Flash CS3 and Flash CS4 tutorials » Tutorials

FishEye effect with Flash and Actionscript 3.0

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:44:03 +0000

The following example shows how to create a Fish Eye effect to an image using Actionscript 3.0 and Flash CS3 or Flash CS4.

First we need to import an image in the Flash library and then assign a class for Actionscript export, I have used such Oldwoman.
In this way we can "attach" the image from the library to the Stage with Actionscript 3.0.
Finally, just apply the code that I created.
Of course,it is not mandatory to use an image from the library, we can also load it from the outside.

Let’s see the example.

Loading multiple images with partial preloader using Actionscript 3.0

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:25:27 +0000

Suppose we want to create an images gallery using Flash CS3 or CS4.
One of the first things you should consider is whether to load all the images right away or to load one at a time requested by the user.
If we want to load them all right away, here’s a method to show a preloader that goes from zero to 100 and load all the images.
Of course, the images could be 10 as 200 and the following preloader would not wrong, it always shows the partial percentage value of loaded images.

To better understand the extreme comfort and utility of this script, better if we see it in place.
Follow me.

Using textures with Flash and Actionscript 3.0

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:04:18 +0000

You know that in HTML sites often use textures (those square images of approximately 100×100)?
Have you ever tried to use it with Flash?

They are very beautiful especially if used in a Flash site that is shown at 100%.
In this case we have to deal even with the resizing of the browser, in which case the user did.
How?
With Actionscript 3.0 we "attach" textures from library on runtime.

View demo and resize window’s browser

Let’s see how to…

Scale video or image proportionally to stage and resolution

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:28:06 +0000

I my last job I had to resize a background video without having stretching it.
In practice, the Flash site to which I was working had a video in streaming as background.
This video is displayed at 100% and then I had to create a script that resizes the video according to the resolution of the user.
So a script that resizes proportionally the video ( can also be an image ).

The resizeVideo function:

private function resizeVideo():void
{
    player_mc.x=0;
    player_mc.y=0;
    player_mc.width=stage.stageWidth;
    player_mc.height=stage.stageHeight;
    player_mc.scaleX > player_mc.scaleY ? player_mc.scaleY = player_mc.scaleX : player_mc.scaleX = player_mc.scaleY;
}

Tags: flash scale video, scaling flash video, scaling images proportionally

Three ComboBox related with Flash CS4

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:45:51 +0000

We have seen how to populate a ComboBox from an external XML file and bind it to a list using the List component in Flash CS3.
I added a sample on how to use 3 related ComboBox.
The first contains a list of countries, the second a list of states and the third a list of cities.
Selecting the first, the second will display states that belong to the nation just selected in the first ComboBox.
Finally, the third displays the list of cities of state selected in the second ComboBox.

Let’s see it.

Event REMOVED_FROM_STAGE

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:52:18 +0000

We saw the importance of the event ADDED_TO_STAGE and when to use it.
The same goes for the event REMOVED_FROM_STAGE of Actionscript 3.0, which is used for example when a SWF is loaded, when we unload it we need to perform perform actions (such as stop ENTER_FRAME or stop a sound, a timer, free the memory, erase arrays etc etc … ).

Take an example.
I have main.swf that loads external.swf.
In external.swf I added both of listeners for the events ADDED_TO_STAGE and REMOVED_FROM_STAGE.

Stop all sounds with Actionscript 3.0

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:02:33 +0000

In Actionscript version 2.0 there was the command stopAllSounds that stopped any audio was playing in a SWF.
With version 3.0 of Actionscript, Flash CS3 and Flash CS4 has not changed much, just use the following code:

import flash.media.SoundMixer;
SoundMixer.stopAll();

Tags: audio and flash, flash and sounds, Sintax, sounds, stop all sounds, stop sounds

Using Flash cu3er tutorial

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:17:40 +0000

Progressivered.com has created a free Flash tool to create 3D slideshows of images.
This tool is Flash cu3er.

This article explains how to set and use Flash to create cu3er header or slideshow of pictures in Flash.

First of all, download cu3er at the following address:
http://www.progressivered.com/cu3er/download/

Unzip the ZIP.
We get a folder “images”, folder “js” and files config.xml, cu3er.swf and demo.htm.
What concerns us is the folder “images” and the config.xml file.
We can embed the SWF file in our HTML page.

We also have 5 images in the folder "images". We can change the pictures with another 5 or more pictures (even less) of our choice (best if they are all equal in size).
The size of the sample images are 600×300.
Suppose that we are in 576×216, then we must also remember to assign these dimensions to the HTML code that will place our cu3er.swf.
So, for example, I open the file demo.htm with a file editor and change the size of SWF to the following line:

swfobject.embedSWF("cu3er.swf", "cu3er-container", "576", "216", "9", "expressInstall.swf", flashvars, attributes);

and the width of the div that contains the swf to the following line

#cu3er-container {width:576px; outline:0;}

All other options are easily configurable by the config.xml file.
You can find extensive documentation at the following address:
http://www.progressivered.com/cu3er/docs/

Tags: xml

Flash CS4 and ThickBox

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:20:26 +0000

Do you want work with Flash CS4 and ThickBox ?

Here is a couple of examples that show how to call ThickBox using Actionscript 3.0 .

>> VIEW THE DEMO

The SWF with two buttons is embed in a html file with the following code:





Actionscript 3.0 and ThickBox

ALso, I have a folder with name "tb" which I put the ThickBox files:

thickbox.css
jquery.js
thickbox.js
macFFBgHack.png
loadingAnimation.gif

Also, I have a page content.html ( The content that will be opened into ThickBox by Flash ) with the following code:





Untitled Document



Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer jquery rules! elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer jquery rules! elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam et dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut jquery rules! ex ea commodo consequat.

And now the Actionscript 3.0 code:

How to open an image

ExternalInterface.call("tb_show","my image title","images/pic1.jpg");

How to open a content

ExternalInterface.call("tb_show","my content title","content.html?height=100&width=700");

Tags: actionscript 3.0 and thickbox, actionscript thickbox, flash cs4 and thickbox, flash thickbox

Method some of Array class of Actionscript 3.0

admin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:24:56 +0000

This method allows us to check if an array has undefined indexes.
Especially important in applications with considerable use of arrays, the some method allows us to control our array so as not to fall into errors due to some unpleasant index that is undefined (undefined).
As arguments, this method takes a function name that we create ourselves and who will run for each index.
This function can contain a simple comparison (for example item<20) or even a more complex conditional logic, and it is invoked with three arguments: the value of an index, the index of an element, and the Array.
Moreover, this function must return a Boolean value (true or false).

Here are a couple of examples.
Controlling an empty string:

var my_array:Array=new Array("Andrew","John","","Philip","Luke");
var emptyString:Boolean=my_array.some(checkArray);

function checkArray(element:*,index:int,a:Array):Boolean
{
    if(element=="")
        trace("The index with an empty string is: "+index);

    return (element=="");
}

if(emptyString)
    trace("The Array contains one or more empty strings");
else
    trace("The Array does not contain empty strings");

Checking for undefined indexes:

var my_array=new Array();
my_array[0]="Filippo";
my_array[2]="Andrea";
my_array[3]="Giacomo";
my_array[4]="Franco";
var undefinedIndex:Boolean=my_array.some(checkArray);

function checkArray(element:*,index:int,a:Array):Boolean
{
    if(element==undefined)
        trace("The undefined index is: "+index);

    return (element==undefined);
}

if(undefinedIndex)
    trace("The Array contains one or more undefined indexes");
else
    trace("The Array does not contain undefined indexes");

With this method we can also check whether the elements of an array are all MovieClip or not.
We can really control a lot of things.

Tags: actionscript 3.0 array, array checking, array class, method some

Flash CS3 and Flash CS4 tutorials » Tutorials

FishEye effect with Flash and Actionscript 3.0

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Loading multiple images with partial preloader using Actionscript 3.0

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Using textures with Flash and Actionscript 3.0

View demo and resize window’s browser

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Scale video or image proportionally to stage and resolution

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Three ComboBox related with Flash CS4

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Event REMOVED_FROM_STAGE

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Stop all sounds with Actionscript 3.0

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Using Flash cu3er tutorial

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Flash CS4 and ThickBox

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Method some of Array class of Actionscript 3.0

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