Flash Article

Flash graphic effects learning guide

Note: This learning guide introduces graphic effects in Flash and provides you with tools for developing your skills. The Flash product documentation is the source of many of these materials. Always consult Flash Help (available both in the product and in Flash LiveDocs) first when learning to use new features.

Adobe Flash CS3 provides a number of features for producing impressive graphic effects. These features, along with the improved workflow of Flash CS3, open up an endless list of effect and production possibilities.

Along with some of the new drawing features and video capabilities, these graphic effects make up a category of tools promoting expressiveness—the ability to enhance the look and feel of your project. Many of these expressiveness features—in particular, the drawing-related features—are available in both Flash Basic and Flash Professional. However, some of the specialized effects features are only available in the Flash CS3 Professional user interface—or in both Flash CS3 Basic and Flash CS3 Professional when you use ActionScript code.

Here's a summary of a few of these important features:

• Graphics effects filters: Filters let you create more compelling designs by applying visual effects to movie clips and text. Filters are natively supported and rendered in real time by Flash Player 8 or higher. With these filters, you can make objects glow, add drop shadows, and apply many other effects and combinations of effects.
• Blend modes: You can achieve a variety of compositing effects by using blend modes to change the way the image of one object on the Stage is combined with the images of any objects beneath it.
• Bitmap smoothing: Allows bitmap images to look much better on the Stage when they are severely enlarged or reduced. The appearance of these bitmaps in the Flash authoring tool and in Flash Player is now consistent.
• Runtime bitmap caching: Runtime bitmap caching lets you optimize playback performance by specifying that a static movie clip (for example, a background image) or button symbol be cached as a bitmap at runtime. Caching a movie clip as a bitmap prevents Flash Player from having to continually redraw the image, providing a significant improvement in playback performance in some scenarios. This feature is available in the Flash CS3 Basic and Flash CS3 Professional user interface.
• Copy and paste motion: Now you can copy and paste a motion tween, including all of its properties, to another object. You may also copy a motion tween and apply the properties using ActionScript 3.0 for code-based animation.
• 9-slice scaling and onstage preview: Allows you to specify areas on a symbol that will not distort when the symbol's instance is scaled on the Stage. Now the author-time preview displays a consistent view on the stage.

While these filters and blends effects exist only in the Flash CS3 Professional user interface, both Flash Basic and Flash Professional provide tools to draw and animate your content. Both versions contain enhanced drawing tools, functionality and improved text rendering. You can apply filters and blend effects in both Flash CS3 Basic and Flash CS3 Professional using ActionScript code.

Note: The ActionScript samples in this article are written in ActionScript 3.0 and must be used within an ActionScript 3.0 file. See the Flash 8 version of this article for samples that can be used in an ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0 file.

Requirements

To follow along with this learning guide, you will need to install the following software:

Flash CS3 Professional

• Try
• Buy

Prerequisite knowledge

This article assumes you are familiar with the Flash workspace and have a basic knowledge of working with Flash files. An intermediate knowledge of ActionScript is required for the sections of this learning guide that discuss how to create graphic effects programmatically.

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