify the colors, every bit discussed in Chapter 2). Flash applies that color to the phase as you lot draw.

Options Tools

Which icons appear in the Options section at any given fourth dimension depends on which tool you've selected. For example, when you select the Zoom tool from the View section of the Tools panel, the Options section displays an Enlarge icon and a Reduce icon that you can use to change the manner the Zoom tool works (Figure 1-9).

Figure i-9. On the Tools console, when y'all click each tool, the Options department shows yous buttons that let yous change that detail tool. In the Tools panel's View section, for example, when you click the Zoom tool, the Options section changes to show yous merely zooming options: Enlarge (with the + sign) and Reduce (with the – sign).

Properties Panel

In many means, the Properties console is Command Key as you lot piece of work with your animation, considering it gathers all the pertinent details for the objects you work with and displays them in one identify. Select an object, and the Properties panel displays all of its properties and settings. It's non just an information provider; you also apply the Properties panel to change settings and tweak the elements in your blitheness. When there's fine-tuning to be washed, select an object and adjust the settings in the Properties panel. (You can learn more in the "Test Drive" section on The Flash CS6 Test Drive.)

The Properties panel usually appears when you open up a new certificate. Initially, it shows information well-nigh your Flash document, like the stage dimensions and the animation's frame rate. Whenever y'all select an individual object in your blitheness, the Backdrop panel shows that object'southward details. For case, if you select a text field, the Properties panel lists the typeface, font size, and text colour. You lot also see data on the paragraph settings, like the margins and line spacing. Because the Properties panel crams then many details into ane place, yous'll observe yourself using the plummet and expand buttons to bear witness and hibernate some of the information in its subpanels, as shown in Figure 1-x.

Effigy 1-x. The Properties panel shows simply those backdrop associated with the object you've selected on the phase. Hither, because a text field is selected, the Properties console gives you lot options you lot can employ to modify the typeface, font size, font color, and paragraph settings. Click the triangular expand and collapse buttons to evidence and hide details in the Properties panel.

Note

If you don't run across the Properties panel, you tin brandish information technology by selecting Window→Properties or by pressing Ctrl+F3 (⌘-F3 on a Mac).

Properties Subpanels

On the Backdrop console, you see different subpanels depending on the object you've selected. Some objects take a lot of settings, and subpanels are Flash'southward way of giving yous access to all of them. Fortunately, the various panels and tools work consistently. For example, many objects have settings that determine their onscreen positions and ascertain their width and height dimensions. These common settings ordinarily announced at the top of the Properties panel, and you lot ready them the same way for about kinds of objects. If you lot want to change colors or add special furnishings like filters or blends, you'll find that the tools piece of work the same fashion throughout Flash.

Library Panel

The Library panel (Figure 1-11) is a place to shop objects you want to use more than once. Let'southward say, for example, that you create a movie-perfect chimera, sun, or snowflake in one frame of your animation. (You'll learn more than about frames on Frame-by-Frame Animation.) At present, if you desire that bubble, dominicus, or snowflake to appear in 15 additional frames, you could draw it again and once again, but it really makes more sense to store a copy in the electric current project library and and so just drag it to where it'southward needed on those other 15 frames. This play tricks saves time and ensures consistency to boot. The Library panel has quite a few other important tricks, and you'll acquire more almost information technology on Symbols and Instances. To show the Library console, click Window→Library, or press Ctrl+L (Windows) or ⌘-L (Mac).

Tip

In the upper-right corner of well-nigh panels is an Options bill of fare button. When yous click this push button, a carte of options appears—dissimilar options for each panel. For example, the Color Swatch console lets you add and delete color swatches. Yous'll find many indispensable tools and commands on the Options menus, and so information technology's worth checking them out. You'll learn about unlike options throughout this book.

Figure 1-11. Storing elementary images equally reusable symbols in the Library panel does more than than just salvage you lot time: It saves y'all file size, likewise. (You'll learn a lot more nearly symbols and file size in Chapter 7.) Using the Library console you come across here, you tin preview symbols, add them to the stage, and easily add symbols yous created in i Flash document to another.

Other Wink Panels

Equally you lot can see from the examples on the preceding pages, each Wink panel performs specific functions, and well-nigh of them deserve several pages to describe them fully, as yous'll find throughout this book. For now, Table 1-1 gives a thumbnail description and notes the page where the console is described in detail. If you're eager to go started actually using Flash, spring to The Flash CS6 Test Drive to start the Flash CS6 Test Drive.

Table 1-one. Wink Panels and their uses (in order as they appear on the Window menu)

PANEL Proper noun	KEYBOARD SHORTCUT	PURPOSE
Timeline	Windows: Ctrl+Alt+K Mac: Option-⌘-T	Technically, the timeline is merely another console. You lot can motion, hide, expand, and collapse the timeline merely as y'all would any other panel. See Frame-by-Frame Animation for more than.
Motion Editor	none	A powerful tool used to create and command blitheness effects. See A Tour of the Motion Editor for more.
Tools	Windows: Ctrl+F2 Mac: ⌘-F2	Perhaps the most frequently used panel of all—it holds drawing, selecting, and coloring tools. The Tools console also includes specialized tools like the IK Bones tools and the 3D Rotation tool. See Using Merge Way and Object Mode Together for more than.
Properties	Windows: Ctrl+F3 Mac: ⌘-F3	Everything that appears on the phase has backdrop that define its appearance or characteristics. Fifty-fifty the stage has properties, like width, peak, and groundwork colour. You can review and edit an object'due south backdrop in the Properties console. Encounter Colour Tools for more.
Library	Windows: Ctrl+L Mac: ⌘-L	Holds graphics, symbols, and entire movies that yous want to reuse. See Symbols and Instances for more than.
Common Libraries	none	When you lot want to share buttons, classes, or sounds among several dissimilar Flash documents, use the mutual libraries. That way, they'll be bachelor to all your projects. See the tip on Tip for more.
Motion Presets	none	Serves upward dozens of predesigned animations. Come across Applying Motion Presets for more.
Actions	Windows: F9 Mac: Choice-F9	You use this panel to write ActionScript code. The Actions panel provides a window for lawmaking, a reference tool for the programming language, and a visual display for the object-oriented nature of the code. See Writing ActionScript Lawmaking in the Timeline for more.
Code Snippets	none	Contains predesigned chunks of lawmaking—someone else sweated the details so y'all don't take to. Specific $.25 of lawmaking perform timeline tricks, load or unload graphics, handle audiovisual tasks, and program buttons. See the box on Create an Result Handler in a Snap for more.
Behaviors	Windows: Shift+F3 Mac: Shift-F3	The before version of ActionScript (version two.0) uses this panel to provide predesigned bits of code.
Compiler Errors	Windows: Alt-F2 Mac: Option-F2	Here'due south where you troubleshoot ActionScript code. Messages explain the location of an error and provide hints as to what went wrong. See Setting and Working with Breakpoints for more.
Debug Panels	none	Additional panels to aid you find errors in your ActionScript programs. See Analyzing Lawmaking with the Debugger for more than.
Movie Explorer	Windows: Alt+F3 Mac: Selection-F3	Helps you lot examine the elements in your Flash animation, including separate scenes if you've created them. The brandish uses a tree structure to bear witness the relationship of the elements.
Output	Windows: F2 Mac: F2	Another place to debug ActionScript programs. The Output panel is used to display text messages at certain points as a plan runs. See Using the Output Panel and trace() Statement for more.
Align	Windows: Ctrl+One thousand Mac: ⌘-1000	Lets you align and adjust graphic elements on the phase. See Aligning Objects with the Marshal Tools for more.
Color	Windows: Shift+F9 Mac: Shift-⌘-F9	Lets you select and use colors to graphic elements. See Advanced Color and Fills for more than.
Info	Windows: Ctrl+I Mac: ⌘-I	Provides details about objects, like their location and dimensions. The Info panel also keeps track of the cursor location and the color immediately under the cursor. See Making Information technology Move with Motion Tweens for more.
Swatches	Windows: Ctrl+F9 Mac: ⌘-F9	Colors and gradients that you tin apply to graphic elements. Y'all can create your ain swatches for colors you want to reuse. See Specifying Colors for ActionScript for more.
Transform	Windows: Ctrl+T Mac: ⌘-T	Lets you alter the size, shape, and position of graphic elements on the stage. Y'all tin can fifty-fifty use the Transform panel to reposition or rotate objects in three-D space. Run across Transforming Objects for more.
Components	Windows: Ctrl+F7 Mac: ⌘-F7	Holds predesigned components you can use in your Flash projects. Y'all'll find user interface components like buttons and checkboxes, components that tin can be used to create data tables, and components used to control motion-picture show and sound players. Run into Reversing Frames in the Timeline for more.
Component Inspector	Windows: Shift+F7 Mac: Shift-F7	Provides compatibility with older animations. (Wink CS6 displays component properties in the Properties panel. Earlier versions of Flash used the Component Inspector. See the box on Learning the Parameters for more.)
Accessibility (under Other Panels)	Windows: Alt+Shift+F11 Mac: Shift-⌘-F11	Tools that help you ensure that vision- and hearing-impaired folks tin can enjoy the animations you create using Flash. See the box on Why Accessibility Matters.
History (nether Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F10 Mac: ⌘-F10	Lets you backtrack or undo specific steps in your piece of work. Flash keeps runway of every little thing y'all do to a file, starting with the time you lot created it (or the last time yous opened information technology). You can likewise utilise this panel to salvage a series of commands you want to reuse subsequently.
Scene (under Other Panels)	Windows: Shift+F2 Mac: Shift-F2	Helps y'all organize and manage your scenes. (You tin interruption long Flash animations into separate scenes, every bit described on Working with Scenes.)
Strings (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F11 Mac: ⌘-F11	Demand to create an animation or application that works in different languages? Using the Strings panel, you lot tin can create and manage multi-linguistic communication versions of the text. (This volume doesn't encompass multi-language Flash.)
Spider web Services (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+Shift+F10 Mac: Shift-⌘-F10	Used only with ActionScript two.0 projects that connect to the Internet. (This book doesn't comprehend ActionScript two.0.)

The Wink CS6 Exam Drive

For the tutorials in this section, you need a Flash animation to do on. There'southward one set up and waiting for you on the Missing CD folio at www.missingmanuals.com/cds/flashcs6mm. The file is named 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

Annotation

In case you're wondering, the number 01 at the beginning stands for Chapter 1, and the -1 indicates information technology's the first exercise in the chapter. Other Missing CD files for this book are named the same way. You lot tin can download all the practice files in a single Nothing file or you lot can grab them chapter by chapter. The Missing CD also includes links to all the spider web-based resources mentioned in this book.

Open a Wink File

Go the file 01-1_First_Animation.fla and save it on your figurer. You may want to create a FlashMM binder in your My Documents or Documents folder to hold your Missing Manual exercises. Launch Wink, and so choose File→Open. When the Open dialog box appears, navigate to the file you just downloaded, and then click Open. When y'all open a document, the Welcome screen disappears. Flash shows you the animation on the stage, surrounded by the usual timeline, toolbars, and panels. If you're using the Essentials workspace, it should look like Effigy ane-12.

Effigy i-12. After you open the exercise in Flash, your screen should look like this. At the bottom, the timeline shows two layers—1 named background and the other, wheel. The stage shows (surprise, surprise) a background and a wheel. To the right, the Properties panel displays the properties for the document.

Explore the Properties Panel

The Properties panel appears docked to the right side of the stage when y'all open up a new document. As shown in Effigy 1-thirteen, it shows the Belongings settings for objects. Initially, it shows the properties for the Flash document itself. Click another object, such as the wheel, and you run into its backdrop. Why are properties so important? They give you lot an extremely accurate description of objects. If you lot demand to precisely ascertain a colour or the dimensions of an object, the Properties panel is the tool to use. It not just reports the details, but it also gives yous the tools to make changes, as shown in this petty exercise:

1. At the top of the Tools console, click the Choice tool (solid pointer) .

   As an alternative, press 5, the keyboard shortcut for the Pick tool.

2. Click the white part of the stage .

   The Properties panel shows the properties for your Flash document. At the acme, you run across the word "Document," and underneath, you see the filename.

   

   Figure i-xiii. Left: When you kickoff open a document, the Backdrop panel shows property settings for the document. Right: Select the bike in the document, and you see its properties. Click the triangle buttons to expand and collapse the subpanels.

3. Click the triangle button to open the Properties subpanel .

   The button works similar a toggle to open and close the subpanel. The subpanel displays three settings: FPS (frames per second), Size, and Phase.

4. Click the white rectangle next to Stage .

   A console opens with colour swatches.

5. Click a colour swatch—any color will do .

   The background color of the stage changes to the color you lot chose.

6. Click the wheel .

   Information about the cycle fills the Properties panel. The wheel is a special blazon of object called a Motion picture Clip symbol . You'll learn much more nearly Movie Clips and other reusable symbols in Chapter vii.

Annotation

Y'all may notice that you can't select anything else in this certificate. That'south because the other objects are in the background layer, which is locked. (For more details on locking layers, meet Locking and Unlocking Layers.)

Resize the Phase

In Wink, the size of your stage is the actual finished size of your blitheness, then setting its verbal dimensions is one of the showtime things y'all exercise when you create an animation, as you'll see in the next chapter. Only you can resize the stage at whatever time.

Hither'due south how to change the size of your phase:

1. With the Selection tool, click on a blank expanse of the phase (to brand certain zip on the stage is selected) .

   Alternatively, you tin can click the Selection tool and then choose Edit→Deselect All.

2. In the Properties panel, open the Properties subpanel, so click the Edit button .

   The Document Settings window appears, as shown in Figure 1-14. At the top of the window are boxes labeled Dimensions. That's where yous're going to work your magic.

   

   Figure 1-14. The Document Settings dialog box puts several related settings in 1 place. At the top are the certificate's dimensions. In the lower-left corner are settings for the stage's groundwork color and the frame rate. Click "Ruler units" to choose amongst Inches, Points, Centimeters, Millimeters, and Pixels.

3. Click in the width box (which currently reads "550 px"), then type 600 .

   You lot can change both the width and the height. The changes won't take place until you click OK. Then if you have second thoughts and don't want to make any changes, so but click Cancel.

   Tip

   If you lot want to modify the phase dorsum to its original dimensions after you lot've clicked OK, you lot can practise that by choosing Edit→Undo or pressing Ctrl+Z (⌘-Z on a Mac). Undo works similar it does in most programs, undoing your last action, and you tin printing it multiple times to work your mode back through your recent deportment.

4. Click OK when you're done .

   The stage resizes co-ordinate to your instructions.

Zoom In and Out

When your Flash project gets big or complicated, you lot may want to focus on just a portion of the stage. If you've used other graphics programs—from Windows Paint to iPhoto or Photoshop—there'southward non much mystery to the process. In the Tools panel, click the Zoom tool, which looks like a magnifying glass (Effigy 1-15). Initially, the Zoom tool shows a + sign, meaning it'due south all set to zoom in. Click any spot yous desire to zoom in on, and yous get a closer view. As an alternative, you tin can click and elevate over an area to zoom in with more precision. Equally yous drag, a rectangle appears to mark the expanse of interest.

Figure 1-xv. Choose the Zoom tool and then click the stage to zoom in on your Wink certificate. Hold the Alt (Pick) key down to zoom out. Once you're zoomed in, you lot can motility effectually using either the scrollbars or the Paw tool (H).

Using the Zoom tool, you can go so shut that you meet individual pixels in your artwork. Very handy for some operations. Once y'all're zoomed in, you can employ the scroll bars at the correct and lesser of the stage to reposition the stage in the viewing area. Even easier, choose the Manus tool (H) and and so click and drag the phase within the viewing expanse.

Want to zoom out? Hold down the Alt (Option) key as you use the Zoom tool. Each fourth dimension y'all click, you run across more and more of the stage. Directly higher up the stage is the Edit bar. (If y'all don't see it, select Window→Toolbars→Edit Bar.) A menu on the Edit bar sets the Magnification or Zoom property as a percentage, equally shown in Figure one-16.

Figure 1-16. The Magnification menu in the Edit bar gives you a quick readout on the Zoom factor. Click the menu to choose from several presets, including "Fit in Window," which shows the entire phase, or Evidence All, which zooms in or out to testify all the objects drawn on the phase.

Brand It Move

If you've followed along in the exercises up to this indicate, y'all deserve a taste of the Flash magic to come. Enough studying panels and tools—Flash is an animation program. Information technology's time to brand something move, or more precisely, to make something bounciness. With the help of a little feature called Motion Presets, information technology'southward easier than you think:

1. In the Magnification menu, choose "Fit in Window."

   This gives y'all a view of the entire stage.

2. With the Option tool (V), drag the wheel to the elevation of the stage .

   All the parts of the bike (tire, spokes, hub) move as a unmarried unit of measurement considering they're grouped within a Wink symbol, called a Movie Clip.

3. Choose Window→Motion Presets .

   A floating panel appears, as shown in Figure i-17. Motion Presets are covered in detail on Applying Movement Presets, only for this exercise, you only need a couple of basic steps.

4. Click the triangle adjacent to Default Presets .

   The Default Presets folder opens, showing many predesigned motions.

5. Click the words "bounce-smoosh."

   At the elevation of the panel, the preview window gives you an idea of how the bounciness-smoosh preset works.

6. Brand sure the wheel is selected on the phase and that "bounce-smoosh" is selected in the Motion Presets console, so click the Apply button .

   A green line appears hanging from the lesser of the wheel. This line is chosen the motion path , and information technology shows you lot how the bicycle volition move over the class of the animation. In the timeline, the wheel layer turns to bluish to betoken that it's now a movement tween .

   Note

   Tween is an animation term that comes from all those in-between frames that animators have to depict to create a smoothen animated motion.

   

   Figure one-17. The Motion Presets window has 2 folders. The one called Default Presets (shown open here) holds presets designed by Adobe. The other binder holds presets that you blueprint and save. The "tail" hanging downwardly from the wheel is the motility path.

7. Close the Motion Presets panel .

   That's all it takes to breathing the wheel, and so you lot might too close the Motility Presets window. You can always bring it back afterward if yous want to try out some of the other presets on the wheel.

Play an Blitheness

Naturally, after you lot've animated an object in Flash, you desire to run across the results. You lot'll exist checking your work frequently, so Adobe makes it easy to play an animation. Just press Enter (Return), and your animation bounces and smooshes equally advertised. In the timeline, detect how the playhead moves along frame by frame as your blitheness plays. Y'all tin can meet your blitheness at all the different stages past dragging the playhead up and down the timeline—a process sometimes called scrubbing .

New in Flash CS6, the animation controller is stock-still to the lesser of the timeline (Figure 1-18). That's the perfect place considering it's always bachelor.

Figure 1-18. If y'all've ever used a DVD player or an iPod, the animation play icons at the bottom of the timeline expect comfortingly familiar. Y'all tin move 1 frame at a time or jump to the beginning or end of an animation.

Save a File

Saving your work frequently is important in any program, and Wink is no exception. You don't want to accept to become back and recreate that perfect animated sequence because the power went out. The infinitesimal y'all finish a sizable chunk of work, save your Wink file by pressing Ctrl+S (⌘-S). The Save command too appears on the carte du jour bar: File→Save. Both maneuvers relieve the animation with the current name. And then, if afterwards following the exercises in this affiliate, y'all use the Save command, you end upward with a unmarried Wink certificate using the original filename: 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

If you desire to relieve the file under a unlike name, apply Relieve Every bit or Ctrl+Shift+S (Shift-⌘-South). A standard window opens where you can choose a folder and give your document a name. When you use Save As, you stop up with two documents, the original and one saved with the new name. The newly named document is the 1 that remains open in the Flash workspace.

If you close a document (File→Close) after you've made changes, Flash automatically asks if you want to salve it. You're given three options. Choose Save to salve your work and shut the document. Choose Don't Save to close the document without saving your work. Choose Abolish if yous don't want to salvage and don't desire to close the certificate.

Note

Flash Professional CS6 provides a new life-saving feature for files. When yous create a new document y'all can plow on Auto-Save. This characteristic saves your certificate periodically even if you forget. Yous even get to cull the catamenia. Initially, the Auto-Salvage menstruation is set to every ten minutes. To change that, click the number and type a new value.

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