Web hosting - 162 Part III: Getting Symbolic
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007162 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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162 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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should be bouncing squirrels instead. Meanwhile, you had already edited all the bunnies to make them different sizes and colors. You need a way to replace some of the bunnies with squirrels without losing their sizes and colors. To replace an instance, follow these steps: 1. Create the squirrel symbol (or whichever new symbol you need). Flash stores the new symbol in the Library. 2. Select an instance of the bunny that is, your original instance on the Stage. 3. Choose Window.Properties.Properties to open the Property inspector. 4. Click the Swap button to open the Swap Symbol dialog box. 5. In the dialog box, select the squirrel or any other symbol. 6. Click OK to swap the symbols and close the Swap Symbol dialog box. Flash retains your color effects and size changes but changes the symbol. Unfortunately, you must repeat this process for all the bunnies that you want to change on the Stage, but it s better than reinserting all your instances and re-creating the instance changes. If your boss actually wants you to change ALL the bunnies to squirrels, your job is much simpler. Just edit the bunny symbol (as we describe in the Editing symbols section, earlier in this chapter) to replace the bunny image with a squirrel. Then all the instances of that symbol instantly change to squirrels yet retain the color effects and size changes that you gave them while they were still bunnies. Duplicate a symbol when you want to use one symbol as a springboard for creating a new symbol. Follow the instructions in the Creating Symbols section, earlier in this chapter. Make any changes that you want to the new symbol and place instances on the Stage. Breaking apart an instance You can break apart an instance into its component objects. The original symbol remains in the movie s Library. You might want to use the instance as a starting point for creating a completely new symbol, or you might want to animate the components of the symbol so that they move separately. Other instances remain unchanged. To break apart an instance, select it and choose Modify.Break Apart. If an instance contains symbols or grouped objects within it, you can use the Break Apart command again to break apart those internal objects as well. Chapter 7: Heavy Symbolism 161
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You can also apply new blend modes to movie clips in Flash 8 Professional. Blend modes determine how movie clips that overlap blend with each other at the point of overlap. To apply a blend, select a movie clip instance and adjust the color and transparency as we explain in the previous sections. Then choose a blend mode from the Blend drop-down list in the Property inspector. Changing an instance s type The instance type graphic, movie clip, or button comes from the symbol type, but you might want to change it. For example, if you created some animation and saved it as a graphic symbol, you might want to use it as a movie clip. Rather than change the symbol type, you can change only the type of the instance that you have inserted. To change the instance type, follow these steps: 1. Select the instance. 2. Choose Window.Properties.Properties to open the Property inspector. 3. From the Instance Behavior drop-down list, select one of the following types: Graphic: If the graphic contains animation, select Graphic in the Behavior drop-down list and then determine how the animation will run in the Options for Graphics drop-down list on the Property inspector. You have three choices: Loop plays the animation contained in the instance over and over during the frames occupied by the instance. Play Once plays the animation one time from the frame that you specify. Single Frame displays any one frame of the animation. In other words, the animation doesn t play; you specify which frame the movie displays. Button: Select the Button option to determine how the button is tracked in the Tracking Options section. From the Options for Buttons drop-down list, select Track as Button when you re creating single buttons. Select Track as Menu if you re creating pop-up menus. Movie Clip: Select the Movie Clip option and specify an Instance name in the Name text box. You use this name with certain ActionScript controls so that you can refer to and control the instance. (For more information about ActionScript, see Chapter 10.) Replacing an instance Suppose that you create a complex animation with bouncing bunnies all over the Stage. Suddenly your boss decides that some of the bouncing bunnies 160 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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see is the selection border and the small plus sign that marks the symbol s registration point. When you deselect the instance, you see absolutely nothing! (Chapter 4 explains more about a symbol s registration point, including how to move it. See the section on groups.) Partial transparency lets your background show through. A partially transparent instance blends in with your background, creating a softer effect. However, transparency is a complex feature and can slow down the loading and playing of a movie. Changing color and transparency at the same time Select Advanced from the Color Effect drop-down menu to change both the color and the transparency at the same time by using red, green, and blue values. The Settings button appears on the Property inspector. Click Settings to open the Advanced Effect dialog box. Figure 7-6 shows the controls, which are complex. Use the controls on the left to specify the color or transparency as a specific percentage of the current value. Use the controls on the right to change the color or transparency to a specific, absolute amount. Flash then calculates the new color value by multiplying the current value by the percentage that you specified and then adding the value from the right side. As you can see, this method provides lots of control but it might make you crazy first. To simply change both the color and the transparency of an instance, use the Tint controls to change the color and then just change the left Alpha setting in the Advanced Effect dialog box. Adding filters and blends In the Professional version of Flash only, you can apply special graphic effects to buttons and movie clips, called filters. Select the text and click the Filters tab of the Property inspector. Click the Plus (+) icon and choose one (or more) of the following filters: Bevel, Drop Shadow, Glow, Blur, Gradient Glow, Gradient Blur, or Adjust Color. Figure 7-6: The Advanced Effect dialog box. Chapter 7: Heavy Symbolism 159
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Changing brightness When you choose Brightness from the Color drop-down list, a slider and a text box appear. Type a brightness percentage or drag the slider and see the result immediately in the symbol instance. High brightness makes the image light, and 100-percent brightness makes the instance disappear. Low brightness makes the image dark so that 0-percent brightness turns the instance black. Changing tint When you choose Tint from the Color drop-down list, you can pick the color and then the amount of the color (the tint), by percentage, that you want to apply. Figure 7-5 shows the controls for this option. You can pick a color by clicking the Tint Color button and choosing from the color swatches or type red, green, and blue values (if you know them). Specify the percentage of the color that you want to apply by typing a value in the percent text box or by clicking the drop-down arrow and dragging the slider to choose a percentage. When the percentage is set to 100%, the instance completely changes to the color that you specified. If the percentage is set to 0%, Flash leaves the instance unchanged. The Flash method of specifying a color gives you great flexibility and precision. You can choose a color and use the tint control to create a meld of the current color and your chosen color. If you want to stick to the 216 Web-safe color palette, just select a color swatch from the ones displayed when you click the Tint Color button and then slide the tint control all the way up to 100%. Changing transparency Choose Alpha from the Color Effect drop-down menu to change the transparency of an instance. (Alpha enables levels of transparency, and you can think of the term as somewhat synonymous to opaqueness.) Use the slider or type a value in the text box. A value of 0 means that your instance becomes completely transparent in that case, when you return to the Stage, all you Figure 7-5: Changing color and tint used on a symbol instance. 158 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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When you insert a graphic instance, you need to consider how it fits within your entire animation. For example, the instance might be the starting point for some animation, or it might be part of the background that remains static throughout the animation. Perhaps you want the instance to suddenly appear at some point in the animation. If the instance contains animation, you need to insert it at its proper starting point. (Chapter 9 explains how to copy graphics across any number of frames to create a static background and covers the entire topic of animation in detail.) A movie clip instance, on the other hand, takes up only one frame on the Timeline. It plays and loops automatically unless you create ActionScript code to control it. (Chapter 10 talks about ActionScript.) Editing instances A symbol s children don t have to be carbon copies of their parents, thank goodness. Instances of a symbol can differ from their parent symbol by color, type, and play mode. You can also rotate, scale, or skew an instance, leaving the parent symbol unchanged. When you edit an instance, Flash remembers the changes. When you edit the symbol, Flash doesn t forget those changes. Suppose that you create a red circle graphic symbol, and then you create several instances of it and change one instance to pink. Then you edit the (still red!) circle symbol to change it to an oval. All the instances are now ovals, but the one you turned pink is still pink. The instance s shape has been updated, but the pink color remains. In the Property inspector (choose Window.Properties.Properties), you can change an instance s color (or tint), brightness, or transparency, giving you some very useful control over the appearance of your instances. To change an instance s color, brightness, or transparency, follow these steps: 1. Select the instance. 2. Choose Window.Properties.Properties to open the Property inspector. 3. From the Color drop-down list, select one of these options: None: Adds no color effect. Brightness: Changes the lightness or darkness of the instance. Tint: Changes the color of the instance. Alpha: Changes the opacity/transparency of the instance. Advanced: Changes both the color and the alpha at one time. 4. Make the desired changes, as we explain in the next few sections. You see the changes that you make in the Property inspector immediately in your selected instance. Chapter 7: Heavy Symbolism 157
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Working with Instances, for Instance After you create a symbol, you can use it in many ways. You can insert it in your movie, inside other symbols, or even in other movies. Each copy of the symbol is called an instance. You can change the properties of an instance so that it differs from its parent symbol. For example, you can change the color of an instance the original symbol remains unchanged. Inserting instances To insert an instance of a symbol, follow these steps: 1. Choose Window.Library (Ctrl+L or F11 for Windows or +L or F11 for the Mac) to open the Library, as shown in Figure 7-4. 2. Choose the layer where you want the instance to be placed. 3. Click a keyframe on the Timeline where you want the instance to be placed. Flash places instances only in keyframes. If you don t select a keyframe, Flash puts the instance in the first keyframe to the left of the current frame. (See Chapter 9 for more about keyframes.) 4. Drag the symbol from the Library to the Stage. Figure 7-4: Insert an instance of a symbol by dragging it from the Library. 156 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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5. Choose a symbol and click OK. When you choose a symbol, you see a preview in the preview box, so you can easily find the symbol you want. When you click OK, you re back in the Symbol Properties dialog box. 6. In the Source section of the Symbol Properties dialog box, select the Always Update Before Publishing check box if you want to automatically update the symbol if the original has changed. Enable this check box to create a link between the source symbol and the symbol in your current movie. 7. Click OK. You now have a symbol in your Library that has its original name but looks like the symbol that you chose from the other movie. Using the Flash Library Flash comes with three common libraries that you can use. To access these libraries, choose Window.Common Libraries and then select one of the libraries. Flash includes buttons, learning interactions (interface items for creating online courses), and classes (building blocks for developing ActionScript applications). These libraries are also a good place to pick up ideas and see what you can create in Flash. Using the Flash For Dummies Library The Flash libraries contain some good examples, but they miss many basic shapes and simple objects, some of which are hard to draw in Flash. We decided to fill in the gaps! We created a library of art, geometric shapes, and fun shapes that you can use in your movies, with some new shapes designed especially for this edition. The Flash For Dummies Library is named Flash 8 For Dummies Library.fla. You can find it at www.dummies.com/go/flash8. To use this library, go to www.dummies.com/go/flash8 and download Flash For Dummies Library.fla. In Windows, download it to the Program Files MacromediaFlash 8enConfigurationLibraries folder on your hard drive. On the Mac, download it to the Applications/Macromedia Flash 8 /Configuration/Libraries folder on your hard drive. After that, you can always open this library the same way you open other common libraries: Choose Window.Common Libraries.Flash 8 For Dummies Library.fla. We hope you enjoy it! Chapter 7: Heavy Symbolism 155
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The new Library might hide your current movie s Library. Just drag it by its grabber in the upper-left corner of the panel window under the current Library until it docks there. In the new Library, many Option menu items and icons are disabled to prevent you from making changes in the other movie s file. When you have more than one Library open, the background of the listing of open movies is white. The background of Libraries from other, unopened movies is gray. So you can look at the background to quickly see which Library is which. To use a symbol from the other Library, drag it onto the Stage. When you do this, Flash places a copy of the symbol in the current movie s Library. (See Chapter 2 for more information about the Library.) You can also update or replace any graphic, button, or movie clip symbol in your movie s Library with the content of a symbol from any other Library on your hard drive or network. Accessing a symbol in this way is called authortime sharing of symbols or assets. On the other hand, you can also share symbols or assets at runtime, after you have uploaded your movie. A font symbol is a special type of symbol that you use at runtime. We explain runtime shared libraries (which can include sounds) in Chapter 12. When you share a symbol while you re creating a movie (during authoring), the symbol in your current movie keeps its original name, but the contents take on the properties of the symbol that you re sharing. If you have already replaced a symbol and the outside symbol changes (because it has been edited), use author-time sharing to update the symbol in your current drawing to match the symbol s new properties. To update or replace a graphic, button, or movie clip symbol in your movie with the properties of another symbol, follow these steps: 1. Open the Library (choose Window.Library) and select the symbol that you want to update or replace. 2. From the Library menu, choose Properties. The Symbol Properties dialog box opens. 3. Click Advanced, if necessary, to see the expanded dialog box. In the Source section, click Browse. The Locate Macromedia Flash Document File dialog box opens. 4. Navigate to the movie (.fla) file that contains the symbol that you want to use. Select it and click Open. The Select Source dialog box opens. You see a list of the symbols in the movie that you selected. 154 Part III: Getting Symbolic
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Using Symbols from Other Movies After you create a symbol and store it in the Library, you can use that Library in any other movie. You can also open the Library from any other movie and use its symbols in your current movie. If the other movie is open and its Library is open, you can access that movie s Library from within your current movie. Libraries of any open movie are available from any other open movie. Just choose that other movie from the drop-down list at the top of the Library palette. (Choose Window.Library to open the Library.) To use a symbol from the Library of another movie that is closed, follow these steps: 1. Choose File.Import.Open External Library. The Open as Library dialog box opens. 2. Select the movie file. 3. Click Open. Flash displays the Library of the other movie in a new Library window. Figure 7-3: One symbol, which includes a wedge and some circles, is being edited. Other objects are dimmed because Flash is in edit-inplace mode. Chapter 7: Heavy Symbolism 153
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